Slamdance Film Festival, London Film Week, – Film Festival Guide for September 8
Slamdance Film Festival, London Film Week, Portland Festival Film Festival Guide for September 8 from
SLAMDANCE 2023 Reviews: Linh Tran’s WAITING FOR THE LIGHT TO CHANGE finds emotional truth in its ambiguity
Yes, these all sound like very “twentysomething” problems (and yes, Alex doing palm readings sounds like a very “twentysomething” solution), but the characters are so relatable that even if your twenties were ages ago, watching them will immediately herald back the anxiety and angst you felt then.
SLAMDANCE 2023 Reviews: Remy van Heugten’s MASCOT confronts us with an extreme world without a simple way out of the violence
Dutch director van Heugten demonstrates here that you can understand a protagonist without necessarily liking them. Both Abbey and Jeremy are fundamentally broken people, still in their own way trying to protect Emine from being hurt in the same way by keeping her away from the bad dad she can’t remember.
SLAMDANCE 2023 Reviews: Emily Kaye Allen’s CISCO KID looks at a queer woman creating an unexpectedly American paradise
The movie’s more concerned with her making the place reasonably functional first, without as much emphasis on the artistic nature of it. But as the kind of fly-on-the-wall doc that doesn’t offer additional context nor narration, it shifts that burden to the viewer. It matters less what the artist thinks than whether you see the art there, even if the hands that form it appear more practicality minded.
SLAMDANCE 2023 Interviews: CISCO KID director Emily Kaye Allen
My personal thoughts: This is another film that I am currently working with as their publicist, so naturally I think it’s wonderful. This might be an odd way to compliment a documentary, but when I watched CISCO KID the first time, I kept thinking of Altman films or Malick films, because the combination of an independent, enigmatic character at the center of a story set with in a truly significant landscape is what I so often associate with that cinema when I hear those names. Allen and her camera become trusted companions to a charismatic, yet fiercely independent personality who hearkens back to a different time in their pursuit of restoring structure and life to a literal ghost town in the desert.
Slamdance 2023 Interviews: MASCOT director Remy Van Heugten
My personal thoughts on MASCOT: Full disclosure is that I am working on the PR for the film, so I am obviously a fan of it. And the thing that I am most a fan of, is that while it follows a long tradition of European films that have dealt with hooligan culture and toxic masculinity (before that term had been coined), MASCOT is a rarity in the unflinching manner in which it delves into the environment that created that bubbling inner turmoil and rage in one young man. Specifically, this film looks into the relationship with the boy’s mother, misguided, mistargeted and unintentionally incredibly damaging. It gives the film an additional layer and element that adds to the building dread and threat of the young man potentially losing his hold on his emotions
Slamdance 2023 filmmakers try to convince us to watch their films
On a special red carpet at Slamdance 2023, filmmakers were given 30 seconds to try and convince us to watch their films.
Interview with Cat Brewer and Matt Maxey (SIGN THE SHOW) at Slamdance 2023
My personal thoughts on SIGN THE SHOW: I have had this film at a few of my film festivals last year and not only is the film a delight in how it informs us about signing at live events, as well as celebrating the people who sign and making the connection with the performers whose music and art are translated to the Deaf and Hard of Hearing community, but Cat Brewer couldn’t be a better conduit to deliver this film to audiences, herself. The film has a joy to it, bottom line – and you could figure that out watching with the sound off.
Heather Young’s Murmur Takes Top Award as The 2020 Slamdance Film Festival caps a banner edition with HIGHER LOVE directed by Hasan Oswald
“We congratulate the winners of Slamdance 2020 and we celebrate all of our new filmmakers who have shown us that the art of filmmaking is brilliantly alive,” said Slamdance co-founder Peter Baxter. “This next generation collectively brings us art formed in risk taking, bravery and the unexpected. It’s not just their characters who are on an adventure. It’s the filmmakers as well and Slamdance will continue to be their companion.”