Film Journey

I’ve recently seen two significant films from Asia, Ming Nguyen-Vo’s Buffalo Boy (Vietnam, 2004) and Liu Jiayin’s Oxhide (China, 2005). While their details differ, similarities abound: both films are feature debuts by their respective filmmakers; both explore the impact of family trades (involving cattle) on the individuals that comprise them; and both are set in specific locales recorded in striking, elliptical ways. And both are available on DVD–Buffalo Boy was released in North America a few weeks ago; Oxhide should be out (with English subtitles?) from MK2’s CinÈma DÈcouverte in France, but it looks as if it might’ve …

Threnody…

Last night, the REDCAT screened some works by avant-garde filmmaker Nathaniel Dorsky (who was in attendance), and my own pre-show experience set the tone. Hopping out of the downtown Los Angeles subway near dusk, I was only one of a handful of pedestrians walking up the steep hill on 1st Street; suddenly thousands of immigrants began pouring over the crest of the hill a few blocks away, parading joyously past me with flags waving in an endless stream of solidarity. It was an impressive moment, and not unlike the experience of watching a Dorsky film: a heretofore obscure or …

Falsch

My last day in Toronto was exceptional. Not only was I able to see the two remaining documentaries in the Dardenne series, but James Quandt and his colleagues graciously screened me the Dardennes’ first two features prior to La Promesse (1996). (The Cinematheque will publicly screen the features later this month.) The Cinematheque’s staffers logged 35 hours creating the subtitles for the documentaries, which ultimately only sold a few dozen tickets. By contrast, the Cinematheque’s screening of L’Enfant today, which opens commercially in Toronto next week, sold out. Quandt mused, “The program that takes the greatest effort, money, and …