SIFF 2013 Closing Night Party Photos

By the closing night party for the 2013 Seattle International Film Festival I was a bit too tired to lug around my better camera. But while having a great time checking out MOHAI I did manage to grab a few basic shots to give a sense of the room. The food could've been a bit more interesting, though if you were interested in alcohol I've never seen SIFF set up so many well stocked bars at an event. The museum was a fantastic location and space for a party. I'm looking forward to checkout the exhibits. They were free to view by partygoers. I just was so caught up in talking with people I never had the chance.

The Bling Ring - SIFF Red Carpet

Sophia Coppola's latest film The Bling Ring closed the Seattle International Film Festival this past Sunday. I'll share more about the film closer to it's Seattle release. But for now I wanted to share some photos from the pre-film red carpet arrivals of it's stars Katie Change and Israel Broussard.

If you'd like to zoom in and gaze deeply into one of the stars' eyes the full resolution album is available here.

Israel Broussard (with Steve Wilson and Carl Spence)

Katie Change

Aayna Ka Bayna

Perhaps others are different. But my greatest hope for every film festival is to wander into something knowing little about what I'm about to see but to then emerge from the dark having seen a rare gem that made me not want the credits to ever roll. Last Friday night I chose to see Aayna Ka Bayna largely on the merit of it playing at the theater closest to my home. Sometimes one just gets luckier than they deserve to be. In short ... Aaynan Ka Bayna is a total trip, fusing  laugh out loud over the top melodrama, the cinematic overexposed adrenaline style of a Crank film, the mad b-boying skillz of the best of the Step Up series with a scathing indictment of the Indian juvenile criminal justice and rehabilitation series.

The picture opens with a visceral and incredibly shot introduction to life on the inside at a juvenile detention center. Interspersed for unclear reasons with a woman dancing. Before we know it nine boys are making a dynamic escape for freedom aided by Indian hip-hop, a zeal for life and mad danced inspired parkour moves. The facility's warden is none too pleased and calls in the authorities. While waiting for them he brutally beats the other youths for information. Learning quickly this band of brother's loyalty network is strong. At the same time we learn he's a total tool.

The boys race towards their gradually unveiled goal goal encumbered only by the need to perform elaborate dance numbers, often without their shirts. Throughout the journey flashbacks present the history of all involved. The facility had been trying an experimental dance therapy which the warden despised, but only accepted it seems due to circumstances the next 90 minutes make clear. The flashbacks also show us what "wrongs" each of the boys committed to be locked up. Quotes used due to the often extremely defensible nature of some of their apparently illegal acts.

Along the way the story picks up a rogue cop, a male dance instructor and a whole lot of swelling music to tell us how to feel. Action culminates of course in crazy televised dance off battle. Which from what I can tell boasts a first prize of total immunity for the winners from any and all crimes. Sort of like a reverse Hunger Games. Plus if you win there's a good chance your "this' emotional support and love' crap is for suckers" warden will drop his need for abusive discipline and become a much beloved father figure. Wait! What? Remember this is a Bollywood film and embrace the contradictions. You'll be so so glad you did.

The energy is electric, the battles are raw and engaging, and plot points turn on an accidental death by trophy as well as a "world's greatest dad" greeting card. Not to mention one of the most impressive interpretive dance sequences I've ever seen. I'm not kidding - it was truly meaningful and beautiful.

I had a blast and if you've got any ability to enjoy high energy ridiculousness with a message then you will too. Minor quibbles involve some inconsistent subtitling. But trust me, you'll figure it out. See Aayna Ka Bayna at the first available opportunity.

 

SIFF 2013 - Best of Fest

Direct from the SIFF press office here's a full set of coolness playing during the "Best of SIFF 2013." I'm not too sure all of these are really the "best" of everyone's thinking. But it's a bunch of extra chances to see SIFF films even though the festival is *sniffle* officially over. Personally I'm super excited to get a chance to checkout Key of Life which I missed during it's earlier screening.

Your festival passes are no good for these screenings. But those with full year screening vouchers and annual passes to the festival are all set. Hope to see some of  you at more SIFF movies starting this Wednesday.

BEST OF SIFF 2013
Presented by Alaska Airlines

SIFF Cinema presents the award winners and audience favorites from SIFF 2013. Playing at SIFF Cinema Uptown from Wednesday June 12 through Thursday June 20, we've curated our longest running Best of SIFF yet.

From Jury Prize winners Our Nixon and Harmony Lessons to Golden Space Needle Award winners Twenty Feet from Stardom and Decoding Annie Parker, this is the very best from our most successful festival to date. Don't miss this last chance to see the Best of SIFF!   

For more tickets and more information, click here.

Free Preview Screening - The Heat

Remember when you used to love those Sandra Bullock Miss Congeniality films? Well it seems like she's starring in something inspired by that, The Heat ... but this time adding Melissa McCarthy. Or perhaps it's a super strained connection that only makes sense inside my warped mind. That's really not the core point. Thing is if you'd like to checkout The Heat and can get to the Alderwood Mall this Tuesday (6/11) then I've got the hook-up for some free tickets. Which is true even if people no longer use the phrase "got the hook-up." If you're interested just follow this link over to Gobobo.com and if there are still some remaining you'll have a shiny new pass to see the film together with a friend. They may ask you for some information if you don't already have an account. But don't worry, I'm sure it's less than the NSA has gathered on you in the last 5 minutes or so.

The Otherside

Hip hop is alive and well in Pacific Northwest. Having undergone a break out childhood and adolescence where it tried on lots of personas the art form has grown up, had kids and is now figuring out what to do with the rest of its life. That's roughly the message that the made in Seattle documentary The Otherside opens with before jumping into a whirlwind tour of the state of the "scene." Clocking in at a brisk 47 minutes director Daniel Torok must have been faced with a variety of choices in the editing room. What makes it onscreen demonstrates the unrealized potential for a fantastic film. What's there as exhibited at SIFF will likely be a hit with fans already deeply enmeshed in the genre. But frankly I'm hoping he'll go back and flesh things out for the rest of us. I'm definitely up for a return viewing under those circumstances. What follows comes from a point of love - I hope it's taken that way.

[ Lots of photos from the Seattle premiere of The Otherside are available here ]

First the good. The filmmaker appears to have fantastic access to some very interesting people working to live their dream, at what appears to be a unique moment of inflection in the music industry. The way things are going it's harder to hit that huge mega stardom and riches from selling your songs. On the other hand the record labels that have historically optimized themselves to separate an artist from their full earnings have been weakened. The Internet has wrought an entirely new way to connect with fans and earn a living. Arguably with less of a tournament winner take all economic model - though perhaps one where a higher number of folks can earn a living through their art due to connecting with fans and market segmentation. Broad access to a local music scene creates opportunities to tell a story that wasn't possible some years ago. And concentrating across a range of acts in a single genre gives one the possibility of skipping many of the almost unavoidable cliches of the backward looking doc of an influential band of yesteryear.

So ... We've got access to a compelling set of characters at an interesting point in time. Those are the keys to a great documentary. Add to that great footage and solid technical execution of The Otherside. What's not to love?

The problem for those unschooled in Seattle hip-hop is pretty basic. Lots of background is left out and one theme is expounded on in a manner that weighs way too heavily on telling rather than showing.

In short the distance between what I watched and possible perfection includes the following tweaks

• Less people saying over and over that the Seattle sound is that we don't have a specific sound. There are lots of quick clips of performances. Letting those play out in a way that audience members can clearly see the differences would be far more convincing. Hip-hop isn't the music genre I know best. So perhaps I need more convincing. I could see strong stylistic differences. But most audiences I'd recon would benefit from more onscreen music that's edited to demonstrate the musical omnivores Seattle audiences are said to be. In case I'm being too subtle let's put this another way. If you made up a drinking game premised on drinking a shot anytime someone said "we have no sound" anyone short of an alcoholic would end the movie in the ER. That said - I am pleasantly impressed no one uttered the rock doc bingo phrase "I'm not into labels." Perhaps I'm just showing my age though.

• More background on the sub-genres being mentioned. Maybe with a bit of history thrown in - the music doc animated history section has become popular for a reason. I'm left guessing what the differences are between the tons of sub-genres briefly mentioned onscreen. Some are pretty obvious (gangster rap) but even someone I know who is a fan of hip-hop wasn't able to illuminate me on "backpack" style.

• Expand the view out to other things that might be unique to the northwest scene. Or at least throw a bit of screentime to the local fans. There's mention in passing how club infrastructure has improved. That might be part of it. But I'm not 100% sure and was itching to learn more.

• Macklemore - more or less, either might work better. He's hard to ignore as the local boy made good. From what I read and what I hinted at it seems there's a lot more to talk about here. An issue with overindulgence is mentioned along with a single comment that suggested he may have taken some time off before hitting it big. In for a penny in for a pound I say. Either cover this in more depth of don't go there. It's almost as if the filmmakers got an extremely great bit of Macklemore being introspective on film. But then didn't support it within their storyline. Not to mention Macklemore's reduced dependence to breakthrough on traditional distribution was untouched even though it's likely instrumental to the hopes and dreams of many profiled. That would've been great to expand on. Especially as the moments when local artists answered questions about how long they could go without being able to financially support their families were some of the most heartfelt.

The good news is that at 47 minutes a bit of reorganization and possibly new footage could turn this into a tight and insightful 80 minutes. I hope that's in the cards for the future. The blood sweat and tears of those documented deserve it if at all possible. In the meantime even if that never happens if you're into the Seattle scene shown I'm sure you'll get a kick out of it nonetheless.



[ The Otherside screened at the 2013 Seattle International Film Festival ]

Kink

James Franco continues to cast a super wide net with his projects. In the case of Kink he's playing the role of producer even though I could've sworn that original reports had him directing. Regardless, the Franco name will likely get more people to checkout this documentary than otherwise would. Making it worth mentioning that Franco neither appears onscreen nor provides any voiceover work to the project. Leaving you to decide how interested you are in watching a documentary about the BDSM website Kink.com. Which I'm not going to hyperlink as it's judging from the film really, really, really NSFW. Unless of course you work at Kink.com - in which case I'm sure that's fine.

Which brings me to an obvious point - I work hard not to get especially graphic in this review. But some might consider just describing the film as not appropriate to have colleagues read over their shoulder. You've been warned ...