Film

Burn Down The Barriers: Some World Cinema At Sundance 2012

Review by John Esther

The third Thursday of every year, filmmakers, cineastes, film critics, film buffs, partygoers, aspiring film producers, and noted heads of “independent” studios descend on Park City, Utah (and other parts of the “Beehive State”) for the annual Sundance Film Festival. The most important film festival in America, as well as the most important independent film festival in the world, Sundance sets the pace for the year as to what films will be highlighted in subsequent film festivals and what films makes the Indie Spirit Awards slate at the end of the year.

This does not necessarily mean films coming out of Sundance are good—and some years are better than others—yet it does largely determine the amount of exposure a non-Hollywood film will receive. If you attend other film festivals or watch independent films, here are seven cinematic texts you can expect to see at an upcoming film festival or independent-friendly venue sometime this year.

Escape Fire: The Fight to Rescue American Healthcare – Seeming, and streaming, like a public health service announcement running on a continuous loop, Matthew Heineman and Susan Froemke’s documentary interviews one professional expert after another —such as Dr. Wayne Jonas, President and CEO of the Samueli Institute; General David Fridovich, Deputy of the U.S. Special Forces; Dr. Andrew Weil, Founder of the University of Arizona Center for Integrative Medicine; etc. They also present personal stories of several sick people—i.e., Army Sgt. Robert Yates and short-order cook Roy Litton—to tell us what many of us already know: in America disease and decay are more profitable than healing and health. Medication, surgery, and fast visits to the doctor are the prescriptions of choice. In other words, we have a disease care system not a healthcare system. It is a story many of us have heard several times before.

The documentary cuts up the pharmaceutical-health industry with the precision of surgeon’s scalpel. However, why and how the system seems to be just about dead appears to be news to some because Heineman and Froemke’s documentary provoked a lot of outrage at Sundance. After each Sundance screening, angry, yet agreeable, testimony for the film came from  members in the audience.

Father’s Chair – Just because a film screens at Sundance does not necessarily mean it will have liberal leanings, much less progressive. Co-written and directed by Luciano Moura, this Brazilian film follows a husband, Theo (Wagner Moura), and wife, Branca (Mariana Lima), who have drifted apart over the years. Both are doctors who are incapable of articulating their feelings adequately. Arguments about love and household items remain unresolved. As she makes plans to leave him, the couple’s life is thrown into chaos when their son, Pedro (Brás Antunes) disappears. For those anticipating another intense film about kidnapping in South America, rest assured it is far less thrilling that that. Pedro has not been kidnapped. He is on a horse to some yet unknown destination. As Theo searches for Pedro, he encounters a series of banal adventures: loud poor families; a stubborn old “coot” who will not let him borrow his cell phone; and a flakey young woman having a baby down by the river (good thing there is a doctor in the house). It seems life outside their comfortable cocoon is crazy. Thank goodness we get a happy conclusion where the bourgeois family has been restored to its natural dynamic—replete with a brand new swimming pool—and with everyone a little bit wiser and a lot happier.

Luv – Woody (Michael Rainey Jr.) is a smart yet typical 11-year-old kid who happens to live with his grandmother (Lonette McKee) and Uncle Vincent (Common) in Baltimore while his mother gets her act together. Rather than take him to school as promised, one Friday morning Vincent decides to teach Woody some “real-worlds shit” by letting his nephew accompany his recently-paroled uncle (who happens to have a nice Mercedes) for the day. Commencing as an exciting adventure