A Short Synopsis of Film

It’s a Russian musical about jazz music and hipster clothing, teenage exploration of alternate lifestyles, general rebellion against the party line, all taking place during the 1950’s. This is a really fun film, something I don’t believe I’ve ever said before about a Russian movie. The colorful costumes, swinging music, and characters’ energy are emotionally uplifting.

This was winner of the audience award for best Feature Narrative at the 2009 Anchorage International Film Festival, a festival whose motto is “Films worth freezing for”. It also looks like it won most of the 2009 Golden Eagle Awards from the National Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences of Russia, an organization whose motto could be “Титульная страница” but I can’t really tell because their entire web site is in Russian.

Venue: Seattle International Film Festival, 2010
Country: Russia
Language: Russian
Genre: Drama, Musical

IMDB

You’re a 17 year old high school student. Your family is dirt poor, your father has jumped bail and disappeared, your mother is catatonic, and you have two young siblings to take care of. You’d like to run away and join the army, but that ain’t gonna happen. If that’s not bad enough, everyone in your neighborhood is in the drug trade and manufacturing crank. No, this isn’t the slums of a big city, this is the Ozarks. Did I mention that the bail bond company is about to evict your family from their home?

One of the best entries at this year’s SIFF, it’s been making rounds at the other big festivals as well (Sundance, Berlin, Palm Beach, SXSW, etc). It’s scheduled to get a limited USA release starting on June 11th. According to the Landmark Theaters web site, Los Angeles is the only place it’s currently playing.

Venue: Seattle International Film Festival, 2010
Country: USA
Language: English
Genre: Drama, Thriller

IMDB

A boyfriend’s gambling addiction and debt manages to ensnare a young woman in the world of organized crime. Held as collateral while her boyfriend slips out to raise the money he owes the casino, Rita begins regretting her decision to try and help. Moments later, a deaf stripper named Yaya appears to help Rita escape the floating card palace and an unlikely friendship is born. With Yaya as her often untruthful guide, Rita begins exploring new careers in prostitution and informing for deaf gangsters.

Director Valery Todorovsky was on hand to answer questions, but I did not stay for the Q&A. That’s not entirely true, I overheard the first question as I was leaving the theater… Question: “Was the time period when this movie takes place the beginning of crime in Russia?” Moderator’s response: “I think they had crime before that in Russia.”

This film was winner of SIFF’s 1998 New Directors Showcase competition, years before I ever started going to the festival. Even though it’s over a decade old, I can find nowhere to rent or buy the DVD. This year, director Valeriy Todorovskiy has returned to Seattle with the new musical ‘Hipsters’ which I highly recommend.

Venue: Seattle International Film Festival, 2010
Genre: Drama, Comedy
Country: Russia
Language: Russian

IMDB

Apparently, insects are big in Japan. Literally, they’re very big. The giant beetles, dragonflies, butterflies and moths in this film are fascinating, whereas the giant
hornets are just plain scary.

‘Beetle Queen’ is part of the SIFF’s experimental category. It’s more an experience than a recognizable plot. Through visual observation, we learn a little bit about the pet insect market in Japan, and how it’s lucrative enough to finance the purchase of a Ferrari. We see how people copy bugs with their helicopters, umbrellas, etc. It made me wonder if bugs aren’t better pets than animals with respect to the environment.

The movie’s running time needs shortening, perhaps a reduction from 90 to 70 minutes.

Venue: Seattle International Film Festival, 2010
Genre: Experimental, Documentary
Country: USA, Japan
Language: Japanese, English

IMDB

An artist (Vik Muniz) known for creating portraits out of a variety of materials returns to his native home of Brazil to photograph garbage. Vik hires waste pickers from the world’s largest landfill (Jardim Gramacho) to collect artifacts from the dump and lay them out on a warehouse floor so that they can be photographed. The photographs are eventually shown in a local museum and flown to London to be sold at auction.

This film is more about the lives of the pickers than it is about art. The pickers are given a chance to step outside of their unappreciated, low income lives and be part of an artist’s creative process.  After Vik leaves to go home, will the pickers be better off?  You’ll have to see the film and decide for yourself.

There was a documentary a few years back called ‘Manufactured Landscapes‘ that contained footage of enormous landfills in China.  Viewed from a distance, the color, scale and repetition of the waste was beautiful.  I really wish there were more landfills in the world, and that none of us recycled, because there would be more raw material to use for making art…

Venue: Seattle International Film Festival, 2010
Genre: Documentary
Country: Brazil, UK
Language: Portuguese, English

IMDB