Slamdance Virtual Film Festival is Unstoppable

The Slamdance Virtual Festival is open and now you can experience what I have been so fortunate and grateful to experience with all the films I got to see and all the people I got to meet and talk to (all the interviews will be coming soon over on our channel at Go Indie Now. ) 

For $50 you not only get a week's worth of films that all are playing right now in person at the Slamdance Film Festival. You get a year long subscription to the channel. Where there are panels on filmmaking and getting to the business, amazing films that don't get any love anywhere else (well except here ;) ), and just so much. If you are an indie film fan or trying to be in this business this is a steal. You can go here to get that pass right now!

So I thought I would get you started with a little guidance on navigating the festival channel with some of my standouts from this year's festival. Now just a quick disclaimer I haven't even scratched the surface of what I have seen and there are a few still on my list as well but this is all from what I have seen already and it's a quite bit.

Let's start with the UNSTOPPABLE Program. The Unstoppable program is unique (though it shouldn't be) to Slamdance. Slamdance Unstoppable is a showcase of films made by filmmakers with visible and non-visible disabilities. Programmed exclusively by disabled artists, Slamdance Unstoppable aims to eliminate the prejudices and gate-keeping that have historically kept disabled filmmakers from being represented in the entertainment industry.

We will start with a couple narrative features in this category...

                                                  GOOD BAD THINGS 

Follows Danny as he sets out to win over a dating app as a potential client for his business. An encounter with a photographer sparks a transformation, leading him on a journey of self-acceptance.

• Director:
  Shane D. Stanger
• Screenwriter:
  Shane Stanger, Danny Kurtzman
• Producer:
  Steve Way, Shane D. Stanger, Danny Kurtzman, Sean Crampton, Manuel Gonzalez, Mel McGinnis
• Cast:
  Danny Kurtzman, Brett Dier, Jessica Parker Kennedy, Timothy Granaderos, Samantha Robinson

WHAT THIS FILM DOES WELL: This was my favorite film of the festival. It stayed with me a long time after I got done watching it. What Danny and Shane did here is take this ultra-relatable subject of dating in the modern era and they turned it into this heartfelt, real story about insecurities, loss of confidence, and internal truths about ourselves. It is so masterfully written and carefully structured that you are so much into what every character is going through. The other brilliant aspect is we get to see 3 different perspectives on this very subject. While Danny's is forefront, I love that the movie doesn't dismiss Madi's or Jason's views and arcs. I think that is so important to why this story resonates deeply and works so well. 

Even still inside this well-thought core subject is a more subtle and very well-laced and understated story about eternal friendship and the power of a family dynamic and relationship that doesn't belittle or manufacture love, instead its fosters it, and treats it like it should as a normal and beautiful thing. I give a lot of credit for that to the supporting cast of Brett Dier (Jason), Jessica Parker Kennedy (Mia), and my personal favorite Gale Hanson (Dad) for embracing that with their acting choices. It helps the lead Danny develop and challenge his own range. For a first-time performer in Danny Kurtzman, you get a lot of this nervous energy that is palatable in the opening act. Yet that churns and becomes this amazing arc for the character. It was such a smart and honest approach by Shane to keep that on the screen and it plays so beautifully to engage us and keep us there; almost as if it's a documentary at times. Shane's design also is so paramount to letting us in by utilizing nice wide shots and strong two shots which allows us to feel the frame absorbing us instead of distancing us. The music is also another wonderful component as we get a soundtrack to our thoughts and it also plays a key storytelling aspect as it foreshadows and highlights what is being told here. I also love that there are these deep, enriching silent moments that are so riveting and so satisfying that you feel so much like the POV here and not the outsider looking in. 

WHY CHAMPION THIS FILM:  Honesty is such an underrated commodity on screens and I feel like there are always a few of these at Slamdance especially, so for this year's crop this movie was the one for me that did it the best. I think anyone who has ever swiped right or left on a phone app or remembers the awkwardness of dating life would gravitate, nod, smile, and feel deep feels from this experience that are those Good Bad Things.  

LOOK AT ME

Look At Me is a fictional autobiography about Taylor, a deeply insecure, socially performative, bisexual actor struggling with bulimia. Taylor searches endlessly for validation on his journey to find someone who truly loves and sees him, only to embark on an unwitting journey of self-love in the midst of his eating disorder relapse.

• Director:
  Taylor Olson
• Screenwriter:
  Taylor Olson
• Producer:
  Taylor Olson
• Cast:
  Taylor Olson, Koumbie, Stephanie MacDonald, Sam Vigneault

WHAT THIS FILM DOES WELL: I love how much command Taylor has over this project and yet how much he's willing to let that go out of control. It's powerful and sits with you as the credits roll as a beautiful woven story that incorporates elements of being a stage play into a performance piece into a narrative. All while not holding back on anything that is trying to be said here. This is not an interpretative, vague, and/or avant-garde soliloquy that layers and mires in subtext upon layers of metaphors and similes. 

This is in your face, internal strife that is perpetrated to enth degree and varies throughout to help you either recover, think, or react. It's like watching a movie while being in hot yoga. Sometimes it's uncomfortable, sometimes it's amusing and out and out funny, and sometimes it's poignant and strikingly beautiful.

The Black and White design acts as POV and as the direct surrealism trying to so desperately become reality or even question it at times. It is so effective and yet used so differently than how black and white is often used that it allows some darkness and some light to have these rich contours that after a few minutes in, you are no longer noticing the absence of color. Instead, you end up feeling comforted and assured by it. Taylor is a tour de force on screen but I think it's his writing and directing that really come out strongly here. There is an intimacy built within and around the shadowing black and white construct that frees and allows others to shine next to him with performances from Koumbie, Sam Vigneault, and Stephanie MacDonald that really become the echelon of why this film really works. 

They play to Taylor's strengths as a performer and allow this to be more than just a stage play. That and the wonderful editing of Shawn Beckwith, one of my favorite editing jobs of the films in this festival. The writing is like a fist that stops punching enough to shift into a gentle touch or soft stroking fingertips and you feel it because of switching from realities to thoughts to dreams and back to reality. Some moments are hard to watch here (and I am not unaware that that is by design) but also there are moments you have to see, hear, and feel, and often it is in the words or moments of stillness or awkward silence that rip through it like a gust of wind and leave whatever it torn in its wake to just be there. That's master storytelling and masterful directing. 

WHY CHAMPION THIS FILM: It is not often we get movies addressing this subject matter from a male perspective and because it is so personal, even in a fictionalized ideal, there is something for anyone who has experienced even the slightest in body dysmorphia or a loss of self-confidence into depression. One can really gain from watching this. I think on some level this might be the most relatable film in this festival.   

Another standout for me was these 2 short films...

BABY

After witnessing a tragic hit and run car accident involving a pregnant woman, Mikaela, a young woman with Down syndrome, decides to set in motion her life's goal of having a baby.

Director: James Di Martino
Writer: Llewellyn Michael Bates
Stars: Erin Kearns, Michael Buxton, Yiana Pandelis

WHAT THIS SHORT DOES WELL:

The opening scene is magic and I marveled at how it was done and what it did for the story too, but beyond that, this short packs a lot into its 19 minutes. I love the dynamic and motivation of the leads, played wonderfully by Erin Kearns and Michael Buxton. They had amazing chemistry and I really appreciated the subtle comedic timing that flutters throughout this interesting heartfelt message. I will say too without Yiana Pandelis' performance, I am not so sure the message would have been as well received. I loved the choices she made as the sister and it helps us as viewers to have someone who can help us navigate what is truly going on in the background. I love how James Di Martino framed a lot of these shots, the opening sequence is a triumph but I also think the closing one is equally as amazing, within the movements we are never lost and because we stay with it there are payoffs at the end of each shot design. I also love the filtering and lighting here because often the grittiness and grainy, muddled color pallet composition we get tenders our feelings and fosters our emotional uneasiness or settles us in with a needed dose of melancholy. It's hard to believe that sunflares and muted oranges, yellows, and browns could do that but it is so effective. The dialogue is sharp and I love how much we as an audience get to be part of the moments that are funny with a couple nice, relatable running jokes; a nice touch by the writer Llewellyn Michael Bates.  

WHY CHAMPION THIS SHORT:

At the end of the day, we need movies like this to remind us that dreams and goals should never be dismissed or judged based on the person who has them and that love can be enough. I think this short does that from several angles and I think it is easy to get sucked up and swept into with what it is trying to say and the action and humor around that. 

DOSH

Karishma, hard-of-hearing, finds her son out of bed one late night swimming with her undiagnosed bipolar husband, Ram. Concerned, she clocks this as another one of Ram's recent unpredictable behaviors. Against Ram's wishes, Karishma decides to secretly speak up and seek help from her visiting mother-in-law, Shilpa, during her sister-in-law's pre-wedding ceremony. But just like Ram, Shilpa quickly denies, dismisses and even blames Karishma for his condition. Ram confronts Karishma. When Ram's new episode leads to the near death of their son in a drowning, Karishma finally stands her ground to protect her family and help Ram seek the help he so needs.

Director: Radha Mehta
Screenwriter: Radha Mehta, Noorah Al-Eidi
Cinematographer: Isue Shin
Cast: Renu Razdan, Nikhil Prakash, Mona Shisodia, Tyler Anton, Asit Vyas, Neel Agrawal, Nadine Naidoo, Srishti Birla, Dev Patel

WHAT THIS SHORT DOES WELL: Radha Mehta's vision and design here work in such great harmony. There is a solid footing within the pacing of this piece that never deters from the cadence of the dialogue and strong hard cuts of the edit. I love the foreshadowing done here early on and those tiny pieces construct what is a powerful narrative from many angles here. 

That multilayering storytelling really works because Renu Razdan and Nikhil Prakash give so much to each of their characters respectively. Renu especially, because she anchors a lot of our own journey here, and she has a way of dealing with the silence her hearing loss provides, we are swept away with her which creates this nice sleight of hand. I love the look of this film, using a backdrop of a beautiful ceremony and a pool to give us colors that almost have a ring of shadow and darkness around them. 

WHY CHAMPION THIS SHORT: There is something within the context of the drama of this story that really punches in the air and lingers about how much we don't want to acknowledge or admit a need for help and diagnose the truer aspects of mental health and the effects. I think this film utilizes not only a disability in a manner that we don't often get to see it utilized but also a cultural divide that we see way too often when it comes to mental health. It's a powerful message of tough love and forgiveness that I think most would look at and be in line to agree. Its the kind of truth we all need sometimes. 
  

On the Documentary front within this program the stand outs for me were...

NINA IS AN ATHLETE 

This tells the undeniably involving story of Israeli wheelchair badminton champion Nina Gorodetsky and her goal to represent Israel in the 2020 Paralympics in Tokyo.

Director/Writer: Ravit Markus

Stars: Nina Gorodetsky, Dor Kessel, Leon Pugach

WHAT THIS DOCUMENTARY DOES WELL: While this a fairly conventional documentary format of following the athlete around, giving some history, and following along as the drama builds toward an unbelievably difficult goal, what separates it is Ravit's choices on how to convey this and follow Nina. I am not sure I have seen a better way to approach this than what Ravit has done here. Ravit takes the nervous energy of a first filmmaker, pushes the approaches, and goes with her gut. There is a cinema verte aspect here that moves with the action but also couples with established shots of silence and introspection. This mixing of the two just enhances and heightens all of what we see and feel all that more. I also love the earnest way in which Ravit gets so much candidness and raw truth from Nina. There is something so poetic about her journey while looking back at a moment she is forced to reflect on and yet see her courage and strength to push into this last or possible last hoorah. The other remarkable thing about this documentary is nothing ever loses us here. When it goes full feldged verte and the movement is swift it is so elegantly framed and well shot. There are these even cool moments when Nina rolls out of the frame or the frame cut tilts the eye view. That's not a new trick in a documentary like this but some first-time filmmakers might seek to make it too perfect. The fact that Ravit has the courage to let it be, pays us off as an audience because then when it slows down and we are experiencing the intimate and sometimes comical moments we are allowed that breath and be absorbed within it.

WHY CHAMPION THIS FILM: At some point in all our lives we are faced with choices and choices that we may or may not want to make. That means we have to change course or say goodbye. This is such a bold statement on that premise and if we all could handle as well as Nina has, wow we would be just as impressive as her here. Of course, we can't, but for 100 minutes or so we can live vicariously through Nina thanks to Ravit's brilliant care of this story. 

NEXT UP I AM GOING TO TALK ABOUT MY FAVORITE PERFORMANCES THAT YOU CAN SEE DURING THIS FESTIVAL