Christine's Film Festival Diary for Tuesday, April 10th

Films: The Cats of Mirikitani, Cigarettes and Whiskey and Wild Wild Women, Sweet Mud

Future Screenings: No future screenings of any of the above films scheduled

Once again, I took advantage of the night and sat through a wide range of movies. I didn’t feel that the short film collection Cigarettes and Whiskey and Wild Wild Women could be given just one rating. I would have preferred to have rated them individually; however, this was not an option. I did review each one separately, so you can see which I preferred and which I didn’t. My two favorites were without a doubt Cuidado by Joseph W. Krzemienski and Night Falls Fast by Mark Robert Jackson. The Cats of Mirikitani is by far the best film I have seen during the Film Festival. This should definitely go on to an international audience. Any chance you get to see this piece, go. You'll be quite pleased.

The Cats of Mirikitani
Director Linda Hattendorf brilliantly captures the life of eighty-year-old Jimmy Tsutomu Mirikitani, who is a “Grand Master Artist,” living homeless on the streets of New York City. Their journey together started the day when Jimmy asked her to take a photo of his work. From that point onwards, their lives impacted each other's in ways they could never have imagined. This amazing documentary started in 2001 before the fall of the Twin Towers. It chronicles Jimmy’s life and how the events of September 11 brought Linda to befriend Jimmy with an invitation to her SoHo home. This major turning point brings Jimmy to detail his life as he gains Linda’s trust. With the information that Jimmy provides, Linda begins to dig into America’s archives. What she uncovers about Jimmy is quite surprising, from losing his American citizenship, to having it returned to him without his knowledge. The impact on the audience is so shocking that it can only be imagined what Jimmy feels in hearing the news. This documentary is the uplifting story of Jimmy’s life, filled with comedic and warming moments that will touch your heart. Jimmy’s life is completely turned around by the story’s end, when he is living on his own, in his own apartment, teaching art in New York City.

After the screening, one of the film's producers, Masa Yoshikawa, invited the entire audience to Jimmy Tsutomu Mirikitani’s 87th birthday party this June and made the announcement that on May 8th of this year, PBS will be showing the film; however, it will be twenty minutes shorter than the version shown for the Film Festival. I highly recommend that you tune into your PBS station and watch this captivating documentary. It will blow your mind and make you smile. It’s a must-see.
Festival rating: Excellent

Regarding Sarah (film short)
This cute and interestingly funny film short is about Sarah and how she is losing her memory and what she does to compensate for it. Her solution is to film and then edit her daily activities. Filming things with only one camera shot leaves her with a lack of detail, so she adds more cameras to film all of her life’s events in close-up and at different angles. Her filming then becomes an obsession, which borders on the ridiculous, but Sarah soon realizes that she is spending too much time in editing all the footage and is losing most of her life to the editing process, so one by one she shuts off the cameras. This is a funny film short that takes a close look at someone’s obsession and the lengths she’ll take to make sense of it all. It was a nice follow-up to the documentary that preceded it. I thoroughly enjoyed this film short.
Festival rating: Very good

Sweet Mud
The director, Dror Shaul, defines a kibbutz at the beginning of the film as a communal settlement. The year is 1974. We’re immediately introduced to “children’s societies,” where children are separated from their parents when they are infants. These societies seemed to me like not at all child-friendly warehouses to store children. This story follows Dvir, who is just beginning the stages of his Bar Mitzvah when his life starts to take some interesting and downward turns, which hinge on his mother Miri’s emotional state. Miri is portrayed as fragile and unstable. The audience is led to believe that this has to do with the death of her husband. The kibbutz seems to blame Miri for his death, but she states in a hysterical rage towards the end of the film that the kibbutz killed him because she and her husband wanted to leave. This would explain why she spent time in a sanatorium after his death. In this same rage she also states that she can’t leave the kibbutz because she would have to leave her children behind, so she yells to her son, Dvir, to run away from the kibbutz. This is a very dramatic piece. I left wondering how much was true. It reminded me of stories about Mormons who want to leave and can’t because it is not allowed.

The dark undertone of the movie is not overdone. The white puzzle that Miri is trying to piece together is used as a metaphor for her fractured state and the choices she's made while living in the kibbutz. Everything becomes clearer when the puzzle is moved to its completion. This is why she cannot live in Switzerland with her boyfriend - because she’d have to give up her son, Dvir, to the kibbutz. It then becomes clearer why her emotional state is so fractured.

Dror Shaul uses the theme of fractures from the opening credits onward, both through the audio and the visuals. Later in the film when his main character is eating a treasured lollipop we hear a crunchy, splintering, shattering sound that represents the way things are for the characters in the film. Sweet Mud left me feeling emotionally disturbed and wanting to know more about Kibbutzim.
Festival rating: Very good

Cigarettes and Whiskey and Wild Wild Women
This is a shorts program that incorporated many different tastes and styles.

Case Study 040906
This piece felt random. It felt like I was watching a student film about friends having fun. I’m not certain what story was being told as there wasn’t a storyline. The scenes were haphazard. I watched a man lick a woman’s armpits during a sexual liaison that took place in a sanitarium. It’s not clear to me what I was supposed to get from viewing this. The musical score, although original, didn’t fit for me, especially since there weren’t any speaking parts.

Cuidado
This excellent animated short featured robot bandits of the modern age getting involved in Old West shoot-outs. The musical score fit perfectly with the tone, direction and characterization. It definitely felt like old animation meeting new technology. Joseph W. Krzemienski did an excellent job. I’m quite impressed.

Vorcan (Leanna’s Song)
Vorcan, the director, uses Leanna’s Song as an inspirational tool for painting a picture. I wanted something more from this piece, something more substantial because I felt like the artist was moving colors on the canvas along with the music, but not getting anywhere. I wanted a tangible end result that I felt was missing, but maybe that was the point.

Flash Banner Contest Winner
This was a very creative piece that was time-consuming. Scott Gelber and Billy Fatzinger thought this piece out and crafted it well. They took short shots every few seconds to create a magazine-like cut-out of facial features that were very animated and funny. Excellent job.

Methmouth
Troy L. Coffee did a superb job in capturing a deranged vision in this film about suicide, drugs, and an old abandoned house. The piece was well edited and directed. I was so disturbed watching this that I had to close my eyes. It was just under-my-skin upsetting.

Podonuts
This was weird film, crafted by Heather Henderson, had me and other audience members laughing. It was so weird that you had to laugh. All I can say is this is what happens when a fetish for donuts meets a fetish for feet. The cat was just the added bonus to the weird craziness.

Ralph Was Here
Scott Seward took old film footage of his uncle’s and created this nostalgic 1940s look at Philadelphia. It was great watching the old scenes and seeing Philadelphia back in the day when the trolleys were more prevalent. As Scott explained, this was a way of saying that his uncle was indeed here since his uncle did not have any children. It was a heartwarming piece that kept the audience’s attention. I wanted more.

Night Falls Fast
Mark Robert Jackson did a superb job here in telling a story about drug addiction, gay life and family. It was well-directed and edited, and the story was told with a depth and clarity that pulled you in. The film, filled with delusions and ghostly appearances, was filmed in Philadelphia and the surrounding countryside. This 30 minute piece definitely could be made larger.
Festival rating: Good