Film Festival Coverage Hub - Reviews & Recaps

Landfall – Los Angeles Latino International Film Festival 2021

Landfall is a political film imbued with anger at the current state of Puerto Rico. It captures life in the aftermath of Hurricane Maria, choosing to depict the current post-Hurricane tragedies instead of the actual Hurricane, and setting them within the history of U.S. imperialism. In doing so, Landfall presents a critique of disaster capitalism (see Naomi Klein’s Shock Doctrine) and the U.S. stranglehold on Puerto Rico and it’s ineffectual politicians.

That being said, the actual footage isn’t inherently political. Each scene from each part of the island is shot observationally without any directorial input or opinion. For example, the profile on the wealthy real estate family by itself doesn’t include any tough questions for the family or a political lens. However, by moving between these profiles of wealthy families and crypto-billionaires and profiles of rural farmers struggling to make a living and activists protesting the governor, the film becomes political. It juxtaposes the increasingly wealthy with the increasingly poor to highlight the growing inequality on the island. And by jumping around the country to visit a range of communities, Aldarondo shows that this inequality is endemic to all parts of the country.

One of the most memorable snapshots captures the arrival of U.S. crypto billionaires. They’ve arrived on the island cloaked in good intentions with promises for employment and wealth via the blockchain. However, when confronted by locals on their similarities with the white American imperialists that preceded them their benevolent facade crumbles. One represents the danger of a white savior – talking down on the locals as if he’s the only one that can solve their issues – whilst another represents the cultural eradication of cultural appropriation in her dreaded hair. Cut with scenes documenting the history of U.S. imperialism and speakers pressing Puerto Rico to privatize the country to encourage foreign investment and the warning signs are clear. Puerto Rico is on the brink of being re-colonized by wealthy Americans looking for a clean tax-haven for their millions. Their arrival is a threat to indigenous Puerto Rican life.

Landfall is made as an urgent warning to the precarious situation on the island. Just like Zuckerberg’s land grabs in Hawaii, and the privatization of post-Katrina New Orleans, post-Maria Puerto Rico is arriving at its own tipping point. Fortunately there is some hope that indigenous way of life prevails, represented in the people protesting the Governor, the community schools, and the family standing up to real estate in Vieques. The fight for Puerto Rico isn’t quite over.

Head to our LALIFF 2021 Hub for more reviews from the 20th edition of LALIFF.

Trenque Lauquen – AFI Fest 2022

If you’re ready to sit down for a few hours to indulge yourself in some cosy, trivial Argentine mysteries, meet the latest film from El Pampero Cine, Trenque Lauquen.

Trenque Lauquen comes from Laura Citarella, one of the members of El Pampero Cine, a group of filmmakers which also includes Mariano Llinas (La Flor, Extraordinary Stories), Agustin Mendilaharzu, and Alejo Moguilansky. Each of the members of the collective usually pop up in the credits of each other films under different roles, making each of the collective’s films feel like a team effort. They each also use the same actors, so if you’ve seen another of their films before, you’re likely to see a familiar face in this one.

Trenque Lauquen, like it’s El Pampero Cine predecessors, isn’t a light commitment. It’s just over 4 hours long, split roughly equally into two sections which are both tied together by Laura’s character. The entire film takes place in Trenque Lauquen, a city on the far west border of Buenos Aires province near La Pampa. It looks like a pretty unremarkable city, with nothing to really distinguish it from anywhere else in Argentina. However the blandness is all part of the film’s construct. As with the majority of films from the El Pampero Cine collective, Trenque Lauquen uses the mundane as a foundation for it’s engrossing mysteries.

Put best by Magu Fernandez Richeri for La Lista:

El Pampero’s films are, at their core, fairly simple. There aren’t any extraordinary premises, but they also work as tiny odysseys. Characters embark on fantastical adventures where the mundane is re-signified as something strange, new, and magical. The strangeness with which Pampero approaches the world is inherently transformational. Any and all minutiae represents a good excuse for them to tell a story as if we as the audience were kids listening in rapt attention, trying to keep us from seeing the world in its drab normality, allowing us to perceive things differently and hatch crazy schemes.

Trenque Lauquen, like La Flor and Extraordinary Stories, feels like indulgent storytelling. It’s as if the filmmakers of El Pampero Cine have been challenging each other to come up with new quirky mysteries to keep audiences interested for longer periods of time. They haven’t seemed to hit their limits yet as each of their last few films have kept audiences interested just to see where the mysteries lead us. Each of their films is like following a maze or river cruise full of pleasant surprises. Plus the pacing and characters are conducive to our immersion in the mystery; they’re both always patient and never rushed. They create the relaxed environment to let the mystery lead us along. Serious things happen in these films, but because of the tone, it never feels real-world serious. This is why these films are indulgent storytelling – they’re there to simply entertain and nothing more, and they do this better than anyone else in the industry.

Head to our AFI Fest 2022 Hub for more reviews from AFI Fest 2022.

2020 Santa Barbara International Film Festival (SBIFF)

The Santa Barbara International is officially underway! Whilst Sundance (Utah) and Rotterdam (The Netherlands) capture most of the film industry’s attention in January, Santa Barbara draws in a load of movie fans. There won’t be any major studio deals happening here, but there is an impressive slate of local and global films.

I’ll be attempting to cover the majority of the film offerings outside of Europe and Northern America, including the Latin American and International competitions. So expect to see a few quick fire reviews on this site over the next week from the international competitions. I’ll also aim to write up a recap of everything else I see at the festival and at home on screeners, which also gives you a brief overview to how the festival works. Bring on the films.

Best Shorts AFI Fest 2021 – Four of the Most Memorable Short Films

Just like the 2020 edition of AFI Fest, AFI Fest 2021 had some great shorts available to view on the online platform throughout the duration of the festival. This year’s mix ranged from multi-media animation featured in Love, Dad and H.A.G.S. to documentaries about death (The Death Cleaner), and travelled from Singapore (Strawberry Cheesecake) to Sudan (Al-Sit). Here are four of the Best Shorts from AFI Fest 2021. Look out for them on streaming platforms and other film festivals in the near future.

Best Shorts AFI Fest 2021

Love, Dad (Czech Republic)

In Love, Dad, the director Diana Cam Van Nguyen finds some letters of love her estranged dad wrote years ago. She uses a mix of styles to help process her emotions. The quickly narrated diary style gives the film a constantly moving stream-of-consciousness to keep her emotions flowing whilst the mixed-in animation allows her to speak about her relationship with some emotional distance. Much like last year’s winner Tiger and Ox in which a daughter identifies with her strict mother through animation, Van Nguyen manages to forgive her absent dad with the help of the comfort of animation.

Zonder Meer (Belgium)

Zonder Meer perfectly captures youthful summer holiday vibes at a Belgian camp-site. The camerawork brings us down to 5 year old Lucie’s innocent kid curiosity and the grainy colors give off a nostalgic warmth. However, the patient editing and 360 audio gradually expose us to the tragedy unfolding on the edge of Lucie’s consciousness: a boy has disappeared and may have drowned. Whilst Lucie quietly continues her explorations with other kids her age, the adults, unprotected from reality worry for the missing kid and their family.

Her Dance (Israel)

Bar Cohen’s Her Dance follows Aya, a Trans Woman, as she surprises her sister and Orthodox Jewish family at their house on Shabbat night. Because of her appearance, she’s met with scorn by her mother and sidelined by her family. However, the more she’s pushed away, the more determined she feels to stay. This lends an uneasy tension to the short which culminates in a memorable dancing scene (pictured above) and duel with her mother amongst a cheering circle of guests.

BabyBangz (U.S.)

Anastasia Ebel’s BabyBangz captures a hairdressing salon in New Orleans specializing in natural hair. While this might sound pretty mundane, this is no ordinary hairdressing salon. These hairdressers offer a complete experience, offering you world advice of a therapist and educational lessons with book recommendations in addition to a unique haircut. The tone of the movie matches the inspiring content. It features ethereal piano scales layered into the soundtrack (much like in Garrett Bradley’s Time) and an artistic mix of close ups and people living in and around the salon mimicking the style of Khalil Joseph. Both the salon and the film will inspire you to start something.

Head to our AFI Fest 2021 Hub for more reviews and short films from AFI Fest 2021.

Taming the Garden – Sundance Film Festival 2021

Taming the Garden is a slow documentary about a billionaire’s project to create a garden of the grandest trees in his country. Bidzina Ivanishvili, the billionaire, and former Prime Minister of Georgia, is the invisible villain of this film, as we follow the construction teams that uproot trees around the country and transport them across seas to his home.

As you’d expect from the poster, the visuals in Taming the Garden are almost unbelievable. It’s not often that you see huge old trees floating on the sea or driven down country roads. These images are more than enough to keep you engaged with the slow pace of the rest of the film. However, it’s a shame most viewers weren’t able to see it on the big screen.

The slow pace of the film shows no sign of a director. Instead, the focus is on the people on the construction team and the local people affected by their project. In between the shots of the trees we hear the conversations and opinions of the locals. It exposes us to a bit of the Georgian psyche – that what’s happening is just another cruel fate that they can’t avoid. Their complaints sound like a group of neighbors gossiping about their hated neighbor.

You can understand why they’re complaining. This invisible billionaire is buying and disappearing the most beautiful trees from their neighborhoods. They’re all trees that have taken centuries to grow, trees with sentimental value, that hold memories from their childhood. Whether it’s taken for granted or not prior to their removal, they give some sort of happiness to the local communities. Their removal therefore uproots some of the memories and happiness it holds, leaving an empty feeling in it’s place. In contrast to the time it takes for these huge trees to grow, Ivanishvili shows that money can quickly take them away.

The kicker of this movie comes in the final scene, when we finally get to see Ivanishvili’s garden. Ivanishvili is still nowhere to be seen. The only people we can see are gardeners patrolling the humongous property in golf carts. They’re the only people that see the beauty of the trees now, and now that they’re placed by so many other beautiful trees, they hardly stand out.

That’s not to say the garden isn’t beautiful. It is. The place, shrouded in mist, appears like a tree heaven that these trees have been transported to in their old age. The immense wealth of Ivanishvili has given him the power to create a garden of Eden. He’s created a garden in a few years which should have taken centuries to create. That it exists, demonstrates the power of a billionaires impatience. And that it exists alongside the rural poverty he’s taken them from highlights the inequality in the country.