I really loved Emirin spite of the fact that musicals usually drive me crazy. Maybe it's because I'm Filipino and so is this film. I've been longing for a renaissance in Filipino cinema, but it seems to be a long way off... which is why I found this film so impressive, the production values and acting quality were quite good compared to most Filipino movies I've seen.
Filipinos have a flare for melodrama....I once saw a commercial for a Filipino TV show (it may have been a movie) that consisted of--I shit you not--a carousel turning in slow-mo, a guy running up to the carousel, looking around for somebody, not finding them, then a zoom in to the guy's face where a single tear rolls down his cheek. It was 100% serious. So yeah, Filipinos have a tendency to overdo the emotionality in cinema, and do what they call "OA" or "over acting." The whole OA concept seems to just be a way of life...and we all know that corny overacting really lends itself to musicals, which is part of what really made Emir work, I think.
The film follows Amelia ^ a Filipino girl from the middle of nowhere that goes overseas to be a maid. The story kind of both pokes fun at/is a tribute to the "OFW" or "overseas Filipino worker." The story actually follows Amelia until she is like middle aged...they used the same actress which works, I guess, with Asians because you can never really tell how old we are, anyway...
Some of the ballads really dragged but the dancey numbers were really fun. Oh and, Filipino names are awesome. Sup, Boyong?
I brought my mom with me to see the film because she actually grew up in the Philippines and speaks good Tagalog. I really lucked out that this film showed right here in my hometown of San Jose during the SJ portion of the SFIAAFF. Unfortunately, after this film, all the festival excitement that's been brewing lately is over!
The very first short was a sort of documentary/infomercial for a nonprofit group, and at first I was afraid that the whole festival was gonna be like that, but thankfully it wasn't.
Pigeon: Impossible was the first film. I'm usually a hard sell when it comes to CG movies, but I thought this was actually cute and really well done. But hey! You can watch the whole thing online here:
Hairytalewas the next short. I can't find any pictures online, but it was a documentary about a guy in the UK who used to own a hair salon and realized how much hair gets thrown into landfills...so then he dedicated his life to finding alternative uses for discarded hair and made...a hair chair. Had a funny final line.
Salt(2009) was next, not to be confused with the Angelina Jolie movie of the same name. This film followed photographer Murray Fredericks (check out his photography on the website, it's amazing!) on his journeys to literally the middle of nowhere in Australia. He explained the concept that the place where he was going, he could see NOTHING anywhere on the horizon for 360 degrees. CRAZY. I had no idea places like that still existed anywhere in the world (other than the ocean). It raised a lot of questions for me... This film has a lot of breathtaking shots. As I understood it, Fredericks shot all the footage himself over several years and then later it was edited down into the film. He had a really great eye for the shots, but I guess that makes sense because he's a photographer. In the end, though, the film was a bit long for my tastes...I'd rather go see an exhibition of the photography.
Scrapertown is a documentary short from a series about California called California is a Place (I will definitely be watching these later). It follows a group of kids in East Oakland who are part of the 'scraper bike movement', where people fix up their bikes with interesting paint, decor and decorate the spokes. The bikes are pretty cool. The organizers of the festival told us that they were gonna try to get a kid from the film to come speak at the festival, but he didn't show. Boo!
The Crab Revolution,was an awesome, adorable French animated short. I loved it! French just seemed to be the perfect language for this story. Or maybe the voice actor was just really good? Watch here:
I didn't see Fat Tire Fury on IMDB. It's basically footage of a mountain...bike...unicycler. The ultimate rush??
I couldn't find any suitable pictures of Living Lightly.....chronicles of a farming cult with a scythe (yes, scythe) fetish. I don't mean player hate here but uh...yeah.
A few photos of the evening:
cool kinetic sculpture at the Brower Center. I wish this were video!
DEEP FRIED PIZZA at Sumo Grub--not a bad spot to grab a bite after a late showing in Berkeley as they are open late. They have tons of deep fried desserts...for the heart attack in you
WELL, Cinequest is over once again! A friend was gonna hook me up with a pass to encore day, but they weren't really showing the programs I wanted to see. Boo! I missed The Deadand Madly in Love and, of course, the showing of Nosferatu (1922). I really regret that one the most. It's one of my favorite films of all time and I really should've made time for it! Well, for the Cinequest events/films I did attend...it was real.
On Friday I headed out with a couple of friends to the Chickenproof shorts program at the SFIAAFF to see my friend Kevin Ung's short, Chubby Can Kill. The program was at New People, a sort of gallery-cum-cafe-cum-shop-cum-cinema in San Francisco. I'd been before, it's a cool spot, but I'd never had the chance to see anything at the Viz Cinema (they show Japanese films!) prior to this event. I hope to catch more in the coming months.
The theme of the night as I interpreted it seemed to be unlikely heroes and surprise endings.
cool poster
Masala Mama was the first film; a funny little comic book themed short.
Next up was Junko's Shamisen. This was filmed with an interesting mix of live action, stop motion and animation...it looked really cool. The story was a sort of Japanese fairy tale (not sure if it's a real one). It was a kind of a cool Japanese/Canadian vibe with parts in English and Japanese.This one showed at SXSW too!
Hang in There was a stop motion using paper dolls...it looks a lot cooler in motion than it does in the above picture. It was cute/disturbing...I think this was a music video, I can't find it on IMDB!
For some reason I couldn't find Gophers in Space on IMDB, either. At first I was like "eh" about this, but the surprise ending was funny enough to win me over. It feels like something that probably started as a joke between friends and became a movie.
Amazoniawas another CG short. It was cute and entertaining and it's clear that a lot of work, heart, and soul went into this short!
To Wander in Pandemonium was cool in spite of the slightly overwrought title. This was one of the two most professional looking films screened that night. I discovered during the Q&A that the director, Edward Kim, went to UCLA (my alma matter, although I did not study film). COOL~?
The Godmother was a sort of action-comedy-parody-homage to both The Godfatherand Jersey Shore (from what I could tell). This was a USC thesis film...they always say that film students at USC get a lot of money to work with, and it really showed with this film, I think. It looked really professional and I enjoyed it. We actually had a chance to converse with the director and the producer after the screening and they were both really cool.
Finally, my friend's film Chubby Can Kill was the last film screened. It's about a fat guy ^ who decides to take control of shit, etc. It was funny and I really liked the color palette in the scenes in the video shop. I thought the acting was all quite good too and that "Chubby" did particularly well/was funny. It wouldn't have worked out without him, I don't think! I was really glad to finally see my friend's film! It's crazy to think that we all pretty much grew up together.
Some shots of New People--
my camera sucks. this is my friend Tammy, who was kind enough to drive...but my camera made her the same color as the orange walls ^^;
the theater interior is pretty snazzy with light decorations. a bit much for a theater, but still cool.
I was last minute invited to the San Francisco International Asian American Film Festival opening night gala by an old friend, Kevin Ung (you can read about Kevin's thoughts on the gala here), whose short, Chubby Can Kill, is playing at the festival. I'm super thankful that Kevin invited me, because I'd never really gone to an event like this. It was...interesting. We met all types...directors...wanna-bes..."been there done that the world is so passe" types...everyone.
The event was held at the Asian Art Museum. A great museum and a logical choice for an Asian Am film festival party...but I'm not sure the small foyer is the best place to cram so many people! The whole museum was available for perusal as well, though. There were plenty of free drinks and hors d'oeuvres, and it was fun.
sponsored by Toyota
some museum shots. a great time to get them because it wasn't crowded with regular patrons.
We me this guy, James ^ who was really interesting. I saw a man leaning against the wall in overalls not talking to anybody and I was thinking he was an employee or something. We walked up to him and struck up a conversation and it turned out that he is just a dude from San Francisco that loves Asian cinema. We spent a lot of time talking with him about film and he was really interested in Kevin's short. I am so glad we talked to this guy.
After they told everyone "party's over, get the hell out of the museum", I bummed a cigarette from some people who looked in-the-know outside and figured out where the afterparty was through them. Seriously, bumming a cigarette is my best social tactic. I'm not really even a smoker anymore but it's a great way to strike up a conversation. The afterparty was at Passion Cafe, a bar kinda straddling the Civic Center/sketchy Tenderloin district. There we met and conversed with many interesting people. It was great.
A blogger revealed. This is me with one of the actors from West is West, the opening night film that we unfortunately did not make it out to...! I loved his look, I think he has an intense face so I really wanted a picture. Me, on the other hand...I just looked faded in this picture (hence the pound sign).
Bi, Don't be Afraid! is a sort of slice-of-life movie about a middle class family in Vietnam. It was a really...sweaty movie. Ice/melting ice/dripping water were reoccuring motifs in the film. The film doesn't revolve around the titular character (a young boy) so much as it does around the whole family. The film kinda gets really weirdly sexual about halfway through... I feel like there are some cultural references I may be missing. It was interesting, though. It's only the second Vietnamese film I've seen, the first being Vertical Ray of the Sun.
I saw this with my mom & my sister, but ran into my friend Tracy downtown on the way in, so she came too. You know you've lived somewhere too long when you start running into people. Ha! The film was showing at the California Theater, a really nice restored old theatre in San Jose. It's unfortunate that they don't show films there more often! (it's home to the San Jose opera).
my bff at the movie. i would post more pictures of the theater interior--it's lovely--but my camera isn't very good!
After the film Tracy suggested we pop in on the Festival meetup. It was going down at Clubhouse (a new bar downtown. I got a Yelp check-in discount so I will likely go in for drinks sometime). The bar was full of movie..type...people so I was a bit out of place as a mere film fan (not to mention my poor social skills), but Tracy is a festival volunteer and knew a few people. We struck up a conversation with some guy in distribution. It was neat.
The World According Ion Bis a doccumentary shown on TV produced by HBO Romania. I'd never seen any films out of Romania, so this was interesting. The film follows "Ion B", a drunk vargarnt genius artist. The guy doesn't really have as many interesting things to say as you'd think, though...he isn't say as funny as, say, a schizophrenic. I'm not sure this was a super interesting topic for a film, but it was a good way to get awareness out there for this guy's art...because it seriously is amazing and hilarious. Still, I think I'd rather go to an exhibition than see a film about it.
A short was supposed to play before the film, it looked like it may have been interesting, but there were technical difficulties so I guess I'll never know >:(!!
Apart Together was an interesting look at a story about real people involved in the evacuation to Taiwan. I was a history major in college and it's fascinating to learn about the history behind something and then see a movie about a political events later effects. The characters in Apart Together really draw you in. They are all likeable and understandable in their own ways, and you end up eager to know what happens. This is probably one of the best movies I've seen any any Cinequest (not that I've been to 3049580349854 CInequest showings, but you get it).
The Chinese pictographs for "apart" and "together" were really beautiful, too, and make a lovely title for the film:
This is what I get for trying to take an interest in culture and local happenings.
So, I saw my first Cinequest screening today and things were pretty disorganized. They appeared to have a gaggle of volunteers running things. They had--no joke--like seven people taking tickets. One person to take the ticket. One person to hand me a pencil for the survey (there was also a different person outside after the film to collect my pencil). At least two of these people touched my shoulders. UH, HELLO. I LIKE MOVIES BECAUSE I DON'T LIKE INTERACTING WITH ACTUAL PEOPLE. DONT F(*^#^#$)$* TOUCH ME!
Prior to that, we got to the floor where our screening was. After a bit of confusion we were told by a couple of volunteers that we needed to "get in the line for the screening."
"OK. Where is the line?"
"There isn't a line yet. You two will be the first in the line."
Well. No wonder we didn't know where the line was! There was no line.
Things like "festivals" (of any sort) are not really my scene, but I go to film festival screenings sometimes because I like movies. STEP UP YER GAME, CINEQUEST. I mean, alls I'm sayin' is that I like going to the movies, but I don't like having to interact with a dozen different people before I sit my ass down, you know?
Anyway, the first film in the festival that I saw was Little Baby Jesus of Flandr. I kinda don't remember how I chose which films I wanted to see at the festival. I remember kinda browsing the website and seeing ratings on IMDB and making a list/schedule. This popped up because it has an interesting title. I wanted to get into a Yelp Elite screening (I'm on the squad, weirdly enough), but it was full up! Boo. So, I ended up here instead.
The film kinda asks the question What would happen if the nativity story took place in Belgium? and What if the three magi were three retarded dudes?
Well, apparently not much goes down. To be totally honest, I'm not sure if this movie was a joke or not. Was it an attempt at serious religious commentary? Was it supposed to be blasphemous? I have no idea.
The film is black and white except for one short part where a person (a tranny?) is singing in a night club. That part is in color. Then it cuts back to black and white. Yeah, I don't know.
Half of the cast of the film are people with (what I believe to be?) Down Syndrome. OK...interesting.
You can play I Spy Ikea furniture. The stuff is everywhere. Even in arty movies from Belgium.
Before the feature, they showed an animated short called The Tannerywhich was a charming animal story with a vegetarian/animal rights slant. I really liked the animation, it looked like it was done on watercolor paper. They were working off a crappy scratched up DVD or something, though. Boo!
In spite of the few hitches, I will likely be going to a couple of Cinequest screenings on the weekend, too. I ain't no player hater.
Peep game. Today's groupon in the Silicon Valley is a weekend pass to Cinequest, San Jose's film festival. San Jose is my hometown and I've quietly been going to screenings for several years. I'm probably going to see my first film in the festival on Wednesday. Excitement?!
