INTERNET BLOG

It's exciting (and rare) to see a film create so much literature that is not about its meaning (what's in the briefcase, did the spinning top fall, or who is Betty Elms) but that is about filmmaking -- how its framing, blocking, lighting, editing, sound, score, and content create that meaning. This series on TREE OF LIFE by "Reverse Shot" is a wonderful example on what film criticism should look like. [SPOILERS]

http://www.reverseshot.com/section/tree_life

5 short documentaries, 5 different subjects revolving around the impact of modern technology on our daily lives, for better or worse. I expect to see the spectrum of fame experienced by celebrity impersonators, the desperate realm of Craiglist's "Missed Connections" section, the inevitable nesting of the common cubical, the internet killing the video store, the video (VMC) killing the radio star.

The film festival model also struggles to find harmony with the glow of the your computer screen. On the one hand, it helps promote. On the other, it distracts. 

Come to the front lines, (bring $10):
Friday April 29th @ 3pm
Wednesday May 4 @ 9:45pm

DETAILS/TICKETS HERE: http://atlanta.slated.com/2011/films/shortsdocumentary2_atlanta2011_atlanta2011

When I rake the yard
It isn't loud 

I can hear the wind
It's blowing away my pile of leaves

I can hear my neighbor scream
SLOW DOWN!

I can hear the neighborhood cats
They are stalking me

I can hear the train blow its horn
But who can't

I can hear the neighbors come and go
Billy introduced himself today
He's an accountant

I can hear pots and pans
Banging in the kitchen

I can hear the traffic jam on the main drag
But I'm not in it

Squirrels find buried nuts
Birds find fresh worms

When I rake the yard
I can smell overturned grass and leaves
Not the smell of gasoline 

-- by Marcus Rosentrater for the Campaign Against Leaf-Blowers

There was a period of time when I believed Atlanta was a dead or dying town in regards to film watching. I witnessed Midtown Art shift from supporting many lesser known films (foreign, independent, or documentary) with couple of blockbusters, to primarily playing blockbuster films and only a few lesser known films; the Garden Hills closed, The Plaza was waining, and Cinefest began showing films on DVD.

Last year a friend who had recently moved to New York City was telling me about the wide variety of film events he could attend any given night. I thought about how I didn't really know what was available to me here in Atlanta, and how my lack patronage wasn't sufficient enough to warrant my criticisms. It hit me: I could continue to ignore what Atlanta had to offer and cease my complaining, or do everything Atlanta had to offer and then complain about it.

After about a year of becoming more engaged here are my discoveries, complaints, and recommendations of the organizations I've participated in*:

Atlanta Film Forum - A brand new organization headed up by film evangelists Gabe Wardell and Paula Martinez. In the fall of 2010 they tested the waters of Atlanta with an Elia Kazan film series, which was really quite superb. The series of four Elia Kazan films was spearheaded by Martin Scorsese's new documentary on the director. We have yet to see the real function of Atlanta Film Forum on the Atlanta film community but we'll probably get an indication from their first big project, Decatur Docs, which begins its inaugural documentary series this weekend. (More on Decatur Docs below). I'm hoping for more restored print and director retrospectives from the Atlanta Film Forum.

Cost: $10 per film / $30 series; 35mm; hosted by Plaza Theater

High Film Series - A long standing series of film festivals reoccurring annually and curated by Linda Dubler. Great projection, decent seating, and great films old and new that you'll not likely see at any other theater in town. The High Film Series is an Atlanta staple. Since it is at the Woodruff Arts Center, you'll have to pay for parking or park and walk a few blocks. Typically movie-goers rub elbows with those attending the ASO, so, for better or worse, it can get a little crowded.

Cost: $7 per film; Mostly 35mm, some DVD; hosted at the Woodruff Arts Center

Emory Film Series - Each semester the Department of Film Studies at Emory opens its doors to the public on Wednesday nights. The audience is a mix of public and students. There is typically a short lecture before the film that is interesting about 50% of the time. Depends on the lecturer, I suppose. Each semester-long series will typically string together films from archives, restored prints, or films from it's library together based on some sort of theme, genre, or era of filmmaking. The venue is more of a classroom than a theater and there is a limited number of comfortable seats. However it is convenient to get to, the parking is free and so are the screenings.

Cost: Free; 35mm; hosted at Emory's White Hall

Decatur Docs - A brand new initiative created by the Atlanta Film Forum that looks like it could be promising. So far it is the city's only film series specializing in non-fiction. Dectur Docs is hoping to channel the energy behind the upsurge of documentary filmmaking in the last few years, and the growing trend to illuminate the films with discussion, performances, and presentations that revolve around the subject of each documentary. The first test run, which occurred last month, brought a live breakdancing crew to stage a dance and answer questions about the documentary Bouncing Cats. Decatur High School's brand new auditorium has a multi-purpose stage and has plenty of comfortable seating capable of hosting each documentary series.

Cost: $15 per film / $40 series; Digital projection / DVD; hosted at Decatur High School

Film Love - I'm saddened that I did not discover Film Love sooner. Curated by musician and film lover Andy Ditzler, Film Love has been playing, rare, experimental, avant garde, and fringe films since 2003. These are the type of works that benefit most by having a curator. If you are interested in experimental film, it is difficult to know where to begin, or to know what you're looking at. Ditzler's introductions are very well thought out, and help you understand what you are watching. However, it is not a theater experience; most patrons sit in couches, folding chairs or bleachers, and watch films projected on a small screen. But what it lacks in comfort it makes up for in intimacy.

Cost: minimum $5 donation; Wide variety of formats; hosted at Eyedrum (temporarily homeless!)

Atlanta Film Festival 365 - In its 35th year Atlanta Film Festival remains Atlanta's premiere annual film event bringing hundreds of filmmakers and industry professionals to the city. The festival has gone through various organization and financial bumps over its time, and now is no different. It is difficult for me to say what the cause of the festival's troubles have been and what they are now. But I am hopeful that tough times will bring more creativity and outreach. From a film perspective, the Atlanta Film Festival is the front line in the battle for the arts in Atlanta. The festival hosts workshops, outreach events, and film screenings year round, in addition to the week and a half long festival in the spring. There are a host of other film festivals in Atlanta. Worth noting are: Atlanta Jewish Film Festival, Out on Film Festival, and Buried Alive Film Festival.

Cost: varies; 35mm, Digital, DVD; hosted primarily at Midtown Art Cinema and The Plaza

Plaza Atlanta - Atlanta's oldest and last independent art-house. The theater attracts artists, filmmakers, and local movie-goes by hosting events, rentals, art shows, and showing classic, foreign, independent, and mainstream films. Not really a film series, but I have to plug them because they are a cornerstone to the local Atlanta film community. New(ish) Owners Jonathan and Gayle Rej have turned the theater around in the last few years, and it's been exciting to watch.

*Cinema Club -  The Cinema Club is a series of films selected by Matthew Bernstein who is the head of the Department of Film Studies at Emory. Participants arrive at the theater on Sunday mornings without knowing what will be played. The films are typically new films that will potentially reach Atlanta screens in the months ahead. It sounds pretty great, however, I have not participated in the Cinema Club and my reasoning is mostly financial. At and average of $16 a film I simply can't afford it and participate in the other film events. Most of the films they have screened eventually make it to Atlanta screens or DVD. What you are paying extra for is access to professors and industry people, and an advance screening.

Cost: $115 series (roughly $16 per film); hosted at Midtown Art Cinema

These are the series I've participated in this last year and I look forward to know about more. If you think of any I've missed, let me know.

Have a nice day.

I recklessly blurted-out some ideas about filmmaking on some social networks before realizing not everyone was given the full context to these comments. So I'm contextualizing them here.

Would you agree? An awful story well told is actually a good story. A good story horribly told is an awful story.

Can a story be judged apart from its telling?

Does it make any sense to say "that was such a great story, but it was told all wrong!"? Are you judging the story or the potential of a greater story?

For me, the goal in asking these questions is to move away from separating story and storytelling so that we can begin giving equal attention to the technical aspects of telling a story. 

I'm coming at this from a film perspective and I believe each technical aspect of a film is doing its part to tell the story. Therefore it seems absurd to me to say "this film has excellent editing and great cinematography, but it has an awful story." And equally absurd, "the story is great, but it is edited and shot poorly."

The broader goal is to get the general public to begin to see the technical aspects of the film as integral to film as the story behind it and to expand their vocabulary on how to think and watch film.

Here are some replies to the conversation.

JenJen said: Well, if it is a story I know, like a book, then I already have judged the story...and can be disappointed in the re-telling...is that what you mean??

@JenJen. Sort of what I mean. You are providing an example of witnessing the re-telling of a story you already know. If you don't like the re-telling than you should be able to specify why. What parts did they leave out? Add in? Did you feel differently about a certain character? Why is that? Is it the way that character was photographed? Costumed? Blocked? etc. etc.

Chris said: No, if it aint told well, it aint shit. Case in point: there's nothing special about Shakespeare's (mostly stolen) plots; it's all in the telling.

@Chris. Good point. I also think about the short films Pixar has produced before their features. They usually aren't very compelling if you were to just verbalize them to a friend. It's the telling of those stories through animation that does it.

Charles said: These really are things I think about nearly everyday. And yes, I think you definitely can't separate story from the storytelling. 

Back in college, I took every storytelling class I could. And in my oral storytelling class, our teacher drove home the point that we were not to memorize our stories. However, we had to understand the structure of whatever type of story we were sharing with our audience. Be it a fairytale, a tall tale, etc. It had to become second nature so that even though we would never tell the same story twice--even if we completely changed the sequence--the little bits of internal story logic would be there to keep everything together and cohesive.

Note: I'm sorry if you find sentences that don't begin with "I" or "My" or isn't focussed on the topic at hand, which is me. I thank you for reading.

Busy again. Taken on responsibilities. Too much? We'll find out.

Job: The job is good. I like it. It seems like we'll get busier as the spring approaches. I'm learning more about animation, or at least this style of animation, with each scene. My co-workers are nice, helpful, funny and I'm happy working with them.

Video Projects: I've met some new friends through Carson (filmmaking partner). Isabel and Daniel. Daniel is a graphic artist and designer. Isabel is a filmmaker. Currently I'm editing a short documentary of hers of which Carson is a collaborator. We're pushing to have it completed early next year, but I'll let Isabel be in charge of details like that. As far as Carson and my projects go (Climenole), he has begun pre-production on at least two other projects, one more heavily than the other. Lately he has been busy programming and organizing the South Alabama Film Festival. This has freed me up to edit Isabel's project and continue with Clandestine promotions.

Web Projects: I'm still doing some programming free lance work to keep my finger on the pulse of the web community. The project I'm working on now is a Ruby on Rails project that is a start-up. I am working on this with my friend Shu who is a brilliant user experience professional, all around creative guy, and fun to work with. This work will (hopefully) be completed before the end of the year and I'll probably post-pone any other projects until early spring.

MOVIES: One thing I wanted to do once Clandestine was finished was to get more involved in the local film community. The objective was born out of a complaint. "This town is horrible for movies." As the words came out of my mouth I realized: you can either not participate and not complain, or you can participate and complain. I decided to try the latter. Usually I say things before I do them, and then I don't do them, so this time I waited. Now, I'm happy to report that I've been going to films at the Plaza and Emory regularly. I've been volunteering at the Plaza several times a month. I've also taken some responsibility as a member of the Atlanta Film Festival selection committee, specifically documentaries. Through all of this I'm now watching about 5-6 films a week and finding more Atlanta film events that I was unaware of before. For example, on Thursday I'm going to go to this month's Film Love event at Eyedrum.

Friends: For the most part I've held on to friends from previous jobs, friend groups, etc. I wish I spent more time with them, and I continue to struggle to find the balance between living a healthy social life and maintaining personal productivity goals. Fortunately we are entering a season with many built in functions and I'm hoping to see many of them during these times. 

Personal health: Physically, after a month or so of regular exercise I'm letting myself slip again. Mentally, I feel great. MB told me she read some report that busy people are generally happier, I don't really have time to check if it's true, but I'm feeling pretty good.

Three things might have caused All Quiet On The Western Front to have a greater effect on me now than when I saw in it high school. One, I no longer see glory in war. Two, the origins of World War I still escape me and render the conflict more meaningless and confusing then its successor. Three, many anti-war questions had been freshly implanted in my mind by watching The Thin Red Line three days prior. I believe the over-arching theme in both films is simple, and stated often: war is hell. But I believe each film goes further, war is hell for everyone, no exceptions.

During each film I pondered all possible scenarios that an individual can experience during a war, regardless of the purpose of said war. Let's take a boy named Jake. Here are the only four scenarios for that I can see for him:.

• Jake goes to war and does not witness violence, does not become a victim of violence, does not bring violence onto another individual, and returns safely home.
• Jake goes to war, does not get killed or wounded, does not kill or wound another person, but witnesses unspeakable horrors, and returns safely home.
• Jake goes to war, kills or wounds one or more other individuals, and returns safely home.
• Jake goes to war and gets killed or wounded.

Of course with each scenario, Jake has massive potential to create permanent psychological damage in preparing himself to die each day. Not a very hopeful picture.

These films make me wish that we were more afraid of war as a society. That as humans, we wouldn't keep honor and glory from critical thinking about war and why we engage in it. I realize these questions are millennia old and will not find their answers in this post. Therefore, on to the films.

The Thin Red Line entered the world in the shadow of Saving Private Ryan. At the time, a friend had seen it and told me the war scenes were pretty good -- by "good" he meant violent and exciting -- but they weren't worth the boredom of the poetry and nature photography. I finally saw the film years later during a time when I was ignoring plot and focussing only on the technical and artistic merits of a film. Already a fan of Mallick, The Thin Red Line is quite ripe for that experience. The second viewing was the same. This last time, I finally became aware of the interconnectedness of the characters. What I had remembered as vignettes -- swimming with indigenous people, John Travolta and Nick Nolte, the adulterous wife back home -- were actually scenes weaved into a larger and more complicated narrative. Not coincidentally, the film had the greatest effect on me this viewing.

A fan of the film made trailer. It contains spoilers but does do a good job illustrating the themes of the film.

All Quiet On The Western Front was a huge surprise. I hadn't remembered the film very well and knew that it was a 1930s production. It's important to note that films suffered visually during the 1930s with the advent of sync sound. Because the filmmakers of the silent era could only tell the story through images the camera was extremely mobile, giving the films huge potential for dynamic composition and editing. However, in the 1930s the camera was locked in a sound-proof booth, making sync sound (dialogue scenes, for example) very flat and shot poorly. So it was my pleasure to discover how active the camera in All Quiet On The Western Front was. You almost have to see it to believe me, but I would compare it to films of modern masters of camera mobility such as Scorsese, P.T. Anderson, Chan-wook Park, Zhang Yimou, and Robert Altman. Likewise, I believe the battle scenes are some of the greatest ever to be filmed.

What sets the battle scenes in All Quiet On The Western Front apart from many other war films is they continue build upon it's themes. Sometimes contemporary war films remind me of poorly done musicals in which story yields to song. All Quiet On The Western Front methodically reveals something new with each battle; whether it's the horror it creates, the swiftness with which it kills, negligent manslaughter, or the psychological trauma it creates. This clip is a great example. Watch how it carries the visual approach all the way through the scene with camera pans and tilts over the faces of soldiers. This visual concept is repeated throughout the film and is established here as the point of view of a machine gun, both litterally and symbolically.

I would recommend both of these films, but maybe not back to back. It kinda put me in a funk.