Satire, drama on display from the WFG
Latest showcase of local film talent a mixed bag
Dylan Ferguson
The Winnipeg Film Group has been tilling the cinematic fields of Winnipeg all year, and Cinematheque has harvested seven shorts sown by local celluloid (or digital) farmers to display in its latest showcase.
Some are a little rank and a couple are fresh, but there’s plenty of variety in this bumper crop of prairie talent. Fertilized in an ever-growing culture of independent film, it’s not surprising that satire is the theme for a number of these picks, while a couple have gone for a more realist approach that defies the established notions of screwy “prairie cinema.”
The first film on display, Mike Reisacher’s Porcelain Dreams, is not one of the satires, but it may as well be, seeing as it resembles every second independent short since David Lynch. Shot on distorted black-and-white 16mm, the film is about a man haunted by memories of his childhood (and a giant porcelain doll); it does create an atmosphere, in spite of its lack of originality.
The same cannot be said of the second short, the tobacco industry spoof Blow Me, which, frankly, would still be embarrassing if it was made by a high-school student. Even a brief satire of Jean-Luc Godard can’t make this silly, stupid comedy any more intelligent.
Most of the films on display have never been seen before outside the Film Group, though a couple have had prior screenings. Danishka Esterhazy’s The Snow Queen has been screened a few times this year, so it may already be familiar to local film-hounds. It’s an icy coming-of-age story of a fantasizing child, which was interesting enough to win the NSI Zed Drama Prize.
Next in the line-up is a well-acted but rather perplexing post-Cassavettes entry, Juliette at 2:15, which features a couple quoting Romeo and Juliette in barely-audible whispers during a casting call.
This is followed by the greatest satiric triumph of the bunch. A hilarious send-up of silent comedy, How Spoony B Got his Ho Back is a spot-on tip of the wide-brimmed pimp hat to Chaplin and Keaton. First-time director Jonathan Ball deftly imitates the style of 20s comedy to follow the vulgar exploits of “the Pimp King of Winnipeg,” replete with pimp-speak dialogue inserts. It’s original and pricelessly funny.
Life Happens, a semi-comedy about a has-been or never-been street poet, has a funny scene in a beat café where all the patrons applaud an act by coolly snapping their fingers instead of clapping, creating an unenthusiastic atmosphere. But the movie, starring Ryan Black, really has nothing else to its credit.
The final film is definitely the blue-ribbon winner of the crop. Salt Pillar is remarkably well -directed by Daniel Eskin, a Jewish man who grew up in a family ripe with Holocaust survival stories. Here he has created one of his own. Salt Pillar follows a grimacing German concentration-camp escapee (Grae McHughs) trudging through a muddy countryside as he encounters other Jewish survivors on a journey to his home town, where he plans to commit suicide.
Eskin does right what almost all these other filmmakers do wrong — he resists the urge to add a musical score to his images and shows no desire to be clever. All he does is concentrate on directing and crafting a story that is sparse, unsympathetic and very good.
Though this collection’s line-up is hardly great, it shows there is some real local talent in the Film Group. Cinematographer Jonathan Edwards, for instance, shows great ability and versatility in his work for three of these films — Porcelain Dreams, Juliette at 2:15, and The Salt Pillar. Local actor Milton Bruchanski, who was in Porcelain and Juliette, also displays real talent.
Of the seven picks, I would really only call two — Spoony B and The Salt Pillar — good films. But when you consider that both those shorts were by first-time directors, the Film Group seems to have some good seeds at its disposal. With a little weeding, they could germinate great prospects for the future.
The short collection will screen Nov. 26, 27 and 28, but the Friday screening is for Winnipeg Film Group members only.
