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AKA

A few nights ago I saw Duncan Roy‘s AKA which is a no-budget 35mm feature that tells the story of Dean Page, who manages to jump above his station. Through a series of coincidences and good luck he gradually becomes someone else. The innovative part of the film is that it is presented in three screens, each of which featuring a slightly different perspective. It’s a compelling portrayal with the different screens featuring sometimes different takes, and other times the same images. While it may seem to be technique for technique’s sake, it works very well, and I’m not sure if it would work that well on video, since the level of detail wouldn’t be the same.

At times it reminded me of Midnight Cowboy, The Talented Mr. Ripley, and Abel Gance’s Napoleon, which split the screen into a triptych. AKA is not what I expected and I enjoyed it.

September 17, 2003 aff2003, aka, drama, duncanroy, film, review

Wilbur Wants to Kill Himself

Every now and then you see a film that you don’t know anything about and experience everything about it in a fresh way. I didn’t know much about Wilbur Wants to Kill Himself except that it was set in Glasgow and it was a Scottish / Danish coproduction. It’s one of my favourite films of the festival. It hit me just the right way. It was directed by the Danish director Lone Sherfig. It’s a post dogme film that explores similar themes, without the arbitrary rules. It tells the story of a pair of brothers, one suicidal (Jamie Sives)and one selfless (Adrian Rawlins). Then it brings in a single mother (Shirley Henderson) and her daughter (Lisa McKinlay) and the threads of the story begin to weave together. I found out later that it was shot on HD, but it’s not the way that it is shot that caught me, but the characters and situations.

It reminded me a bit of Diane Keaton’s 1995 film Unstrung Heroes which I also loved. Part of the please of Wilbur Wants to Kill Himself is in the exploration of the complex relationships that we have with those around us and the much greyer world of decisions, choices and morality. It screens tonight at the Atlantic Film Festival at the Park Lane cinemas.

September 17, 2003 aff2003, film, review

The Magical Workshop of Ann Marie Fleming

On Monday I attended a great workshop with Ann Marie Fleming, the creative force behind The Magical Life of Long Tack Sam. The workshop was a combination of the personal and the work, which is what she does in her films. Of particular interest to me is her approach to documentary and the use of humour. It disarms you and makes it easier to deal with sometimes difficult issues. I had a great time and there were gifts as well! She showed lots of work and contextualized, analyzed, and philosophized about it. It hit me right in the heart and reinforced my belief that things will work out well and important stories will be told because they have to be told. Some quotes from my notes from Ann Marie’s workshop: filmmaking: “so much heart and so much fussiness”, “we all have stories”, “the very specific is most compelling”, “all film is documentary film”, “standup is like experimental film”, and “you just have to want to do it.” She confirms my theory that filmmaking can be characterized as a recessive gene… you don’t really have a choice, you just have to tell these stories. I’m glad that Ann Marie is out there sharing her stories.

September 17, 2003 aff2003, annmariefleming, filmmaking, themagicallifeoflongtacksam, workshop

AKA

Wilbur Wants to Kill Himself

The Magical Workshop of Ann Marie Fleming

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