Leave the Bus through the Broken Window (2019) plays BAM CINEMAFEST Tuesday

Andrew Hevia decides to go to Hong Kong to cover an international art show but is completely unprepared for the trip not speaking the language, understanding the culture or knowing anything about Chinese history. He flounders and begins to turn the camera on himself.

Bittersweet and darkly funny, LEAVE THE BUS THROUGH THE BROKEN WINDOW is wicked documentary about a guy in a place he probably shouldn't have been. Yes, he manages to get along and make something of the trip, but its clear he is in way over his head and is just fumbling his way along. It makes for an amusing and sad experience especially in light of the narration, which read by an mechanical female AI voice and comes across as judgmental.

Say what you will about Hevia's wanderings, the film has a glorious sense place and you really get a sense of the city of Hong Kong better than almost any other film you'll see. This is the ground level huan Hong Kong and not one made up for the cameras. I want to compare it to the home video footage that a friend of mine shot on their trip to China. While normally saying something is home movies is a bad thing, in this, and the case of my friend's footage, it's a good thing because its not images and places that look good, but rather where people dwell. You are in their world and we are better for it.

This film is a kick in the pants. Beautifully put together it is long enough to make us feel like we've had a meal and short enough never wear out its welcome.  This is the sort of hidden gem thatI'm going to be recommending to friends as it makes its way through the various festivals.

Highly recommended

Best Picture (2019) Bam Cinemafest 2019

I am not going to review Jay Giampietro‘s short Best Picture and which is World Premiering at BAM Cinemafest. Don’t get me wrong I like the film a great deal, but the problem is the short is essentially a monolog of my friend Sam Juliano on the night of this year’s past Oscar’s and it charts his reaction as the awards don’t go as he expects.

Filmed at Sam’s annual Oscar party the film cuts parts of his conversations together to form a six minute monolog. The result is very amusing, especially if you know someone who likes to talk about the movies endlessly. At the same time, and the reason I won’t do a formal review is that it also gives a slightly skewed portrait of Sam as a non-stop talker. Having spent time with Sam he does come up for air. The clash between the Sam on screen and in real life has mixed my feeling up enough I don’t want to review it.

On the other hand, because on its own terms it is a really good fictional portrait of a crazed cinema buff I do think you should see it when it plays Sunday with THE HOTTEST AUGUST at Cinemafest

For ticket and more information go here.