First Look ’18: Railway Sleepers

If you ever book a ticket on Thailand’s rail system, make sure you have forty or fifty baht in your pocket. That is because there are no shortage of hawkers selling tasty sounding street food like fried peanuts, fermented pork, and pork dumplings for a mere ten baht. Of course, most western tourists are up in first class, where you can enjoy some fine dining during overnights. Sompot “Boat” Chidgasornpongse documents the breadth and diversity of Thai society, as reflected by the passengers of each and every line of the Thai railroad in Railway Sleepers which screens during this year’s First Look at the Museum of the Moving Image.

There is something soothing (or lulling) about rail travel, as the frequently dozing passengers remind us. It is not called Railway Sleepers for nothing. Chidgasornpongse is mostly content to observe, offering commentary sparingly and obliquely, as when the aisles are suddenly patrolled by heavily armed soldiers rather than fried peanut vendors.

We clearly see passengers who are rich and poor, old and young, and Buddhist and Muslim. Unfortunately, we just see them and rarely listen to them converse, which is a shame, because they probably have a lot of interesting things to say. In fact, that is why J.P. Sniadeki’s thematically similar The Iron Ministry was such a rich and engaging viewing experience. It essentially immersed viewers in the man-on-the-street opinions and concerns of a wide cross-section of Chinese society. In contrast, Sleepers is really about how the passengers relate to the train itself.

Still, Chidgasornpongse has a keen eye for imagery and the involvement of his former mentor-boss Apichatpong “Joe” Weerasethakul is sure to spur interest on the festival circuit. It does stimulate train-based nostalgia. If you went to school in the Midwest, you maybe miss the sound of distant train whistles when you’re turning in around 3:00 in the morning. Yet, it just doesn’t stimulate on a social-intellectual level the way Iron Ministry does (but, it should be granted that is a really good documentary).

Those who are admirers of the Sensory Ethnology Lab’s documentaries (which indeed includes Ministry, as well as Sniadecki’s Yumen and People’s Park) should definitely appreciate Railway Sleepers, but even Joe Weerasethakul fans might catch their heads nodding. Best saved for an elite slow cinema-vérité audience, Railway Sleepers screens this Sunday (1/14), as part of First Look 2018, at MoMI.

Nightcap: 1/8/18: NYJFF opens Wednesday, The First Look Fest continues, SATURDAY CHURCH opens Friday

Ai Weiwei takes selfies with audience members after the screening of his film HUMAN FLOW this past Thursday

The film year is just about to kick into high gear with the opening of the New York Jewish Film Festival which is always the first great festival of any calendar year. And I do mean great since there has not been a year since I started covering it that at least one or more of my Best of the Best list films has come from the festival.

Yea I know the Museum of the Moving Image’s First Look Festival (see below) starts earlier and the twin punch of Sundance and Slamdance come later in the month, but NYJFF is the first of the fests to begin to reveal the goodies that everyone will be talking about later in the year. (First Look is often a bit too artsy while the Dances can be a bit too inde) In the past THE CONGRESS, BETTE MIDLER THE DIVINE MISS M, FELIX AND MEIRA and DELI MAN have all played here. This year there are any number of possibilities, but for certain the SAMMY DAVIS JR: I GOTTA BE ME is going to be making waves when it hits American Masters (it’s an incredible look at the man and his art).

I love this festival a great deal, and while I don’t wax as poetic about it, I do look forward to it every year. As the New York Film Festival winds down and the number of fest dwindles I start looking forward to the goodies that I’m going to get to sample.

Look for a good amount of coverage of this year’s fest. I’ve seen a bunch of films already and I have a good amount yet to go so keep checking back.

If you need recommendations I would say start with SAMMY DAVIS JR, THE MISSION OF RAOUL WALLENBERG,  TRACKING EDITH and LET YOURSELF GO. Also a great film is the short THE RED HOUSE. However everything they program is wonderful so just get tickets to everything.

The festival starts Wednesday and all the information on the films and the tickets can be found here.

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If you haven’t noticed we’ve started running coverage of this year’s First Look Festival at the Museum of the Moving Image. While our coverage hasn't been large scale, the every busy JB has found the time to quietly drop some reviews. For more information on the festival go here and to read about what JB has been seeing go here.

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The absolutely fantastic SATURDAY CHURCH opens Friday. I saw the film during this past years Tribeca Film Festival. But we didn't run a full review because everyone thought someone else was going to write it up. I'm going to try and get back into my notes and write it up for Friday's opening. Until I do so, and in case I don't - just know that you must see the film because it will end up being one of the best films you see this year

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If you didn't see the press release Friday night I want to impress upon you that if you love animation you must attend the French Institute: Alliance Francaise's Animation Festival February 2,3 and 4. I've seen most of the features and they are awesome. I will be rerunning the related reviews closer to te festival. We will also have lots of coverage of the special events.

For tickets and details go here.

First Look ’18: Last Days in Shibati

In today’s China, opinions on hutongs vary drastically. Some view them as embarrassing reminders of the nation’s darker days that should be bulldozed as soon as possible. However, many of the remaining residents recognize they are a real community, with more neighborly cohesion that the glass and steel apartment towers sprouting like weeds. Chongqing’s Shibati hutong is scheduled for demolition, but many residents are determined to hang on as long as they can. French filmmaker Hendrick Dusollier documents the slow destruction of a community over six-month intervals in Last Days in Shibati, which screens during this year’s First Look at the Museum of the Moving Image.

Not everyone welcomes Dusollier and his camera to Shibati, but those who do become his fast friends. When he first arrives, the hutong is still full of life, even though it is grossly impoverished and lacking consistent infrastructure, especially electricity. Ironically, the posh shopping mall romantically named Moonlight City is just a hop, skip, and a jump from the bowels of Shibati.

During the course of his repeat visits, Dusollier focuses on three figures: seven-year-old Zhou Hong, his self-appointed fixer; Mr. Li, a barber with enough low-level political connections to be one of the last forced out; and Ms. Xue Lian, a kindly garbage-picker, who also runs a dorm-style hostel for migrant workers. Basically, Dusollier captures the realities of their lives, occasionally interrupting for a little Q&A, but all three are so charismatic and engaging, viewers will immediately get sucked into their world.

To his credit, Dusollier includes plenty of reality checks regarding the quality of life in old Shibati. There is no question residents were due for some improvements. Nevertheless, those who admonish Dusollier to “show something positive for a change” are really just as blinkered as the biased perspective they project onto him. Frankly, when they shout such protests at him while he follows Ms. Xue, it rather makes the blood boil. It is hard to imagine any more positive than her (and beautiful too, she must have been something else during the prime she never had a chance to enjoy).

Often, Dusollier captures telling reminders that even if the government makes good on its relocation promises (in buildings way on the outskirts of town), the former Shibatians will never be socially accepted by “proper” Chongqingers. As a result, Last Days becomes increasingly bittersweet, with an emphasis on the bitter.

Last Days is a mere sixty-minutes, but it is surprisingly moving. We definitely feel like we know Dusollier’s three main subjects—and we really start to miss them when the film ends. It is a crying shame the government could not invest in upgrades to the Shibati community, rather than just razing it to the ground, but the urban renewal project probably entailed some jolly nice bribe money. Deeply elegiac and oddly beautiful, Last Days in Shibati is very highly recommended when it screens this Sunday (1/7) with The Lives of Therese, as part of First Look 2018, at MoMI.

First Look ’18: Marlina the Murderer in Four Acts

Apparently, the progressive force of hashtags has yet to render the Indonesia island of Sumba fully woke. You can ask the titular widow. When a wiry old gangster informs her of his gang’s plan to rape her and rob her livestock, Marlina is on her own. However, she is more resilient than anyone expects in Mouly Surya’s Marlina the Murderer in Four Acts, which screens during this year’s First Look at the Museum of the Moving Image.

Initially, the cocky Markus arrives alone, but the rest of his gang will be there shortly. He is a particularly sinister piece of work, who makes it clear he expects Marlina to be an accomplice to her own victimization. That even includes cooking chicken soup for her prospective rapists. In retrospect, that demand turns out to be a mistake. Marlina knocks off four of them through poison and she manages to decapitate Markus while he is getting down to his Weinstein business. However, Deanz and Ian were whisking away her chickens and goats, but they naturally feel they need to settle the score when they return to find Marlina’s carnage.

They will track Marlina, who had a notion she should turn over Markus’s head to the nearest useless police station. She is reluctantly traveling with her ultra-pregnant neighbor Novi, who is determined to find her absentee husband (the lout who considers her overdue delivery evidence of infidelity), and an aunt and nephew desperate to deliver the balance of his dowry: two horses. The provincial bus driver isn’t thrilled about taking on these six passengers (horses included), but Marlina’s machete won’t take no for an answer.

Essentially, Surya has crafted an Indonesian western, with sandy vistas worthy of John Ford, albeit executed at a slow art-house pace. There is also more than a touch of the surreal, notably including Markus’s headless ghost, which haunts the otherwise not-too-broken-up Marlina. Surya uses western devices in sly ways, but it does not require much interpretive heavy-lifting to deduce her points about the state of women’s rights on the tradition-bound island. Her husband’s body isn’t even buried yet (that’s his embalmed mummy sitting in the corner) before Markus and his thugs come calling.

Marsha Timothy is awesomely fierce as Marlina, but she is still a vulnerable woman rather than a superhero. Yet, Dea Panendra’s innocently bubbly Novi gets all the real tragedy and tribulations, because the world-weary Marlina is clearly done caring. On the other hand, Egy Fedly and Yoga Pratama are appropriately despicable as the rat-like Markus and the protesting too much Franz.

Four Acts is an immersive film that transports viewers to its arid, hardscrabble environment. It is also an angry film that invites viewers to either share or feel Marlina’s wrath. Consider us down with Team Marlina. Recommended for fans of major auteurs, including Lisandro Alonso, Jean-Jacques Annuad, Bela Tarr, and Peter Weir, Marlina the Murderer in Four Acts screens this Saturday (1/6), as part of First Look 2018 at MoMI.