Ebertfest Day 2

Posted in ARTS to Ebertfest by Dan Schreiber on Friday, April 24, 2009 at 11:00 am

So far, a sense of loss threads it way through Ebertfest 11.

Screening Woodstock opened up a lot of lament over the loss of authenticity and groovyness of the Sixties. Yesterday's showings of My Winnipeg, Chop Shop, and Trouble the Water all dealt with loss at some level, be it loss of hometown institutions, loss of innocence, or loss of a great American city.

And loss is not limited to the movies this year. Although Roger has been missing due to surgery, there was the hope that he might return as emcee and interviewer. We really wanted the opportunity to shout him down one more time while delivering a long-winded preamble. It doesn't look like that will happen again.

No one manages an interview better than Roger, who is so good at cutting off uninteresting lines of inquiry and adding pithy but relevant bits of conversation throughout. I still think it could work for Roger to be part of the interviews. He could type questions into the computer, letting "Sir Lawrence," his British-accented computer voice, do the talking. Sir Lawrence isn't smart enough to stop talking when people laugh, but I'm sure we could be given some kind of cue that Roger has a question, so we could all shut up. It might be worth a trial interview.

And, as I mentioned yesterday, we also miss Warren York on the Wurlitzer. At first I thought they should have found someone else to provide music. But on second thought, it is appropriate to hold off for a year. It is strangely appropriate to honor Warren's absence with the absence of music. Let's hope he recovers for next year.

Here's what happened today:

12:25 p.m: Your humble correspondent arrives late to the scene, where the line once again stretches out to University Avenue. Fortunately, I spy Smile Politely editor Jamie Newell and her husband Bob only six spots from the front. Since my Press Pass has gained me nothing so far, I ask if she will save me a seat, which is not technically against Ebertfest protocol, but not very cool either. She graciously agrees.

12:32 p.m: Doors still not open, but volunteer/bouncer warns that you can get kicked out of the Virginia this year if your cell phone goes off twice. Smile Politely Editor Jamie Newell physically applauds this new rule.

1:15 p.m: Roger walks by in the lobby, and an enthusiast stops him to say he has a list of suggested movies for next year that he will give to Roger in a few days. Roger nods his head. I would guess there are times he is glad he has lost his voice, and now is probably one of those times.

1:21 p.m: A water bottle falls from the balcony onto the right side to the main floor, near where we are sitting. Either someone is careless or someone is registering their dissatisfaction with Smile Politely's Ebertfest coverage. We'll monitor the situation.

1:29 p.m: Chaz starts early so she can give recognition to big sponsors, of which Smile Politely is not mentioned because we don't have a spare $25K. Festival Director Nate Kohn is wearing jeans. He wore a suit of some kind last year, and it was very disconcerting. All is in balance again.

1:36 p.m: Guy Maddin comes out for My Winnipeg. He is as funny as his movies are surreal. He's really funny, is what I'm trying to say.

Roger talks about childhood, and how children take things so literally. He thought the university was on University Avenue, Green Street really was green, and that cars raced up and down Race Street.

Guy thanks Roger for the intro, saying he usually has to massage an audience one by one to prepare them for his movies, but that we are already revved up. And we are.

Guy also talks about Canadians having a self-mythology deficit. Yet another reason to like Canadians, I guess.

1:40 p.m: My Winnipeg starts. It is very Guy Maddin-esque.

I can't believe anyone would think this was really a documentary. I was tipped off during the scene where they exhume his father to rebury him under a rug in the living room. Or when he says there is a law allowing sleepwalkers to carry keys to all their old addresses, and people who now live there must let them in.

It felt as if the movie were metaphorically true in some way, that all the crazy, hilarious oddities were meant to signify something important. Later, Maddin explains that it was all melodramatically true. That it all felt this way to him. Aha. These interviews are useful. That's exactly right.

I was struck at the end by how he couldn't leave Winnipeg until he knew it was going to be OK again. He imagines Citizen Girl coming to put everything back again: the department store, the swimming pools, the hockey team, the smallest park in the world, all of which were demolished or taken. It's a form of love, not being able to leave something until it is taken care of. Maybe it is the Canadian way to love.

We learn in the interview that "What If" day really happened. They really did pay actors to dress up as Nazis in the 1930s to imprison school teachers for a day and show what life would be like under the Nazis, in order to sell war bonds. But, nobody talks about it, because Canadians are so literal, that they see no need to talk about something that was made up. God love those Canadians.

4:00 p.m: Chop Shop. Roger describes it as a movie that is usually set in Brazil or India, following two immigrant orphans who take care of themselves. But it is set in New York City, near Shea Stadium.

It's very character driven and so much like Man Push Cart in tone and style that I decide it is a sequel. Ahmad Razvi, the actor who played the main character in Man Push Cart, re-appears as a chop shop owner, and you could easily see his old character evolving in that way.

But this movie is all about the kids: Ale, a 12-year-old boy, who is resourceful and committed to staying with his 16-year-old sister, Isamar. It's not about the plot so much as about what he's willing to do to keep hisfamily of one sister close to him.

I like the comparisons of Chop Shop to Slumdog Millionaire, both about orphaned kids we deeply care about who are trying to make their way. But whereas Slumdog wrapped things up too neatly and tightly, Chop Shop needs a bit more resolution at the end. But I do continue to carry these kids around in my head, like director Ramin Bahrani wants me to.

In the post-movie interview, we learn that Bahrani had Ale the actor work in a real chop shop for about six months before the shooting started, and he loved it because he made $5 for each car he strung in. When they started shooting, the people there thought they were making a documentary about that Ale kid who worked with Rob. They'd watch 30 takes and still think it was a documentary.

Bahrani also told a great story about last Ebertfest. Ahmad Razvi from Man Push Cart was very happy to be hanging out with John Malkovich, and they even flew out on the same plane together. While on the plane a pretty young woman came up to them nervously with a camera and apologized for being intrusive and wanting to get a picture. Malkovich starts to straighten his shirt, but then she says "Aren't you Ahmad Razvi from Man Push Cart?"

6:00 - 8:30 p.m: Dinner, rest.

8:30 p.m: Trouble the Water

This documentary tells the story of Kim and Scott Roberts, folks without transportation to get out of the way of Katrina, who filmed what was happening as it was happening from the inside, until their camera ran out of batteries.

This documentary works as indictment of the government's response to Katrina, but it also shows the development of Kim and Scott as they are tested by a crisis. At first, it seems they are mostly interested in making money by videotaping a disaster. And the videotape they have is filled with that jerky camera style of new camera owners, plus a boatload of cursing. And yet, as the crisis deepens, we see them care for their neighbors and make sacrifices to help people get out. They notice how doing good makes them better people.

The scenes of the storm itself are riveting, especially when the water crests over a stop sign on their corner. My favorite scene is when burly brother-in-law Larry wades down the street trying to get people out of their houses. He's barely able to stand in the current and uses an old punching bag dummy as a flotation device.

We get an unvarnished view of those in poverty in this documentary, complete with substance abuse problems and their desire for dignified jobs. Whether you think it's the government's job to take care of people or not, the reality is that we pay taxes to protect everyone, impartially, from natural disasters. In this case, it was inverted: those with the least ability to get out of the way were given the least help.

But as Kim said, society had abandoned these folks long before Katrina came. You can build all the levees you want, but if you don't provide decent education, things are not going to get better.

One of the post-movie comments from the audience was that the true test of character is how one behaves under adverse conditions. Kim and Scott passed this test. The Bush administration did not.

11:15 p.m: Kim and Scott rap for us white people (let's face it, Ebertfest audiences could pass for a Scandanavian college reunion).  I am as qualified to judge rap talent as I am to judge 4-H quilting projects. I can't judge rap, is what I'm trying to say. But my very white toes were tapping the whole time.

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Smile Politely will continue to cover Ebertfest this weekend, as Jamie Newell takes over festival overviews for tomorrow and Sunday, and Collin Bullock takes the Saturday slot. In addition, film reviews will be coming from Chuck Koplinski, Suzanne Lewandowski and Collin Bullock.