Marfa Film Festival, Friday
Friday was another gorgeous sunny day, and the crowd had increased considerably from Thursday. In between films I walked around the town a little bit more, and took a few more pictures. Sometime during the middle of the day I climbed to the top of the Marfa Town Hall and looked around at the town. The view from there was amazing. You could see the edge of the town in every direction, and the landscape beyond that stretching as far as the hills in the distance.
One of the films that really impressed me on Friday was this documentary about the displaced middle class of Iraq. I hadn’t heard much about this before watching this documentary, and my impression was that not very many other people had heard a lot about it either. This fact once again impressed upon me what a sorry state the American media is in now given how little attention has been given to an event which is large enough to cover in its own right, even notwithstanding the fact that this disaster was both caused by the U.S. invasion of Iraq, and its solution is key to our efforts to rebuild and stabilize that country.
The film focused on a few individuals and families living in Syria and Jordan who have been displaced by the war in Iraq and subsequent circumstances, focusing on their struggles and their views of America, which are thankfully nuanced despite their desperate conditions. Many of these individuals, who are just a few amongst the millions who have been displaced, find difficulty getting work, especially the kind of skilled work they enjoyed in their previous occupations. Some of these people who are unable to get jobs are currently running through their life savings just to get by.
One of the sad facts of the situation is that Syria and Jordan, which are neighbors to Iraq, have taken in the bulk of these refugees, 1.5 million and 750,000 respectively. The United States on the other hand has taken in only about 40,000 so far, though it has pledged to take 60,000 more this year. One of the most compelling points in the film was when one of these displaced refugees was taking a cab in Jordan, and the refugee got into a discussion with his Jordanian cab driver. There was clearly some animosity and frustration from the cab driver who asked his passenger, “What are the consequences of 750,000 refugees living in an already poor country?” This question was met defensively by the refugee who argued that Iraq had helped Jordanian citizens out in the past, and that whatever the case, he was a person sitting before him who deserved to be seen. I was glad that the film highlighted the fact that the presence of the refugees was a burden not only on the refugees themselves, but also on those communities they had been pushed into. Overall the film was very informative in covering a story that has up to now not received the attention it is due.
“Echotone”
I almost did not get into this film at all. The theater was so packed I had to sit at the very side of the theatre, my view of the screen partially obscured by a plant, but fortunately I was able to see this film. “Echotone,” made last year amidst Austin’s rising sea of rising highrises, explores Austin’s culture of music and most famous moniker “The Live Music Capital of the World,” and what this means as the city continues to grow and musicians and venues struggle for the right to thrive in Austin.
The film explores this theme with a nice juxtaposition of facts about the changing city along with the stories of real musicians living and making music. The resulting film was a joy to watch, perhaps because it provided an interesting lens into a particular moment in the city which, while being particular, is nevertheless highly representative of decades of sentiment in Austin: the lament of the city growing and changing, and the feeling that much of the city’s soul is being lost in this change. Louis Black had an excellent line in the movie which certainly invokes this feeling: “Everyone I know who’s moved to Austin thinks the day after they moved in was the day the city’s gates should have closed.”
It is interesting how prevalent this attitude is in Austin. There is definitely a large amount of nostalgia in the city for previous days, when things were supposedly better in a lot of ways than they are now. Since I’m a new resident to Austin, I can’t really verify these changes, but the film itself seemed to run counter to this attitude, and seemed to expect this creative culture to continue to thrive despite having to struggle against continuing challenges. Nevertheless one of the central themes of the film seemed to be about values, and about what we as a people choose to value. Should we choose to value commerce above all else and not to value creativity, we will certainly lose aspects of our culture that are worth saving.
One of the more interesting insights the film provided concerned the relationship between business and commerce. While most musicians make for poor business people and care more about creative control than making money (at least ideally), Austin’s music scene does attract a lot of people to the city and has made the city a lot of money. If the city refuses to take steps to preserve this creative culture in order to make quick cash, they may lose out in the long run not only this culture worth preserving, but also the dollar they so long for.
A lot of the bands from “Echotone” showed up to the film festival for Q&A and also to play at Padre’s, the only bar in town, right after the show. This wouldn’t have been a problem except that one of the film’s I most wanted to see, “The Year of the Carnivore,” was scheduled right after “Echotone.” Of course, I could always end up going to see the rest of the bands play right after the film and only miss some of them, but the musician I most wanted to see, Dana Falconberry, was the first one playing. I’d never heard about her before seeing the film, but hearing her play in the film frankly blew me away. Her sound was exquisitely beautiful without being too fragile. Her eyes and lyrics conveyed a kind of emotional depth that is incredibly uncommon. Needless to say, I loved her sound and wanted to hear more of her music. It was a moment of struggle but I finally decided that I was here for the film festival and I could hear her in Austin next time she played so I decided to go see the next film.
And I was glad I did. “The Year of the Carnivore” was perhaps my favorite film at the festival. The film is about a 21-year old girl who is woefully bad at sex, and after an incredibly awkward first time with the guy she likes goes, well, poorly, she ends up going to various lengths to try to become better at sex through more experience. The film was incredibly quirky, and the pace the film moved at was quick without feeling rushed. It was very entertaining to watch.
The film progresses through a series of escapades and sexcapades (I swore I would never use that word) as Sammy, the protagonist begins a massive transformation both in her physical appearance, and in her persona. She is played brilliantly by Cristin Milioti, who somehow knows exactly how to make the transition from the awkward, clueless Sammy at the beginning of the film to the commanding, knowing Sammy at the end of the film seem entirely natural. I haven’t seen her in anything else, but I’m excited to see what project she takes on next.
Sammy’s adventures and experiences in the film are contrasted to those of her friend and love interest played by Mark Mendall, who has more experience than Sammy but who nevertheless undergoes a transition himself, as he begins to feel detached and upset at the disconnect between the sexual experiences he’s having and the music he makes with his band, and the music and sexual experiences he wants to have. His character was more obvious and less interesting than Sammy, but he did provide her with a nice foil.
By the end of the film the character’s finally move together towards a balanced center, much like in “Obselidia,” and they both embark into new territory together, their collective total sexual experience rendered worthless in the face of the real thing. I thought this film was a very earnest, and intriguingly complex and realistic look at sex despite the uncommonness of some of the background situations Sammy gets involved in. The screenplay writer and director, Sook-Yin Lee, seems to know how to get exactly enough leverage in each scene of the movie, while steadily building segments which become increasingly deep in terms of emotional impact, providing a lot of food for thought. Kudos.
Padre’s
Following the film I headed over to Padre’s to check out the remainder of the bands playing. Sure enough I’d unfortunately missed Dana’s performance, but she was still hanging around the bar. I wanted to go tell her how interested I was in hearing more of her music, but I decided not to because I’m so bad at talking to musicians or filmmakers about liking their work. If it’s a girl I always feel like they’ll think I’m hitting on them (and Dana was pretty cute), but if it’s a guy it’s even worse because I feel like they end up thinking “Why is this guy kissing my ass about how great my work is?” In any case, I don’t know what to say to these people so I decided not to say anything.
Padre’s itself was pretty cool. Like everything else in Marfa it was sophisticatedly understated. I also noticed halfway through the night that there were a series of chambers and patios connected to the front room where I had planted myself. The first band I saw, who embarrassingly I can’t even remember their name, were on for a full hour before I realized they were playing. I later found out it was their first live performance. Their music was some kind of static electronic feedback wash and it sounded pretty cool. I was standing there drinking my beer and thinking how cool this sound was when I noticed some girl up front recording them “setting up” with her camera. Fifteen minutes later I realized they were playing. The remaining bands I saw were pretty cool, Silent Land Time Machine and Sunset, though I didn’t really focus on the later too much because I was talking to a girl. Anyways, Friday ended up being extremely enjoyable. I’ll leave you with a clip of Dana from Echotone:
