SXSW ’18: Milford Graves Full Mantis

You could say Milford Graves is an experimental jazz musician. He is the co-holder of a medical patent and often records the human heart as part of a long-term holistic musical project. Graves is also generally considered part of the free jazz school, but as is often the case, that label is not sufficient for his music. Graves’ former student Jake Meginsky and co-director Neil Young document the percussionist’s music and ideas in Milford Graves Full Mantis, which screens at this year’s SXSW.

Graves has played with some of the greatest names in free jazz. In fact, we hear him playing with a decidedly free group early in the documentary. However, whenever Grave’s percussion is front and center, it is totally accessible. We can hear African and Asian influences in there, but we are always talking about rhythm—sometimes boisterous and sometimes hypnotic, but always propulsive.

To approximate the experience of their lessons, Meginsky prompts Graves to speak his peace during Full Mantis—and he has a lot to say. Some of his ideas are a bit out there, but they are the eccentricities of a survivor. He has lived quite a life, having worked as a trained physician’s assistant (making us wonder if he ever played with Eddie Henderson, the jazz M.D.) and made it through the tumult of the 1960s in relatively intact.

He generally seems philosophically and empathically inclined, particularly during a concert in Japan at a school for autistic children. For most musicians, that would have been a tough gig, but he and dancer Min Tanaka use rhythm to reach the student on a profound level. Nor do they let it ruffle their feathers when some of the kids encroach on the performance space and in some cases start playing along. Fortunately, somebody captured it on a video camera, because it is an absolutely extraordinary performance that is quite moving, both emotionally and physically, in a toe-tapping kind of way.

The Japanese concert is such a crescendo, it probably should have concluded the film, but there is at least one more sequence that will stick with viewers for a long time to come. Graves relates a harrowing 1960s encounter with street crime and racism that sort of cuts both ways from the perspective of current gun and law enforcement controversies.

Full Mantis ranges freely across topics that interest Graves, including martial arts (that is where the mantis reference comes in), medicine, and of course music. His fans would not want it any other way. Meginsky and Young might just win over some new ones for him with their meditative yet surprisingly zesty treatment. Highly recommended anyone who enjoys feeling some rhythm, Milford Graves Full Mantis screens again tomorrow (3/15) and Friday (3/16), as part of the 2018 SXSW.

Making the Grade (2018) SXSW 2018

Portrait of a spectrum of people studying for the graded piano exams in Ireland and their teachers. The students range in age from small children to older adults. They all share a love of music and a desire to be as best as they can be.

A sweet little film appears to be little more than people sitting at pianos and playing and practicing. However the film quietly reveals itself to be something more as all the students and teachers explain why they play, why they teach and what music means to them. It’s a film that builds in power as it goes on as all the words build to a quite swell of emotion.

What truly makes the film special are the frequent flashes of insight or pithy exchanges that punctuate the film. When the guard is down and the inner selves comes out the film sings with life and laughter such as when a nun is flummoxed by a student who asks about her costume. It does not go as expected and the result is sting of laughter. It’s the stings of laughter and the unexpected moments of understanding that lift the film up from being just another music documentary and make it something special.

Worth a look when it plays at at SXSW. For more information and tickets go here.

SXSW ’18: People’s Republic of Desire

Chinese live-streaming might not have the weird fetish appeal of the Japanese idol industry, but the fake egalitarianism and built-in exploitation make it even more perverse. Popular hosts and singers on the YY streaming platform can make tens of thousands of dollars per month, but the system is still stacked against them. Molecular biologist-turned documentarian Hao Wu dives deep into the YY ecosystem in People’s Republic of Desire, which premiered at this year’s SXSW.

Shen Man is an up-and-coming YY host, who is the sole support of her unemployed father and step-mother. She will be a genuine contender during the annual YY competition, because she has a number of well-heeled patrons and a major YY talent agency backing her. If you read YY’s media kit, it probably makes the platform sound like an egalitarian place, where average folk determine who is successful with their votes and on-line buzz. In reality, they might be able to boost a host from obscurity to a modest following, but once big-dollar patrons start throwing online (but very real) money around the live-caster’s “showroom,” the serfs are effectively frozen out of the action.

Big Li is maybe the last exception. He is considered the “diaosi” (a hard to translate term for a homely underclass male) who made good. He is the last of the unagented hosts who will meaningfully compete in the YY contest. A win will bring online fame, as well as more sponsors and hopefully gifts, but it comes at a price. Agencies will spend hundreds of thousands ofreal dollars on online votes, which they charge back to clients, making second place an expensive disappointment.

Wu follows both hosts through two competitions and a very messy year of scandals and personal strife in between. Wu’s approach is primarily sociological, with a special focus on the disenfranchised diaosi, who become increasingly disconnected from the live-streamers they helped build. There is also a pronounced element of sexism in how female live-streamers are treated. Even top talent like Shen Man must regularly field vulgar comments and many of their patrons clearly expect sexual favors in exchange for financial support.

However, we see enough of the inner workings of YY and major agencies (many of whom seem to be bankrolled by sketchy underworld types) to know this racket is fishy. Frankly, someone should do a full-scale expose of the Chinese live-streaming industry, but there is not exactly a robust tradition of investigative journalism on the Mainland.

Desire manages to make Western social media look less corrosive and divisive, which is definitely quite an achievement. As director and editor, Wu shows a keen eye for human drama, but still gives viewers a good overview of the bigger picture. He vividly illustrates the disparity between migrant workers and the oligarchical patron class, without belaboring the point. Highly recommended as a snapshot of contemporary Mainland society, People’s Republic of Desire screens again this afternoon (3/11) and Wednesday (3/14) during SXSW ’18.

The World Before Your Feet (2018) SXSW 2018

This is a two part review. The first part is the review as written right after seeing the film. The second part is an addendum written a week after I first saw the film

Jeremy Workman is one of the best filmmakers I've run across. He finds these wonderful off the beaten path people and makes absolutely compelling films that change the way you see the world. His latest film THE WORLD BEFORE YOUR FEET has just premiered at SXSW and it is absolutely a charmer.

The film is a portrait of Matt Green who has been walking all of the streets of New York City for the better part of the past decade. We watch as he walks the streets, meets people, and takes pictures of what he sees. We also get to know Matt via interviews with friends, family and ex-girlfriends.

You would think that a film about a guy walking would grow tiring but it doesn't. Thank to Jeremy Workman's expertise we find ourselves falling in step with Matt and his crazy walk. Workman makes sure that we are always full engaged by thinking ahead and answering all of the questions we might have at just about the time they pop up in our heads. He's so good at providing answers to everything that despite my initial thought that I would like to do interviews concerning the film, I can not in good conscious think of more than one or two things that aren't addressed in the film.

What makes the film work  is that the film isn't just about Matt and his walk but about the city and the people in it. Matt isn't just walking the city but documenting it as well on his website. Researching what he sees he details what the things he sees are on line. Within the film he details things like the movement of the Jewish communities out of neighbors as witnessed by the synagogues being turned into churches, and how the various neighborhoods deal with tragedy as witnessed in the wide variety of 911 memorials. Matt also engages everyone he meets and as a result we get a portrait of the people across the city.

What thrilled me was that watching Matt walk and listening to him explain what he's seen I've been forced to rethink how I see the world. As someone who loves to walk around New York he opened my eyes to a good many things that I always took for granted.

This film has left me speechless. I need to see this film a couple more times to fully appreciate everything that is in it.

Highly recommended.

ADDENDUM- Thoughts a week after first seeing THE WORLD BEFORE YOUR FEET 
Jeremy Workman is a genius.

Yes I’ve drunk the Kool Aid, but if you’ve been following his career since the start you’d be in line for a refill as well. No one is making films quite like his and as a result we are the better for it. His films are not one and done, “what’s next?” affairs. They are fascinating portraits of outsiders who are revealed to be not so outside.

In MAGICAL UNIVERSE he profiled Al Carbee, an artist he stumbled up during a trip and who sent him hours of video tapes. It’s a weird and wonderful portrait of guy who wonderful art with Barbies. In his short ONE TRACK MIND he profiled Philip Ashforth Coppola who is drawing all of the subway stations in New York. For anyone who has ever traveled around the city via subways it’s an eye opening experience. Coppola forces us to reevaluate what we see every day and our notions of what art is since be suddenly see the true beauty of something incredibly utilitarian. This film is currently being screened as part of a show of Coppola‘s art at the Transit Museum in New York’s Grand Central Station. I attended the show and watched as people walked through the exhibit and ended with Jeremy’s film intending to watch a little and then leave. Instead they stood watching the entire film and then went around the exhibit a second time because they had to go back and see the things they missed. (I know this because I asked and I overheard them talking)

This brings me to THE WORLD BEFORE YOUR FEET. It has haunted me since I saw it. There is something about the film that has stayed with me. I’ve been pondering how Matt Green sees the world. Thinking endlessly about how he linked up the history of the city. Mostly I’m just wondering how much of New York I haven’t seen even in the sections of the city I know.

And I can’t stop thinking about the film.

Is it one of 2018’s best films? Oh yes.

For me a film should really at least one of two things entertain or inform. World does both. Watching Green wander the city and talk to people is a blast. It simply is fun. We have a genuine good time as we travel along with him. Additionally it tells us things we probably didn’t know. In being a curious person and needing to fill in details for his website Green has become a human encyclopedia of NYC history and we are better for it.

I can’t stop pondering what it has shown me to really think rationally about the notion of “best”. What is best any way , great cinematography? A moving story? I don’t really know. I think it would be easier to say it’s one of my favorite films of the year- which means it’s better than best since Best films are forgotten and favorite films live on forever in your heart. The World Before Your Feet is going to live on forever in my heart and referenced every time I walk New York, which makes it truly something special

Thank you Jeremy Workman for something truly special.

THE WORLD BEFORE YOUR FEET just world premiered at SXSW. It plays again at SXSW again March 11 and 14th. For more information go here.

Wobble Palace (2018) SXSW 2018

Dasha Nekrasova and writer director Eugene Kotlyarenko star as Jane and Eugene a couple verging on breaking up. The pair decides to split the house (each takes it for one day of a weekend) and see what happens. We then follow them as they meet other people, bed them and try to figure out what they want in life.

Watching WOBBLE PALACE I had one thought running through my brain which was "Am I simply too old to get this film or are these people, and especially Eugene really assholes?" On the other hand the film could just not be very good.

The problem with WOBBLE PALACE is that most of the people really are not likable. Eugene, nominally the co-lead in the film, is insufferable (and his hair is worse) and I really didn't want to be around him.  Jane is a much more interesting character but she is only in half the film and some of the people she deals with aren't all that stellar.  Forgive me but the millennials I know are, for the most part, nowhere near this insipid and empty.

While the film is amusing  in spots, it is over all not much.

WOBBLE PALACE premiered last night at SXSW.