Films About Filmmaking at Sundance 2007
BY NICK MARSHALL, GILBERT, ARIZONA, USA -- At Sundance 2007, there are several films with filmmaking as the subject of story. Some are historical, some are contemporary, all promise to provide insight into the industry that the festival supports.
Screening in the World Documentary category, CROSSING THE LINE by Daniel Gordon draws a portrait of the last American defector still residing in North Korea after 40 years. Private James Dresnok, in 1962 (at the age of 19) deserted the US army by crossing over into Communist North Korea. In his native individualistic democracy he was lost in the crowd and only when he journeyed to an alien nation of communism did he become an individual; starring in many propaganda films always as an evil American. Gordon dissects a complex story of a man through archival footage of the People's Republic with Dresnok's own testimony, interviews of fellow soldiers and a childhood friend that still awaits his return.
In his first feature-length documentary, VHS-KAHLOUCHA, Nejib Belkadhi follows a vivacious and highly energetic amateur Tunisian filmmaker named Mocef Kahloucha. Shooting his latest feature, Tarzan of the Arabs, on a VHS Panasonic 3500, Kahloucha dashes around sweatily in a poor district in Sousse, Tunisia, recruiting locals to star in his movie, where action scenes are staged using Kahloucha's real blood. Fueled by madness and an uncanny passion for filmmaking, Kaloucha livens up a community on the edge of despair and Belkadhi films in amazement, trying to capture all the magic.
In the U.S. Documentary Competition, Director David Stenn's GIRL 27 uncovers a scandal, erased from history, of a dancer raped at an MGM party during the studio's annual sales convention in 1937. Even after filing a federal lawsuit and having her photo plastered on the cover of newspapers, the incident and her name were forgotten and etched out of the books of Hollywood. Stenn finds the now nearly ninety-year-old Patricia Douglas, determined to uncover the mystery and truth behind the tragic events and to bring her out of seclusion. Impeccably researched and based off his original article in Vanity Fair, GIRL 27 illuminates and expands those original words and photos and gives a chance for Patricia Douglas to tell her story.
Also screening in the World Documentary Competition, COMRADES IN DREAMS, directed by Uli Gaulke, journey's to find "film clubs" around the world. People willing to show films in alternative ways, in alternative locations, determined to appreciate the pleasures of cinema in small and devoted film communities. Stories spread over four continents, from a traveling Indian tent cinema to a "film club" in North Korea, to an cinema outdoors in Burkina Faso, the world's poorest country. Through a strong narrative, Gaulke links these people's dreams in a common comradery, to relish in the sights and sounds of all "cinemas."