DDR/DDR

Opening at New York's Anthology Film Archives this weekend: DDR/DDR, directed by Amie Siegel

From the Anthology Film Archives website:

“The films of artist Amie Siegel deftly transform heady philosophical musings – about history, psychoanalysis, voyeurism, modernist design, cinematic narrative – into elegantly playful and provocative mosaics of carefully loaded images and pointed associations. … The restrained self-reflexivity and deadpan humor that unite Siegel’s films lend them a rich meta-cinematic dimension that actively questions the limits of traditional nonfiction cinema.” –HARVARD FILM ARCHIVE

DDR/DDR, the latest feature by Amie Siegel, is a multi-layered and disarmingly beautiful essay on the German Democratic Republic and its dissolution, which left many of its former citizens adrift in their newfound freedom. Featured at the 2008 Whitney Biennial, the film weaves together mundane Stasi surveillance footage, interviews with psychoanalysts, East German “Indian hobbyists”, and lolling shots of derelict state radio stations into an extended and self-conscious assemblage to meditate on history, memory, and the shared technologies of state control and art.

“Siegel’s ‘ciné-constellation’ DDR/DDR combines vérité interviews with staged dialogue to excavate East German traumas associated with both the Socialist state and reunification. Siegel’s lens finds filmic lessons, too, in her analysis of Stasi information operations and her inquiries into the suppression of psychoanalysis in the DDR. Lying on a daybed in what was formerly a Stasi director’s office, Siegel intones a series of equivalencies into the camera: ‘Psychoanalyst as Stasi; Stasi as psychoanalyst; filmmaker as psychoanalyst; filmmaker as Stasi; Stasi as filmmaker.’” –Michael Wang, ARTFORUM

“[Siegel’s] polymathic style recalls Countdown (1990), Ulrike Ottinger’s account of the two Germanys uniting their currencies. DDR/DDR also evokes Godard’s SYMPATHY FOR THE DEVIL (1968), a provocative essay mixing a Rolling Stones session, Black Panther rhetoric, and Native Americans… DDR/DDR is an alluring and allusive dossier.” –Bill Stamets, CHICAGO SUN-TIMES

Way of Nature

Showing at the San Francisco International Film Festival: Way of Nature, directed by Nina Hedenius

Synopsis from the SFIFF website:

Sit back and let the daily grind and digital blur of our modern predicament wash away before this mostly wordless meditation on the seasonal ebb and flow of life on a remote Swedish farm. Sights and sounds build to create an elegantly subtle drama of daily chores seamlessly interspersed with beautifully understated shots of falling snow, snoozing dogs and goats, blooming spring flowers, roaming livestock, dense forests, lush pastures and birthing cows and horses. Immersed in, and treated to, images that nourish, relax and, at times, astonish, one begins to appreciate the subtleties and trials of a life outside of our own. Time-honed tasks are observed as rituals that seem to pull us back to a primal past, as hand-bound and hard-won repetitions become the dialogue of the film and the diverse animals its main mesmerizing characters. At certain points, the film’s languid pace slows a beat more to dwell exquisitely on animal bodies. Revealing magnificent patterns and textures upon their hides, fur and feathers, they become visuals that might make a fiber artist dream or an abstract expressionist weep. Even the construction of fences takes on an ancient quality that seems to speak to us of Nordic roots when we view the distinct beauty of the final creation. Here, on but one farm, far from the hype of “green” marketing, it is—and always has been—a generational necessity to nourish biodiversity and sustainability. Here the “way of nature” is simply the way of life. —Sean Diggins

Rough Aunties

Showing at the Hot Docs Film Festival: Rough Aunties, directed by Kim Longinotto

Synopsis from the Hot Docs website:

Fearless, feisty, and resolute, the "Rough Aunties" are a remarkable group of women unwavering in their stand to protect and care for the abused, neglected, and forgotten children of Durban, South Africa. This latest documentary by internationally acclaimed director Kim Longinotto follows the outspoken, multiracial cadre of Thuli, Mildred, Sdudla, Eureka, and Jackie who work for Bobbi Bear, a child welfare organization, as they wage a daily battle against systemic apathy, corruption, and greed to help the most vulnerable and disenfranchised of their communities. Despite the harsh realities of violence, poverty, and racism in the women's work and in the heartaches of their personal lives, the portraits that emerge on screen are filled with grace, wisdom, friendship, and a deeply stirring conviction. Once again Longinotto offers an intimate portrait of change from Africa, this time from post-apartheid South Africa, a nation being transformed by hope and energy into a new democracy.

Hey Hey It's Esther Blueburger

I often wonder why New York can't be more like Portland, and the existence of the Portland Women's Film Festival just added some fuel to the fire.

Showing at the Portland Women's Film Festival: Hey Hey It's Esther Blueburger, written and directed by Cathy Randall

Synopsis from the movie's Facebook page (the website seems to be down):

Hey Hey It's Esther Blueburger is a coming of age comedy that explores what it’s really like to be an outsider in your own world. Esther (newcomer Danielle Catanzariti) is not like other girls; she befriends a duck, talks to god through the toilet and break-dances at her bat-mtizvah. Her all-girls private school is a daily torment of mind-numbing conformity and bell-ringing rituals. Home is a pressure cooker driven by her mother Grace’s (Essie Davis) demand for perfection. But life changes when Esther meets Sunni, (Keisha Castle- Hughes) and her mother Mary (Toni Collette). She learns that it’s ok to be different and being true to yourself is more important than fitting in.

Netflix It: Cadillac Records

Available on Netflix: Cadillac Records, written and directed by Darnell Martin

Synopsis from AllMovie.com:

Directed by TV veteran Darnell Martin, the musical drama Cadillac Records documents the compelling true-life story of the Chicago record label that helped the world discover such legendary artists as Muddy Waters, Howlin' Wolf, Little Walter, and Chuck Berry. Founded in 1950 by Leonard Chess (Adrien Brody), Chess Records quickly gained a reputation as home to some of the most talented and influential blues artists ever to step into a recording studio. But giving these musicians an opportunity to bring their music to the world was no easy task, because along the way there was enough sex, drugs, and rock & roll to ensure that things around Chess Records never got boring. Featuring Jeffrey Wright as Muddy Waters, Gabrielle Union as Geneva Wade, Beyoncé Knowles as Etta James, Mos Def as Chuck Berry, Cedric the Entertainer as Willie Dixon, and Eamonn Walker as Howlin' Wolf.



And the real Etta James:

A Year Ago in Winter

Showing at the New York Museum of Modern Art: A Year Ago in Winter, directed by Caroline Link

Synopsis from AllMovie.com:

Two very different people find out they have more in common than they imagined in this emotional drama from Germany. Elaine Richter (Corinna Harfouch) is a middle-aged woman who approaches artist Max Hollander (Josef Bierbichler) with an unusual commission – she'd like a dual portrait of her two children, but while 22-year-old Lili (Karoline Herfurth) will be able to model for him, her son Alexander (Cyril Sjostrom) died a year ago at the age of 19 and the artist will have to work from photos and videos. Max agrees to the assignment, but he discovers that Lili isn't very enthusiastic about posing for him at first, especially after she informs him that Alexander's death was a suicide. With time Lili and Max begin to bond and come to understand one another's emotional crises. Lili is a gifted dance student who has lost a major role after an argument with her teacher and mentor, and she's sought solace in her relationship with Aldo (Misel Maticevic), an artist whose controlling nature is strangling her freedom. Meanwhile, Max finds himself drawn to Lili just as he's trying to come to terms with having romantic and sexual feelings for another man for the first time. Im Winter Ein Jahr (aka A Year Ago In Winter) earned Caroline Link "Best Director" honors at the 2009 Bavarian Film Awards.

The Jazz Baroness

Showing on HBO2 tonight: The Jazz Baroness, directed by Hannah Rothschild

Synopsis from HBO's website:

The Jazz Baroness tells the moving love story of Pannonica Rothschild ("Nica" for short) and pianist-composer Thelonious Monk. Directed by Nica's great-niece Hannah Rothschild, the documentary features the voice of Oscar® winner Helen Mirren, who reads Nica's words.

From wildly different beginnings - his on a humble farm in the American deep south, hers in luxurious European mansions frequented by kings, queens and heads of state - the film traces their lives up to the point of meeting, then follows their time together in a post-World War II New York City buzzing with pre-civil rights tension and the frenetic syncopation of bebop.

The film weaves together archival footage and interviews with family members, friends, jazz historians and luminaries, among them Sonny Rollins, Quincy Jones, Thelonious Monk, Jr., Roy Haynes, Curtis Fuller, The Duchess of Devonshire and Clint Eastwood. The Jazz Baroness also features footage of the groundbreaking Thelonious Monk Quartet playing such classics as "Straight, No Chaser," "The Bolivar Blues" and "Nutty," including a 1965 BBC appearance, when Monk finally began to get the recognition, if not the financial rewards, he had worked for.

Hannah Rothschild spent years uncovering the story of her great aunt, a woman who as a child learned magic tricks from Einstein, and in later life lived with more than 300 cats and served Scotch from a teapot. This search for information often met a wall of secrecy from family members reluctant to divulge details about a woman who had so radically, some say eccentrically, reinvented herself.

Rothschild's film profiles an extraordinary woman who devoted herself to the cause of New York's jazz elite, who were not only struggling artistically, but battling a racist culture. Nica sheltered them when they were broke, bailed them out of jail and helped them cope with their drug habits. (She even took the fall when police found marijuana in the car she and Monk were traveling in, earning a three-year jail sentence, though the conviction was later reversed.) In appreciation, Monk and others wrote dozens of songs for and about her.

Among the most compelling segments is the story of how Nica and Monk met. Then married, Nica was introduced by a friend to Monk's "'Round Midnight," which would become one of the most recorded jazz standards of all time. "I couldn't believe my ears," she recalled. "I'd never heard anything remotely like it." Nica set out to find Monk, finally meeting him two years later. Interestingly, for all the mutual love and devotion that developed between them, it seemed that their relationship was essentially platonic. Monk remained married to his wife, Nellie, who seemed to embrace the unusual situation.

Ultimately, it was all about the music for Nica. She left her husband, she said, because he liked military drum music and hated jazz. Nica recognized Monk's musical genius years before the critics and even many musicians. In the words of saxophonist Archie Shepp, "She was a woman who was ahead of her time. She took a stand when it wasn't popular to do so."

Before she died during routine heart surgery in 1988, six years after Monk's death from a stroke, Nica made a special request. "I would like my ashes to be scattered on the Hudson River in the evening, around midnight," she said. "Yes, that's right, I said ' 'round midnight.' I think you all know why."

Interview with Hannah Rothschild at Women & Hollywood.

Stop Loss

#7 - The Virgin Suicides - Done!
#8 - Stop-Loss

Available on Netflix: Stop Loss, directed by Kimberly Peirce

Synopsis from AllMovie.com:

After serving his tour of duty in Iraq, a young American soldier who is ordered to return to the front lines as part of the military's controversial stop-loss policy opts instead to go AWOL in a thought-provoking military drama directed by Kimberly Peirce. Sgt. Brandon King (Ryan Philippe) is a decorated Iraq War veteran who once served his country with pride. After his tour of duty comes to an end, King returns to his Texas hometown and attempts to pick up where he once left off with a little help from his family, as well as long-time best friend and war buddy Steve Shriver (Channing Tatum). But just as Brandon, Steve, and the rest of their war buddies begin to settle back into civilian life, Uncle Sam comes calling on them once again. Suddenly ordered back into active duty, the disillusioned war veteran begins to question not just his ties to family and his longtime friendships, but his capacity for love and his sense of honor as well.

Netflix It: Twilight

Available on Netflix: Twilight, directed by Catherine Hardwicke

Okay, so it's not a horror movie! But there are vampires. Sort of.

Synopsis from AllMovie.com (on the off chance you haven't already seen the movie):

When Bella Swan (Kristen Stewart) reluctantly moved to the perpetually overcast town of Forks, WA, and set out to carve a niche for herself, she assumed it would be one similar to the low-profile social position she held back in Phoenix. First on the list of surprises was the unfamiliar attention from the male population of her new high school; second, the attention from one male in particular: Edward Cullen, Vampire (Robert Pattinson). Before long, the unlikely soul mates find themselves in a passionate relationship with a variety of significant setbacks, including Edward's special-needs diet (he doesn't eat humans, but Bella's scent inspires a nearly impossible to harness bloodlust) and the human girl's mortality. Though things proceed relatively smoothly at first (Edward even introduces Bella to his adoptive vampire family), a visiting vampire clan consisting of James (Cam Gigandet), Victoria (Rachelle Lefevre), and Laurent (Edi Gathegi) catches Bella's unique scent and threatens the young couple's budding, if dangerous, happiness. James, known for his powerful tracking ability, becomes obsessed with making Bella his next victim. Fearing for Bella's safety and that of her loved ones, the Cullens must combine their collective talents in order to stop the highly predatory James before his goal is accomplished.



And I just can't resist:

Netflix It: Frozen River

Available on DVD: Frozen River, written and directed by Courtney Hunt

Courtney Hunt was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay, and Melissa Leo was nominated for one for Best Actress.

Synopsis available on the film's website:

Frozen River is the story about Ray Eddy, an upstate New York trailer mom, who smuggles illegal immigrants from Canada into the United States over a Mohawk Indian Reservation. Normally a timid and reserved woman, Ray begins smuggling illegal immigrants as the only way to keep her family together after her husband takes off with the family’s down-payment for their new doublewide dream home. In order to make the money in time, Ray teams up with a Mohawk smuggler, Lila Littlewolf, and the two begin making runs across the frozen St. Lawrence River carrying illegal Chinese and Pakistani immigrants in the trunk of Ray’s Dodge Spirit. At the onset, Ray and Lila’s partnership seems doomed to failure as Lila normally doesn’t “work with whites,” but Lila’s eagerness to get her baby son back from her mother-in-law who has “stolen” him, lead Lila and Ray into an uneasy partnership.

At first the money is good and the ice holds. With help from Jimmy, the Mohawk dealer, they make several runs and soon the money for Ray’s doublewide is within her grasp. As quickly as things began to go well, the entire scheme is threatened as the home life of each woman threatens to wreck their plan. T.J., Ray’s 15-year-old son, struggles to take care of the house and hold things together for his younger brother Ricky, while mom is “at work.” And Bernie, Lila’s friend, tries to find her a straight job on the Reservation so that she can get out of smuggling and reclaim her baby son. However, Lila, who lives in a camper, feels she has no realistic way to support him without smuggling and rejects Bernie’s efforts. Finally, with the money she needs almost set aside, Ray and Lila embark on a final run across the river which, if they survive, will set things right. But when the run goes bad, the Quebec police chase the women onto the ice and, with the New York State troopers on the other side of the river, the two women have to make a desperate escape. Trapped on the Reservation, the fate of Lila and Ray is left in the hands of the Tribal Council. With few options left, Ray and Lila’s partnership is tested; they must face the consequences of their actions to survive.