Kuro - Narrative Feature Competition
Directors Tujiko Noriko and Joji Koyama tell the beguiling tale of Romi, a Japanese woman caring for her paraplegic lover in Paris. To help pass the time she recounts the days when they lived in Japan and the strange elderly man, nicknamed Kuro, who nearly consumed both their lives.
Fully utilizing their backgrounds in experimental pop music, graphic arts and photography, Tujiko and Koyama have created a distinct and enveloping narrative on loneliness, dedication, disintegration and the liminal space of immigrant life. Operating somewhere between personal diary, myth and oral history, Kuro powerfully invokes the cinematic essays of Chris Marker and the magical realist literature of Haruki Murakami, creating a striking contrast between what we see and what we hear in Romi's tale(s). To be put under Kuro’s spell is a curious, all consuming pleasure for your eyes, ears, heart and soul.
The Family - Narrative Feature Competition
Perfectly encapsulating the changing tide of China, its politics and its people, Shumin Liu's domestic epic is nothing short of a revelatory debut. Indeed, it is unlike anything else playing in Park City this year.
Following an elderly couple as they visit their adult children across their vast and varied modern country, Liu's gentle and simple approach to what acts as a family album in both landscape and portraiture is heavily reminiscent of Ozu's Tokyo Story, Edward Yang's Yi-Yi. From the rich and nuanced performances of the non-actors, to the sociopolitical themes and poetic motifs laced between the film's keen naturalism I can't help but be smitten. Truly, the film is so soothing that one should be wholly absorbed by even the most common place of domestic rituals: that of cooking and eating. As such, The Family is one of those rare cinematic works that finds holiness in the everyday.
Automatic at Sea - Beyond Feature
In a time where objective reality and truth based in facts are doing the tango with the Devil, Matthew Lessner's sophomore feature playfully pulls apart... well, just about anything it can gets its camera on.
Following a young Swedish woman's journey to a strange and isolated island owned by an odd-duck of an American heir, Automatic at Sea eagerly and intelligently picks at cinema's inherent male gaze aesthetic, the fear found in both a logical and illogical mind, the dangers and lies of plot, the superficiality of atmosphere and plenty more. Through beguiling visuals and sound design that recall both Bergman island melancholia and Dušan Makavejev style WTF whimsy, Automatic at Sea is a work that bravely asks: if reality is merely a construct of the stories we tell, than what are we actually left with when those stories are taken away?
Withdrawn - Narrative Feature Competition
Adrian Murray's Withdrawn is an acutely observed study on self-absorption, fear and apathy in the Millenial generation. It is also bound to be one of the most uproariously funny films of 2017.
The film follows Aaron as he avoids most human contact in favor of solving his Rubik's cube, and eventually his bass-ackwards scheme to defraud a credit card owner. While dialog was improvised from a 15-page outline, Withdrawn is a meticulously crafted work. Brimming with detail and character, it is dry in its wit, and thoroughly sincere. It's all enough to declare that Murray and his small cast and crew of Ontario-based filmmakers have delivered one of the most affecting portraits of young adult life in a post-recession world. Indeed, it'd be smart of you to keep a close watch on what these sharp-tongued, keen-eyed creators do next. Heck, they just might make your new favorite TV show.
Who is Arthur Chu? - Documentary Feature Competition
Every night millions of Americans tune in to what is arguably the greatest game show of all time, to watch some of the smartest folks from across the land duke it out in a battle of wits. This!, as the announcement goes... Is Jeopardy!
In 2014, contestant Arthur Chu's unusual, hyper aggressive playing style not only fired up the ire of longtime viewers, but caused havoc with the face of Jeopardy! itself, Alex Trebeck. Chu eventually won nearly $300,000 in an 11-game streak. A target of racism and bigotry, it's what happened after the Daily Doubles where Chu's life gets even more interesting. With Who is Arthur Chu? co-directors Yu Gu and Scott Drucker appear to not only give us unprecedented access into the hallowed halls of the iconic game show, but offer up an intimate document of what it's like to be Asian-American in the digital age.
Cortez - Narrative Competition
As his first solo tour falls apart before his very eyes, despondent musician Jesse (co-writer and producer Arron Shiver) decides to retreat to a small Southwestern town where he hopes to reconnect with old flame Anne (director/co-writer Cheryl Nichols), who is none too pleased with his arrival and the disruption it causes in her family life.
Tracing the footsteps of 1970s American neo-dramatists like John Cassavetes and Bob Rafelson, Nichols imbues her debut with a tender melancholy and existentialism that showcases an equally introspective and tumultuous tale of realists and dreamers vying for some balance between hope and angst, ego and unconditional love.
Aerotropolis - Narrative Feature Competition
Berlin Talents alum Jheng-Neng Li's feature debut is a minimalist and existential look at the perils of free markets and capitalism, telling the story of a young Taiwanese Christian who has invested his inheritance in a dead end property. At night, he wanders the streets of Taoyuan City, searching for some form of respite or salvation in his increasingly meaningless life.
There is a strange transitory desolation to be found in the meticulous long takes of Aerotropolis. As a work of self-actualization through hyper-normalization and petty digitization it is opaque in presentation, recalling the patient and brooding spiritualism of Robert Bresson and perhaps something of Agnes Varda's Vagabond. As it goes, Aerotropolis is a film of little discoveries framed within the sprawling promise of a supposedly better tomorrow. It also features one hell of a non-sex sex scene.
The Erlprince - Beyond Feature
Kuba Czekaj's sophomore effort is nothing less than universe shattering. Because when you are a young genius specializing in quantum physics, and on the verge of adulthood, the whole world can feel like it's collapsing into a black hole.
Threaded with inventive use of music and sound design, Czekaj subverts coming-of-age stories, science fiction apocalypses and european arthouse fare with considerable elegance and just the right amount of edge.
Wexford Plaza - Narrative Feature Competition
Joyce Wong's debut centers around a series of awkward encounters between Bettie, a young woman working security at a rundown strip mall, and Danny, the bartender she begins to pine for. The film works in two halves. First from Bettie's perspective, then Danny's. This clever and simple approach invites the audience to reinterpret ideas around expectation, perception, and what fine lines there are between healthy and broken communication.
With two winning performances from Reid Asselstine and Darrel Gamotin, Wexford Plaze not only acts as a bittersweet portrait of a young woman coming into her sexuality, but is also an astute look at the dead end jobs that trap so many of us.
What Lies Upstream -Opening Night Film
Cullen Hoback's chilling expose Terms and Conditions May Apply pulled the page back on just what those Google, Apple and Microsoft agreements mean.
His new work appears to be an exhaustive investigative into the very disconcerting state of American drinking water. Prepare to have your stomach turn and your mind blown.
