>>REVIEWS
CALGARY UNDERGROUND FILM FESTIVAL
April 11 to 15
Check listings for venues and times
The Calgary Underground Film Festival (CUFF) has collected an impressive number of unique, cutting-edge and independent films for 2007. Showcasing the best in underground filmmaking, CUFF offers a great selection of both international and local talent. If your film tastes border more on the obscure than the Oscar, CUFF has rounded up the best in weird and wonderful cinema. Spanning every genre from horror to feature-length dramas, Fast Forward critics run down which films warrant checking out and those to skip.
· DANTE’S INFERNO (dir. Sean Meredith, U.S., 2007) – Using surreal and deliberately unrefined cardboard cutouts and sophomoric backdrops, filmmaker Sean Meredith takes viewers on a satirical and at times hilarious journey through the nine circles of hell. Loosely basing his film on a portion of the Divine Comedy and using a wayward, modern slacker as his protagonist, Meredith carves a scathingly sarcastic path through modern society.
As the story plumbs the depths of mankind's virtually endless capacity for evil, the humour gets wittier and more deliciously bizarre. From weird sex to absurd salesman to hypocritical parades, there’s no shortage of recognizable figures suffering all manner of eternal torture. One of the worst circles of hell is portrayed as a planned community, complete with canned voices and cookie-cutter housing.
No one is safe from the sharp wit that proliferates throughout. Whether it’s endless disembowelment or sudsy torture, the political and philosophical observations are crystal clear and bitingly funny.
· DARKBEAT: AN ELECTRO WORLD VOYAGE (dir. Iris Cegarra, U.S., 2006) – Throughout the various club scene reenactments in Darkbeat An Electro World Voyage, you realize white girls have danced the same regardless of decade. Whether in spandex or a mini skirt, it’s the shaking of the hair and boobs while pumping the arms up into the air. Other than that, you won’t get much out of this documentary on the electro scene. This is a film for the converted who already know the genre. Unfortunate, considering this is a documentary meant to enlighten and reveal electro to the mainstream. Instead,, we get obtuse history and tech porn without any context or personality. The conventional structure of the documentary works against it, but at the end of the day, Darkbeat isn’t very interesting.
· S&MAN (dir. JT Petty, U.S., 2006) – Causing the same ‘is it or isn’t it real’ debates that are often spawned by the hardcore horror films it discusses, S&Man (pronounced sandman) is a clever documentary that becomes its own subject.
Originally intended to be a documentary about a peeping Tom encountered in his youth, director JT Petty is forced to change focus when the man refuses to take part, leading him to look at the dynamics of voyeurism from another angle, i.e. that of the hardcore horror film.
S&Man delves into the world of films that are thought of by many as being one step below porn. These are the simulated snuff, rape, mutilation and stalker films. Though the film grabs the audience by the jugular right from its first scenes, it isn’t until the introduction of independent horror director Eric Rost that the film really takes off. As interesting as the discussion with various directors, actors, academics and doctors are, it is the interactions between Petty and director/stalker Rost that take S&Man into new and creepy territory.
Instead of just asking questions, S&Man makes the viewer an active participant, by putting them in the shoes of the hardcore horror viewer. This is the sort of film that leaves viewers feeling both a little wiser and a lot dirtier than when they began the journey.
· PRINCESS (dir. Anders Morgenthaler, Denmark, 2006) – Using a variety of animation techniques plus twitchy, Dogme-style live-action sequences, renegade Danish cartoonist Anders Morgenthaler fashions a visually striking and deeply upsetting attack on the inhumanities of pornography. Princess tells the story of August (voiced by Thure Lindhardt), an ex-missionary who returns from abroad after the death of his porn-queen sister. When he learns of the abuse suffered by her five-year-old daughter Mia (Mira Hilli Moller Hallund), he begins a bloody campaign to avenge his sister’s death and destroy everyone who profited from her career.
That Princess is a feature-length cartoon containing a great deal of graphic sex and violence is not so unusual. However, that much of it involves a child is. Yet the predominant tone of Morgenthaler’s film is anguished and angry rather than sleazy and salacious. It makes for compelling viewing, though the slow pace and patchy narrative deplete the visceral energy of the most startling scenes. Leave it to the Danes to make the dourest anime ever.
· MATTHEW BARNEY: NO RESTRAINT (dir. Alison Chernick, U.S., 2006) – No Restraint sees filmmaker Alison Chernick follow American art star Matthew Barney through the filming of his 2005 art film Drawing Restraint 9, which takes place on a Japanese whaling boat. In addition to offering a bit of insight into this particular project – which also showcases one of Barney’s signature Vaseline sculptures – Chernick gives a bit of bio on the artist, talking to a handful of art world figures including Barney’s father and the artist’s lady-love/co-star, alt-rock heroine Bjork.
Barney would give any documentarian plenty to chew on – the man seems exceedingly normal, which is fascinating in itself, considering how outright weird his artwork is. Unfortunately, while Chernick does manage to get him to speak about his artistic intentions, she doesn’t try to explore what makes the guy tick. There’s also a slight whiff of pandering here, making No Restraint play out more like a DVD bonus featurette than a stand-alone piece of film. Still, this should be of passing interest to anyone already interested in Barney, Japanese fishermen or the artistic properties of petroleum jelly.
· OFF THE GRID: LIFE ON THE MESA (dir. Jeremy Stulberg and Randy Stulberg
U.S., 2007) – Far from the nearest town in New Mexico’s Mesa desert, a community of runaways, veterans and societally disenchanted Americans are living out their own version of the American dream.
Filmmakers Jeremy and Randy Stulberg have created an up-close-and-personal documentary portrait of the "off the grid" inhabitants of the Mesa – a fascinating cast of characters joined together by their deep belief in community, sharing, and above all, freedom.
But the community is put to test the when a young runaway steals from another inhabitant, exposing the fragility of the community and the frightening lengths to which inhabitants are prepared to go to protect it.
Avoiding narration in favour of personal accounts from the community, the Stulbergs have achieved a noteworthy first-hand glimpse into the fine balance between freedom and chaos that is life "off the grid."
· 8 BIT (dir. Marcin Ramocki and Justin Strawhand, U.S., 2006) – Considering all the hoopla over the effect of video games on society and their scapegoat status for any time a minor gets even a scraped knee, we don’t really put too much thought into video games. More than nostalgic wankery for Mario and his ilk or the blathering of social pundits who’ve never touched a joystick, 8 Bit is a reflexive exploration of the societal impact of video games by the people who actually play them. These are artist and writers who create art through the medium. It’s a lot more fascinating than it sounds, from the various musicians who create music from Gameboys and Nintendos to the programmer who designed a game to re-sensitize himself to violence. 8-bit is an interesting documentary that at times struggles with information overload when it should focus on those intriguing philosophical questions.
For days and times of specific screenings, check listings or the Calgary Underground Film Festival website, www.calgaryundergroundfilm.org, where you can download the entire CUFF schedule. |
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