Canary at Cinequest Film Festival 19

I have a soft spot for lo-fi sci-fi like ScreenAnarchy favorite Primer, or The Girl From Monday, so I am happy to see Alejandro Adams' Canary playing this weekend at Cinequest 19. I actually had the chance to screen this some time ago, but it has taken a while to wrap my head around it. Set in a near future science fiction, Canary trails an agent (the bewitchingly ghostly Carla Pauli) of a corporation that deals in organ transplants harvested from people that aren't using them as effectively as their clients will. Lurking around corners and doorways, she eavesrops on her targets lives until having her way with with them in a van equipped for the surprisingly bloodless deed. I watched it right after catching Hartley's No Such Thing, which helped me negotiate it as the kind of thoughtful sci-fi I grew up with behind stacks of Ray Bradbury books.

More below the break.

Canary moves back and forth between its bare bones storyline and the Orwellian business meetings behind the entire fiasco. Adams' verite approach to filmmaking requires a lot of heavy-lifting on the part of the audience, but the payoff makes it worthwhile. Canary's narrative world is voyeuristic, disconnected, and focused on evoking the chaos of its depiction of advertising and biological commerce gone wrong. I am curious to see how well this one will be recieved. Early reviews have been good, and Oak Street Films has a lengthy commentary. I like Canary quite a lot, mostly because I am more than willing to go the extra mile Adams' filmmaking asks us to. At the very least, Adams contradicts the notion that mumblecore has completely taken over American independent filmmaking. Let's see if Cinequest is ready for it.