To Boston and Back
jolene
Last weekend I had a chance to take in some films at one of my favorite festivals, the Independent Film Festival of Boston. Having lived in Boston and volunteered at the festival years ago, sure, my appreciation for this fest is partly nostalgic, but more than that, it comes out of respect for a truly committed team of programmers, organizers and volunteers and their never-disappointing lineup of good docs.
On Friday night, I caught a screening of MTM 6 filmmaker Ondi Timoner’s We Live in Public. I knew this film was going to be deeply disturbing and it didn’t disappoint on that front.
Told through the eyes of Internet mogul and Mad Hatter visionary Josh Harris, We Live in Public explores the ways in which our culture and social interactions have been pushed and pulled with the advent of the Internet. The centerpiece of the film (and its most unnerving section) is a half art project, half Orwellian experiment called Quiet. In pre-Y2K Manhattan, Harris constructed an underground bunker where 100+ artists holed up for 30 days under the watchful gaze of cameras scattered about the place like confetti. We watch as the Quiet denizens do drugs, shoot guns, have sex, go to the bathroom, take a shower, fight amongst each other and eventually, crash and burn. It’s like The Real World on acid.
The experiment is darkly prescient of our current age of microcelebrity. But more than that, it depicts Harris as a sad puppeteer, emotionally detached and fueled by his quest for fame.
I also had a chance to catch David Redmon and Ashley Sabin’s Invisible Girlfriend. This is the first film I’ve seen from this very prolific duo and it was a treat. The film follows a man named Charles as he embarks on a bicycle sojourn to New Orleans. His silent riding companion is his invisible girlfriend, Joan of Arc. Knowing that Redmon shot virtually the entire film from his own bicycle makes the presence of such amazing vérité moments all the more impressive.
Ah, festival season. Next stop: Tribeca to see fiscal sponsoree Nicole Opper’s film Off and Running.
No Comments
|
| Posted on April 27, 2009
Comments