The PDX Fest, Day 3.3
Posted by: db | From: May 1, 2006
Brother Boy, DV, 16'00, Jalal Jemison (pre-feature short)
This wonderfully strange, carefully constructed effort completely entranced me. A brief glimpse into the life of two brothers and their father. Characterizations are left ambivalent enough that it is difficult to pigeon-hole them or form definitive attachments to any particular character. The acting is consistently good throughout, but each of the principal actors also stand out at different moments of the film. Part of that feeling might come from the story line structure which gives each character a key moment to become the key focus in the story. Very nice work with outstanding production values and lush and exceedingly careful cinematographic constructions.
Wild Tigers I Have Known, HD, 98'00, Cam Archer (feature)
This is a pretty amazing work. Complicated characters (aren't we all? Hello Hollywood, are you listening?), extremely subtle conflict development, be-a-u-ti-ful cinematography that flows and connects with the narrative structure in wonderfully surprising ways, outstanding use of color to influence mood in a rather surreal fashion, fascinating depictions of desire and the confusion that such intense desires can generate, excellent mood shifts that take the narrative in unexpected directions, fever dreams that blur the real and the imagined, and an acting style which always kept things slightly askew. I really liked this film, though a minor complaint is that it did drag in a few places because of certain structural repetitions. It is a film full of heart and very fresh narrative development. While the characters are active in their existence, they also exhibit a strong sense of entrapment within the world that surrounds them. For this reason the film reminds me of numerous issues that Fassbinder dealt with in several films, some of my favorites being "Berlin Alexanderplatz," "Why has Herr R Run Amok," "Bolwieser," and "The Bitter Tears of Petra von Kant." Fassbinder is also appropriate to bring up in the context of his unwavering tenacity for dealing with complicated and controversial sexual issues. The big difference between his work and this film is that Cam, while he doesn't shy from such issues, is far less brutal with his characters, nor does he fall into the almost debilitating fatalism that pervades Fassbinder's work. This makes Cam's work much more hopeful and progressive than the works by Fassbinder I've managed to see.
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