First, the Recap:
Off-center. Idiosyncratic. Nonconformist. Unconventional. All words that more often than not carry with them a stigma of referring to things that just don’t fit into “the norm”. Ideas that don’t follow the typical logic of the world they embody, choosing instead to be a wholly varying and completely “outside the box” force that will most assuredly challenge every person to begin attempting to think likewise then ponder meaning. Is it being trapped within a world that would try to place us in a cardboard cutout reality that seems to have no “out” for uniqueness? Or being stuck in a perpetually and seemingly unending tide of sameness and tedium while in the forced confines of one’s own home? Perhaps it’s a portrait of corporate greed and the high cost of money and power that’s taken out on those whose lives are drastically impacted by the pursuit of both. Maybe it’s a tribute to history and those who stood up, stood proud, and proclaimed “FREEDOM!” for their gender and country. It’s the realization that so many that arrive to our shores from other places are treated with neglect or totally ignored, a sad testament of humanity’s growing lack of interconnectedness and compassion. Welcome to the arena of experimental cinema. Are you open and ready?
Next, my Mind:
Journeys into the avant-garde, the inventive, the progressive, even trailblazing it can represent, this is all at the core of the genre referred to as experimental film, and it is truly unlike any experience most moviegoers of any level have come across or even entertained. This critic has previously covered multiple festivals out of Germany and one in Sweden whose entire focus was this niche of independent cinema, and just like those efforts, this 5-film set that made up the “Film As Art” shorts block at the 2021 Art of Brooklyn Film Festival stood firmly, unshakably, unwavering, and fully confident in its wide-ranging, multifaceted approach to the themes being explored while utilizing eclectic visual and aesthetic designs to present notions that, as hinted at above, challenge you to try and look beyond the surface (a staple concept for indie film as it is) and stretch your mind and comprehension, stepping across the boundary of the “usual” with a creativeness that the short block’s title indicates. This. IS. ART.
A copy machine takes on a new life and much higher purpose and significance in Austrian writer/director/producer Claudia Ungersbäck’s quickly paced, 4-minute effort “lat.copiare” that chooses said mechanism to deliver a straightforward yet cleverly veiled message of just how swept away we’ve become in a sea of conformity where attempting to discover much less present any idea that’s fresh and different get squashed in the melee of a cookie-cutter reality, with us left screaming to find a way out. Jump into writer/director/producer/sole actor Francis Berry’s 27-minute “Cycle Du Matin”, which offers a very adept and totally singular look at one man’s life in the midst of being quarantined due to COVID-19 complete with the sense of utter isolation, loneliness, uncertainty, separation, emotional distance and the accompanying randomness of having to survive in such an overtly atmosphere of inner storms and outward longing for connection again. This is beautifully portrayed with slow burn execution that showcases–it’s time to get up!
Writer/director/actress Shayna Strype poses the strongly and undeniably hard truth-based arguments about the damaging effects mining takes on our precious earth as well as on those who work them, all for the sake of the almighty dollar and corporate avarice, through her puppet/live action/animated hybrid “Our Mine“. When one would normally say a filmmaker put their whole heart, soul, mind, and spirit into a project, Strype goes the extra mile and includes fingers and toes as well! WAY, CRAZY creative method to share a passionate message for the viewer to absorb while being one hundred percent as entertaining as it is the very definition of art. The subjects take a turn towards recorded history through “Entre Perto Rico y Richmond: Women In Resistance Shall Not Be Moved”, the film from director Alicia Diaz which pays moving (literally and figuratively) and needed tribute to the harsh actualities that were endured by tobacco factory readers turned activists Dominga de La Cruz Becerril and Luisa Capetillo, a journey told via dance, poetry, and cultural images, the two women embodied magnificently and with purposeful authority by actresses Christine Wyatt and Christine Leoni-Osion.
Finally, events wound down via the eccentric and impactful short from director/producer Lynn Bianchi titled “The Other Shore”, a distinct viewpoint of the concept of immigration and more a daring and all-too-true proclamation of the dichotomy found in how we “see” them yet totally ignore them, even as the deeply unsettling realities of their journeys is envisioned here via beautiful, crowded beaches vs. boat and life-jacket strewn shorelines and refugee camps. It’s a potent and sobering reminder of just how much we stray into that “haves” and “haves not” territory when it comes to fellow human beings, no matter where they originate from. So, in total, this amazing and amazingly innovative, expressive, unorthodox group of films once more harkens back to the very foundations of what film is and, frankly, should be. I am always impressed by the talents out there in this indie industry who aren’t afraid to take adventurous and undaunted leaps into the realms of experimental film, as the foundations behind it can speak so compellingly to the artist within us all–if we’re just willing to take a chance on it.
As always, this is all for your consideration and comment. Until next time, thank you for reading!
