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Posted 1 Comment on Lifeboat Documentaries

Lifeboat

“Rationality is wildly over played… The heart is where your real thinking comes.”

Jon Castle

The second documentary in Skye Fitzgerald’s Refugee Trilogy, Lifeboat tells the story of the search-and-rescue missions conducted by Captain Jon Castle, a Greenpeace Rainbow Warrior, and his team to save Libyan refugees crossing the Mediterranean. Filmed aboard the Sea-Watch vessel, viewers get an inside look at what goes into a mission and the conditions in which the volunteers find the refugees. They work tirelessly to rescue everyone they can. These refugees are suffering from hunger, dehydration, heat stroke and exhaustion. A medical team on board helps treat the ill and to gather the dead. 

The documentary also shines a spotlight on the refugees themselves. As Jon Castle wisely notes in the film, the closer you get to the problem the more you can sympathize. You stop seeing these refugees as an anonymous group of people and you start seeing them as individuals. In Lifeboat, we get to hear from refugees themselves, who were kidnapped from either Cameroon or Cote D’Ivoire, sold and enslaved in Libya.

Lifeboat is a harrowing documentary but necessary viewing. It’s these stories that help us understand in a way that watching or reading the news cannot. These refugees come from dire situations and are willing to endure a dangerous journey for the chance at a better life. The film also serves as a tribute to Jon Castle himself who passed away the year the film was released.

Lifeboat is nominated for a 2019 Academy Award for Best Documentary (Short Subject). 

Posted 2 Comments on Slamdance: Butt Fantasia Film Festivals

Slamdance: Butt Fantasia

No it’s not porn. But it is funny. Butt Fantasia is a short 5 minute comedy set in Austin, TX and in the magical land of butts. An older man sits at a bus station when a magic red hat falls from the sky. The hat lands on his head transporting him to Butt Fantasia. Here butts reenact scenes to orchestral music. There is a butt party, a butt execution scene, a 50 foot butt takes over a city causing utter chaos and finally our hero goes on a journey to discover the fate of his own butt.

Butt Fantasia doesn’t make a lot of sense but does it have to? This is pure entertainment for viewers who think behinds are hilarious. This troupe of choreographed derrieres dance, they smoke, they shoot guns, they delight and they might gross you out but only a tad.

This short film was directed by Mohit Jaswal and Nathaniel Hendricks and was one year in the making. Co-producer Zach DeSutter calls the film “a labor of love for stupid cinema… it’s loosely based on the original Fantasia, except with butts.” If you’re curious about the butts themselves, they are mostly male and I only spotted a couple female ones. In an industry where male nudity is scarce, it’s refreshing (is that the right word?) to see more male butts! 

Butt Fantasia premiered at Slamdance 25.

Posted Film Festivals

Slamdance: Eyes at the Specter Glass

Eyes at the Specter Glass: A Cosmic Horror is a visual and auditory experience that requires your patience, your passivity and your attention. Set in the cosmos, this short film is composed of shifting and moving shapes that start off in black and white and then morph into beautiful blues, pinks and purples. If I were ever abducted by aliens, I can only imagine it would look, sound and feel a little like this. This film envelopes you in darkness, light and sound. There is no overstimulation here. Everything is gradual and paced to allow you to soak everything in. 

This 11-1/2 minute short film is directed, animated and scored by Matthew Wade with music mastering by Jacob Kinch. According to Wade, Eyes at the Specter Glass is about the “perception of reality and how we catalog life events through memory, bias and time.” The macrocosm of the universe is told through the perspective of the individual. 

Eyes at the Specter Glass is an experience worth your while if you allow yourself to submit to it. I could see this film as an installation at a museum, as long as it could be viewed in an enclosed space. 

https://vimeo.com/301950255

Eyes at the Specter Glass premiered at Slamdance 25.

Posted Documentaries

Slamdance: Tungrus

Director Rishi Chandna’s 13 minute short documentary Tungrus follows the story of the mild-mannered Bharde Family from Mumbai, India and their “chicken from hell.” The Bhardes live in a small apartment, a father, mother, two sons, daughter and their cats. Six months ago, the dad brought home a young chick he bought for 10 rupees. He thought to himself “this will be a great toy for my cats.” The chick grew up to be a fearless rooster, causing ruckus in the Bharde’s constrained living quarters. Leaping, scratching, attacking, flying and pooping everywhere, this rooster is one giant menace. Why have they put up with this rooster for so long and how long will this chaos last?

Tungrus is a funny, quirky yet sober doc that works on numerous levels. One of the reasons I was drawn to this film was its exploration of family. One decision made by the dad has repercussions on everyone. On the one hand, the Rooster becomes a central part of the family unit. I know what it’s like to have that one disruptive family member who causes utter chaos. You love them despite their craziness. It’s the unspoken bond family members have with each other. On the other hand, family is both a fixed construct and one can mold and change. You are stuck with your blood relatives but you can also build a new family and rid yourself of certain members who cause dysfunction. The Rooster becomes a central figure of the Bharde family but the toxic environment he creates causes the patriarch to make a decision about the Roster’s fate, bringing the story to its tragic climax.

“Catching him… that’s actually an art.”

“Tungrus is essentially a human story, because each character in the film must probe the nature of affection, of loyalty, and even the ethics of eating another creature.” 

Rishi Chandna

Tungrus is part of the Slamdance Documentary Shorts program and is part of The New York Times’ Op-Doc series. You can watch the film in its entirety on the NYT website.

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