2012 SBIFF Wraps Up

“And that’s a wrap” for the 27th Santa Barbara International Film Festival. A bittersweet farewell. It was a most enjoyable time for the locals, the celebrities, the fans, and even the tourists that just happen to stumble upon the Festival while visiting Santa Barbara. Closing night at the Arlington Theater on Sunday was quiet and simple, unlike all of the craziness of the past week. There was no Red Carpet, no celebrities, no fan-lined barricades, just the closing night film “Where Do We Go Now” being screened.

For the past week and a half, the Festival has seen panels, tributes, and movie screening from all over the world. It kicked off with the film “My Darling Companion” followed by the Outstanding Performer of the Year and Modern Master awards. That same weekend, Samuel L. Jackson made a brief appearance at the Lobero Theater to premiere his new movie “The Samaritan.” Fellow actor and funny man, David Koechner, was also in attendance. Santa Barbara welcomed Martin Scorsese Monday night to present him with the American Riviera Award. “Samsara” was this year’s centerpiece film, and was screened Wednesday night.

Demián Bichir (A Better Life), Rooney Mara (The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo), Patton Oswalt (Young Adult), Andy Serkis (Rise of the Planet of the Apes), and Shailene Woodley (The Descendants), graciously accepted their Virtuosos Award Friday night. The only no-show was Melissa McCarthy (Bridesmaids) who was ill and resting but sent a heartfelt letter, which Entertainment Today’s Dave Karger read to the audience. Karger did a fantastic job as moderator for the Q&A interviews. All Virtuosos were a delight to see on stage but it was Patton Oswalt who had the audience laughing hard. Oswalt, who is well known for playing Spence in sitcom King of Queens, provided an enjoyable and very entertaining night with perfectly timed one-liners and witty remarks. Andy Serkis, the go-to motion capture actor for filmmakers, decided to come out for his Q&A shirtless to a cheering crowd. Serkis treated the audience to his famous Ceasar pose from Rise of the Planet of the Apes. Chris Weitz, A Better Life director, presented each recipient with their own Virtuosos Award. The 3-hour awards extravaganza could not have been any more fun to attend. The Vanguard Awards, the following night, saw The Artist’s Jean Dugardin, and Bérénice Bejo as this year’s recipients.

There were many great films and documentaries from around the globe, but there were three particular movies that stood out to me as being either groundbreaking and/or providing a fresh take on genres that have been done to death. Venezuela’s The Rumble of the Stones, The Samaritan, and Sassy Pants were the three winners in my book and I strongly commend the filmmakers of those movies for all of their hard work in creating a cinematic experience that surpassed my wildest expectations.

Indeed, this year’s Santa Barbara International Film Festival offered many great moments that will be forever engrained in the minds of all those that participated in it. SBIFF’s Executive Director Roger Durling said that numbers are still being tallied up but that all indications point to another great successful year from the Film Festival, especially to the local economic impact it provides. Let’s all raise our champagne glass and welcome the 28th Santa Barbara International Film Festival peeking just around the corner.

SBIFF will be offering free screenings of the most popular movies at the Riviera Theater. Check out the schedule here.

Click here to see photos of the 27th Santa Barbara International Film Festival.

SBIFF: The Tributes

With only three days left in the 27th Santa Barbara International Film Festival, the party is still fully raging as Hollywood and television stars continue to arrive for the Film Festival’s tributes. This past week, fans lined the barricades and the media all stood alongside the Red Carpet as the recipients of the Outstanding Performer of the Year, Modern Master, and the Riviera Awards arrived on site.

The evening’s celebration consists of a professionally produced film montage of the honoree’s body of work, a live on-stage interview hosted by an acclaimed film personality and ultimately the presentation of the award and the honoree’s acceptance speech.

Viola Davis was presented on Friday with Outstanding Performer of the Year, which is an award created to honor the actor or actress whose role in a film has exceeded greatness. Viola Davis stood out from the rest with powerful performances in 2011 including her portrayal of Aibileen Clark in “The Help.” Past recipients include actors such as James Franco, Penelope Cruz, and Angelina Jolie.

On Saturday, the Red Carpet rolled out for the Modern Master Award recipient, Christopher Plummer. This award was created in 1995 and is considered the highest honor the Santa Barbara International Film Festival can bestow. It honors an individual who has enriched our culture through accomplishments in the motion picture industry. Plummer’s most recent work includes “The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo” where he plays the character of Henrik Vanger alongside Daniel Craig and Academy Award Nominee, Rooney Mara. Fellow actor, Billy Zane, was also in attendance. Past recipients of this award include: Christopher Nolan, James Cameron, Clint Eastwood, Cate Blanchett, Will Smith, George Clooney and Peter Jackson.

The stars shone brightly Monday night as Director Martin Scorsese arrived at the famed Arlington Theater to receive this year’s American Riviera Award. Actor Ben Kingsley, who had worked with Scorsese on “Shutter Island”, arrived in style to form part of this coveted affair. The American Riviera Award is given to recipients for outstanding achievement in American film. As with all of the tributes, a montage, which included clips of Scorsese’s work throughout the decades, was shown. A Q&A on-stage-interview with Scorsese provided the audience with many amusing moments as they got to know one of America’s most influential film directors on a more intimate level. Past recipients: Annette Bening, Sandra Bullock, Mickey Rourke, Tommy Lee Jones, Forest Whitaker and Philip Seymour Hoffman.

The Virtuosos Award and the Cinema Vanguard Award will be presented later this week.

“My Life” Review

As the Santa Barbara International Film Festival draws to a close, it goes without saying that although there have been many great films, there are always those “sour apples” that seem to never reach their full potential. Youth CineMedia’s “My Life” is one of these.

Shot in high definition, this documentary is composed of several stories by incarcerated youth in Albuquerque, New Mexico at a correctional facility called Camino Nuevo. With a mix of popular songs, photo/video montages, and interviews, these youth give a brief summary of their lives before and after being incarcerated…right from their cell. With an interesting premise however, soon we find ourselves watching a documentary that has no story arch, no climax, no ending, no real plot. “My Life” seems to want to reach the surface for air but at the last second is pulled back down without even catching one single breath. It would have been better if after nearly 45 minutes of listening to these teens talk about themselves, we would at least get a purpose or some inspiring message to leave the audience with at the end.

“My Life” suffers from cheesy editing at times and aspect ratio issues. The aspect ratio changes at times without there being any motivation to do so. I will say this, the photography and lighting are really good. This documentary has a lot of potential that it unfortunately did not reach. Perhaps with a little bit more carefully crafted plotline this documentary could have been truly inspiring.

SCREENING AT SBIFF: Sunday February 6, 10AM at the Lobero Theater.

“Bringing King to China” Review

Decades after Martin Luther King Jr.’s assassination, his legacy still lives on and his message of peace and nonviolence continues to be very relevant in present times. Journalist and filmmaker Kevin McKiernan shows us in “Bringing King to China” just how important it is to keep King’s views, dreams and aspirations for the human race alive, and how they apply to our daily life.

This film documents the journey of McKiernan’s adult daughter whose goal is to put on a play in China about Martin Luther King Jr. in hopes that King’s message will build a bridge and open up dialogue between the United States and China. Cáitrín, the protagonist of the film, faces many obstacles in bringing about King’s message to China but she never gives up, and even with all of her struggles she manages to stay positive even during her most frustrating moments. Just when you think she has overcome one obstacle suddenly another one pops up. The audience is holding on to their seats as they wonder how Cáitrín will resolve her next problem, and there simply is not a dull moment in this documentary as each event that comes to pass in the film finds a resolution that gives the audience the opportunity to exhale for the time being.

It is very interesting to see how the very play that is meant to inspire a new dialogue and tolerance between peoples of different cultures is bringing about confusion, widening the bridge of misunderstanding and creating a disconnect between the people putting on the play. Problem’s plaguing the play include: a director that is on the verge of quitting due to artistic differences, a Chinese producer that gets upset when certain things are not to his satisfaction and blames Cáitrín for it, an assistant that is afraid to do what is right and in the process jeopardizes his friendship with Cáitrín, and the list goes on and on. In essence, there is a lot of intolerance and misunderstanding amongst the people putting on the play. However, as the play progresses, King’s message transcends the different barriers in language and cultures and actually allows the play makers to resolve their differences and work as one team to make, what seemed impossible, possible.

“Bringing King to China” does not hold back on the gore when showing clips of the casualties of war. These clips tend to be very graphic in nature. The juxtaposition of video clips showing Cáitrín’s childhood in a more innocent time and a war torn world of intolerance and violence, gives the audience the contrast needed to see what can be and what is. Furthermore, this documentary is a father’s attempt to reconnect with his daughter after a long time of being absent from her side. He went from having his baby girl travel with him in his journalistic assignments to Cáitrín growing up and becoming independent. Documenting Cáitrín’s road to putting on this play results in a mutual bond with in-depth dialogues about life, past and present.

The film has comedic moments and very mild language. There are shots in “Bringing King to China” that do not look professionally shot, however, these amateur-like shots contribute to the overall rawness feel of the documentary, and aides the audience in truly connecting with it for what it is. The music hits just at the right times. The editing moves the narrative flawlessly. The sit down interviews add more background and meat to the film. I highly recommend “Bringing King to China” to everyone. A must-see.

Q&A SESSION WITH THE FILMMAKERS:

After the film, in conjunction with the huge audience applause, the filmmakers graced the stage for a Q&A session that was very inspiring and eye opening. Kevin McKiernan stated that the film took four years to make and between 400 and 500 hours of video were shot. When asked why China was chosen as the host of this play Cáitrín said: “After the invasion of Iraq, there was a lot of anti-American sentiment in China.” She further added that the goal of the play was to build trust between two nations, between peoples of different backgrounds, and opening a line of communication by using Martin Luther King Jr.’s message.

A question addressed was whether Cáitrín was happy with the outcome of the film and play. In her response she concluded that she was happy with the final product, however, the message she intended to bring to China was not was she was expecting people to receive or take with them. What she meant was that King’s message was going to be interpreted in different ways as they applied to each audience member and how they perceived the message. “I was less interested in the message and more interested in the dialogue,” Cáitrín added.

One of the questions on people’s minds was how was the experience in shooting in China? Was there a lot of bureaucratic challenges? Were people angered by having a camera being put in front of their faces? Was there a lot of censorship that the Chinese government imposed? The filmmakers’ response was simply put that although there were a lot of cultural differences “the Chinese people were very welcoming for the most part,” and the play was uncensored.

Martin Luther King Jr.’s play ran for five performances in China and is now being translated into Arabic to be played around the Arab world such as Jerusalem and the West Bank.

ADDITIONAL SCREENINGS AT SBIFF: Wednesday February 2, 4:00 PM at the Santa Barbara Museum of Art.

WATCH THE TRAILER AND VISIT THE WEBSITE: www.bringingkingtochina.com

Bringing King to China

By Day and By Night (De Día y de Noche) Review

Director Alejandro Molina gives us a futuristic look of how things would be if overpopulation were controlled by manipulating people’s DNA so that half of the population lived during the day while the other half lived during the night in this Mexican Sci-Fi Drama.

The plot is very simple, a woman named Aurora (Sandra Echeverría) has a child but has no idea where she is. Urbano (Manuel Balbi), a scientist, encounters an unknown child and takes her under his guardianship. At the same time, Doctor Prol who has worked on an enzyme that segregates the population, must prove to his superiors that this enzyme has faults and human emotion cannot be revoked. This to save his own life. In the process, he unwillingly becomes a villain in the story. Now, with the help of Urbano, Aurora must devise a way to reunite with her daughter Luna who has inexplicably changed shifts (Luna now lives during the night) before time runs out and are exiled from the Great Metropolis they have been accustomed to. How can Aurora, Luna, and Urbano coexist in worlds divided by Night and Day?

The cinematography is amazing. The dialogue very sophisticated yet simple to understand, however, the absence of dialogue in this film is also very important and carried a heavy impact. In fact, the last 20 or so minutes of the film contains no dialogue whatsoever. When asked why he decided to finish the movie devoid of dialogue, Molina simply said: “Silence might be a good thing for us.” Furthermore, the motif of Day and Night is used wonderfully to illustrate the division between people yet at the same time how powerful it is when uniting people as seen in the eclipse scene.

The actors do a fantastic job in their respective roles. I was very impressed with the acting of the little girl that portrayed Luna. Amazing acting. Echeverría, a well known telenovela actress in Latin America, looks beautiful in this film and definitely connects with the audience through her performance.

The film does not come without its cons. It is very slow in getting to the point. There is rarely any action. Not a clear pursuit by the villains of the film. And one of the biggest drawbacks is that there’s no sense of time and place. All the audience knows is that the story takes place in a futuristic society on a location referred to as the Great Metropolis. Also, there are many long takes so if you are one of those people that get impatient quickly, this will definitely get a bit annoying. The audience is not given too much background information on the film’s characters and their names are known only on a first name basis. In fact, one can say the film concentrates only on the “here and now.”

Several themes come into play. Hope, Family Values, Perseverance, Love, Free Will, etc. The failure of the leaders that are running this society in eradicating human emotion and anything related to it shows just how powerful the human mind and person is, and how unique we all are as individuals. I have to say, this film is so creative and intelligent with its theme or themes that this is not for all audiences. Furthermore, the ending will not please everyone. The film has an open ending leaving it up to the audience to decide what happens to the characters in particular the protagonists of the movie. This is not bad by all means but it may frustrate some people who just sat through 90 minutes waiting for the happy Hollywood ending that may or may not have come. If you give this film a chance you may be pleasantly surprised.

SCREENINGS AT SBIFF: Monday January 31, 2PM at Metro 4 Theater IV in Santa Barbara.

WATCH THE TRAILER:

By Day and By Night

Q&A With Alejandro Molina

Alejandro Molina was gracious enough to stay after the film to answer some questions. He revealed that “By Day and By Night” took him 7 years to make with the help of the Mexican government due mostly to budget issues. Sci-Fi movies are not too common in Mexico and the fan base for this film are not too flattering as Molina put it. Really, the film’s success is found outside of Mexico. Molina stated that the inspiration behind this film came to him ten years ago when the Mexican government divided workers’ shifts in the public transportation system to have construction happening by night as well as day in hopes that this would maximize productivity. Molina also said that when he envisioned the futuristic society of the Great Metropolis portrayed in “By Day and By Night,” he turned to Mexico’s ancient past when big, heavy stone boulders adorned cities. This is especially evident in the exterior metropolis shots. Molina shed light on what he was trying to convey in the film and explained in detail some of the film’s more indigestible moments, but of course I will not reveal that. This film is simply a must see if you are into movies that make you actually think.

Patisserie Coin de Rue Review

Is it French? Is it American? No, it’s a Japanese film directed by Yoshihiro Fukagawa that will leave audiences of all ethnicities and backgrounds with a delightful treat and sweet aftertaste that will have you coming back for more.

This is definitely one of the best films Japan has produced and released this year. It follows the story of Natzume (portrayed by Yu Aoi), a small town girl who travels to Tokyo, Japan in search of her sweetheart, and Tomura (Yosuke Eguchi), a brilliant patissier who suddenly and inexplicably left the world of pastry. The worlds of these two characters will collide in dramatic, tense, and at times comedic moments changing their lives forever more.

For most of the film, the focus stays with Natzume as she discovers that the reality of her relationship with the gentleman she has been calling a boyfriend is not what she thought it was. While searching for her sweetheart in the city of Tokyo, Natzume finds work at Patisserie Coin de Rue, a small pastry shop with quite a legendary reputation. It is not until her world comes crumbling down that Natzume decides she will not simply run away but focuses all of her energy in learning the traits of pastry making. Along the way she faces obstacles such as critical reviews about her pastry making skills and herself from others like Mariko (Noriko Eguchi), a patissier who seems to never be in an optimistic mood, and Yoriko, the owner and chef of Patisserie Coin de Rue who is reluctant to hire Natzume. Soon enough, Natzume comes to the self-realization that strength and motivation to continue in her path does not come from others and what others think of her, but from within herself as she grows in her craft.

Chef Tomura holds a dark secret that only few know, and through flashbacks that secret is revealed little by little. Once a famous patissier, Tomura’s secret has consumed him to a point where he has hit rock bottom. Now, he is a critic writer of the pastry world, and teaches part time. Eventually, it takes the strong efforts of Natzume to bring Tomura out of that dark abyss he has fallen into and back to the pleasantries of pastry making.

Director Yoshihiro does a great job in visually telling the story of both lead characters as Tomura seems to be under dim light for most of the film to show his tormented soul while Natzume is naïve and optimistic often surrounded by light. Additionally, the musical score is fantastic in portraying the different personalities of the film’s characters. From somber to cheerful, the music in the film is just as delightful as the different pastries featured.

Pastries are of course the central piece of the film. In fact, one can go as far as to say that just as a pastry can be molded to be the finest and most delectable so can a person grow as an individual to be the best they can be. And just as the pastries are baked from ground up, from scratch, the film’s characters transform themselves and others as their worlds interconnect. The many different types of pastries that are showcased within the film also contribute to the notion that there are so many different ways of viewing and living life; that there are so many different types of people, different ethnicities, different backgrounds, but at the end of the day we are all members of the human race with the same potential to realize the best within us.

Patisserie Coin de Rue is making its world premiere at the 2011 Santa Barbara International Film Festival.

SCREENINGS: Tuesday February 1, 4:20pm at Metro 4 Theater II; Saturday February 5,   7:40pm at Metro 4 Theater III.

Watch the trailer at : http://www.coin-de-rue-movie.com/about.html