Film For Everyone
John Waters (right) meets Patrick Kennedy (left), the detective who got serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer’s confession, in the Charles Theater lobby after our second packed screening of JEFF at the 2012 Maryland Film Festival. Note: John Waters is not short.
As MFF 2012 reaches its mid-point, here’s another pair of programming picks from Eric Hatch–two very different films, both of which have their first of two screenings today, Saturday, and then repeat on Sunday.
JEFF
JEFF
This beautiful, brilliant, and somehow not (visually) graphic film is half-doc, half-fiction, and 100% about Jeffrey Dahmer. That said, this is a million miles from the lurid pulp that comprises most serial-killer film and literature. Instead, what we have here is sometimes quite beautiful dramatic filmmaking a la Gus Van Sant fused to documentary interviews with three people changed by Jeffrey Dahmer—a neighbor, a medical examiner, and the interrogator who got the killer’s confession. We’ll have both director Chris James Thompson and Dahmer’s interrogator, Patrick Kennedy, here for our screenings of this unique hybrid film. JEFF is something unexpected, exciting, and new. JEFF plays tonight (5/5) at 9:30pm and again Sunday (5/6) at noon at the Charles Theater.
GAYBY
GAYBY
Looking to laugh? You can’t go wrong with GAYBY. As much about straight people looking for love as it is an insider’s look at the pleasures and pitfalls of modern gay culture, this crossover comedy follows two thirty-something friends who, despite incompatible sexual preferences, decide to make a baby (and do it the old fashioned-way). We had director Jonathan Lisecki’s short of the same name here for MFF 2010 and again for that summer’s Artscape, and it was a runaway hit at both. This feature generously reimagines and expands upon that short, with warm and hilarious results. GAYBY brims with a contagious belief in our capacities for love and friendship—and earns it by never cheating in its honest portrayal of real life in all its messy, hilarious, awkward complexities. GAYBY plays tonight (5/5) at 8pm and again on Sunday at 5:00pm at the Charles Theater.
– Eric Hatch, Director of Programming
Maryland Film Festival (May 3-6 in downtown Baltimore) continues to roll out its 2012 line-up with films from Argentina, Turkey, Colombia, South Africa, and Iceland, our vintage silent and 3D titles, as well as a dozen more new narrative and documentary features by some of the most exciting names in American independent film.
We’ve got a few titles yet to unveil, including our Opening Night and Closing Night films, 8 jam-packed shorts programs, and a few very exciting, late-breaking additions. But following on the heels of two dozen already-announced features, this announcement of 18 more features from around the world reveals the bulk of Maryland Film Festival’s 2012 line-up.
Keep checking www.mdfilmfest.com for breaking news and our final round of exciting announcements.
THE NEWLY ANNOUNCED TITLES ARE:
THE BLACK BALLOON (Josh and Benny Safdie)
This comedic and touching journey of a balloon through present-day New York City comes to us courtesy of the inimitable Safdie brothers (of MFF 2010’s DADDY LONGLEGS). The Safdies have paired their latest short with classic titles THE RED BALLOON, THE BALLOONATIC, and THE PINCUSHION MAN for a charming feature-length program of balloon-themed shorts.
ETHEL (Rory Kennedy)
Rory Kennedy’s intimate documentary about her mother Ethel combines rich archival footage with unprecedented private access to deliver a film that is both personal homage and vital historical document all at once.
FRANCINE (Brian M. Cassidy and Melanie Shatzky)
Melissa Leo stars in this riveting, artful drama about a woman just released from prison, having difficulty finding work and positive human relationships in the outside world. As interacting with humans becomes more difficult, she turns to animals for solace. From the directors of the documentary THE PATRON SAINTS, also screening within MFF 2012.
FROM MORNING TILL MIDNIGHT (directed by Karl Heinz Martin; presented by Alloy Orchestra)
Festival favorites Alloy Orchestra return with their new score to this rediscovered treasure of 1920s German Expressionist cinema.
THE INTERNATIONAL SIGN FOR CHOKING (Zach Weintraub)
Two 20-something travelers in neighboring rooms of the same boarding house in Buenos Aires discover they’re both Americans, sparking an unusual relationship. This quiet, exquisitely shot film stars Sophia Takal (MFF 2011’s GREEN).
JEFF (Chris James Thompson)
This experimental hybrid of narrative and documentary forms mixes sequences of quiet moments in the life of a fictional Jeffrey Dahmer with revelatory real-life interviews. Three lives forever changed by “Jeff” speak out: the older neighbor who trusted him, the medical examiner who identified the victims, and the interrogator who got the killer’s confession.
LOVE FREE OR DIE (Macky Alston)
Gene Robinson became the first openly gay bishop when elected by the Episcopal Church of New Hampshire in June 2003, beginning a long journey for acceptance and respect. This heartfelt and moving documentary tells his real-life story.
ONCE UPON A TIME IN ANATOLIA (Nuri Bilge Ceylan)
The master director of THREE MONKEYS, CLIMATES, and DISTANT (winner of the grand jury prize at Cannes in 2003) takes his aesthetic to the next level with this film about a group of men driving through rural Turkey in search of a corpse. Notes of noir, drama, thriller, and social satire blend into an exquisite film not soon forgotten.
PORFIRIO
(Alejandro Landes)
In this visionary film from Colombia, a wheelchair-bound man who made international headlines stars as himself in a bold retelling of his real-life story. Paralyzed from the waist down by a policeman’s bullet, we meet Porfirio as he ekes out a modest living reselling cell-phone minutes, relying on his son and neighbor for day-to-day care. Slowly, it becomes clear that Porfirio has been planning a drastic move to better his lot in life.
RECONVERGENCE (Edward Tyndall)
This experimental documentary juxtaposes the philosophies of four very different thinkers whose life and work explores the nature of identity, history, and memory: a neuroscientist, a poet, a naturalist, and museum curator. Visually splendid and intricately edited, an intriguing web of connected ideas emerges.
SEE YOU SOON AGAIN (Lukas Stepanik, Bernadette Wegenstein)
For fifty years, Holocaust survivor Leo Bretholz has shared his story with students and community groups throughout the Baltimore area and beyond. How do students today receive his message—and what impact does continually retelling such an incredibly painful and personal story have on a person?
SUPPORTING CHARACTERS (Daniel Schechter)
This sharp ensemble film mixes comedy, drama, and romance as it introduces us to Nick (Alex Karpovsky) and Darryl (Tarik Lowe), a team of film editors in New York City with complicated personal lives. Co-stars include Sophia Takal, Melonie Diaz, Kevin Corrigan, and Lena Dunham.
TCHOUPITOULAS (Bill and Turner Ross)
In this visionary documentary, three young boys venture into the New Orleans night, showing us all the sounds, colors, and evocative hidden corners of that culture-rich city with fresh young eyes. From the directors of the remarkable 45365.
THOSE REDHEADS FROM SEATTLE (Lewis R. Foster; presented in two-projector 3D!)
Maryland Film Festival is dedicated to presenting a different vintage 3D film each festival, and our tradition lives on with this 1953 musical starring Rhonda Fleming, Gene Barry, and Agnes Moorehead.
UNDER AFRICAN SKIES (Joe Berlinger)
From the co-director of METALLICA: SOME KIND OF MONSTER and the PARADISE LOST series comes this documentary look at the making of Paul Simon’s classic Graceland album—a story sometimes contentious, but frequently ecstatic.
V/H/S (omnibus)
A group of burglars seek out a cache of disturbing VHS tapes they plan to resell. But the contents of the tapes are even more unsettling than they expected. This omnibus horror film contains new work from, among others Joe Swanberg and Ti West.
VERY EXTREMELY DANGEROUS (Paul Duane)
Jerry McGill’s life has been that of a rock-and-roll outlaw, performing with rock and country royalty and having more than his share of brushes with the law. Now in his 70s, he’s fighting to stay on top of his health and get back in the studio. This riveting documentary takes an unflinching look at a man who refuses to be tamed.
VOLCANO (Rúnar Rúnarsson)
With masterful assurance, Rúnar Rúnarsson’s feature debut Volcano offers a character study of a curmudgeonly Reykjavik retiree that probes life’s banal indignities for dark comedy, drama, and, ultimately, cosmic truth. Fans of Mike Leigh and the Dardenne Brothers take note.
Note for press: Festival artwork and images for these titles are available for download here:
10 days in Austin, 32 feature films in theaters, another 6 on my laptop, and an undisclosed number of wild-at-artichoke-heart pizzas from the Alamo drafthouse: these are the stats behind my SXSW 2012 experience. What might get lost in those numbers is just how many of those feature films were excellent. Limiting myself to 10 examples is tough, but here’s a few standing out in my memory as I grab one last coffee from Epoch and wait for the airport shuttle to show.
[in alphabetical order]
Film still from BAD BRAINS.
BAD BRAINS: BAND IN DC – This is a lo-fi, scrappy documentary, as well it should be. The DC hardcore scene was basically invented by these young African-Americans, who started out in jazz but soon infused the new punk genre with harder tempos and more positive ideals. Punk soon became just one element in their sound, joined by reggae, metal, and more, even as dynamo frontman HR’s personality began to morph in new and strange directions, making their 30-year journey a tumultuous one. Ian MacKaye, The Beastie Boys, and many others weigh in on the importance of this singular band.
BROOKLYN CASTLE – It turns out that the middle school Jay-Z attended now produces an inordinate amount of world-class chess players—but funding problems have the school’s exceptional chess program under assault. I won’t lie, I cried. Fans of Word Wars and Spellbound take note!
THE COMEDY—Tim and Eric both shine in this film, but it’s much closer in tone to FROWNLAND than their BILLION-DOLLAR MOVIE. This is an abrasive, challenging film about very privileged characters behaving very badly, and audiences have been wildly divided. I think it’s one of the best films of the year, reading it as an essay of sorts on the bleak interior landscape of someone whose sense of humor knows no boundaries.
GAYBY—Warm-hearted, often explosive humor and vibrant characters drive this crossover comedy about best friends—a gay man and a straight woman—who in their 30s decide to make good on their promise they made back in college to have a child together. This isn’t a “gay film” per se—it’s an uproarious indie ensemble comedy that happens to be set in gay New York today.
GIRL WALK // ALL DAY – Anyone who knows me knows that if I’m recommending a feature-length dance video, it’s something special. This is a narrative film told through dance, shot on the streets of New York City without permits but with an ecstatic sense of spontaneous creation. Not since a revival screening of Stop Making Sense at The Senator twenty years ago have I seen a film audience jump out of their seats and dance en masse.
GIRLS—Lena Dunham’s new HBO series confirms her talent as expressed in the 2010 SXSW award-winner TINY FURNITURE. A funny, graphic satire of the sex lives of young New Yorkers worthy of comparisons to Bret Easton Ellis, Woody Allen, Nicole Holfcener, and yes, series producer Judd Apatow.
JEFF—Billed as a documentary, this film about three lives forever changed by Jeffrey Dahmer is actually an experimental hybrid of narrative and doc forms. Evocative sequences of a fictional Dahmer shopping for fish tanks and formaldehyde are balanced with revelatory real-life interviews with an elderly neighbor who trusted “Jeff,” the medical examiner who identified the victims, and the prosecutor who got the killer’s confession. Amazingly, it’s a film about Jeffrey Dahmer that feels very PG (okay, maybe PG-13).
PILGRIM SONG—Martha Stephens’ narrative about a laid-off schoolteacher embarking on a hike of self-discovery along the Appalachian Trail was one of the quietest films of the festival, to its credit. A million miles from the meth-addled violence of WINTER’S BONE, imagine a tone akin to OLD JOY punctuated by colorful characters worthy of Jarmusch and Kaurismaki, and you’re in the right ballpark.
Film still from THE SOURCE.
THE SOURCE – What happens when a cult leader no longer wants to be a cult leader? Ultimately, that’s the central question posed by this exceptional documentary about “The Source” commune from early 70s L.A., led by restaurateur-turned-new-age-prophet Yahowa.
Film still from SUN DON'T SHINE. Credit: kentuckeraudley.tumblr.com.
SUN DON’T SHINE—Amy Seimetz’s sweaty, grimy, swampy narrative feature is Florida-set and 16mm-shot. If you share my fascination with the way today’s vanguard filmmakers reference the aesthetics of 60s and 70s renegade filmmaking, well… this one’s for us.
– Eric Allen Hatch, Director of Programming
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