clever peasant pharmacy

Wisconsin’s Own Experimental and Documentary Shorts

1) 2 Seconds – The filmmaker shot two seconds of video with a self-designed high-speed video camera, and stretched it out to two minutes; the subjects were mainly technological, such as a computer screen and a vending machine.  I appreciated the look at time and technology, something that I hope to also explore in video.

2) All About a Girl – A cross between the narrative and experimental genres, this short dabbles in a girl’s exploration of her own identity.  She escapes a world of clean, pretty dresses and regimented instrument practice to poke around in the dirty but honest world of her yard, finding kinship with a dead animal she finds there.

3) Martin – A short documentary of a sheep shearer.

4) My Most Important Self Portrait – A strangely beautiful experimental/animated documentary of the filmmaker’s struggle to lose weight under threat of death.  Sadly, there were sound problems during the screening.

5) New York Sky – An animated film capturing the humanity and the agony of the terrorist attacks on the Twin Towers.

6) Reckless Eyeballing – Make it stop.  Please.  Make it stop.  The soundtrack was grating and the imagery annoyingly repetitive.  It would have made a decent two- or four-minute film, but went on and on and on for 14 freaking minutes.

7) Room – This one also went on too long, and had a horribly grating soundtrack, but it was funny and clever.  Could have been cut into two or three shorts.

To Say Goodbye – I’m so glad I stuck it out through the two films prior to this one (as my companion did not), because this was such a powerful, tight and sad documentary.  The adult daughter of an alcoholic mother who is dying of liver failure must find a balance between helping her mother and distancing herself from the disappointment and pain.  Portrait of a young woman determined to maintain her own integrity.

9) Wide Awake and Dreaming – I just can’t remember this one.

Past and Pending

1. "Harmony" - This animated short blew me away.  Not only were the animation and soundtrack enthralling, but the narrative, in which a narrator speaks as if he is the animal on the screen (like this: "I killed my babies.  I killed my babies and then I ate them." or "I rubbed my clitoris against my sister’s clitoris.  I rubbed my clitoris against my daughter’s clitoris.") evoked in me thoughts about the differences between humans and animals, about cultural relativism, and about crime and guilt.  This is the good shit.

2. La Loteria: El Moro - Hysterically apt pairing of Fidel Castro footage with the little ditty "Bilbo Baggins" - sung by Leonard Nimoy (of course!).

3. La Loteria: El Valiente - Finally, an answer to the age-old question "Do blondes have more fun?": blondes get to kiss James Bond; brunettes try to kill him.  Wait, which is better?

4. La Loteria: La Ardilla - A cute widdle squirrel.  Awwwwww.

5. La Loteria: La Rosa - Was this a very oblique reference to the Arab-Texas oil connection?

6. The New Freedom Founders - A couple of photogenic people who learned to speak backwards portray avant-garde individuals whose philosophies and discoveries turn the world upside down.  Better than it sounds.  The "new freedom language" sub-film really left me wondering - was any of this based on reality?  What the hell is "P-E Space"?

7. The Soothsayer - Um, why can’t I remember this one?

8. The Tawny - One word: why?  Another word: snooze.

9. Total Power: Dead, Dead, Dead! - Um, why do I remember the soundtrack and not the images?

American Lives
1. "Small Town Secrets" - An emotionally conflicted look at the filmmaker’s family, whose parents eventually divorced after coming out to each other as gay and lesbian.  Sadly, and typically, her parents’ attempts to protect the children by acting as ‘normal’ as possible and not discussing their differences actually seem to have made life more difficult in the long run.  The filmmaker (like many an adult child) is still trying to assess the impact of her parents’ decisions; through webcam interviews and voiced-over family movies, she gently probes her parents’ inner and private lives as well as her own childhood.  Like her parents, though, she stops short of getting explicit or honest enough, and I was left frustrated, with a desire to shake each of them and scream "Cut the nicey-nice middle West non-confrontational crap!"

2. "Spotters" - Some people like to document the planes they ’spot’ taking off and landing at airports.  Diff’rent strokes for diff’rent folks.

3. "Buried in the Backyard" - All over the country, individuals and families have been preparing for the worst case scenario for a long, long time (members of the LDS church - the ‘Mormons’ - figure prominently).  Some even have quasi-positive motivations - my favorite quote was "It’s easier to feed my neighbors than it is to shoot them."  Is it really such a bad thing to want to prepare for, and shelter your family and friends from, disaster?  Not necessarily.  The ‘ick’ factor comes in when these shelters are turned into weapons - witness the guy who has the power (literally) to electrify the perimeter of his underground bunker (he says something like, "Trying to get in here is the last thing that person will ever do").

4. "Earth Walls: Cob and Straw Bale Construction in Wisconsin" - An excellent instructional film about natural building techniques and realities.  It makes the hard physical work of construction look like fun!  My only suggestion would be to cut out some of the playful clips and quotes, because it could be a bit tighter if it were shorter.

5. "Living Sculpture: The Taos Earthships" - I’d already seen this (at a WisKino showing, I think).  While the buildings are stunning, the commentary is a bit more gushing than credible.  I’d also slow down some of the short, jumpy shots, and add more still shots - there’s only so many panning, telescoping and widening shots I can take without feeling dizzy.

I just got notice that I was selected the Beta Phi Mu Outstanding Student Scholar of the Year!  (That’s a big deal to us librarian types.)  (Or maybe just to dorks like me.)

It even comes with a cash award, which kind of shocks me.  Anyway, this whole thing just feeds into my deeply ingrained need for approval by academic ‘authoritay.’  Yick.  I am reminded of my first semester intro class, where I first learned of Gramsci’s "organic intellectual."

But, yay!, right?  Sigh.