Tonight, I visited the new Angelika Mosaic Cinema and Cafes,
apparently its first public opening, in Merrifield, VA, behind the new Target
Center (where I parked) at Gallows Road and Less Highway, for Showcase 6 of the DC Shorts Film
Festival. I have been to a similar Angelika
property in Dallas, TX (Nov. 20, 2011). The link for the new theater is here.
I am grateful to a young tech-savvy employee in a Home Depot across Lee Highway who knew (or figured out) where this place was. Google maps doesn't have the are correctly shown yet, because the side streets are so new.
The program started about 20 minutes late, as there were
some problems getting out of a computer loop that caused commercials to repeat.
I’ll cove the three largest, and from my perspective, best
films of the set first. Some of the
others were rather manipulative and trivial.
“Suddenly, Zinat” (“Naagahaan, Zinat”, Iran, 21 min, directed
by Navin Azid). Simin (Raya Nasiri) is
successfully raising an adopted daughter Zinat after losing her own
family. But one day, the mumbling and
desperate biological mother (Nager Nikkhah Azad) Nasibeth
appears and says she need to take the daughter back because her husband has
gotten out or prison early. It’s obvious
to Simin that the drug-addicted young woman is incapable or raising
anyone. This film could well expand to a
feature, and has all the meat of “The Separation”. In a time when there is so much hostility
about a badly-intended extremist American film, we actually see some
outstanding film about family relations made by an Islamic world ready to try
to understand what has happened to its own culture.
“Deleting Emily” (UK, 15 min., directed by Zak Klein) would
be a nice companion piece to “The Social Network”. Andrew (Will Close), about to leave his
working class town in north England for six-month job in Singapore, struggles
to save both his “power” and “privilege” in his jeopardized relationship with
his girlfriend, Emily (Gina Bramhill).
He doesn’t her to delete him from her Friend’s list in Facebook before
he can delete her, as a matter of pride.
There are more complications about how to do this on a smart phone and
even how to use gMail (no mention of two-step verification). The film makes a comic commentary on the
significance people give to their standing with others on Facebook, and makes
the point that even if you have hundreds of friends on Facebook, you probably
only know a handful of them well enough to call them real friends. So the idea of “concentric publication” to
specified lists seems superfluous. Has
Mark Zuckerberg seen this film?
“Unremembered” (UK, 15 min, directed by Kelly Parslow) presents a
London vicar (Tim Heath) obsessed with finding out who is buried underneath a
gravestone with only initials behind his London church. He visits a nursing
home to try to interview the previous reverend (David Manson), now suffering from dementia, and asking him “are
you a homosexual?” The film takes the
position that we need to accept the idea that most of us become obscure after
we pass away. Live your life to the fullest when you can.
“Aquadettes" (10 min, directed by Drea Cooper and Zackary
Canepari) presents an elderly woman, who has for years led a group of synchronized
swimmers in “the O.C.”, struggling with multiple sclerosis. I was not aware
that nausea and vomiting occur with the disease, and she explains how medical
marijuana (which we see her smoking) keeps her in her lifelong activities. And she has a husband to take care of.
“Applications” (8 min, USA).
A young woman, appearing to be into heavy makeup, starts her own
self-destruction. This is indeed a horror film, and I cringed to watch the hemoglobin flow.
“A Night at the Office” (5 min, USA). A monster who looks like one of the “Grays”
is about to abduct and convert everyone pulling an all-nighter to meet a
workplace deadline (before a stock market crash, maybe). And extraterrestrials are apparently quite comfortable hacking Windows-based PC's.
“The Bench” (5 min, Switzerland), a silent film in
black-and-white shows a smug young professional get pickpocketed by those in
need.
“Four Daughters” (3
min., USA). I woudn’t want the
responsibility for being father or the bride(s). The script makes something of
supposed “selfish intentions” inherent in procreation. At least dad doesn’t have to take his
daughters to work and show them off.
“Shave Ice is Nice” (4 min, USA). At least the Hawaiian coast is spectacular.
No comments:
Post a Comment