2007 Jackson Hole Film Festival - Film Reviews

Wednesday, June 13, 2007

By PJH Staff

Asian Shorts: ‘Chiyo-No Omuka,’ ‘Chocolate, Sunshine,’ ‘Monkeyboy’
This year’s World Program focused on the Far East and featured nine independent films from Asia, including three shorts made by young Japanese filmmakers.

In “Chiyo-No Omuka,” which won the “Best of” award in the category, writer-director Masanori Baba uses a misty countryside on the annual night of the dead as the stage for 4-year-old Chiyo to look for her father, who was killed in World War II. The film is exquisitely shot and acted, and during his acceptance speech Baba called it a statement against all war, though it also works as a bittersweet ode to the loss and separation inevitable between every parent and child.

Masuro Ohno brought to the festival “Chocolate, Sunshine,” a film he wrote, directed and scored with an eerie electronic soundtrack. In a claustrophobic motel room, a young couple is torn apart after the wife learns her husband may have offered to sell her to a brothel to pay off his debts. The cameras film from fixed angles, and the actors often are partly or even entirely out of the frame. “Chocolate, Sunshine” effectively creates a sense that one is watching a doomed unraveling at worst, or an idle moment before real disaster at best. Nevertheless, Ohno told me through an interpreter that he hoped there was some love and hope at the film’s uncertain conclusion. Maybe.

Rounding out the selection was the most avant-garde of these provocative films, “Monkeyboy,” less a short story than a mournful poem. The title character, a man wearing a monkey suit, has had his heart stolen and he wishes only to find the one who took it and ask for it back. Monkeyboy, though probably a fool, is not a man wounded and ineffective and swallowed by good old-fashioned male loathing; refreshingly, he is naïve – an animal man-child who exists simply, but has painfully discovered that a displaced heart can change everything. Highly stylized, “Monkeyboy” was shot with a grainy film, except for passing moments, when the viewer is shown not only the broken man, but also the men filming him. In this way, the film is maybe not only a surreal lament, but also a documentary.
— Ben Cannon
 
‘Atagoal: Cat’s Magical Forest’
DIR: Mizuho Nishikubo
PR: Sumiji Miyahe, Hidenori Ueki and Suguru Matsumoto

I’m not an anime fanatic, but I’ve seen some remarkable examples of the Japanese form and have come to admire and appreciate the remarkably creative stories, beautifully envisioned worlds, and complicated plots, which usually involve magic and spirits and fairy worlds where the sooner you suspend your disbelief the better.

But “Atagoal” tested my limits. Taking place in a magical world called Gobbledegook, it followed an obese cat named Hideyoshi, a strange little acorn-being who adopts him as his father, a samurai-like cat warrior and two human characters who seem to tag along for the ride as they try to save their planet from Pileah, the Queen of the Plants, whose idea of order is to hypnotize all the cat and humans with her enchantress’s song and then consume their life forces so she can stay eternally young.

If you’re familiar with anime, you may not find any of that too outlandish, but “Atagoal” was just too loud, too zany, demanded too many leaps of faith. Too bad, because the animation was often fantastic, particularly some of the nuanced gestures of the characters.
— Richard Anderson

‘The Boy Without Qualities’
DIR/SCR/PR: Thomas Stiller

Tim is a young man with a dull face and a duller life. He lives with his aunt and her ne’er-do-well boyfriend, picks up day work here and there at the docks, spends an inordinate amount of time NOT finishing the wooden model ship he has spent years on, and often slips into a fantasy in which a glamorous sea-faring father figure offers him encouragement and comfort.

Then he meets pretty Claudia, an aspiring costume designer who has been forced to take a job at the corner snack bar, and he is inspired to climb out of his shell and face the truth about his past.

“The Boy Without Qualities” is a quiet film. There are long stretches of little but ambient sound. Some scenes show nothing but Tim sitting in his room, holing his model boat, before fading to black. The urban setting is nearly monochromatic, as if winter has been gradually descending upon it forever.

Cheerless as that sounds, tenderness, gentle humor, and a glimpse into the lives of realist human beings prevail, and the film finds hope in its sweet if corny ending.
— Richard Anderson

‘Checkpoint’
DIR/SCR: Ben Phelps

A well-off Lebanese-Australian man, his wife and teenage daughter are driving across the Australian Outback in their Mercedes when three armed men in camouflage ask them to pull over. They appear to be government officials but soon begin to harass the family, making racist remarks to the husband and becoming sexually aggressive with the wife and daughter.

At first, the husband only wants to comply and be on with his drive, but tension builds as each nugget of conflict compounds the next. The close up camera angles, mostly from within the frame of a car window, only reveal so much information to the viewer, making the film increasingly suspenseful. The film plays on assumptions of authority and family dynamics, and was a terrific example of an indie short because it crammed so much drama into only 11 minutes.  
— Sam Petri

‘Day of the Dead’
DIR/PR/SCR: Jim Keeshen

Jim Keeshen wanted to make a children’s feature film explaining the spiritual process of death – a tough sell in the Disney-dominated world of children’s feature film. In the end, he sold his condo and produced the wonderful short, “Day of the Dead,” that has English narration, Spanish subtitles and plenty of music. Keeshen, whose mother is Venezuelan whose father is American, follows the soul of Pancho, a pet iguana, as he is reuniting with his owner, Dionisio, in the afterlife. Although intended for kids, it appeared the subject matter went over the heads of the three children under the age of 7 who sat in front of me in the theater. The adults in the audience, however, got a huge kick out of it. Perhaps this one’s best suited for ages 10 and up.
— Sam Petri

‘Gem Slaves’
DIR: Rand Pearson
PR: David Gough

This story of child laborers in Tanzania was packed with images of children climbing down steep ladders into deep mines, eyes wide and faces covered with dust. They are looking for tanzanite, a precious gemstone found only in Mererani, and child labor is a significant source of extraction. Mining it is a $300 million a year industry. The mine shafts shown in the film appear dangerous and unventilated. Young boys descend rickety ladders barefoot, with only a headlamp and basic tools.

The twist is that many families send their children to the mines for income. Thirty percent of Tanzanian people live on less than $1 a day, so families resettle near the mines with hopes of lifting themselves out of poverty. Yet the boys rarely find tanzanite during the average eight-hour day, and thus fail to bring home earnings, though they may occasionally receive a meal.

“Gem Slaves” also introduced the Good Hope Program, which aims to educate children and provide them with skills for other paying jobs.
— Melanie Stein

‘Small Boxes’
DIR/SCR: Rene Hernandez
PR: Kristina Ceyton

“Small Boxes” won the award for Best Short Film this year. Set in Australia, the story revolves around a very American subject: opportunity.

Alberto, a 20-something Hispanic man who lives with his mother and grandmother, works a night shift unloading boxes at a produce market. It is dangerous and unfulfilling. But one day he takes his grandmother to buy her some new shoes and discovers the store is hiring clerks. He gets a job interview, but quickly realizes he doesn’t have the proper attire for this type of interview.

The film follows Alberto as he prepares for the interview. Anyone who has ever wanted change in his life – anyone who has reached for something, not sure if he will succeed – can relate, though the enormity of this small opportunity for Alberto that could change him forever offers great poignancy. 
— Sam Petri

‘Outlawed’
DIR/PR: Gillian Caldwell
PR: Rebecca Lichtenfeld

If you didn’t know about the CIA’s extraordinary rendition program, “Outlawed” will fill you in. It tells the stories of Khaled El-Masri, a German citizen born to Kuwaitis and raised in Lebanon, and Binyam Mohamed, an Ethiopian who sought asylum in Britain, both taken into custody while traveling internationally and accused of being or aiding terrorists.

The film details their imprisonment and illegal transfer to Third World countries where they are detained, interrogated and tortured. Mohamed was made to listen to loud hip-hop and rap music 24-hours a day. His captors cut his genitals daily over the course of several months. He remains in prison in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, despite pleas from his siblings, who are both American citizens.

El-Masri faced similar interrogation and torture techniques before embarking on a hunger strike and demanding his release from prison in Afghanistan. He was eventually released on a desolate road in Albania. El-Masri made international headlines when he filed a lawsuit against the U.S. government with help of the American Civil Liberties Union. The lawsuit continues, with the government arguing that “state secrets” would be revealed if they were made to proceed with the suit.
— Melanie Stein

‘Row Hard No Excuses’
DIR/PR: Luke Wolbach
PR: Bill Wolbach

The Atlantic Challenge, a 3,000-mile rowing race across the Atlantic from the Canary Islands to Barbados, leaves some of its competitors divorced, bankrupt and all with chafing in places unmentionable. It’s an exhausting 40- to 100-plus day race, depending, rowing boats that weigh 3,000 pounds and without prize money.

“Row Hard No Excuses” gets at the heart of what it means to be human and why sports, or journeys, are an essential part of human existence. Taking a look at a seemingly dorky sport – rowing a boat – it shows how the athletes’ lives change during this true adventure. The film has multiple story lines that all weave together, making the viewer forget they are watching a sports action film, and instead shows a quest – physical, mental, spiritual. A well-deserving winning for Best Sports Action Film at this year’s festival.
— Sam Petri

‘Shoot Down’
DIR: Cristina Khuly
PR: Douglas Eger

On Feb. 24, 1996, two civilian airplanes were shot down over international waters by a Cuban MIG fighter. The planes were operated by a group called Brothers to the Rescue, which routinely patrolled the Florida Straights in search of Cuban refugees requiring assistance as they attempted to cross the 90-mile stretch of high seas, often in crafts no more sophisticated than inner tubes.

In “Shoot Down” we meet friends and family of the four men killed in the encounter, learn a great deal about the history of U.S.-Cuba relations, the dynamics of the Cuban community in exile, and get a vivid reenactment of the shoot down and its aftermath. The last third of the 88-minute film concerns itself with who was to blame for the incident – the pilots of the planes? the man who ordered the fateful flight, despite knowing it was on a particularly sensitive day when protesters were gathering in Cuba?

 U.S. officials who didn’t react quickly enough when they spotted the Cuban fighter on radar? In the end, a family member provides the answer: The fault lies with Castro and the totalitarian regime that has ruled and ruined the island nation.
— Richard Anderson

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2007 Jackson Hole Film Festival - Film Reviews | Planet JH News Article: Movie Reviews

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