Hi Joel and all.
My recent viewing of Ramen Shop was very favorable. Yes, there was
sentimentality, lots at times, but there is another slant to the film that
appeals to me. This story shows us the truly spiritual nature of preparing
food in a thoughtful and loving manner. On another note I'm with Abbott on
giving Genesis 2.0 anther chance. The film does have faults but the fact
remains that it shook me up! We don't always have to wait for Halloween to
see a horror flick.
Budapest Noir ? I'm intrigued. The Menemsha Films catalog has some fine
films.
Waldheim Waltz trailer makes me think of our own lying leader.
Sorry for missing the screening last week without notice. My plans for the
week were turned upside down and I ended up in the County on thursday. And,
I will be away for the rest of the month. Back to the County for all of
this week and off to Oregon on the 19th returning on the 30th. So, I do
want to participate in the final selection and will follow and contribute
to the email conversation more often.
Cheers,
Bob
On Fri, Nov 9, 2018 at 2:40 PM Joel Johnson <joel_johnson@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
wrote:
To Clif and anyone else who might be looking for these screeners from
FilmMovement:
Yes, all of the links were from vimeo. Below is the e-mail I got back from
them.
We have formally eliminated “THE CHARMER,” “EGON SCHIELE: DEATH AND THE
MAIDEN,” “FRANTZ FANON: BLACK SKIN, WHITE MASK,” and then pretty much ruled
out “STYX” since it was such a hard-hitting dark movie. We have had
discussion about several of the other FilmMovment films though we only
group screened “ICEMAN” and I’m not sure how many have seen some of the
others like “RAFIKI” and “THE SOWER.”
The recommendation of those present (and there were only three of us) at
yesterday’s meeting was to remove several films from consideration:
“GENESIS 2.0,” “CUBAN FOOD STORIES,” “TVTV: VIDEO REVOLUTIONARIES,” and
“LOVE, GILDA.” “CHINA HUSTLE” is also an older documentary that is
available for streaming for $3.99 through Amazon Prime Video. “LOVE, GILDA”
is available from Amazon Prime Video for 6.99. That availability for
streaming was part of the rationale for taking “LOVE, GILDA” off the list.
If that availability is problematic, then we should get rid of both of
those documentaries.
We had a difficult screening with “LIFE AND NOTHING MORE.” It started
getting a little jerky about 15 or 20 minutes in. This is a film about life
in the black underclass in Florida. This was the reverse of last week’s
film “GENEISIS 2.0” which was a documentary that often seemed like a
narrative. This was a narrative that looked like a documentary. The
characters often use non-standard English making it challenging just to
understand the dialogue. The documentary-style kept the viewer at a
distance and made it difficult to connect with the characters—this was a
problem for us for as long as we continued to watch it. After about 30-35
minutes we gave up as the film wasn’t connecting with us and one or two
were starting to feel queasy. The film has strong critical support so it
apparently must coalesce into a fairly meaningful narrative—at least for
critics. Unfortunately, it was pretty much three thumbs down from us based
on that compromised half-hour + viewing. “LIFE AND NOTHING MORE” is a
fairly long movie at nearly two hours which wouldn’t really allow much time
for a post-film discussion. We do not have a screener, but I would suggest
that we might want to look at the trailer and check out the reviews for
“HALE COUNTY THIS MORNING, THIS EVENING” from the Cinema Guild. This also
addresses contemporary African-American life in the South (Alabama). It is
a documentary which also has strong critical support. It is a shorter film
at 76 minutes which would allow much more time for a post-film discussion.
Does Colby have a Black or African-American Studies program?
We have some favorable opinions expressed recently re: “RAMEN SHOP”, “UN
TRADUCTOR (A TRANSLATOR)”, “LA FAMILIA”, and “ANTONIO LOPEZ: SEX FASHION &
DISCO.”
We have a number of films on our list that have Jewish content as noted by
the (J). Of those that I discussed with Barbara Merson of MJFF, it would
appear that the documentary “THE WALDHEIM WALTZ” and the narrative “THE
INTERPRETER” would seem to be the best. However, a case could be made for
each of the others. While we don’t have to work with MJFF, I do think the
options available represent quality to films that have been selected for
inclusion in their festival. We got a very high-quality film last year in
our collaboration and probably would be quite pleased with whatever choice
we made from what they are showing.
We made a decision on “WHAT PRICE HOLLYWOOD?” as our classic with a
back-up of Ingmar Bergman’s “WILD STRAWBERRIES.” While I had earlier been
somewhat negative about the Bergman documentary “SEARCHING FOR INGMAR
BERGMAN,” it is worth noting that it has a Metacritic score of 70 which is
quite good. If we do want to recognize Ingmar’s centenary, we might opt for
showing that.
Let me know if there are any other links that you are missing. I will
append the latest listing of films. Those that have an (s) before the title
have sent a link that connects to a screener. You will also note that I
have floated an alternative schedule to what we had previously discussed
since the earlier schedule would have our 2nd screening on the same day
as the Women’s Protest March on 1/19/19.
Joel
*From:* Maxwell Wolkin <maxwell@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
*Sent:* Thursday, October 04, 2018 10:29 AM
*To:* Joel Johnson <joel_johnson@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
*Subject:* RE: Possible Candidates for Film Series
Hi Joel,
Can you use Vimeo screeners? I'm not sure we have all these in DVD. If so,
please see below -
ANTONIO
url: https://vimeo.com/253843122
pw: MayIdrawyou?
CHARMER
url: https://vimeo.com/235004728
pw: Almacinema
EGON
url: https://vimeo.com/162541341
pw: eGONsCHIELEpti
FAMILIA
url: https://vimeo.com/271901886
pw: CaracasinCannes
FRANTZ
url: https://vimeo.com/290565056
pw: BSWM123
ICEMAN
url: https://vimeo.com/252204021
pw: Otzi_unearthed
RAFIKI
url: https://vimeo.com/266873822
pw: RaFiKi_MPM-PrEmIuM270598
SOWER
url: https://vimeo.com/273705681
pw: LerevedeViolette
STYX
url: https://vimeo.com/284992243
pw: hellishwater
TRADUCTOR
url: https://vimeo.com/291755925
pw: 1234
Best,
Maxwell Q. Wolkin
Director of Non-Theatrical Sales
* FILM MOVEMENT*
237 W 35 St, Suite 604
New York, NY 10001
P: 212.941.7744 x211
Direct: 212.941.7647
