I recently submitted a ballot for indieWIRE’s annual Critics’ Poll, which offers respondents a chance to create two separate lists of the best films of the year: one comprised of films which received theatrical distribution (which is described as, at minimum, a one week run in a commercial theater in New York City, essentially the same type of release required for Oscar consideration); and a list of the best films which weren’t distributed commercially in 2008––ie: those which screened only at festivals, and/or in other non-commercial venues, and/or outside of New York. Because I see so many films at festivals, I had a far greater pool of candidates for the latter list than the former. My “true” top ten list would combine films which were made readily available to audiences via studio subsidiaries (such as Synecdoche, NY and Rachel Getting Married), with films that I fell in love with at a festival and may never get a chance to see again, and with films which had the bare minimum New York release, but nevertheless were probably still seen by fewer people than the average distributor-less festival hit (such as Build a Ship, Sail to Sadness). That said, I understand the purpose of making the distinction––even if there was no other benefit to it, there’s always the hope that some smaller theatrical and straight-to-DVD distributors will look to the annual Best Undistributed list as a reference to films they might have missed. After all, 2007’s “winner,” Hong Sang Soo’s Woman on the Beach, was purchased and ended up in theaters barely a week into the new year.
In fact, I think singling out films which are still on the market, and in a perfect world wouldn’t be, is so worth doing, that not only am I revealing here the ten titles I included in the poll, but I’m adding a few bonus films. The following list is presented alphabetically and should be considered unranked, with the exception of the first title mentioned — they all deserve to be seen by wider audiences, but the reception thus far bestowed on the work of one French master in particular is actually a travesty.
Now that Quantum of Solace has had some time to sink in, we get to the pressing questions is raises. Sure, it was a quality action movie, but was it spy movie? Where were the gadgets? The new Bond Girl kicked plenty of ass, but where was the deception? We dig into all this and more when we ask: what happened to Bond?
Meghan O’Hara, producer of The IFC Media Project, joins us to talk about the truth behind the news. The show, which is more cinéma vérité than TV news magazine, airs on the IFC channel Tuesdays at 8:00 PM.
Karina checks in before heading off to the Denver Film Festival. We talk about her panel regarding DIY filmmaking, and three titles worth catching at the fest: Intimidad, The Prince of Broadway, and Last Chance Harvey.
I’ll be heading out to the Denver Film Festival on Wednesday, to sit on a jury and moderate a panel. The festival started last night, and through next Sunday they’ll be showing a ton of my favorite films from the 2008 festival circuit (like Intimidad, Guest of Cindy Sherman, Prince of Broadway, Finally, Lillian and Dan, SIta Sings the Blues, Two Lovers, and Everything is Fine), plus a number of titles that I’ve missed at over festivals but hope to catch up with (like Three Monkeys, Woodpecker, Song Sung Blue). Also, they’re doing a tribute to pioneering video/performance artist Carolee Schneemann, which is awesome.
The panel I’m moderating, called DIY Filmmaking in an Indie Apocalypse, will bring together a number of filmmakers who have found some success (with critics, with festival juries, or even financially) making personal films outside of the broken indie film stuctures that we’ve all been wringing our hands over for the last couple of years. It’s on Friday, November 21 at 7pm. If you’re going to be in town, do stop by.
A sampling of movie events happening around town this week:
Flaherty NYC will present its second monthly program of non-fiction shorts tonight at Anthology Film Archives. The lineup includes two pieces by Sylvia Schedelbauer and two by Alison Kobayashi. Pamela Cohn, who will moderate a discussion after the screening, describes Kobayashi as a “very young, Tracey Ullman-esque performance artist” who “does everything by herself–makeup, wardrobe, shooting, editing.” More info on the program here.
Also tonight: Rooftop Films is putting on a free showcase of animated shorts at Chelsea Market. I can’t find info on the specifics of the lineup, but the Rooftop website promises free beer. Here’s the lineup.
David Redmon and Ashley Sabin are bringing one of my favorite non-fiction films of the year, Intimidad, to MoMA this Friday and next Wednesday. You can read my review of the film from SXSW here; more info at MoMA’s website.
I don’t really know what the TakeApart blog means when they say, “with the times of today mirroring the times of the film, [Zabriskie Point] couldn’t be more relevant”––the movie’s such crazy hippie fantasy, I can’t imagine a time when it was ever relevant––but I’ll thank them for pointing to the clip of its beautiful but vacant stars sitting next to Rex Reed and Mel Brooks on The Dick Cavett Show.
Victoria Large at Not Coming to a Theater Near You, on David Redmon and Ashley Sabin’s “outsourcing” of some of the shooting of Intimidad to their subjects: “The technique of allowing the subjects to help author their own story feels appropriate to Intimidad, not only because it allows for the intimacy of the title, but also because it reflects one of the most striking things about the film: that it is about those who take action and are not merely acted upon.”
David Hudson alerts us to the Invitation to the Dance blog-a-thon, which began at Marilyn Ferdinand’s blog yesterday. I’m thinking about taking a crack at how the dynamic of Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers is inverted in Dirty Dancing, but I’m open to other suggestions if you’ve got any.
I haven’t seen David Redmon and Ashley Sabin’s first film, Mardi Gras: Made in China, but I’m impressed by the way the filmmakers, across second and third features Kamp Katrina and Intimidad, have begun to establish a voice not just through subject matter, but through a distinct visual style. There are few trademarks that you can now expect from a Sabin/Redmon production: eerie video, shot at night on a low shutter speed; an exceedingly intimate access to subject; and a mounting sense of dread as the realization hits that when the crisis inevitably comes down, the camera is going to put us right in the middle of the shit. In Intimidad, the crises seen on screen are mostly emotional and confined to a single family, but they’re spawned by the kind of larger crises of economic disparity and the hopelessness it engenders that propelled Kamp Katrina. The title literally translates to “Privacy”, and there’s a double connotation there: it’s a film about a couple’s struggle to maintain familial intimacy whilst battling a seemingly impossible economic system in the quest for private property. …Read more
Above, you’ll find the trailer for Intimidad, David Redmon and Ashley Sabin’s second SXSW premiere in two years, after 2007’s devastating Kamp Katrina. Shot on both film and video over the course of four years, Intimidad documents a young couple’s life on the Mexico/Texas border. Screening as part of SXSW’s Lone Star States program, the film premieres at the Alamo South Lamar on Friday, March 7, at 10pm. Below, Ashley and David answer the 4 Questions We’re Asking Everybody.
Tell us about your movie. Who did you work with, why did you make it? Give us the reductive, 25-word or less, “It’s like [pop culture reference a] meets [pop culture reference b]!” pitch, then explain what the quick and dirty sell leaves out.
Ashley Sabin: David Redmon and I have been working on this film for about 4 and a half years. We started making the film as a Victoria Secret factory film. It’s through the organic process of watching the footage and finding the story that we realized the film was not about the factory and more about everyday intimacy told by the main characters, Cecy and Camilo. It’s also the first film I ever shot so it’s interesting/nerve wrecking to see the growth in my own filmmaking development. We left cameras with Cecy and Camilo and they essentially became part of the crew. We started filming their daughter - Loida - when she was 2 years old up until now (she’s six years old). Watching her grow is one of my favorite parts of the movie. We might something similar to 7up where we film her for the next 10, 15, or 20 years and see where she ends up (but it depends on her and her parent’s decision). She is an amazingly charismatic little girl!
David Redmon: Ashley and I worked together, but the family in the film also worked on it. It’s about a family trying to stay together to accomplish their dream of buying land and building a house in Reynosa, Mexico.
Do you have a day job/a non-filmmaking occupation that raises money for your filmmaking efforts? Tell us about it.
AS: David and I are lucky enough to not have to get a second job this month. However, I would consider our second job distribution. We have put out our first two films, Mardi Gras: Made in China and Kamp Katrina. It’s a lot of work and adds a whole other layer to our relationship with our films but I find it very rewarding.
DR: Yes, we travel to colleges, show our films, and discuss them with students and teachers. I’d like to finish the book I started a few years ago.
Have you been to SXSW before? If so, tell us about your funniest story from the experience. If not, what are you looking forward to re: the festival and/or the city of Austin?
AS: We were at SXSW last year with our feature documentary, Kamp Katrina. Everything about the festival was amazing and great. We met some remarkable people who we still stay in touch with and saw some great risk taking films. I guess the only speed bump was when I got the nerve to walk up to an unnamed film distribution guy and give him the “pitch” of our film and my card and he looked at it and passed it off to the woman next to him. What a sly guy! Both shocked and mortified I walked away. This event reaffirmed why I do self distribution and love it!
DR: Yes, we ran into a crazy man who spontaneously took us to four different all night parties in the pouring Texas thunderstorm rain, until we ended up at a diner at 5am and finally found out his name: Michael Lerman [co-director of SXSW 2008 feature Natural Causes].
Let’s get hypothetical: You’re on death row. The night of your execution, you’re allowed to watch any two films of your choice. What would you pick for your last-night-on-Earth double feature?
AS: I always get hung up on these questions because days later I always want to add on more but I think that if my life were to end I would need something comforting so I would resort to childhood favorites, Labyrinth and Princess Bride, or and maybe if I got a third Harry and the Hendersons. These three films my younger brother and sister and I would watch over and over again. It’s partially why I have a serious but rather silly phobia of Bigfoots. I guess to confront that phobia I should go see the doc on Bigfoots but I would need to do with David by my side.
We’ve had a bit of trouble getting this episode to go through the iTunes feed, so we hope this re-post will fix the problem. The original post, with episode description and embedded player, is here.
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I’ll be heading out to the Denver Film Festival on Wednesday, to sit on a jury and moderate a panel. The festival started last night, and through next Sunday they’ll be showing a ton of my favorite films from the 2008 festival circuit (like 
A sampling of movie events happening around town this week:
