On Sale Now
Film Comment Selects
Young Friends of Film
Independents Night
Open-Captioned
Calendar
Upcoming Programs
Past Programs
Furman Gallery
Theater Rental
Theater Information
Press Office
Sign up for filmlinc email bulletin
|
Stanley Jr. is a typical American kid growing up in Seattle, listening to hip-hop, playing video games and partying all night with his friends. After learning of his son's aimlessness, his father Stanley Sr., invites him to Old Crow, a tiny Gwich'in village 80 miles north of the Arctic Circle in the Canadian Yukon, to live with him for a while after 20 years being apart. What unfolds is a spirited document of the father-son relationship between the "Stanley 2 Times" as they adjust to each other, discover their shared history, and try to bridge a generation gap.
Despite many opposing themes, this soulful documentary embeds old culture with new technology: they can hunt for rabbits and fish through the ice as their ancestors did, but first they have to get there on a "skidoo" that constantly breaks down. In a landscape without chain stores and fast food, the younger learns other ways to get food, while his elder realizes the internet and satellite TV will inevitably bring the temptations of the outside world to his dry hometown. A first feature by Andrew Walton, Arctic Son reminds us that when the human spirit has a chance to shake itself out, it ultimately settles where it was meant to be.
Rooted in the true sense of "independent," The Other Side is a personal documentary imbued with magical landscapes and the searing observations of Texas-based filmmaker Bill Brown during his 2,000 mile trek along the United States-Mexican border.
Images of hillbillies are common enough, but the sounds of “neo-hillbilly” music
from the Ozark Mountains are delightfully rich and wonderfully captured by German-based
American filmmaker Rick Minnich, turning his camera on three families of musicians,
each with their own style and degree of success. Leading the pack is 34-year-old
singer/songwriter Mark Bilyeu and his cousins from the hillbilly band Big Smith.
All well-educated, these modern-day hippies were raised on gospel and folk music,
and their songs tell tales of life along Bull Creek. Their relatives, the Mabes,
were the first to perform a show in nearby Branson as The Baldknobbers. While
they started out as a hillbilly band, they are all about the flashy neon stars
and stripes of this Bible Belt show town. Finally, the Pine Ridge Singers could
not be more different. These somehow distant relatives of Big Smith are the most
hillbilly of all — their patriarch “Dupe” Brown was born and
raised in a log cabin and is determined to keep his land in the family. When
he's not imitating Jimi Hendrix on his electric mandolin, he is joined by his
wife, daughter, son-in-law, and grandson at the monthly gospel services at Pine
Ridge Church in the Mark Twain National Forest. Spontaneous exchanges, impromptu
jam sessions — including one with dueling washboards! — in old country
churches, around bonfires or after a Thanksgiving meal are interspersed with
archival footage, old photos and the muted colors of bare autumn trees on a hill.
All this, woven with the old, new sounds of southwestern Missouri, slyly sink
us into the neo-hillbilly world (and it’s not a bad place to be).
|
|
| |
Patsy was an energetic artist, full of life and constantly changing hairstyles.
She took hundreds of pictures of herself documenting her many looks and moods,
from carefree party girl to haunting images of herself staring into the camera.
Then one day, in what she later came to realize was a bipolar manic episode,
Patsy attempts suicide by swallowing drain cleaner. Her esophagus and stomach
are removed. Danielle Beverly’s first feature chronicles four years of
Patsy’s life, from her life in a Florida nursing home through her surgery
to replace her digestive system, her addiction to painkillers and her physical
and mental rehabilitation. We see her first shaking uncontrollably, reflecting
haltingly on the terrible harm she has done to herself and wishing for her old
life in Chicago, while her family and friends question whether she will ever
be able to overcome the seemingly insurmountable obstacles to her recovery, starting
with receiving liquid nutrition through a J-tube in her abdomen. As she faces
her lowest point, she starts regular therapy sessions, which allow her to learn
about her illness and how it relates to her past. When she moves back to Chicago,
she taps into the artist within her, this time with a new, mature voice.
Director/producer Danielle Beverly began her documentary career at Chicago’s
PBS affiliate, co-producing a film about the Joffrey Ballet and disability, Dance
from the Heart, as well as Independent View, and Blink — all
of which have won Emmys. In addition to producing for cable and PBS, she is a
cinematographer on independent documentaries and will continue, until 2011, to
serve as field producer for James Whitaker’s Project Rebirth,
a longitudinal documentary that will track the healing process of 10 people markedly
impacted by 9/11.
|
|
| |
|
|
|
