Stacy Peralta’s Made in America is an effective and selectively comprehensive, fascinating and frustrating examination of the history of gangs in South Los Angeles. The documentary does an excellent job of demonstrating how the mutation of social and economic conditions in black America from the Civil War to World War II created a climate that birthed and nurtured the gang wars between the Watts Riots and the Rodney King verdict, but it almost completely fails to consider what happened after South Central became associated with a pop culture myth, consumed by white rural and suburban kids via NWA records and John Singleton movies. For a film that makes a convincing and valuable case that gang warfare is, at its root, an economic problem, it’s baffling how little attention is paid to how the rise of the superstar gangster in pop culture has impacted the real people living this life.
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Yesterday, I made a list of five films amongst Sundance’s four competition slates that I’m particularly excited to see. Today, here’s a look at another film films that I’m looking forward to, culled from the Spectrum, New Frontier, and Park City at Midnight sidebars. This list was MUCH harder to weed down to five, and as you’ll see, I had to cheat a bit. Here we go…
Momma’s Man (Directed by Azazel Jacobs, Spectrum)
Excerpt From the Official Synopsis: “Humorous and poignant, Momma’s Man wrestles with universal themes, but its strength lies in its deeply personal details. Writer/director Azazel Jacobs cast his own parents and shot the film in their apartment, where he grew up.”
Why I’m Interested: Jacobs “own parents” are Flo Jacobs and experimental filmmaker Ken Jacobs; in the film’s press notes, he says he cast his own family because he “couldn’t picture anyone else in their bed, in their kitchen, or in their place (although Peter Falk and Shelly Duval would be in my movie-movie version of it).” If the notion of the guy who made Star Spangled to Death channeling Columbo isn’t enough for you, I don’t know what would be.
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Part Two of the Sundance 2008 slate just arrived. As with yesterday’s announcement, I’ve pasted the meat of the press release after the jump; first, here’s what I percieve as highlights right off the bat:
- Be Kind Rewind: I kind of expected Michel Gondry’s latest to show up here, just because January 25 would have been a *really* weird release date otherwise. Plus, Gondry’s The Science of Sleep was one of the fest’s big sales in 2006, although it’s actual US release didn’t get as much attention as I would have liked to have seen.
- Baghead: Jay and Mark Duplass’ long-awaited follow-up to The Puffy Chair, co-starring Hannah Takes the Stairs‘ Greta Gerwig.
- Goliath: Is the David Zellner who wrote and directed this the same David Zellner who makes short films with his brother, including the much-beloved Aftermath at Meadowlark Lane, which played before Low and Behold at Sundance last year? IMDb offers no help, so shout if you know the answer. UPDATE: Yup, same Zellners. Thanks, Matt!
- Momma’s Man: Directed by Ken Jacob’s son Azazel, starring his dad as (wait for it) “Dad.”
- Funny Games: Michael Haneke’s English-language remake of his own 1997 film. It’s a Midnight selection, which could be good or bad.
- Blind Date: The second of three planned films based on the work of slain Dutch filmmaker Theo Van Gogh (the first was Steve Buscemi’s Interview). Stanley Tucci directs himself and Patricia Clarkson.
- Towelhead: This was called Nothing is Private when it premiered at Toronto to hugely divisive reviews. Directed and written by Alan Ball, it became known colloquially as The One Where Aaron Eckhart Has Sex With the 13-Year-Old Arab Girl. It has the questionable honor of uniting Roger Friedman and The Reeler in mutual hate.
- August: A period piece about the end of the first dot-com boom (!), featuring a cameo from my former boss as himself.
- The Black List: A documentary about Black America, written by and starring sometime film critic Elvis Mitchell.
- Made in America: A “first-person look at the notorious Crips and Bloods,” via Dogtown and Z Boys‘ Stacy Peralta.
- The Merry Gentleman: Michael Keaton (yes, the “I’m Batman” Michael Keaton) directs himself and Kelly McDonald in this drama about a woman who “stumbles into a curious relationship with a depressed hitman.”
- Savage Grace: Tom Kalin’s telling of the Barbara Daly Baekeland murder case, starring Julianne Moore. A Cannes 2007 leftover.
- Where in the World is Osama Bin Laden?: I missed this one on first-skim. It’s Morgan Spurlock’s long-awaited sophomore effort. IMDb still ha it listed as Untitled Hunt For Osama Documentary; this new title seems to be pretty self-explanatory.
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