Dances With Films‘ first-ever virtual film festival experience was certainly different for me as a viewer. Rather than seeing shorts and features, both docs and narratives, on a wide screen at the TCL Chinese, I mostly viewed films on my iPhone 11; occasionally varying to my Mac. But it was nonetheless exciting and seamless.
The tech was flawless moving between the streaming of the films and the terrific zoom live Q & A’s with filmmakers. Just like at the actual theater, we could arrive early (I admit I rarely got there before the festival’s promo trailer) and hear a musical program culled from music in the films screened.
And best of all the quality of the films and the format of screening – looked just as great on my small screen as on a large screen. Would I rather be in the theater, eating dark-chocolate Raisinettes, theatre nachos, or take out sushi? Yes. But this way, I didn’t have to drive to Hollywood every day. The only glitch was not being able to take in the opening night premiere film, but I’m hoping to pick that up as a screener later.
I have a lot of favorites in shorts and features, and regrets that I couldn’t view every screening; there was nothing that I viewed that I regret seeing. Those second screenings were a wonderful addition to the festival, coming in handy for me with a packed schedule and viewing wishes more extensive that I could achieve.
Here are some capsule reviews:
Friday Night Midnight Shorts 1
A treat of fun and genuinely creepy horror shorts. Some brief but effective: the trapped-on-a-subway story of overcoming fear, Creature; others longer – the witty caper gone-bad of Buffalo Scientists, in which a convenience store robbery leads to a break-in at a cult, involving a former high school teacher and his students. While all were good, my three favorites were Ghosted, The Gift, and Smiley Death Face.
Ghosted told a genuinely jump-scare chilling time-warp haunted house story from the perspective of the creators of a ghost-chasing reality series. The Gift offered a riveting, poetic, and psychologically terrifying story of a picked-on student in a small-town school, and the crow-girl who befriends and defends her. Magical realism at its best. Ominous, perfectly played, and pure fun in the end was Smiley Death Face, in which a ghost discovers emojiis.
Above, from Smiley Death Face
Other nicely creepy shorts in the block included the evocative Strip; Betty June Gloom, with it’s ominious and woeful titular character; Dying Message – which amusingly took on whether or not your average horror scenario could work in real life; and Green Cobra, which looked at a hit-woman’s resume.
Saturday began with Dances with Kids Program 1 – being at home, I was able to introduce a 5-year old to the festival. All smart and intriguing, the 5-year-old music-lover’s favorite was Coughing Up Flowers, the all-musical take on a Japanese love story legend. Directed by a talented 8-year-old, The Butler and the Ball brings joy into a reclusive artist’s life and that of a lonely boy.
Charming animation was the key to How Our Little Giraffe Got Her Spots Back and the adventures of a curious boy in The Red Button. Other shorts in the block skewed a little older for my own viewer; but veg-friendly The Impossible Way resonated; I Am Daniel: My First Eleven Years charmed, and The McGuffin’s superheroes were super cute.
Competition Shorts 2 was a terrific program filled with strong and evocative films. The touching burn-out story of The Way That I Take was highly prescient; from Sweden, Slow Dance was sweet and graceful. The Rug offered a humorous take on what to do with those mortuary ashes; Fear was an abstracted and rhythmic look at racism. I had favorites here, too: the harrowing immigration story in La Ruta was heartbreaking,and fresh, with terrific performances and unexpected twists; feature-length material in a short work.
Novel Love was an of-the-moment, pitch-perfect coronavirus-time love story that I was thrilled to see. And perhaps best of all, it was filmed and edited entirely during quarantine. Writer-director Cameron Miller-DeSart created a richly nuanced, feel-good love story that managed to capture dating, pandemic times, and relationship roadblocks in one sleek swoop.
Competition Shorts 3 served up dark comic slapstick in the era of cancel-culture with A Simple F*cking Gesture; an off-beat, poignant dance routine in Crutch Tap; and a masterful stroke of witchcraft and female revenge in the riveting Diabla, in which a victim of sexual assault takes matters into her own magic. The Foreigner turns the tables on the trope of a refugee story, with an unambiguous but heartfelt look at what could so easily happen when refugees from a ravaged U.K. must beg for a place in Turkey. Like Turtles tackled homelessness as its subject, in a poignant story of a single mom and her son on the mean streets of LA; it brought a topical subject to a personal level with a raw and intimate look at survival. Must Love Pie was a darkly comic attempt at dating, smartly executed but not as sweet as its title would suggest. From Germany, Superhero gave viewers a shattering conclusion to the story of a boy with Down’s and his childhood crush as she prepares to leave home.
I saw two features on Saturday night. Drought, written by Hannah Black, directed by Black & Megan Petersen who also co-star in the story, was sweet and quirky. Two sisters and their autistic brother (Owen Scheid, portraying their brother, is in fact autistic) – plus a platonic friend – embark on a storm chase in an ice cream truck during a drought in North Carolina. A slow start with an inexplicably controlling mom who ends up jailed for selling weed from said truck, builds to a touching character study of both sisters, the brother, and friend on the road. The equivalent of a low-fi record or what is sometimes called mumblecore in films (something producers Jay and Mark Duplass often practice), the dynamic between the two sisters is moving; the portrayal of autism in a dysfunctional family is treated with compassion. Shot in and around Wilmington, N.C., the film ably engages and includes several deeply moving moments insightfully captured.
Goodbye Honey, a part of the midnight series, served up a straightforward horror thriller with two female leads – an exhausted middle-aged truck driver, and a girl whose actions are suspicious, as she flees a kidnapper. Jump-scares, nice acting from the two leads, and a neat third-act twist fuel the limited-location scarer.
Sunday brought a noon-time pleasure with Competition Shorts 4. My favorite was the near-future sci fi of Patch. Director and co-writer Jamie Parslow said “After reading about robots back in the 80s, and then looking at robot art a few years ago, I started building a concept about the aesthetic.” As good as the short looked, it was the richly rewarding story that made me love this one.
The Henchman of Notre Dame, originally birthed through UCB Comedy Theater here in LA, was a lush-looking black and white comic look at what could happen if the titular character, a former hunchback, went looking for a job. The gangster and street gang story, Cagnolino, out of France was gritty and involving, a mini-feature with a strong bite. Also screening in this block: humor and pathos at a charismatic Christian church in Brandi Finds God; the moving father/son relationship and despairing immigration story of Magic Kingdom; and the dark husband/wife revenge comedy, Dead Man Interrupted.
The Sunday evening feature, Paint, written and directed by Michael Walker, followed the travails of three young artists living in New York. Fresh and smart, the look at the art world rang true: I cover a lot of gallery openings, and know a lot of artists. Beautifully acted, funny, poignant, and sharp, it doesn’t surprise me to see the film was the Dances with Films Grand Jury Winner. While Walker is not himself an artist, he knows the scene. The acting was perfect from leads to supporting performances, Joshua Caras, Olivia Luccardi, Paul Cooper, Comfort Clinton, Amy Hargreaves, Daniel Bellomy, Kaliswa Brewster, François Arnaud – all worthy of applause. Deeply felt and fully realized, it was one of my favorites.
On Monday, Competition Shorts 1 had a second showing, and I was glad to partake. The surreal dark humor of one charismatic Egg did not need to make an omelet to be tasty fun. Also screening: Remember When, offered a harrowing take on a young boy left in charge of his willful younger sister; the twisty catfishing story of XoXo Darla; To and From: Crazy in Love or Just Crazy, offered a quick look at a bad relationship in a rideshare. From Mexico, in the strong Nahjum, a prehistoric family searched desperately for a life-giving magic tree, with the tragic consequences serving as a powerful allegory. Yarne was a fascinating look at two boys in a Buddhist monastery, and the dynamics of their friendship.
My feature that night was 12 Days of Christmas, a romantic comedy about two friends becoming one night lovers, and an unplanned pregnancy; it was an enjoyable throw-back to 90s-era teen rom coms.
Tuesday brought feature film Milkwater, my hands-down absolute festival favorite this year. So good I wanted to – and did – see a second showing. Writer director Morgan Ingari (below, upper right) deftly captured a story of loneliness, friendship, sacrifice, and motherhood all rolled into one.
Molly Bernard, in a bravura performance as Milo, decides on a whim to serve as a surrogate mother for an older gay man she meets in a bar. She imagines a different sort of relationship with him that he has to offer, and discovers a lot about herself along the way. Both laugh-out-loud funny and more than capable of drawing tears, it’s a super film that explores character and story equally, with zest. An unexpected delight, this one should be on everyone’s watch list.
Wednesday, Playing with Beethoven had terrific musical performances, captured live on the set. The slight but sweet teen love story centered on rivalry at a school music competition; anything that featured the music glowed for director Jenn Page.
Also on Wednesday, Sightless. A Hitchcockian thriller about a violinist robbed of her sight and in great jeopardy, this was another favorite: seamless, scary, and filled with believable but startling twists. This strong heart-stopper has found a releasing company already with Mar Vista. One of the best scary movies I’ve seen all year – and I’ve rented a lot of them on VOD this pandemic.
Thursday brought me another double bill of features: the gentle, touching Tom of Your Life took us on a day long “life” of a boy who aged four years every hour. Think a reverse indie Benjamin Button. His nurse takes him to Chicago, and along the way he discovers horses, card games, sex, and in the end, love. Cinematography by Chris Rejano was lovely in this film.
Following that film, I watched the eerie Nina of the Woods – in which an aspiring actress takes a supernatural reality crew into the spell-cast woods of her youth. Unconventional structure added resonance.
My lone documentary viewing came on Friday with Bleeding Audio – a vibrant, passionately made story about the rise, fall, and reunion of The Matches. The film rocked out while presenting a fascinating look at today’s digital world of music. This was one I wish I’d seen first screening to catch the Q & A.
Late night, I took in 3 Day Weekend, a Rashomon-like horror featuring a kidnapping, revenge, and plenty of double-crossing twists. A smart way to film low-budget, it was great creepy fun.
Saturday, the Fusion Shorts 2 program was filled with delights.
New Henry was a delightful quick piece about a son helping his mother navigate a first-date following the death of his father. Thin Walls gave us music and super dark comedy between warring neighbors in an apartment building that really should invest in acoustic tiles. Under the Lights intensely moved me: a magical prom story about a boy with epilepsy just trying to feel normal, and the girl whose date cheated on her. Filmmaker Miles Levin himself suffers from epilepsy, and his gift in both storytelling and presenting insight into the illness is keen. Cosmo presents the charming power of a young girl’s imagination; Burnt Toast gives us a quick look at a married couple’s breakfast; Hamurabi gives viewers revenge in the desert from a young deaf woman with big daddy issues. From Azerbaijan, A Woman gives a strong glimpse into the culture of a changing world, from the female perspective; and Do You Have A… is a satirically humorous look at what happens when a put-upon young accountant gets her period at work.
I was able to catch only some of Fusion Shorts 3 due to other obligations, but what I saw, I enjoyed: How Can I Forget was a lyrical and lovely slice of magical realism about a blind date, romantic and sweet. Off Beat, based on a true story, was a terrific tale of ballroom dancing, an overweight pizza delivery guy, and a dance school receptionist. In Other Words presented a post-break-up conversation in which amusing subtitles revealed what the former couple was really thinking. Fantasy Pony presented a satiric collision course between girls in a model horse competition; Basic Witch cast a spell that gave her date a first-hand look at what the word “consent” actually means. Sorry to have missed Red Light, Green Light; Break In; and The Clothing Swap, which were also part of the program.
The feature Souvenirs rolled serial killers, a macabre souvenir shop, and a girl set for college into a small-town-set whodunit.
On Sunday, the Dances with Kidz feature, The Terrible Adventure was a cute live-action contest/chase, with bad-guy ice cream dudes taking on pint-size siblings intent on winning. Fast-moving and cheerful fun for kids under ten.
Beautifully modulated, the closing film of the festival, Before/During/After included a bevy of well-known day-performers in small roles. The main story: a stage actress who wants a baby discovers her husband is cheating on her; divorce is in the cards, but so is friendship and coming into her own.
A virtuoso performance by writer Finnerty Steeves in the lead; smartly co-directed by Stephen Kunken & Jack Lewars, the non-linear script, touching on the power of memory, is intense and touching.
All in all I took in 8 shorts programs and 13 features; for a total of around 40 hours of programming. As always at Dances with Films, the shorts programs were wonderfully strong. Despite indulging in cinematic pleasures at home, I was still unable to achieve my personal goal after 6 years of attending this festival: that goal being to view every single film program. Unfortunately, due to my work schedule, 40+ hours of programming in 10 days was all I could take in. Maybe next year.
Huge kudos to everyone at DWF 2020 for making at-home viewing a great pleasure. The Q & A’s were fun and easy to view; the virtual lobby feature was seamless, too.
Check out the DWF trailer link to see what you missed here. Longer reviews of some of my favorites are forthcoming.
- Genie Davis; photos: screen shots – Genie Davis; film stills courtesy of DWF
