Week in Review
I actually saw two full length films in public this weekend. Last year this would have been no big news for me. But this year, with this project, I’m not going to the theater when I leave the house.
Friday night I went to the anniversary party of Red Hill Books in Bernal Heights, for which they showed two short films and a feature. Opening the night was a short about another Mission bookstore, that discourages people from knowing where they are or even buying books, so it doesn’t get a mention here. Shhh. Next up was Danny Plotnick’s Swinger’s Seranade, a film that contains another smaller film inside it, which is about the making of the smaller film. I think I’ve explained this correctly. It may be available at Lost Weekend Video, Leather Tongue, or Le Video, but I’d recommend asking for it by name. Finishing the evening was IPO, a story with multiple plotlines set in San Francisco’s Dot Com Era. There was one really interesting story in there, about a homeless couple who sneak their way into an idiotic company, but overall it was like they were trying to cram a TV season’s worth of ideas into one film. IPO, was available for sale at the counter.
The night reminded me a lot of underground film screenings from 15 years ago, when three or four filmmakers got together with a few hours worth of their short films and showed one after another. Only this time, there were no Pixelvision epics or David Lynch knockoffs.
Saturday night I went to the Shattuck in Berkeley to see District B13. If you liked The Transporter or Unleashed, you’ll like this one. It’s a Luc Besson production, directed by Pierre Morel.
Most stunning in the film is the Parkour style which is new to cinema. Parkour is known somewhat in the US as “Free Running.” One of its founders, David Belle, plays the lead. Parkour is a type of urban cross country running, in which the participants decide to go through, over, and under obstacles rather than going around. Think Jackie Chan with a destination, or Spiderman without the webs.