Above, director and stars of The Salton Sea.
DWF19 has – as Dances with Films does every year – presented a wide slate of films, some absolutely awe-inspiringly wonderful. The variety of narrative films, documentaries, shorts, music videos, and kids programming alone should make film-lovers flock to the festival, and the chance to see some truly transcendent cinema in the mix is something to really celebrate.
This week screenings included The Salton Sea, director Veena Sud’s two-hander about an alcoholic wandering the desert (Jamie Anne Allman) and the hitchhiker (Diarra Kilpatrick) she reluctantly picks up after what may have been a hit and run. As eerie and exotic as its setting, one which we are personally very familiar with, this unusual redemption story has an ending which surprises and resonates in a film that works both as visual poetry and narrative story telling.
Allman had recently had a baby, and director Sud accommodated during the seven day, two-weekend shoot, providing an air-conditioned truck following behind the actresses to support Allman and her baby. “It was wonderful,” Allman attests, “I had the support of work with women who did not mind working with a new mom.”
Sud describes the film as a “kind of f-d up My Dinner with Andre, a forced intimacy between the two women with a lot of dialog.” Shot on a Sony F-3 and budgeted at $70,000, the elegaic beauty of the film’s locations in Niland, Calipatria, and the sea itself was itself a third character. Sud chose her actors carefully. “I’ve watched Jamie Anne in The Shield, I cast her in The Killing, I knew I wanted her for this. Diana, I saw in the play The Interlopers, and I knew she was the one.”
Singapore Sling writer/producer Neto DePaula Pimenta and director Marcus Sigrist with DP Ivan Rodrigues, above.
Singapore Sling is revelatory cinema. Writer/producer Neto DePaula Pimenta and director Marcus Sigrist assembled a stellar cast: Cinthya Hussey, Samuel de Assis, Angelica di Paula, and Neto DePaula Pimenta himself in a brilliant depiction of what happens when two former lovers reconnect – and bring along their current significant others. The Brazillian film is absolutely gorgeous, with DP Ivan Rodrigues crafting something exceptional in every scene. “It’s all about the integrity of style. We did long takes with the characters in perspectives, we used steadycam, mirrors bouncing into the house for light, no articifical lighting. I just had to figure it out and commit to it. It’s hard to shoot dialog heavy scenes, to decide what you are going to do with the camera. We had to figure out how the actors would walk and block their movements. Each day we’d block the next day’s shoot.”
Pimenta adds “I got Ivan involved by the time Marcus and I had finished the script. it worked because he was a part of the movie, we’ve worked together for years and I knew it would not be static of theater-like.”
Almost unbelievable that this gorgeous and emotionally charged film was shot in just eight days for $15,000.
“It started off with Marcus calling me and suggesting we make a movie with very little resources. We’ve known each other since 6th grade,” Pimenta says.
“Oiriginally, Neto wasn’t planning to be in the film, but we needed a fourth actor and he ended up playing Bruno,” Sigrist says.
“I loved creating a film without a standard Hollywood ending,” Pimenta adds. “I’m a big admirer of films like The Graduate.” Don’t miss this film.
Above, cast and crew of I Live For You.
I Live For You was originally going to be an entirely different film, according to this quirky, very dark comedy mystery’s director, Monika Wesley. “We were originally going to be shooting a project called Great Barrington, a more standard mystery.” But her co-writer, Brandon Zinn, “got bored.”
Instead they decided, according to Zinn, to make something “weird and twisted.”
“We had no money,” Wesley attests, “we were just two people who wanted to make a movie. We pared it down, we shot for as minimal amount as we could, and spent a month just rehearsing. Casting was super important, just really important to have terrific, charming actors because we got a lot of notes that otherwise our characters were despicable.”
Both despicable and charming are Sean (Rob Hook) and Kate (Hannah Telle) as two people who meet through a complex plot involving a dead father, an unknown half brother, a suicide-wish, and so much more. No spoilers here, but this LA set love story is kind of an anti-rom/com. Telle is a singer-songwriter as well as an actress, and her musical skills become instrinsic to the plot. Taut and funny, the film’s unexpected twists and turns keeps both audience and its characters on their toes.
Also viewed: Writer/Director Jake Hulse crafts the tale of two boyfriend friends who decide to the do the patriotic thing and enlist after 9/11 in Heroes Don’t Come Home. One goes, one stays, a strong bond remains between the conflicted heroes, primarily set in rural Maine.
More reviews of more – of course – exciting films and festival summary posting soon. See you at the movies!