In a large house, a young woman uses an old typewriter to write a list of meanings for the word "wait" and gets yet another rejection letter from a publisher. Interwoven with her scenes are others of two sisters dressing to go out, and then getting attacked outside the house, with one of them forced into the trunk of her car by the assailant. (She survives in the end, but her sister does not.) There are many alluring images in this short film, despite its tragic events, such as the beams of light appearing when bullet holes are shot in the trunk and the candles lit around a bathtub when the writer gets in and handles a razor blade. Yet, the interweaving of story lines remains mystifying, especially when the woman finds a newspaper clipping about the killing of one of the sisters sometime before. Is she encountering ghosts in the house through her frustrations as a writer? Or is she a relative who turns to writing, with an old typewriter, to somehow purge herself of grief--with a focus on the word "wait"?
The filmmaker spoke after the showing, clarifying her intention that the woman put in the trunk is the same woman who later struggles with survivor guilt as a writer. (She is played by the same actress, but dressed so differently it was difficult to tell.) Even more intriguingly, the filmmaker said she wrote the script based upon her own experience of being attacked while with her sister, being put in the trunk of her car, and having bullets shot into it. However, in real life her sister survived by running away and contacting the police, thus saving her--after a terrifying wait in the trunk. She said that making the film was cathartic for her, although she changed details in the plot, making it more tragic.
[A great benefit of the Charlotte Film Festival is the chance for discussion of the films, especially when filmmakers or screenwriters attend the showing of their work. Yet, such appearances are not well publicized, in the program or elsewhere--and might make for a bigger draw to the festival in future years.] Review by Mark Pizzato
Mark Pizzato is Professor of Theatre and Film at UNC-Charlotte. His screenplays, produced as short films, have won New York Film Festival and Minnesota Community Television awards.Two men who were roommates at Davidson College 25 years ago meet again in various cities (including a return to Davidson) to discuss how they've come to believe or disbelieve in God. Craig Detweiler began to follow Jesus in college; John Marks lost his faith. Now they explore many aspects of their divergent views: whether belief means slavery or freedom, blindness or creative wisdom, whether God is needed when a loved one dies or cannot exist because of so much suffering in the world.
Both men, a college professor and a retired journalist, ask probing questions of each other, revealing personal experiences and doubts, while peppering their conversation with humor and charm. They explore philosophical ideas about the "death of God" and "eternal return of the same" (from Nietzsche). They reflect on John's existential awareness while in Germany as a college student and Craig's later missionary experience in Japan--whether he was right to presume he was bringing a better faith to another culture. They also talk about whether gay marriage is good or evil, about who is going to hell, and about the Bible as a divine lens or blinder to the world's truth. John asks about Bible stories that show God as a "mass murderer" and argues that it's better to worship the earth, as sustaining life, rather than a figure in the sky.
Yet, the two friends find much to agree upon (since both have liberal views on many issues)--in this refreshing, well filmed, and insightful discussion of personal politics and beliefs, regarding our nation's current "culture war." Review by Mark Pizzato
Mark Pizzato is Professor of Theatre and Film at UNC-Charlotte. His screenplays, produced as short films, have won New York Film Festival and Minnesota Community Television awards.A couple meets for the first time in the park. Three years later, the black man proposes, but the white woman is unsure about marriage or children. Cartoon inserts show her view in comical ways. Good designs, in both the animated and live visuals, along with soulful music, almost make up for the predictable and slow plot in this short film. Review by Mark Pizzato
Mark Pizzato is Professor of Theatre and Film at UNC-Charlotte. His screenplays, produced as short films, have won New York Film Festival and Minnesota Community Television awards.Watching Kilowatt Ours is like spending time with your favorite young teacher. Writer/director Jeff Barrie interviews experts and instructs the audience on our energy crisis. What’s nice about this documentary is that he introduces us to his wife and uses them as an example of how even those on a limited budget can help save energy.
His voiceover narration is friendly, trying more to persuade us, rather than scaring us with dire warnings. It works well. There are catastrophes we all know about, and some we don’t. But the main message is that we are not only all responsible, but we can all do something to help the situation. Even one small substitution, like switching to a more energy efficient light bulb, can have a big effect. The sooner we understand what’s at stake, the better. We owe that to ourselves and future generations. Review by Ann Marie Oliva
Ann Marie Oliva is the producer/editor of ARTS à la Mode. She is a writer, and reviews both film and theatre.Socially conscious documentary film is not a new genre, but Immokalee, USA, director George Koszulinski reminds us again of the heavy burden on the shoulders of migrant farm workers. Beautifully realized cinematically and through individual stories, the humanity of these workers comes through. The film is alternately dark and stark as there are scenes before dawn or after sundown, then in the bright, glaring light.
Immokalee, Florida, is a town that is predominately Latino. As several of the residents are interviewed and followed during the course of several months, sadness and resignation pervades even the little joy they find in religion, local celebrations, or amusement park areas. A young father gets up before dawn to catch a bus to work in the fields. The monotonous labor is back-breaking as the workers bend over for hours putting plant after plant in the ground. His wife gets the kids off to school and makes food with another woman to sell for extra money. An older man feels lost without friends or family. Most disturbing of all is a man who can’t find work and has no money to return home. Too proud to ask for help, he goes without food to the point of collapse until someone from a local social agency finds and helps him.
The sweet faces of the children, so innocent in their play, is striking. Their parents’ hope is that they will get an education and have a better life where they won’t be exploited by a system that keeps them down and chips away at their humanity and breaks their spirit. Isn’t that what all parents want for their children? Review by Ann Marie Oliva
Ann Marie Oliva is the producer/editor of ARTS à la Mode. She is a writer, and reviews both film and theatre.This is a wonderfully sumptuous film, meticulously filmed and evoking one of my favorite periods of time: the 19th Century. It’s the story of two men, and the spiraling out of control of these two men that starts at a high intensity as it shows the parallels of the two Henrys: Henry may and Henry Long.
This films has it all: addiction, deceit, blackmail, and unrequited love, which of course, was required and necessary for the Victorian Era. Writer/director, Randall Sharp, does an amazing job handling such an epic piece filled with raging emotions, and in taking the viweer back to this particular period of time. The two Henrys, Christian Camargo and Brian Barnhart, are both quite exceptional! Review by Hank West
Hank West is a local stage and film actor, and avid film buff.This is a fascinating and joyous film that showcases and helps preserve a piece of America’s iconic culture: The Circus. By interweaving three storylines, director Scott Galloway succeeds in tying the past to the present and hopefully, the future, as well. One section centered on sailor circus, which is an after school program for students from the 4th to the 12th grade. The students are taught a variety of amazing circus feats and then actually perform twice a year.
Another section deals with Howard Tibbaly who through the years has built the most amazing and thorough (not to mention the world’s largest) miniature circus. The third deals with performers from the Barnum and Bailey Circus. Their stories covered the gamut from funny to romantic to tragic. Wonderful pictures of those glorious yesteryears adds so much to this film. It's a remarkable feat to help preserve a piece of our cultural history. Review by Hank West
Hank West is a local stage and film actor, and avid film buff.Kids are interviewed in Los Angeles about their views on money. The result is appalling, sad, and hilarious. It seems what they really want is not so much money, as the things it can buy; mostly clothes, jewelry, cars, and vacations so they can "look" good to other teens and be in the in-crowds. It's as though money is abstract; one girl even talking about it as items costing "three digit" or "four digit" prices. One girl admits she wants lots of money. Her sister interjects a comment about a career, but she says no, she doesn't want to work, she only wants the money.
Some of the parents shown are not glamorous-looking, yet are as caught up in the consumerism frenzy as their children thinking their kids deserve anything they want. Wonder what's going to happen if economic bubbles keep bursting? Review by Ann Marie Oliva
Ann Marie Oliva is the producer/editor of ARTS à la Mode. She is a writer, and reviews both film and theatre.In this thoughtful, well-acted, and beautifully-made short by writer/director Sasie Sealy, a preteen girl feels neglected as her older sister spends more and more time with her boyfriend. This results in beautifully filmed swimming pool stunts, plus an aborted ritual of putting on makeup, thus symbolic of the "elephant" girl's awkward efforts to keep the attention of older peers or grow up quickly with them.
She also picks at a scab on her knee, rides her bike wildly through the woods, and lies to her sister about the boyfriend's potential for sexual violence (as in the recent feature film, Atonement)--all expressing her own preteen existential angst. Review by Mark Pizzato
Mark Pizzato is Professor of Theatre and Film at UNC-Charlotte. His screenplays, produced as short films, have won New York Film Festival and Minnesota Community Television awards.In this creative documentary, "Brother Theodore" is displayed in various ways: through clips of his horror movies, video of his theatre work, interviews with him and those who knew him, and a puppet playing him backstage. Theodore Gottlieb was born into a family of multimillionaires in Dusseldorf, Germany, who were fashion magazine owners and friends of Albert Einstein. But he fell from the top to the bottom of German society and was taken to the Dachau concentration camp. After seven months there, he signed away his family fortune and emigrated, penniless, to the U.S. Then, he became a horror film actor and monologist for 50 years--performing passionate, comical, and extremely personal versions of historical trauma, existential philosophy, and survivor guilt.
The film fades cleverly between images of Theodore at various ages and in different roles: a Peter Lore-like actor, fantasist-philosopher, comedian, and probably the first performance artist, inspiring other, more famous monologists (such as Lenny Bruce, Eric Bogosian, and Woody Allen). Yet the director, Jeff Sumerel, keeps the focus on Theodore alone, while voices of others describe him and the voices that possessed him reveal further layers of his genius and madness, his wisdom and artistry. This becomes a documentary like no other: an overwhelmingly intense exploration of a powerful spirit, who turned unspeakable horrors from his past into comedy, surviving (like Antonin Artaud advocated) as a martyr signaling through the flames. While Theodore failed to achieve the fame he desired, this film may yet make him live beyond the grave--for today's audience. Review by Mark Pizzato
Mark Pizzato is Professor of Theatre and Film at UNC-Charlotte. His screenplays, produced as short films, have won New York Film Festival and Minnesota Community Television awards.Germany has eschewed most military entanglements for the last 60 years, and lacking the galvanizing American experience in Vietnam, does not employ the clinical shorthand of PTSD with glib sureness and psycho pop posturing. In this intense, taut film, combat-related post-traumatic stress disorder renders the affected veteran into a kind of changeling whose self-loathing poisons his world from the inside out. For David, the young soldier recently returned from service in Afghanistan, his participation in the ironically-titled Operation Enduring Freedom will take his soul and lead him to suffer from psychic wounds that cannot be assuaged by subsequent mortification of the flesh.
Hanno Koffler turns in a credible, powerful performance as David, whose life has been changed forever by his experience as a stranger in a strange land that could not be further removed from his pre-war working class youth in a Black Forest town. Defying the watchful eye of his former officers, David tries to immerse himself back in his workaday world, aided and abetted by friends and family who are completely clueless about what he did in Afghanistan and what was required of him to do it. Inexorably, his intense levels of fear and vigilance knock out all the props of his superficially “back to normal” life, and he spirals into an increasingly violent and obsessive world with its own over-personalized view of reality.
Johanna Suttmann’s screenplay uses an interesting device to show the flashpoints of David’s psychological devolution: while we see “usual suspect” deteriorating relationships with his girlfriend and mother, it is David’s relationship with his 8 year old half-brother that is a vehicle for his ambivalence and distortion. David’s “training games” with young Benni, played with a natural and earnest appeal by Jona Ruggaber, parallel the process that turns a person into a soldier, and set the stage for an increasingly unhinged and desperate path.
Director Brigitte Maria Bertele unflinchingly shows us the trajectory of untreated PTSD, and how it affects an individual, a family, a community; this is a heady effort for a first-time director, and she largely gets it right. She keeps the visual references to the combat trauma fleeting and vague, reflecting insight into David’s own attempts to repress his memories, though they seep to the surface in both mundane and terrible ways. A certain visual bleakness about the film also makes us focus on the emotional depth of the performances. The other characters who intersect David and Benni’s world are solidly-played, but somewhat underwritten.
Nacht Vor Augen reminds us that wars do not end on battlefields, or in demobilization. And it also amply demonstrates that post-traumatic stress disorder is not merely “combat fatigue”. We can bring the troops home, but we cannot look away from what they bring with them: the minds remember, and the hearts break. Review by Dr. Elizabeth Peterson-Vita
Dr. Elizabeth Peterson-Vita is a clinical psychologist by day, and a stage director and writer by night.Angola has the reputation of being one of the toughest prisons in the country. In fact, we're told that of the 5,108 prisoners, half will die there because of their horrific crimes. Yet, the Angola Prison Rodeo as documented in Six Seconds of Freedom is a surprisingly uplifting story.
Murderers, rapists, and other violent criminals somehow find a form of redemption in the rodeo. They don't get any practice beforehand, they just get out there and try to win the events. The prizes are in the way of money, respect of their peers, the cowboys who run the rodeo, and most of all, self-respect. One of the most poignant moments in the film is when one of the inmates tells of hearing the crowd cheer for him, something that never happened on the "outside."
There is a mix of laughter and gasping when the huge, angry bulls, cows, and horses toss the hardened inmates around like rag dolls. Broken bones are common. Yet, the inmates get up and try again. They don't ask for sympathy from anybody. One can only wonder about the lost posibilites of these men who show that even the worst of the worst can be brave and have worthwhile qualities.
The photography is terrific; the pacing is spot on, and the film is expertly directed by Jeff Smith and John Jackson, making all involved winners. Review by Ann Marie Oliva
Ann Marie Oliva is the producer/editor of ARTS à la Mode. She is a writer, and reviews both film and theatre.This Israeli documentary, directed by Taliya Finkel, creates an intricate mystery about the filmmaker's father, a schizophrenic who claimed, before committing suicide, that his brother had been replaced by a KGB agent. The film explores the struggles of the wife and daughters to remember him well--and of the filmmaker, who is pushed even further, to investigate the threads of truth behind her father's madness.
It is thus a powerful journey between present emotions and past possibilities. It becomes especially moving when the daughter goes with a private investigator to Ukraine to question prison guards and family friends, when she consults a psychiatrist to understand her father's illness, and when she joins her family at his gravesite to express their best wishes and memories. Review by Mark Pizzato
Mark Pizzato is Professor of Theatre and Film at UNC-Charlotte. His screenplays, produced as short films, have won New York Film Festival and Minnesota Community Television awards.This is a very uplifting story of a San Francisco artist, Michael Frick (also the director), and his six month tour across the country. The installation consisted of free standing screens and mannequins which had over 2,000 inspiring quotations under different topics, including love, success, power and happiness. He and his friends traveled from San Francisco across the country to Washington DC and New York (and also came to Asheville, North Carolina) and back.
He installed his creation in public areas to be seen and discussed by people. They traveled in his “shell” truck, a truck which he had transformed by covering in various shells. It is quite unique and at times got just as much attention as his screens. It is an interesting piece on how communication through art can be very positive and that words can actually speak to you. Review by Hank West
Hank West is a local stage and film actor, and avid film buff.This is one of the most sobering films about the future of our country that I have ever seen. I certainly knew about the oil crisis, but I guess it hadn't sunk into my psyche that, essentially, the oil party for the U.S.A. is over. The insanity of our culture building a giant infrastructure to support a vehicle that can only run on fossil fuel is brought into painfully clear focus in this film. As the narrator points out, man is a slow moving animal; not one built to go 80 miles per hour.
To establish a community connection with people, you must be able to see the faces of others at close range. The fast-paced, gentrified lifestyle that has accompanied America's love affair with the automobile has eroded our sense of place and connection with others. Fortunately there are visionary architects and engineers addressing this problem who are creating urban designs which incorporate the forgotten concepts of the town square and the communal meeting place. These humanist concepts are being incorporated into many urban environments across the country and are giving momentum to the movement to take back our decaying cities and mold them into efficient, green, human-friendly municipalities in which people from all walks of life can thrive. Review by Jorja Ursin
Jorja Ursin is a local performer, director, and comedy writer who has been performing in the Charlotte theatre scene for over eighteen years.With this darkly comic (but just mildly funny) action film, a young man's first day of work in a crime organization, ARACHNID, becomes a learning experience that only he survives. Review by Mark Pizzato
Mark Pizzato is Professor of Theatre and Film at UNC-Charlotte. His screenplays, produced as short films, have won New York Film Festival and Minnesota Community Television awards.This documentary, directed by Kenny Dalsheimer and Penelope Mounsell, shows the creation of various site specific art projects in Durham, North Carolina, by French artist Georges Rousse, with the help of many local volunteers.
Rousse takes the interior spaces of old, run-down buildings and designs a geometric pattern, which is then painted in a certain way, so that the three-dimensional will appear two-dimensional when he takes a wide-angle lens photograph of it. The film explores the plans, trials, learning experiences, and results of the many participants. But except for those who love abstract art, or the city of Durham, this documentary may become somewhat tedious in its lengthy dwelling upon the many sites and similar designs. Review by Mark Pizzato
Mark Pizzato is Professor of Theatre and Film at UNC-Charlotte. His screenplays, produced as short films, have won New York Film Festival and Minnesota Community Television awards.This film tells of the love between two friends and the way both triumph over physical and emotional odds. This is truly a remarkable and poignant story which comes to life vividly and painfully under the direction of Robert Milazzo, and the sensitive and realistic dialogue of Graham Gordy. It was beautifully shot using the Arkansas landscapes as a perfect backdrop, as well as a simple evocative guitar music score.
The performances of the veteran cast (Brian Dennehy, Mare Winningham, James McDaniel, and Mary Kay Place) are heartfelt and moving. But the two young leads are simply amazing: Luke Grimes as Enoch, and Dan McCabe as Wheels. These two are natural and heart-breaking in their roles.
Of course, I would be a fan of any film that would make reference to a classic film over the more recent movies and in this case it was George Stevens' A Place in the Sun from 1951.
This touching films shows that no matter what the era or situation, people and their emotions are still the same. It was wonderful watching these characters come alive on the screen. Review by Hank West
Hank West is a local stage and film actor, and avid film buff.This powerful Mexican film shows a teen boy's struggle for survival in the streets. Ivan, who lives with a loving, yet criminal uncle, gradually gets deeper into theft and violence, until he finds a way to make his break for the U.S. border. While working at a car wash, Ivan and his best friend Efrain snatch items from inside customers' cars and sell them. But then Ivan learns from his uncle how to steal valuable parts off parked cars. He also becomes a "used part" himself when his uncle decides to take his girlfriend across the border, instead of Ivan--although the boy gave up his job to help his uncle get the money for the crossing through many thefts.
The film beautifully mixes urban imagery and various styles of music (including classical strings), along with the charm of the young actors in their playful mischief and tragic decisions. The plot develops slowly at times, but brings many surprising and poignant twists. Thus, the movie entertains, yet also challenges its audience with the choices Ivan and Efrain make, as victim-villains: from minor to major thefts, and from being erotic dupes to playing with a deadly weapon through the pressures of organized crime. Review by Mark Pizzato
Mark Pizzato is Professor of Theatre and Film at UNC-Charlotte. His screenplays, produced as short films, have won New York Film Festival and Minnesota Community Television awards.In Tangiers, two boys hide inside the undercarriage of a truck, in order to smuggle themselves across the border. We see their joyful fantasies of getting a car, an education, and fame as a soccer player. In this beautifully surreal and yet down-to-earth short, the comical delight of such dreams is interrupted when one of the stowaways is dragged away by police. But he cheers his friend on--as the truck leaves for a better world. Review by Mark Pizzato
Mark Pizzato is Professor of Theatre and Film at UNC-Charlotte. His screenplays, produced as short films, have won New York Film Festival and Minnesota Community Television awards.This is a clever little film centering on bumper stickers and what makes the vehicle owners place them there for the whole world to see. It's a very light-hearted piece that truly shows how people can expand their personalities by using objects to speak for them. This was homegrown here in Charlotte! Review by Hank West
Hank West is a local stage and film actor, and avid film buff.Dakota Skye is as good as any independent movie you will see in a film festival or on larger screens this year. It’s fresh, clever, and accessible. Much of its success is due to the screenplay which is very well written without being either saccharine or glib, or that has “teenage” dialogue that is overly precious.
Named for the main character, Dakota Skye (Eileen April Boylan, appealing/pretty/likeable), the movie is about a teenage girl with an unusual “superpower.” Dakota can tell whenever someone is lying to her to her. This comes in handy, as you might imagine, because everyone lies, don’t they? Dakota, an only child whose mother must travel to support her, gives the impression of a disaffected teenager who doesn’t care about much of anything. She keeps everyone at a distance including her girlfriends and her boyfriend, Kevin Miles (J.B. Ghuman Jr., just right here), a dense, self-absorbed rock singer whose middling band is trying to make it out of Phoenix, Arizona, onto bigger stages. Kevin’s old friend Jonah (Ian Nelson, a good actor with charm to spare), comes back home on a visit from New York where he’s a struggling actor. Suddenly, Dakota’s world changes because he’s the only person she can’t catch in a lie. A love triangle develops.
Director John Humber has cast the movie well with the three actors believable and having a good rapport with each other. He works so well with them you forget there’s someone directing the action, giving the feeling of watching “real life” being played out before your eyes. Though this is a drama, there are more than a few lighter moments to balance out the darker ones. The pacing of the movie keeps the story moving along, and there are no jarring transitions. The setting in Phoenix adds to the realism and authenticity since it’s not a location we see all that much, yet there are impressive outdoor shots, including at the Grand Canyon.
One lie we see in flashback might give a clue to Dakota’s powers of observation. Dakota is young and waiting in the hospital to talk to her mother. When she comes from the hospital room Dakota asks if her father will be alright. Her mother says yes, but a sentence on the screen tells us he’s going to die (he has cancer). This may be the moment Dakota develops her cynical attitude. A bright child picks up very easily when the truth is withheld, even to spare her feelings. So does Dakota really have a superpower or is she just very perceptive and intuitive? It doesn’t really matter. She’s a winner either way. Review by Ann Marie Oliva
Ann Marie Oliva is the producer/editor of ARTS à la Mode. She is a writer, and reviews both film and theatre.This short is truly a visually stunning piece of film about a girl dealing with the tragic death of her boyfriend. The use of color and the pacing of the film create quite a visual impact and make the film quite unique. Review by Hank West
Hank West is a local stage and film actor, and avid film buff.In Stars and Suns, a teen girl and her younger brother try to find new constellations of meaning, despite their older sister running away from home and their mom hovering near them. Lyrical themes of pressure, pain, escape, and suicide are threaded throughout this short film via striking images of planets, stars, and black holes.
In a more confusing short called Cecilia Rose, a mysterious man in black taunts and attacks a teen boy while he's moving into an apartment, evoking his guilt about the girl he's lost through an "accident" that he feels was his fault. The film's grainy, dreamlike texture and the sudden disappearance, then reappearance of the man are suggestive of more to the story. Yet the film relies too much on dialogue and contradictory images to give too few clues as to true emotions and events.
The short film, A Day's Work, explores movie-making and personal stress in a brief, witty satire. A Czech mother brings her child to work, because the bus is not running that day. Then a petulant American director tries to give her detailed notes in the sound studio. Despite technical problems, language barriers, and his doubts that she can do the dubbing, she gives a perfect, emotive cry to match the already filmed image of a different actress onscreen--showing who brings more life to the cinema.
In Saturday's Shadow a British Jew and his son are accosted by black teens, as they walk toward their car in an urban neighborhood. The blacks, with Caribbean accents, humiliate the father before they let him pass. He then yells at the son, while in the car, to put on his seat belt, but the boy rebels--feeling the dishonor even more. However, this short film does not go for an easy revenge ending. Instead, it evokes more tragic contemplation, from history and through the audience's imagination, as the father and son stop, get out, and stare at passing cars.
Jackson Ward offers a more obvious situation of racial conflict, through slow-moving, poetic shots. A cop named Aaron leaves the bedroom of a young black woman, but is seen by her teen brother. The cop later picks up the boy to talk with him in his squad car. But when the boy is caught by other cops during a robbery, Aaron denies knowing him and vengeance results.
[There were technical problems in showing the DVD of these short cuts and others in the festival. Equipment operators had to go back to original DVDs, when the transfer DVD froze during the showing. This happened several times, with the short cuts and other showings. In one case the audience had to wait 15 minutes before the short was shown. In another case, it wasn't fully played. There were also sound problems at the Queens University, Sykes Auditorium venue, with very bad, bass reverberations in the speakers. Hopefully, in future years the Charlotte Film Festival will fix such problems.] Review by Mark Pizzato
Mark Pizzato is Professor of Theatre and Film at UNC-Charlotte. His screenplays, produced as short films, have won New York Film Festival and Minnesota Community Television awards.This documentary short follows the true story of a young girls’ soccer team who in their third season start competing in the boys division. It's a delight to hear interviews with various girls on the team and the humorous but truthful and insightful accounts told by some of the boys pitted against them. This film definitely shows how the sport (as well as other forms of competition) helps both the girls and the boys in handling failure and success in the future. Review by Hank West
Hank West is a local stage and film actor, and avid film buff.This Italian short goes back in time, from men in prison talking about soccer to boys playing soccer in the street and losing their ball behind an old lady's fence. After it happens again, she stabs the ball with her knitting needles. But they devise an elaborate revenge (leading perhaps to their life in prison). Opera and folk music express the boys' big emotions, along with uncanny visuals, in this charming, nostalgic, witty, and sinister film. Review by Mark Pizzato
Mark Pizzato is Professor of Theatre and Film at UNC-Charlotte. His screenplays, produced as short films, have won New York Film Festival and Minnesota Community Television awards.This is a very leisurely paced story about a young artist dealing with her grandfather’s Alzheimer disease, and with moving ahead with her own life and her painting. Directed by Ryen Thomas and written by Ryen and Will Vernon (who also did the music among countless things), the film is effective in its low-key approach.
The film definitely uses the locales of Charlotte, North Carolina, and Rock Hill, South Carolina, to advantage showing the areas as both very urban and rural. It has naturalistic and appealing performances by the leads, Carrie Ann Hunt and Jordan Alexander, and strong supporting performances from Ted Johnson, Bonnie Johnson, and especially Tristan R. Grage. I look forward to what Ryen will do next. Review by Hank West
Hank West is a local stage and film actor, and avid film buff.In the sepia-toned short, The Bottom , a male teen picks through an old gas station and brings it to life, after putting on overalls with the nametag "Linda." He practices talking to customers in the mirror and then plays pranks on them, with it all turning tragic in the end--suggesting a simple moral to the fable, despite its fabulous visuals.
In The Miracle , a dwarf on crutches confesses the story of her life--with her crippled Catholic childhood haunted by holy water, St. Bernadette as imaginary friend, and dreams of a miracle at Lourdes. Instead, she finds joy in life through musical theatre and an answer to her prayers in telling her story through this movie (with the actress playing herself in it). Clichés abound in the dialogue, such as her statement to her overprotective mom: "You treat me as if I'm gonna break." But the clever visuals and period scenes offer stylized memories as elaborate, miraculous desires.
A similar ride through fantasy to transcend physical disablement occurs in Aviatrix . A young woman in brain cancer treatment fantasizes about being a superhero, draws illustrations of her exploits, and fist-fights with a nemesis on another planet. Then, in this world, she makes friends with a "lawn boy," despite her acid sarcasm, which his wit fully matches. Review by Mark Pizzato
Mark Pizzato is Professor of Theatre and Film at UNC-Charlotte. His screenplays, produced as short films, have won New York Film Festival and Minnesota Community Television awards.Buckstone County Prison is a wild ride of a movie, somewhat reminiscent of Paul Newman's famous 1967 prison film Cool Hand Luke gone "down-home in the holler". Set in 1957, the director himself, Earl Owensby, stars as the half-breed Indian Seabo who is marginalized by his town socially but who is useful to the town sheriff (oldtime western star Sunset Carson) as a bounty hunter.
Jailed after being framed, Seabo is sent to the North Carolina Buckstone County Prison, the most dreaded correctional facility in the country at the time of the story. There he must endure the horrors of a psychotic warden, played with rabid zeal by Don "Red" Barry (again, shades of Cool Hand Luke and Strother Martin's portrayal of a sadistic southern warden), and the fellow prisoners who are bent on Seabo's obliteration. Acruel and violent prison guard named Jimbo (Karate master Ed Parker) also sets his sights on Seabo's demise.
Filmed entirely around North Carolina and at Earl Owensby's studio in Shelby, North Carolina, Owensby is a cinematic visionary who was following his own path as an independent filmmaker long before it was fashionable to do so. Review by Jorja Ursin
Jorja Ursin is a local performer, director, and comedy writer who has been performing in the Charlotte theatre scene for over eighteen years.In the Balkan breeding ground of war and terror in 1992, Serbian militiamen encounter their former Bosnian Muslim neighbors on a bridge check-point. What ensues is thuggery and sadism tarting itself up as political activism. Only some of the Muslim villagers will make it across the bridge; the inevitable outcome is played out in real time. The film is not technically sophisticated but convincingly foments the taste of crude fear.
The knowledge that this real event is being re-created by people who survived the killing fields is electrifying. The film’s use of photos of actual victims, dropped slowly into the river by a mourner years later, underscores the pain and futility of one small murderous incident among many. One conclusion of the film’s brief but long 12 minutes: all that water cannot wash away the sin of that cruel euphemism, “ethnic cleansing”. Review by Dr. Elizabeth Peterson-Vita
Dr. Elizabeth Peterson-Vita is a clinical psychologist by day, and a stage director and writer by night.Every woman (and every man who loves one) should see this documentary, directed by Carol Ciancutti-Leyva, about the dangers of breast implants--and the pressures on girls to find their value by such cosmetic surgery. The filmmaker shows interviews with many women, including her own mother, who suffered severe illnesses probably triggered by the leaking of silicone (or platinum) from their implants. They tell of trusting the doctors--decades ago and even today--that such surgery was safe. The film also shows how the FDA, with hearings that produced ambiguous evidence, has recently allowed silicone implants to be used again, despite Medicare lawsuits against such manufacturers.
There are also graphic sequences showing a young woman's breast augmentation surgery--and another woman having her implants removed, after the silicone bags broke inside her, causing symptoms of illness. Her plastic surgeon warns that 50% of women with silicone implants will suffer such symptoms 10 years after surgery, and 90% of women 15-20 years after.
But the film states that even the safer, saline-solution implants still have a silicone shell that may cause similar problems. (More information is available at www.absolutelysafe.com and the film will be show again on Saturday morning in the festival.) Review by Mark Pizzato
Mark Pizzato is Professor of Theatre and Film at UNC-Charlotte. His screenplays, produced as short films, have won New York Film Festival and Minnesota Community Television awards.In a powerfully revealing documentary, a young woman visits the traumatic and redemptive sites of her youth: her abusive step-father's house, the juvenile hall lobby where her mother abandoned her, the streets where she became a 12-year-old prostitute, and the juvenile hall she returned to (at 13), where she finally found adults who made her believe she was loved and could succeed through education.
She also meets with her biological father who admires the beautiful woman she has become--yet must admit that he was missing earlier in her life when she needed him most. And she becomes a public spokesperson for helping other runaway teens and girls in juvenile halls, like her, to achieve more with their troubled lives. Her story becomes all the more inspiring as she recalls and explains it herself, through the people and places of her past. Review by Mark Pizzato
Mark Pizzato is Professor of Theatre and Film at UNC-Charlotte. His screenplays, produced as short films, have won New York Film Festival and Minnesota Community Television awards.This student short from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro is an intense, powerful, though sometimes cryptic film that uses many symbols and metaphors to tell a cautionary story. The voiceover from a young teenager tells of his communion with the "undead" and his negotiations with the "Gods." His decisions lead to a disturbing and violent resolution, though it doesn't bother his conscience.
The acting is strong across the board. The director has a sure hand, and knows what he wants from his cast. This film shows the excellent potential of these young filmmakers. Review by Ann Marie Oliva
Ann Marie Oliva is the producer/editor of ARTS à la Mode. She is a writer, and reviews both film and theatre.An amazingly creative stop-motion film with a garden hose (of all things) as the central character. Imbued with the human characteristics of inquisitiveness and ingenuity, the rubbery lead character in the film reminded me of how I felt about R2-D2 from the original Star Wars movies. As I passionately rooted for R2-D2 to win over adversity, I kept saying to myself "Do you realize you are cheering for an animated robot?". Crazy yes, but nevertheless I was sucked into cheering for the scrappy green garden hose in this movie as well.
You find yourself wanting to yell "Watch out!" when the hose's adversary from next door (an older, evil garden hose) goes on the attack, and then cheer when the indomitable little hose makes several narrow escapes from disaster. The unique storyline and inspired direction in this movie make it a must-see for all who love to think outside the box (or outside the yard, in this case). Review by Jorja Ursin
Jorja Ursin is a local performer, director, and comedy writer who has been performing in the Charlotte theatre scene for over eighteen years.In Dinner Table, an elderly, upper-class couple argues over asparagus and beef about the best treatment for their troubled teenage son (art therapy or medication), using polite words and refined references. The static setting yet fine acting enables a brief exploration of this current issue--with a surprisingly bloody finale that suggests more complexity. In Norman, a young man flies endlessly to different cities and lonely hotel rooms, until he connects with a woman who offers him her address in Cincinnati.
In Frank's Last Shot, an overweight FBI paper-pusher tries to be the hero during a hostage crisis in his office--like he failed to be as a field goal kicker in his youth. The action sequences are well shot, with sudden violence and convincing bloodiness, but the film focuses on a simplistic message of courage in the "moments that make us." Yet, its ironic twists suggest other possibilities--especially when the pretty girl that Frank gazed at becomes a tragic victim of his heroic foolishness. In The Mess , a husband rages at his messy wife, giving her new rules to follow, yet missing the cries for help of his teenage daughter in another room of the house. Here again, various ironic twists offer humor and insight, while culminating in a violent surprise. Finally, in the French farce, Diva, a jilted lover dresses in drag to recover his sense of joy, but gets his purse snatched and loses his femininity in the chase. Review by Mark Pizzato
Mark Pizzato is Professor of Theatre and Film at UNC-Charlotte. His screenplays, produced as short films, have won New York Film Festival and Minnesota Community Television awards.This is a very hard-hitting documentary of the very possible and probable negative side effects of vaccinations, particularly to the current generation of children. Directed by Gary Hull, the seed of the film comes from the true story of Alan Yurko. Yurko was a father who in 1999 was convicted of shaken baby syndrome in the death of his 3 month old son. His son had been premature and there were complications. Yurko was sentenced to life in prison plus 10 years with no parole, but on further evaluation, it was thought that vaccinations may have played a part in his son’s death, and Mr. Yourko was released.
From this point, the film proceeds to show, with harrowing arguments how some of the ingredients in the vaccines (particularly the high levels of mercury), may prove to have other unexpected adverse effects, specifically autism. The U.S. uses more vaccines than any other country. This documentary definitely makes you sit up and notice all possibilities involved with these vaccinations. It also makes you reconsider the myth that our medical community is working 100% on the behalf of our nation. This is huge dilemma for new parents. Review by Hank West
Hank West is a local stage and film actor, and avid film buff.In this short film written and directed by Randall Dottin, Deena, a black, single mom with money and child-care problems tries to continue as a dancer. But her young son demands attention from her, as he practices his tap steps for his own audition, disturbing hers. She leaves him in a pizza shop, while she has a mystical encounter with High-John, a magical trickster who challengers her to jump over--and be lifted by--the subway tracks. Thus, she learns to appreciate her son's desire to be a dancer like her and perhaps his need for male figures in his life as well. The film has fine acting, beautiful dance moves, and great camera-work (as, for example, when the camera spins around Deena to show her crisis of consciousness, or shows multiple reflections in the pizzeria window when she looks at her boy inside). Review by Mark Pizzato
Mark Pizzato is Professor of Theatre and Film at UNC-Charlotte. His screenplays, produced as short films, have won New York Film Festival and Minnesota Community Television awards.What would happen if a guy unexpectedly brought his girlfriend to his parents' house for dinner? What if the rest of the family is there exposing skeletons from their various closets? What if she has a secret to expose?
Well, that's what you get with this quirky and inventive short, which reminds me of the type of screwball comedy Katherine Hepburn and Cary Grant would make in today's era, with a dash of prime Woody Allen. With sharp dialogue and inventive direction, this is total fun, and made me wonder what the director could have done with material on a larger scale. Review by Hank West Hank West is a local stage and film actor, and avid film buff.