Below my message is a screener link from Strand Releasing for “RAMEN SHOP.” We
have also received a screener link for “LIFE AND NOTHING MORE.” I think I sent
this before, but here is a link to the film’s webpage:
https://www.cafilm.org/lanm/ At this point I would like to screen that next ;
Thursday morning as part of our meeting. I will forward that separately to Alan
with a “cc” to the group
Here is the follow-up and any updates from Thursday’s meeting.
We did spend a lot of time on discussing “GENESIS 2.0.” It is a mixed bag. I
called it a “horror documentary.” It often doesn’t look like a documentary. It
has a very ominous soundtrack and some voice-over that isn’t exactly subtle in
its feeling that recovering mammoth tusks from islands in the Arctic sea is
fool-hardy, dangerous, and violates taboo. You watch the film and keep waiting
for the “Ah-huh!!” gotcha moment to happen. Then there’s what the scientists
are up to which is trying to figure out how to clone mammoths from recovered
DNA or to create some type of mammoth hybrid. There are some profound ethical
issues that the film raises and to which some of the researchers seem pretty
oblivious. That, too, is something that many viewers will find unsettling.
While the film does tell a story for which there is an audience that would want
to see it or that should see it, I suspect that we will likely get a very mixed
reaction from our audience. We will have some who will be unnerved by the fear
factors, some who will be bored since there are places where the energy ebbs
and everyone agreed some significant editing was needed, and some who will be
confused since a lot of people will not be fully conversant in much of the
science underpinning the issues in the film. Since a significant number of our
audience will probably not have a good time watching this film, this was why I
suggested that it could only show in the final slot where it wouldn’t affect
the rest of the series.
Laurie had mentioned that everyone should take a look at “GENESIS 2.0.” When I
sent the screener link to Alan so he could set up the screening on Thursday, I
did “cc” everyone on our e-mail list. So anyone who didn’t see the film on
Thursday or wants to see it again should be able to do that. Let me know if you
need that screener link resent to you.
“GENESIS 2.0” joins one of our other films “ICEMAN” that we screened together
as a “maybe.” I think the general consensus was that there was a preference for
“ICEMAN” between those two.
Bob had watched quite a bit of “HOCHELAGA, LAND OF SOULS” and was not
especially impressed. It is broken into vignettes and that can be problematic
as far as needing to continually connect with new characters and new
storylines. He did stress that other pairs of eyes might reach a different
conclusion.
Thank you, Clif and Laurie, for your comments on “CUBAN FOOD STORIES” and
“TVTV: VIDEO REVOLUTIONARIES.” Alice has seen at least part of “TVTV” and she
did not seem to be particularly impressed though I don’t recall any specific
objections that she raised other than concern about the image quality of the
old video blown up onto the big screen. In the last couple of years we rejected
a pretty good documentary about an ill-fated original production of a Broadway
show based primarily on how all the old TV footage from which much of the
visuals in the film were drawn looked blown up on the big screen. I don’t know
if anyone else has anything further to add on “TVTV.” I did see all of “CUBAN
FOOD STORIES.” I do agree that the nine chapters of the film did not have the
interesting central premise or the compelling characters of the other
food-oriented documentaries that we had shown like “GENERAL TSO’S CHICKEN” or
“KINGS OF PASTRY,” but I did feel that it’s combination of scenery,
reminiscence, showing places probably never shown to our audiences, and it’s
love and display of food was enough to warrant inclusion in our series or at
least additional consideration.
I did try to breakdown our list into films for which we have had some
discussion and those that have largely been ignored. If they have been ignored,
perhaps we can use that to cut down our list or—as Abbott has done—to draw
attention to “EN EL SÉPTIMO DÍA (On the Seventh Day)” which is about an
Hispanic immigrant torn between loyalty to his soccer team playing a
championship game and his employer who is demanding an all-hands-on-deck effort
for a major reception his restaurant is hosting at the same time. This Cinema
Guild film touches on the plight of immigrants (a topical story) and has a
solid critical backing. So please look to see if there’s something that we have
overlooked that we might want to focus on. Amongst the overlooked films is
“FRANTZ FANON: BLACK SKIN, WHITE MASK.” I did watch the FilmMovement screener.
The film is a hybrid of documentary with talking heads with dramatization of
events from Frantz Fanon’s life. Although one could see it as filling a niche
by including it for it’s topicality as well as recognition of MLK Day and/or
Black History month, it’s a pretty wonkey piece. There’s reminiscence from
those who knew him either in growing up in Martinique or later in France and
Algeria as well as discussion of the ideas in his book Black Skin, White Mask.
The dramatizations are pretty flat and don’t really add that much. Unless we
had someone who could really lead a post-film discussion that builds on the
film experience, I would not recommend this film. It might be good for some
sort of African-American Studies or Black Culture or some similar type of
academic class, but I do not think it would attract much of an audience nor
would those who do attend gain a lot from the experience. Obviously even
amongst those that have come up in discussion, we have yet to coalesce into
consensus about many of the films on the list.
The other thing that you will notice about our attached list is that there are
several additional titles with (J) beside them. I was able to talk to Barbara
Merson of the MJFF. You will recall that we co-presented “1945” last year. This
collaboration worked out pretty well last year. “1945” was probably our best
film last year. Apparently, the seeding of awareness of the MJFF films through
our advance screening could have contributed to better attendance for the MJFF
satellite screenings at RRSq. We discussed several titles. They, apparently,
are not planning to show “PROSECUTING EVIL: THE EXTRAORDINARY WORLD OF BEN
FERENCZ.” I’m not sure what the release plan for this film is. The
distributor’s website still has no reference to the film. We had already had
“THE LAST SUIT” from Outsider Pictures
http://www.outsiderpictures.us/movie/the-last-suit/ on our list. Barbara ;
described it as having some similarity to “King Lear,” but that may be more
from elements in the story as opposed to Lear’s grand tragedy. Here is a link
to its trailer: https://youtu.be/whokPJGS6r4 “THE WALDHEIM WALTZ,” “THE ;
INTERPRETER,” and “BOHEMIAN NOIR” are all available through “MENEMSHA FILMS”
https://www.menemshafilms.com/our-films Each has its own webpage with a ;
trailer. Both “THE INTERPRETER” (Slovakia) and “THE WALDHEIM WALTZ” (Austria)
are submissions to the Best Foreign-language Oscar competition. “BOHEMIAN NOIR”
is described as a thriller which is not a genre we usually have much
opportunity to include. There were two additional films which Barbara brought
to my attention. One is a Polish film called “KLEZMER.” Apparently, MJFF has
someone on their selection team that has a connection to the Polish film
industry as this film does not have a US distributor. She said the film was
“grim” with a storyline of young Poles trying to figure out what to do with an
injured young Jewish man in Nazi-occupied Poland. Here is a link to the film’s
trailer: https://youtu.be/whokPJGS6r4 The final film we discussed was called ;
“INSIDE THE MOSSAD” by its distributor, but has been presented under a
different title “THE MOSSAD: IMPERFECT SPIES.” Here is a link to its
distributor’s webpage: https://go2films.com/films/the-mossad-imperfect-spies/ ;
Here is a link to its trailer: https://youtu.be/xOyCYo-X3MU ;
The Mossad documentary may be quite compelling, but it seems like a “good
medicine” documentary in that you might not really enjoy this film but you’ll
be a better person for having seen it. We do have some other films on our list
that are identified with (J). Two have been shown by MJFF. One is an older film
“PEPPERMINT SODA.” I did mention to Barbara that we were considering it, but
she did not say anything about it part of MJFF 2019. The other film was
“WORKING WOMAN” which showed at TIFF and Alice and I had seen it there. We both
liked it, but Alice liked it better than I did. I thought it would have been
more interesting if the good and bad behavior and characters weren’t quite so
clearcut. Alice thought it was fine just the way it told its story. I had
shared with Barbara that we were considering showing “WORKING WOMAN” and this
was her response in an e-mail: “We are looking at Working Woman -- not sure if
we are going to show it. It is almost too topical -- feels like someone looked
at the headlines and made a film from them.” We did not discuss this film
during our phone conversation so I don’t know if they have decided to include
it in their program or not. We certainly have some options on including one of
their films or a film that has Jewish content.
Joel
From: nathan strandreleasing.com <nathan@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Thursday, November 01, 2018 7:38 PM
To: joel_johnson@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: RE: "RAMEN SHOP"
Hello Joel,
I’m happy to help you
RAMEN SHOP (Singapore/Japan/Cooking/Romance) A young man who is curious about
his deceased parents' past takes a food journey to Singapore where he uncovers
more than just delicious meals. Takumi Saito plays a young Japanese chef
looking for his roots in Singapore and pop star Seiko Matsuda is his food muse
in Eric Khoo's reunion drama.
RAMEN SHOP
https://vimeo.com/274980521
password: strand1134
Let me know your thoughts!
Nathan Faustyn
Strand Releasing
From: Carly Hildebrant
Sent: Wednesday, October 31, 2018 12:05 PM
To: nathan strandreleasing.com <nathan@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
<mailto:nathan@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> >
Subject: Fwd: "RAMEN SHOP"
---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: "Joel Johnson" <joel_johnson@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx
<mailto:joel_johnson@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx> >
Date: Wed, Oct 31, 2018 at 9:21 AM -0700
Subject: FW: "RAMEN SHOP"
To: "strand" <strand@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx <mailto:strand@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> >
We sent an inquiry last Friday (see below) about your film “RAMEN SHOP” which
we were interested in including in a film series for which our team selects
film. I have not received a reply. We are looking forward to hearing from you.
Thank you for your assistance.
Joel
From: Joel Johnson <joel_johnson@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx
<mailto:joel_johnson@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx> >
Sent: Friday, October 26, 2018 12:42 PM
To: 'strand@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx' <strand@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
<mailto:strand@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> >
Subject: "RAMEN SHOP"
I am the leader of an Audience-curated Selection Team for a winter film series
that runs from January to March each year in Waterville, Maine, under the
auspices of the Maine Film Center and Railroad Square Cinema. We are
considering "RAMEN SHOP" for inclusion in our series. However, our team would
appreciate the opportunity to see the film in advance of committing to show it
in our film series. Could you provide us either with a link for streaming the
film or a DVD screener? The former could be sent via return e-mail, but the
latter should be sent to this address: CINEMA EXPLORATIONS Selection Team, c/o
Railroad Square Cinema, 17 Railroad Square, Waterville, Maine 04901, USA.
Thank you in advance for your assistance.
Joel Johnson
Attachment:
CINEMA EXPLORATION 2019 110118 AGENDA.docx
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