History, Oh Damaged History: IndieFest '07 Showcases Films Inspired by the "Greats"
Come late January, most national publications are usually too overwhelmed (and understaffed) to even consider covering any film fest outside of Sundance. Even SF publications are hard pressed to see past the flurry of Park City and look over their shoulders into The Mission. It’s a shame, because if they looked, they’d find a really meaty, crafty, saucy festival offering a smattering of hard to find films and some films even harder to miss.
Bookending 07’s SF IndieFest are two great pix promptly bound for distribution IndieFest’s opening night feature is David Lynch’s first self-distributed film: Inland Empire. A ghostly tale dealing with the illusion of sanity, this pic is currently seeing a short national tour with Lynch in tow. Though we can't say we wholly understand the film's premise, it will doubtless, further Lynch’s candidacy as a cine-God. Closing the fest is a vanguard pic due for theatres in late spring called Fido. A fantastical period piece about the effects of radioactivity and the co-existence of humans and zombies in a fictionalized 50’s America, this film promises as much dower atmosphere as piquant humor.
By Sara S, contributing
The meat in this festival sandwich is made up of features from many walks, each with their own distinction. Sean Meredith's Dante's Inferno is an underhandedly clever modernization of Dante’s famous poem. Formulated as a two-dimensional puppet show, Meredith's Inferno take is proscenium bound; complete with velvet curtains and canto numerals in the corner of each new set dressing. Sparing no political commentary, every level of this hell is cast by notorious souls: Canto 19’s Simony Prisoners include Strom Thurman in a Mrs.Butterworth’s costume, while Canto 15’s “Beasts of Fraud” are swarming with Fox News Helicopters. Unforgivingly, Meredith and writer Sandow Birk have translated the metaphors of Dante’s 13th century journey using cynical and merciless eyes, sparing no humor. James Cromwell voices Virgil to Dermott Mulroney’s Dante, with other voices by many, including comic savants Tony Hale ("Arrested Development") and Scott Adsit ("30 Rock").
In the category of ingenuity, few can compare with Viva. Written, directed, set designed, costume designed and starring (mostly nude) Anna Biller, this one-woman conquest is a re-fabrication of an early 70’s sexploitation, but from a woman’s perspective. Biller plays Viva, a woman who decides to experience the sexual revolution and after a sojourn as a glamorous "escort," she experiences the inevitable toll that willful abandon can take on a "decent" girl's life. What's great about the film, besides its astounding attention to detail, is that it doesn’t neglect the justifying moralization so popular in the sexploitation genre and since the film takes on the female’s point of view, that moralization looks even more stilted than it ever did in Dave Friedman or Dan Sonney Production of the era.
Finally, we have Rolling, the Reefer Madness for our times! The first film about Ecstacy, Rolling follows a winding path through the lives of a dozen users. Blending talking head interviews with dramatization this film hopes to construct a cohesive story about one long night that goes terribly awry. Director Billy Samoa Saleebey isn’t exacting about his craft, and moves as freely between characters as he does between documentary and fictional styles. While you might not think that’s the most effecting blend, Rolling, like everything else you’ll find at SF IndieFest, opens up a different lens on an old subject, and promises far more than you’ll find at the local multiplex. What’s better: you won’t have to jump state to get there.