The Rest of IFFB

Every year I have the highest hopes of spending an entire week getting through as many movies as possible at the Independent Film Festival, but realistically I end up somewhere around this year's total of three. So besides closing night, I headed over to the Somerville Theater on a Sunday for a double feature. I did this without much research except to see which two movies would work as a double feature, and got mixed results.

First up was Secrecy, a documentary about "the vast, invisible world of government secrecy". Obviously, much of this focuses on our current administration. I was mostly bored. Which isn't to say that it was a poorly made documentary- it was well put together and the directors did a very good job finding the right people to feature. But I find that a common problem with documentaries like this is that there is a bit of a "no shit!" factor here.

There is a real challenge in making documentaries concerning current events. While 10 years ago this may have been a great way to get an unknown story out to a wide audience, today there's a good chance that the subject has been covered in length already somewhere, probably on the internet. Of course there is a lot of crap on the internet, but in my opinion the most important and timely reporting of government craziness is coming through that medium. And as a result, documentaries like this (and also a lot of very well written books on similar topics) feel dated the minute they come out.

An exception to this would be the excellent Frontline doc "Bush's War", just due to the tremendous amount of information covered and the high level of the subjects interviewed. Then again, that was four and a half hours long and had the resources of PBS behind it. Anyway, Secrecy ended up taking the special grand jury prize at the festival.

Next up was Goliath, which I loved. The story is simple- a man is in the middle of a divorce from his wife, then loses his beloved cat, and spends the next 70 minutes slowly but surely losing his shit. I'm not familiar with the Zellner Bros. but they apparently are fairly well known for their shorts (this is their first full length). 

The movie moves slowly- the Zellners really seem to like setting up a camera and basically letting it roll while the characters participate in mundane activities. There is a 5 minute scene of two people signing their divorce papers (and nothing else) that was simultaneously one of the most boring but oddly funny things I have seen in a movie. But the long shots are punctuated by some very darkly hilarious stuff as our protagonist slowly falls apart (with some help from a power saw). Not a film for everyone but I'm definitely interested to see where these guys go.

Also, the trailer is excellent.