Waterfire Sparks Documentary,A Three-Part Adventure the Hobbit
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Romance, War and Animation En Francais Go to the crawl space and dust off your joie de vivre, the Brown University French Film Festival is back. This year there’s a well balanced variety of films including a feature animation based on a best-selling graphic novel; a period drama that takes an original look at three days in the life of a doomed monarch; a documentary that traces the evolution of French society through the lens of a homosexual; and the latest film from legendary French director Alain Resnais, just to name a few. Though the festival has been running for about 16 years, the organizers are still debating when things really got started. “Some of the archives were lost, but the archives on the website are almost correct to one year,” says Shoggy Waryn, one of the main organizers of the festival. Waryn, Senior Lecturer in French Studies at Brown, has been involved with the festival for over seven years after starting out as a ticket collector. Waryn also directed the Festival trailer, a delightful animated promo that can be viewed on the festival’s website. As usual, the films will be screened at Cable Car Cinema, continuing an important relationship that has existed since year one. “From the beginning of the festival, Cable Car was central to the success of the entire project… making it less of a campus-oriented festival and allowing for a greater opening to the rest of Providence and Rhode Island,” Waryn says. “The current owners understand this very well and are actively involved in helping make the festival happen; we would probably not survive without their active support.” In terms of what he looks for during film selection, Waryn says there are two main criteria. One consideration is to mix sources. “This is not a Parisian French film festival but a francophone – a French speaking festival – so we try to showcase films from as many different French speaking countries as we can, from as many continents as we can. Indeed the bulk comes from France and Belgium, historically the biggest producers, but we also have all of French speaking Africa, Québec, etc. Then we have styles and topics that we try to fill, such as documentary, animation, kid oriented films and dramas. We try to include films that have been overlooked by main distribution in the US despite their qualities,” he explains. As for mixing old films with new, Waryn says, “We are always looking at reprints of reissues of classic film to mix in and to introduce to a new audience as these films are part of the history of cinema and have been seen by new filmmakers. This year, for example, The Battle of Algiers is the Algerian version of Zero Dark Thirty and tackles the issue of torture as a source of legitimate information 45 years ago.” While the Festival originally intended to attract students and introduce them to a different kind of film, organizers quickly discovered that there was a huge audience in RI for foreign films. “We have people coming to the festival every year and spending their entire day camping out at the Cable Car because of their love for foreign films,” Waryn says. “We also have good outreach with other schools in the area and we provide transcripts of all the trailers for their classes on our website. Finally, because of the location of the Cable Car, many people come to watch films right after work.” This year, Waryn is most excited to share with the public: “The Rabbi’s Cat, a non-Disney animation suited for a more mature audience, that deals with cultural identity in a tongue-in-cheek way; Invisible, which tackles the coming out of an entire generation before stonewall… the film’s interviews are simply beautiful; and Barbara Hammer’s Resisting Paradise will please film aficionados.” He’s really proud of the balance the organizers struck this year between different genres and styles. The Brown University French Film Festival runs at the Cable Car Cinema February 21 through March 3. Tickets can be purchased in advance or on the day of the screening beginning at 9am, either in person or online at www.cablecarcinema.com. $7-9 for a single ticket; $20-55 for a multi-film pass. 204 South Main Street, Providence. 273-3970. www.provfrenchfilm.com Growing Young Film Buffs By Erin Swanson The 4th Annual Providence Children’s Film Festival is coming to town from February 14-19, thanks again to the hard work of several key players. Eric Bilodeau had over 22 years of experience programming thematic film fests when he came aboard as the director of programming for PCFF. “I had not been involved with programming children’s film until signing up for this voluntary labor of love four years ago when the festival was conceived,” he says. “By far, it’s the most challenging and rewarding.” Bilodeau says he must think from the perspective of both parent and child when choosing films, while also taking into consideration age ranges, maturity levels and social and cultural issues. “It’s a balancing act,” he explains. “You are never going to please everyone but you try to program films that at least put forth true to life emotions, situations and lessons learned… whether they are painful or enjoyable.” The team is proud to bring documentaries this year that span a range of subject matter to appeal to both tots and teens. Young athletes in high school and college can watch Head Games to learn about the dangers of concussions in sports. There will be guest speakers after the film to talk about the long-term effects of repeated concussive injuries. As Bilodeau muses, “The recent events of the NFL players appear to be a sign of things to come.” Kids who are interested in extreme sports will enjoy People in Motion, a movie about parkour. “Film makers go to several cities on the West Coast to capture this art… They end up at the Burning Man festival, which is a topic enough for another documentary,” Bilodeau says with a laugh. A parkour troupe is scheduled to offer a demonstration of the method after the show. This year, interactive seems to be the name of the game. While he believes People in Motion will “dazzle” and “alter perceptions of the world,” Bilodeau is equally excited to share The Human Tower with festival audiences. “It’s about the history of different groups of India, Spain and Chile that make towers out of climbing up on each other’s shoulders. It is truly beautiful and terrifying at the same time.” A film that combines both sports and culture is Salamm Dunk. “It’s about a college Iraqi women’s basketball team traveling around Iraq to play their games,” Bilodeau explains. “[The documentary] is truly inspirational and revealing about the difficulties all Iraqis are facing today.” The documentaries, while fascinating, are just a small part of the whole. “It’s amazing how many great films for children come out of the Netherlands,” he says. “We have the opening night film of Alfie the Little Werewolf. It’s entertaining and has a positive message for the way adopted children may feel about their adoptive families.” A “poorly titled” film from the same country is Tony 10. “Yup,” Bilodeau jokes, “his name is Tony and he’s 10 years old. This film is a modern day fairytale about… wait for it… divorce! It has some great things to say to a child with enough ingredients to make it entertaining for many people.” Moms and dads, take note. Many people submitted films to the festival to be juried and chosen for screening. “As far as I know we are the only festival that has children on its film selection jury to help score films,” Bilodeau says. “Ultimately I make the final decisions, but not without an enormous amount of input from the jury. They are very helpful.” Bilodeau, whose favorite children’s films include Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory, Planet of the Apes, The Wizard of Oz and The Red Balloon, hopes families will take advantage of one of the best lineups yet. The action will take place between several Providence venues: Cable Car Cinema (204 South Main Street), Metcalf Auditorium (20 North Main Street) and the RISD Auditorium (17 Canal Street). The full schedule can be found online. providencechildrensfilmfestival.org. Three Cheers for Laura The Independent Spirit Awards has named Providence-based filmmaker Laura Collela their Jameson FIND Your Audience Award winner for 2013. The prize comes with a $50,000 grant to cover the winner’s marketing and distribution costs. Colella, a mainstay of the Providence film scene, has frequently used the city as a character in her films, including Tax Day and Stay Until Tomorrow. Her latest effort Breakfast with Curtis, is also set in the city and focuses on the unlikely friendship between an eccentric bookseller and his troubled 14-year-old neighbor. She was presented the award at a nominee brunch held January 12 in Los Angeles, hosted by actors Salma Hayek and Jeremy Renner. She will be highlighted during the Spirit Awards ceremony on Saturday February 23, which will air the same evening on IFC at 10pm Eastern Standard Time. Scene and Heard by Rosemary Pacheco Here we are in a new year – 2013. For those of you who feel like your life flew by like a 48 FPS film in 2012, I’m with you. Where did it go again? For a small state like Rhode Island we sure do have a lot happening, especially in the film world.