I love film festivals, and this one was great. I was able to attend eight different films over the week-long festival. And at only 10 złoty per ticket, they were half the price of normal movie tickets in Poznań, so the festival was very affordable as well. My only regret was that I couldn't see as many films as I would have liked.
In this post I'll give a brief overview of each of the movies I saw, as well as a link to the trailer and IMBD page if I have them. And I'll include at least one movie that I did not get to see got good reviews from co-workers that saw them.
But to start off, the festival has a neat little animation that I linked to below. Check it out. There is a high-def version available too.
The first movie I saw was a documentary called "We're Not Broke". The film is described as "An expose on how the U.S. government has allowed U.S. corporations to avoid paying taxes and the growing wave of discontent it has fostered". I would never have thought that a documentary movie about the U.S. tax system, in English, would end up with nearly a full house in Poland, but it did. The discussion of the issues was a bit shallow, but I thought it was an interesting documentary and would recommend you give it a view via Netflix or similar venue's, if you are interested in the topic.
The second movie I saw was the 1970's "blaxploitation" film "Black Samurai". The movie stars Jim Kelly of Enter the Dragon and Black Belt Jones fame, as basically an African-American James Bond. This was one of those movies that is so horribly bad, it's unintentionally hilarious. It features such incredible scenes as:
- A pet "attack vulture". Yes, I said "attack vulture".
- A midget Tarzan / Indiana Jones mix (before there was an Indiana Jones) with what looked like some Zulu followers. Dressed in horrible costumes. In what was supposed to be California (I think).
- A "death chamber" full of rattlesnakes that somehow can't make it out of the wooden gate door, despite the 3-4 inches between each slat.
- A long fight scene in a descending elevator that deposits everyone onto the roof of the building.
- In one of the final fight scenes, the studio added some over-dubbed voices where the hero is taunting one of the bad guys, calling him a "sissy" among other things. It's so obviously over-dubbed with different actors it's pretty funny.
- And one of the best lines I have ever heard in a blaxploitation film. Woman to hero: "I like to think of you as my White Knight". The hero responds: "I'm never the white knight, baby".
On Saturday, I went to two movies. The first was the movie "Ghosts with Shit Jobs". This is a really cool movie in my opinion that puts in the near future world where the U.S. and Europe have ended up declaring bankruptcy, and the indigenous people (referred to as "Ghosts" in Cantonese slang) are stuck doing the shit jobs that no one in the advanced economies of China and India would think of doing. Jobs like spending all day in a virtual world painting over images and graffiti for copyright violations, or being "human spam", or some other jobs. The trailer linked above gives a really good tease for the movie.
The writer and main director of the film (Jim Munroe) actually flew over to Poznań and did a Q&A session after the film. One of the amazing things I picked up was that the film was made for only $4,000. Nearly all of that money went to permits, as the entire cast and crew were all volunteers. The film starts off kind of light-hearted, but does get more somber towards the end. So don't expect it to be a laugh-fest.
And in case you are interested, Jim Munroe has written one other film called "Infest Wisely". This was made for only $700 and supposedly you can stream the whole movie from the film web site. Here is the trailer for that film.
The second film I watched last Saturday was called "The Other Side of Sleep". This is an Irish film that was very heavy on the cinematography, a bit shallow on the story, and pretty slow moving. The film is about a young woman living in Ireland who sleep walks and who one morning finds herself waking up in the woods laying next to the body of young murdered woman. You find a bit later that the main character's mother was murdered when she was quite young. The main character becomes obsessed with finding out more about murdered woman and those who new her. It's an odd movie, and I wouldn't recommend it to many people, unless they like slow-paced character movies with decent cinematography. The actress who played the main character, Antonia Campbell-Hughes, was actually quite good though.
On Sunday I went to see "Lunopolis". This is a sci-fi "found footage" movie that has one of the most original premises ever. What if there was one "grand unified conspiracy theory" that could explain nearly all of the other conspiracy theories out there? Roswell? Covered. The assassinations of J.F.K, R.F.K, and John Lennon? Covered? UFO's? Oh, so covered. Atlantis? Yep, it's covered. Oh, and throw in the "Church of Lunology" which obviously borrows A LOT from Scientology. Mix it all up and you have a great movie. Yeah, the story has some holes. Yeah, there is a whole section about 2/3's of the way through that seems like a mini-documentary of fake news footage. But those are minor complaints in what is a very good movie. My only real complaint with this film is that I wish the "found footage" included a "found steady-cam" because I get sick and tired of the "shaky-cam" effect in a lot of these movies, and this one has a bit too much of it. But all in all, one of the best movie concepts I have watched in quite a while. The story more than makes up for the low budget and somewhat lower production values. Get this from Netflix and move it to the top of your queue.
On Sunday I went to another documentary about the US economy. This one was called "Recessionize! For Fun and Profit!". This was an hour-long documentary that was supposed to be a light-hearted look at how people are dealing with the effects of the global recession, mostly within California. You can check out the trailer above. Honestly, I was not that impressed. If you want to watch something along these lines, check out "We're Not Broke" above.
On Monday I went to see "Beyond the Black Rainbow". Now, I have seen some strange movies in my time. Heck, I watched all of Uzumaki, which is one of the most bizarre movies I have ever seen. But this movie is up there. Nearly 2 hours long, this movie supposedly takes place in the mid-80's and seems to take that a license to use a lot synth music for the sound-track, use some very weird set lighting, and act as though the director took all of the drugs that Ron and Nancy Reagan supposedly pulled off the street while making this film. There is basically one speaking part in nearly the entire film (I think there are actually 4, but the other 3 are minor characters who only appear for short times). The "heroine" does not speak at all. And the film makes no effort to set the stage, to develop much of a story, or to have much of an ending. I suspect that the only people who will like this movie are massive film geeks who love surreal films, and people who are SERIOUSLY HIGH on a mind-altering drug like LSD.
The last movie I went to see was called "Errors of the Human Body". Filmed in Dresden, Germany this is a sort-of sci-fi / suspense movie about a bio-chemist who is recovering the recent death of infant son and divorce from his wife, and who accepts a research position at the Max Plank Institute in Dresden. There, he expects to help a former student of his on her research, but discovers some odd goings-on. Made for only 1.5 million Euros, this looks better than a lot of movies out of Hollywood. The story is a bit slow, but there is enough to keep you interested. And of course, it a "shocking" ending. It's not a great film by any stretch. But if you want to give a look to something that isn't from Hollywood, this might be worth a view. I would only give it between 2.5 and 3 stars out of 5, but given how many foreign and independent films I have watched over the years, I may be a bit jaded against the novelty.
Lastly, I want to recommend a movie I did not get a chance to see, but which I had actually heard of even before I left the US. If you are willing to put up with sub-titles, I am told that you MUST see "TrollHunter". There is supposedly an English-dubbed version of the film, but no one I have talked to has seen that version, but I tend to not be fan of dubbing. This Norwegian film got all sorts of awesome reviews from film festivals and film geeks. However, if you are not a movie geek willing to deal with sub-titles, you may not want to watch this. Supposedly, it's a great mix of comedy, suspense, action, and fake-documentary. Watch the trailer above and decide if you are interested. You should be able to get it through Netflix in the US.
Anyway, that's my post on the movies I watched at the Transatlantyk festival. If I am still here next year when it comes around again, I may even try and take a few days off so that I can see more films. It was a very nice experience. :)
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