CFDBNYC Out and About

October 5th. We got to the opportunity to cover the B. Frank Film Festival which is a independent film festival that caters to those local creators who need a space to showcase their skills in Manhattan. A one day affair where there a couple of film blocks, a couple of panels and a feature film to highlight what’s next in film and television. It starting off from checking out the film shorts block which was titled truth teller. the block consist of the following films talk yo shit, inertia, Joss, matame(murder me) and the hunter’s lament. we did not see the first film talk yo shit but we started with inertia which is about a young man taking his grandfather with dementia on one final ride before he is put to rest. the film directed by Juan Diego silva-zuniga is well put together and the script is brilliant as you see the emotional connect between the living and the near dead where the man have a relationship with his grandfather that he feels no one in the family have and this is where the film gets interesting as well as funny as you see the two go into several scenarios before we get to the climatic ending. The scene in the movie theater is where the film gets its name because the back and forth between the young man and a patron is funny yet sad. The next couple of scenes is okay but they slow down the momentum of the film. However the film picks up towards the end and the acting showcases what happens when one is disconnecting from reality. Next was Joss which is a short film based in China about a young girl who challenges her family traditions by questioning them and meeting a homeless individual who shows her what a woman in rural China really is. Directed and written by Anxin Xie which is also a student film is brilliantly vivid with color and imagery. The dialogue which is subtitled still make the audience read without losing a place in the film. Even though its one of the shortest film of the festival it showcases how even in modern times that women are secondary and not heard in the patriarch ways of certain countries. Continuing the marathon is Matame which means Murder Me in Spanish. Directed and starring Pau Canivell who displays his family and friends into the world of drag Queens and what happens when the impersonation is over and reality sets in. The film have a great soundtrack with uptempo beats and haunting lyrics. The acting is completely organic as the director use unknown actors to give his characters life and they did in the most provocative way imaginable. One of the films that we seen that was hard to dissect because you never know if you was in reality or fantasy. Even if you thought that everything the drag queen did was real the ending covers it nicely with a ode to the introduction of the film. The Hunter’s Lament was the final film of the film block and was best of the block. A film that deliberately cater to the modern epidemic that is mass school shootings. A gun salesman is back to work after being a victim to gun violence. The beginning of the film is completely riveting as the scene shifts between the man and the gun shop owner. From there the film may or may not let the cat out of the bag as the man shows a child how to hunt but when the child is not what he’s told and when he doesn’t then the kid eventually comes around to shoot. The first film block was impressive and suspenseful. We loved the films we caught and hopefully see more of the directors in the future. The panel featuring the Maneaters crew which is a TV pilot based in New York but a dystopic version of it where the patriarchy is mostly men and women are suppressed and doesn’t have a voice in the world. It is a dark comedy wrapped inside a politically charged satire. The clips that were displayed was great. They showed different layers to the show from friendships to misogynistic to comedy and back to the foundation of the show which is the friendships. The panel was more of a conversation of filming a pilot in New York and the process that comes with writing such a politically charged comedy. The women on the panel were all part of the process and discuss their trials and tribulations of shooting to editing to scoring the clips. There were some funny moments throughout the panel and some interesting topic discussions as well. We realize that even though the pilot is not out yet the premise of it have a great foundation.

From there was another short film block this time called Boundary Pushers. The films definitely fit the title well because all five of them pushed the envelope as far as it can go. Revisions started the block and set the tone. The film is about a artist chasing success and every time she’s in a corporate setting a piece of her identity is taken away until she becomes unrecognizable. Directed by Sebastian Macotela and written by Jay Bailey the two students bridged commercialism and artistic pride as close as possible. They recognized how artists can suffer under pressure of monetary gains. Seeing how the boundary of financial success can be pushed forward Revisions show that it is not all great. Almost Ten is a animation short that was not just boundary pushing, it was the best short of the bunch. A three minute where a young fish leaves home to go to school only to be threatened at gunpoint then she turns the tables on the robber. It was very funny and hilarious. Using animation to display how twisted the world can be the director and writer nailed it perfectly. The end credits are a ode to several series like Family Guy, American Dad and the Simpsons. Like we said super hilarious and hope there is a extension of the series. Water weight is a film where a high school athlete struggles to lose weight for a match and the process that comes with losing weight. The actor who played the athlete exactly went through the rigorous program to lose weight. The next film is Thank you for the ride, Aileen which is probably have one of the most disturbing endings you would see in a short film or any film for that matter. The short revolves around Aileen who is a struggling teacher who becomes a rideshare driver during a teacher’s strike whose world is shaken to the core by picking up a fellow teacher whose facade isnt what it is. There are scenes towards the end that will shock you. The acting in this one is pretty good as we witness the characters go from calm to distress to relief. Hopefully this gets turn into a long form version because the story is too good to be short. The last film of the block was A Clown Story where a woman takes a NYC train crosstown to meet up with her date only to encounter a clown who may be dangerous or eccentric. The journey is a nice ode to the NYC Transit system where everyone is a character and in some story whether they know it or not. The train is the real star here as we see different locations where the characters interact each other in so many different ways that it goes from comedy to drama fast. The story may be not be the greatest but the characters fill in the depth what the story lacks.

The closeout film which happened to be the feature of the festival is Beautiful, Pam. A story about a queer sex worker who is in a life crisis and go around right some of their wrongs in life only to feel that maybe that it not enough and there is one way to make everything right. Starring Tom Ciorciari as Pam who goes through this journey as a sex worker trying to find themselves is quite a role. Peter Konsevitch as Beetle who is Pam’s friend and fellow drug user pushes the boundary to no end with his actions and feelings towards Pam, Pam’s family and even himself. Beetle is the main antagonist in the film because of his brutal reality. Pam is the main character and the reason for so many stories to intertwine but in the end it still about Pam. Tom Ciociari and Peter Konsevitch played their characters to perfection and feed off each other emotions in certain scenes. It was a classic duel between two actors using the other for emotional gain. A great script by director J.R. Stokes who started this story almost a decade ago and got the opportunity to fulfill the film and get it out there. It was a good way to close out the festival. For a first time experience it was great to see so many independent filmmakers getting the opportunity to showcase what they have and hopefully in turn get someone to invest in their dreams.