Tuesday, September 29, 2015

New York Film Festival 2015 Projections: Program 8: 88:88

Feature length film whose title presents the broken read out of a digital clock,

The film is narrative of life cut together with multiple images, an occasional disjointed soundtrack, home movies and other images. There is frequent use of mirrors.

While I'm not a huge fan of the film, I do think it's one of the most interesting of the films in the Projections sidebar. There is a real attempt at making a film that expresses a point of view and at making the audience engage on more than just a knee jerk level.

I know I have been kind of snarky in regard to a bunch of the sorts in the series that use similar techniques, but they all seemed to be aiming to make an experimental film that simply got noticed or used the off beat form because they couldn't do a film that was good  so they made one strange.

However in this case director Isiah Medina has made a film that use the experimental/Avant Garde forms to force you to engage with the film- what is it he is getting at? The answers are not that simple, especially since the film runs 65 minutes. This is a film that builds themes and rhythms and creates a head space.  While at first I fought the film because the other films in the series colored my view, I found that about 10 or 15 minutes in I began to click with the film on some levels.  I began to see the depth of themes and the intelligence behind the films construction.

While I'm not a huge fan of the film I will say that it's one of the best film in the sidebar.  It's a film that I need, and more importantly want to see again down the road where I can  see it for what it is on it's own terms and not something that was affected by seeing 50 other experimental films around it.

If you want to see one film that perhaps best sums up Projections see this film.

The film has one screening on October 4. For tickets and more information go here.

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