Zen in Cold Places

GR Film Buff Ilsa Bartlett:
Zen! The Zen quality of this grand new independent film, Ice People is magnificent in its simplicity! We search to see the speck of human movement as explorers quest for dating the age of our earth. The process is slow as molasses. It must be the freezing atmospheric conditions, which frame the slow work, going on in the unimaginable cold of 20, 50, to 70 degrees below zero. Like lines in the sand, around the Zen Gompa, they are simply perfect.

People and crystals moved by the howling wind, the solid rains of times gone by, slide around the rocks. Presenting a picture of what the hold of cold can have on a universe in one grain of ice. The inner silent scientific process mirrors the outer icy quiet. Crunch, crunch, crunch in syncopation with the lub, lub, lub, pulse. Passion pounds in the hearts of the four scientists when the helicopter touches the ice, hovering lightly, never do the blades stop turning. If the engines did turn off, the chances of resuming flight would be minimal. Metal and machines function differently in deep sub zero temperatures. It is the summer chill with a comparatively warm and sunny 20 below when the helicopter scene is filmed. The exhaust creates the unusual breathing vapor that keeps the scientists out of the tents longer than is healthy. There is no moist vapor in any of the other scenes so we, sitting in our comfortable cinema chairs, forget the crisis lurking within every event in such cold country. The movie crew is extremely lucky to have no tents blow away or other traumas inherent in Antarctica expositions.
Winds on the flimsy tents draw us, as viewers, into the universal adventure, which springs forth from these particular courageous and noted geologists Allan Ashworth and Adam Lewis , and two undergrad scientists-in-the-making. The specificity of it lends this story power of both poise and purpose, since nothing prepares you for the grand scale as you try to find the spec of movement in the expansive vista.

This is a film story you and your friends should not miss. For me this film is following a long read of a story seen in print, was it the New Yorker? The print version is told from the point of view of the helicopter pilot. He spends half a year as a doctor somewhere in Middle America and trains hard for the grueling work of maintaining and flying in this area of the Antarctic. His wife understands his lust for this adventure, as I feel sure the spouses of our scientists understand the mania for their husband and wives work. The importance of the pilot in supporting the work of the several groups of scientists sheds a sliver of understanding on the very volatile picture of life on ice. Three cheers for the San Francisco Independent Film Festival for bringing me comfortably close to the cold, without myself getting frost bite!

For more info on this frigid film, go here.

Flow: For the Love of Water

GR Film Buff Maria Pecot:
Growing up in urban America, water seemed as free flowing as sunlight. It was only after venturing into Central American communities, where not even the locals would dare to drink from the tap, where sometimes water failed to flow from the pipes for days at a time, did I realize, that for much of the world, water is a precious commodity. In the documentary, Flow: For the Love of Water, filmmaker Irena Salina details in great length, the global water crisis, and the steps we can take to mitigate it.

The film visits South African shantytowns and Bolivian villages, where multinational corporations, backed by the World Bank, monopolize clean water at the cost of human suffering. Equally alarming are revelations of pollutants and chemicals creeping into our water sources, disrupting the balance of the eco-system and spawning sickness. Flow presents a frightening snapshot of fish on Prozac, rocket-fuel-tainted drinking water, and what happens when the world allows corporations to control a life sustaining resource.

Beyond grim statistics and heartbreaking personal accounts, Flow offers hope in new technologies and a heightened awareness. This critical documentary brings together the brightest scientists, water experts, and human rights workers in an eloquent plea to save the world’s water. Flow is more then a critique; it’s a call to action.

Opening Night!

GR Film Buff Ilsa Bartlett:
Did you ever think the Metreon could be so cool? Though the Metreon uses the same intense lumins in the projections the filmmakers intended, most do not notice the light! Metreon reclaimed the Glamor!



The San Francisco International Film Festival transformed the teen hang out playground into a place of shimmering style with happening energy. There was a guard on the ground turning away everyone but the celebs. When the elevator doors opened, the fourth floor was transformed by lavender end of the Doppler light shift. Great live shake-your-booty music filled the space; people were shaking their booties and not just bobbing their heads. The sound system was wonderfully balanced loudness yet you didn't have to shout to talk. Hundreds of creative people, producers with business on their mind, the 'stock' supplier from Kodak corporate, and a string of suited industry lawyers mixed with the costumers and the costumed, in lace, feathers and fur.

San Francisco Film officialdoms decided correctly to focus on truly great independent films rather than being another notch on the chain of L.A. look alike's worldwide. One after another important Independent film maker danced and drank and nibbled well after midnight. This focus on the best of the independents can only make the festival bigger and better while making S.F. a Hot, Hotter, Hottest Film Festival. The momentum is built a bit more this year.


Filmmaker CATHERINE BREILLAT shone brightly at her opening night screening of "Last Mistress," my full review to follow...

With a dozen 'all you can drink' stations soldiered by a line of colorful bar tenders unwound what ever tensions brought to the party. Tables with smoked salmon, shrimps curled with unique sauces -- all frittered and beautifully presented. Shaved beef and homemade sour kraut served by the head chef himself with such joviality was a great hit. Lines of fancy pants fingered fine food that just made you want to go to his, hers or their restaurant. San Francisco continues to be a highly respected foodie town...

The most important single thing is the film! From the rising of the first curtain throughout the weeks are one after another beautiful, interesting, mind bending, or inspirational movie that you will have a hard time seeing anywhere else. Be there!

Vera Cytilova's Daisies

GR Film Buff Perrin Randlett:
We at GrassRoutes love films by Women! So I had to do a spotlight on my cinematic hero, and founding member of Czech New Wave, Vera Chytilova.

In Daisies, Vera created two interesting, unconventional female characters, both of whom I fell in love with. I have studied up about Vera's life and works and found her to be an inspiration to female directors across the globe.

Before gaining a place at the Prague Film School (FAMU) in 1958, Vera Chytilova studied philosophy and architecture, working as a draughtswoman and a model. At FAMU she studied with Otakar Vavra, a founding father of Czech New Wave. The Czech New Wave was marked by renewed attention to image and form. Directors in the late fifties and early sixties combined socially relevant themes with traditional Czech lyricism. Chytilovas filmic experiments incorporated the progressive formal and structural innovations of her predecessors, and she was also influenced by avant-garde techniques that broke narrative convention.
Vera Chytilovas early filmic works were impacted by the decree of nationalism of Czechoslovak cinema. The political atmosphere was one of censorship: On August 11, 1945, the President of the Republic signed a decree that took film production out of private hands and entrusted it to the care of the state. As a result of this decree Filmmakers were forced to be much more conscious about what their messages were, As Jan Zalman said about the 1947 decree: “That date marked the beginning of the purposeful growth and advance of Czechoslovak film art.”
Because she was forced to find metaphors for the social issues she wished to comment on, Chytilova has developed a way of communicating through textured and layered images. This level of aesthetic complexity runs through all of her films but is particularity developed in Daisies, her best-known work.


Film Focus: Daisies
The opening credits of Daisies are juxtaposed with black and white film images of war, and once the political context has been alluded to, the film cuts to the two heroines. The girls are sitting very rigid-like dolls. They turn to each other and decide in a short dialogue that the world has gone bad, so they might as well go bad too. This exciting conclusion leads one girl to slap the other, and she falls down into a grassy meadow. Thus begins the first of many poetic cuts and juxtapositions in space and time. Clarie Clouzot says of Daisies, “There is no involvement, no conventional chronology, no psychological development…no narration.” But Chytilova did not merely destroy narrative form; she created a poetic format in its place. (Hames)
The repetitive structure of Daises alternates major scenes set in the girl’s apartments with other central scenes that take place in the ladies room, the restaurant, and the railway station.
In the apartment the girls are shown performing daily rituals, eating snacks, cutting with scissors to make paper montages, messing with clothes. The room scenes are most revealing about their inner thoughts, since it is here that they talk to each other, their discussions reflecting on their successes, failures and future plans. After they get bored inside, they go explore the outside world. The ladies room is usually the first place they visit, it’s a grounding place for them. In the ladies room they steal from the nice old attendant who brings them coffee, they observe slender fashionable women with eager eyes, and they fight about smoking and their schemes, “Where are you?! I cant get rid of him myself!!”
When Daisies is screened in a contemporary Western setting the film is often accompanied by joyful, exclusively feminine laughter, in part because the characters fail to conform to the stereotypes expected by a male audience. Chytilova demands freedom for herself as creator and freedom for the audience as spectators, intending that the interplay between the two should be active. In this way she evokes a dialogue between the film and its audience, making her work an open-ended conversation between her and the filmbuffs who adore her work.

Recs from the Big Mutha

GR Film Buff Serena Bartlett:
Get film recommendations from Mother Earth? OK, might be a stretch but here's a couple to check out while you're focused on being cool to the original mama:

The Day the Earth Stood Still
I just love it, day, night, PMS cramps, projected on the wall during a house party: this film is good where ever, whenever. So why not watch it today, while meditating on the earth NOT standing still.



The Gods Must Be Crazy
My favorite Uncle Mo is just gaga over this one -- it is another film I missed being raised away from cathode rays whenever my parents could manage. But today I am bringing out my VHS of it ($1.99 at Amoeba Records) and I'll try to rally up the troops for a bit of philosophical conversation on evolution, culture and what it all means. I'll let you know if I we figure anything out. Anyway, it'll be a good break in between the Earth Day volunteering activities the GR crew has been up to...



Film Connection!!!!
Everyone should know about this! www.thefilmconnection.org is a non-profit independent and documentary video library, like Netflix but only the good stuff, lots of environmental films for the theme of day, plus it is FREE! Topics go way beyond the ecological issues the earth is experiencing to include: arts and culture, diversity, women in film, aging, war and peace just to name a few. Go on, create an account (they'll get you credit card info in case you don't return your film) and you can rent one at a time for free, shipped right to your door!

Happy Earth Day!

New Releases (with a side of steaming hot politics)

GR Film Buff Serena Bartlett:
Historic Grand Lake Theater's glitz and glam makes way for a town hall event -- "Are Peace and Impeachment Possible?" After loosing calories laughing to Forgetting Sarah Marshall you can gather round with all the East Bay politicos who are serious about bringing our ruler to justice. I am just trying to resist the urge not to movie hop!

Come check out the Tiffany glass, old film projectors and the carpet-lined Arabian Theater before or after you get down to business. Follow the liberal marquee comments and bright lights to Grand Lake Theater, 3200 Grand Avenue, Oakland, 510.452.3556 on April 24th, 7-9pm and catch a flick before heading home.

Envious of this Vancity exclusive...

GR Film Buff Serena Bartlett:
OK guys, let's admit that Portuguese just might be the sexiest language ever. So when I heard a docu-maker idol of mine, Chico Teixeira, passed the threshold into feature filmmaking with "A Casa De Alice" I scooted to the edge of my seat. Centered in Sao Paulo, Brazil, the sexual themes and subtle emotional undercurrents are beautifully acted by lead Carla Ribas, in her sultry native tongue. Her quiet, empty and utterly lonely character is one we've all met before, slipping by in the mundane middle class we often accept as normal. This film asks me to look deeper into the lives behind the women around me, and wells up compassion inside me.



Downtown Vancouver's Vancity Theatre has the Canadian exclusive on this stirring drama, hailed by Berlin, Miami, Guadalajara, Rio de Janeiro and other prestigious international film fests. Head to Vancity if you're in BC before the 25th for a 7:30 or 9:30 showing of Alice's House.

1181 Seymour Street at Davie Street, Vancouver, BC
604.683.3456