IFFBoston 2022

by Cheryl Eagan-Donovan

This year’s Independent Film Festival Boston brought together filmmakers, film lovers, students, families, and friends for in-person screenings and events for the first time since 2019 and once again, kudos to Nancy Campbell for curating an excellent mix of local films, international features, shorts, and docs, student films, and networking parties. Although Nancy was not able to attend the event herself as she recovered from a stroke at MGH, her presence was felt at every screening.

As a Chlotrudis sponsor, I attended six days of the week-long fest, and as a filmmaker whose documentary premiered at IFFBoston in 2018, I was reminded of just what a privilege it to screen your work at fabulous venues like the Somerville Theater, The Brattle, and the Coolidge, before audiences who truly love film.

Opening night feature Emily the Criminal was a fun ride, debuting to packed house at the Somerville Theater’s 600-seat room. A crime thriller in the vein of Uncut Gems, where the protagonist Emily played by Aubrey Plaza seems to inadvertently get mixed up with a credit card scam, but in the end we realize she really is a criminal in her own right. She is tougher than all the guys and this is revealed when she says “I should have gone further – really scared him – and then he wouldn’t have called the police” referring to her earlier brush with the law and court system. The ending of the film is totally satisfying as she reinvents herself while living her dream in a new tropical location. Lots for millennials to identify with in the set up: crippling student debt, unpaid internships, and dead-end opportunities from well-meaning friends – a fantasy of moral reckoning for the disillusioned generation. The script is taut, everything is paid off, and the acting is superb.

The after party at the newly opened Crystal Ballroom upstairs had plenty of food, cake, and complimentary cocktails.

Thursday night I went to the Brattle to see the new Claire Denis film Both Sides of the Blade, starring Juliette Binoche, who is captivating as always. The cinematography was breathtaking, from the opening shots of the ocean, but the relationship rings false from the first frame.  What couple that has been together for ten years is still that passionate in their everyday life? It feels fake, and maybe that is the director’s intent; as the love interest Francois tells the husband Jean in the end “She’s fake.” It’s impossible to care about any of the characters except the son Marcus and his grandmother, the only anchors to reality. We never understand what Binoche’s character Sara really wants, or find out why Jean was in prison, but when Francois reveals himself as a true cad, we just stop caring about what happens next.  Sara’s defense “I was never free” falls flat. We don’t buy it any more than Jean does. Knives out?

Friday night I went back to the Somerville for The Pez Outlaw, a documentary I heard good things about at SXSW but had not seen. For a first feature doc, it was surprisingly well produced. We spoke with the director Amy Bandlein Storkel and told her how much we appreciated the way she wove together the stories of the Pez collecting phenomenon, the challenges of living with mental illness, and relationships between the “outlaw” Steve Glew, his son and his partner Kathy Glew. Co-directed by Amy’s husband Bryan Storkel, the film is a masterful hybrid of archival footage, present-day interviews, and top quality reenactments, with creative use of pop culture color and smart production design.

Saturday afternoon I attended the Student Film Showcase, with shorts selected from eleven local colleges and sponsored by the MPC. The quality of the films across genres was top rate, and as an alum of BU, I guess I was predisposed to appreciate the production quality and VFX of their entry, Roses and Red Noses, and I really loved The Lonely Doryman a beautiful fantasy shot in the Azores by Noah Duarte from Mass College of Art, but I was very proud as a Lesley alum and professor to see Thomas Tague-Bleau’s gay coming of age drama Slims take the grand prize.

Next I saw Every Day in Kaimuki, one my favorite films at the festival this year. It premiered at Sundance this year, but somehow I missed it online, so glad I got to see it on the big screen and meet the filmmaker Alika Tengan at that night’s party. With great music by Hawaiian bands, Every Day is a slow but gorgeous slice of life about a DJ and his cat. Another hybrid doc/narrative with several first-time actors, this film showcases the real Hawaii, not the tourist version. Co-written by first time feature director Tengan and lead actor Naz Kawakami, and based on Kawakami’s experience, the film is evocative and natural; not a lot happens, as the film meanders through the protagonist’s daily life like a French new wave film, focused on his ambivalence about leaving Hawaii for New York. The acting is subdued, and according to the director about 50% was ad-libbed on set. The story captures the struggle of finding a place to call home, particularly for a native Hawaiian. I loved the simplicity, elegance, and understated tone; it was melancholy and optimistic at the same time.  The fight between the Naz and his girlfriend, as well as the last scene between the couple, and the DJ’s “worst night of his life” all felt so authentic. I also loved the scene in the record store – just a small moment but very real. The main character’s friends were funny and true. The DJ persona works perfectly to express Naz’s loneliness, which is heartbreaking and beautiful.  The ending, with Naz in Brooklyn with his cat and his new roommate the pizza guy, is another expertly rendered scene, glimmering with hope.

Saturday I went with friends to I Love My Dad the Patton Oswald feature from local production company Burn Later. Disturbing, hilarious, a brilliant work of personal truth and longing. Meeting the director, Boston actor James Morosini at the after party, was another high point of the fest. He is thoroughly unassuming and modest about the courage it took to share his own devastating journey. Winner of the Grand Jury Award for Narrative Feature and the Audience Award at SXSW, and difficult for any parent to watch, the film is an unflinching look at our desperation to connect with our kids, our inability to comprehend their anxiety and self-doubt, and the toxic nature of social media in its ability to further alienate us from the people we love. Patton Oswalt is brilliant as the dad, and Morosini turns in an Oscar-worthy performance as the son who just wants to be loved.

Sunday afternoon I attended the sold-out premiere of Lucia Small’s Girl Talk, a documentary that follows several female members of The Newton South High School debate team as they discover their voices and become leaders in the rarefied world of academic clubs and competitions. Award winning director of My Father the Genius which also premiered at IFFBoston in 2002, Lucia was joined by several members of her crew, including local dream team members Rachel Clark, Amy Geller, and as moderator of the post-screening Q&A, WBUR reporter Erin Trahan. Her first “longitudinal verite study”, the 91-minute film will likely be cut to 56 minutes for its inevitable PBS premiere.  The young women and their male teammates featured in the film attended the screening, and when introducing themselves onstage, all had been accepted into top-rate universities, several were pursuing advanced degrees or working in their chosen fields already, and reflected the honor scroll of other now famous female debaters whose bios end the documentary. For Lucia, who has been undergoing treatment for cancer while trying to finish the film during the pandemic, this was a great triumph and it was clear that she was moved by the love and respect the local film community has shown her.

We took a break for lunch outside at the Burren, stopped in at the LEF party, chatted with Sara Archambault about her two new projects Riotsvillle and A Decent Home, and then I went back to the Brattle for One Second, the newest feature from Zhang Yimou. This film is reminiscent of the great neorealist films from Italy but with a decidedly Chinese historical context, echoes of Lawrence of Arabia in its cinematography, and an ending that resonates with the possibility of future redemption and freedom. One Second is moving tribute to the power of human connections in the face of corruption and oppression.

Monday night I went to the last night of programming at the Somerville to see My Old School, featuring Alan Cumming in a hybrid doc/feature that used animation and voiceover to tell the story of a conman in Wales. This was one that I had missed at Sundance earlier this year and it was worth the wait. Playing at Provincetown International Film Festival next!