[Pierre-Alexandre Despatis suffers for his cinema. Now covering his second edition, our official festival reporter and multi-function human cyborg will provide us the sights (plenty of cool pics!), the sounds, the reviews and the occasional interviews of the still very young 5th edition of the Tribeca film festival. Below are some of Pierre-Alexandre’s reviews in easy to read, insightful capsule form. Enjoy!]
AL FRANKEN: GOD SPOKE
Well, if God speaks to Bush and asks him to go to war, why doesn’t God speak to Al Franken too? Coincidentally, the film opens with a series of shots of God himself! It pretty much sets the tone for the rest of the film–a hilarious and sometimes politically incorrect journey with the colored AL Franken before the last presidential elections in the United States. Combining excerpts of one-on-ones, tv appearances and interviews, cinéma-vérité veterans Nick Doob and Chris Hegedus offer us an interesting perspective on Al Franken's "tireless campaign" against George Bush and Franken's motives behind his never-ending crusade. Of course, any pro-democrat documentary would be incomplete without making fun of FOX NEWS and featuring Michael Moore! Whether you like him or not, this is definitely a must see so that you can like Al Franken more–or hate him more!
FOLLOW MY VOICE: WITH THE MUSIC OF HEDWIG
Several artists record a benefit album based on songs from the film Hedwig and the Angry Inch to support the Hetrick-Martin Institute, home of the Harvey Milk High School, the first LGBT high school in the United States. As much as the subject matter of the documentary is worth talking about, its aesthetics and editing are rather ordinary. The way the film was put together is rather problematic too: many of the talking heads interviews are not that interesting and the most interesting parts of the films, which include video diaries by some of the students of the High School, aren't used to their best benefit extent. Despite the flaws of the film, director Katherine Linton is close with the film’s subject matters and really allows the viewer to understand the characters and their personal problems, and we eventually get to feel a little sympathy. However, all the interviews are inter-cut with the actual recording of songs from the disc. Sometimes the transitions back and forth work very well, but after a few songs, it starts to get a bit tedious do we need to see all the songs one after the other?
THE WAR TAPES
The synopsis of the press notes starts by "Funnier, spicier, and more gut wrenching than the news reports". Could war be funny? Deborah Scranton compiles a video diary of 3 soldiers who were given video cameras before they were assigned to Iraq, and the result is somewhat of a very schizophrenic piece. On one hand you have the soldier who says that as soon as 9/11 happened he wanted too be assigned to Iraq to defend his country and on the other hand clips of Bush congratulating himself for his success in Iraq and soldiers complaining about the ridicule of their mission, which is basically to "protect Halliburton convoys in Iraq so that the company can make more money". One of the drivers of the convoy has to drive a truck that is in a dreadful condition and has no windows … "because he is disposable in the eyes of the company". As one of the soldiers says, "the priority of KBR making money outweigh our safety". While some aspects of the film are interesting, most of the footage should never have been put together. For instance, as the soldiers meet merchants selling goods on the street, they find one that is selling porn pictures. Asking him whether or not if he has pictures of porn with animals is neither funny nor amusing. Several other derogatory remarks are made throughout the film… "I may have killed one or two of those bastards" one of the soldier says proudly and another ask a humvee driver "how many people have you bumped with your humvee" as if was simply a question of killing people as in a video game while hitting as many things has possible while doing it.
CHOKING MAN
Very reminiscent of the TFF04 film HAPPILY EVER AFTER for its similar use of magical realism, CHOKING MAN relates the adventures of two newly immigrated workers in a Queens diner. Jorge's extreme shyness is challenged by his new female co-worker who just arrived from Korea and his bullying roommate. This film is unlike all of Barron's previous (Ninja Turtle, The Adventures of Pinnochio, ConeHead, …) but still shares a little fantasy with them, here in the form of magic realism. The film is punctuated by many animation sequences that help the viewers get into Jorge's impenetrable world. These sequences work very well at giving us an insight about Jorge's world without revealing too much and the animation sequences further enhance the magic in the film. As a whole, the film works well and it's truly remarkable for a first intimate low budget film.
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