The Minimal Chuck

A place to present the minimal art that I enjoy making!

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Emotionally Exhausting... but good

How do you cope with the simple fact that your child is dying? How do you keep going when he is only four? The better question here is, how do you make a film about such a complicated subject?

Thanks For Playing is about the story of Joel Green and his family dealing with the fact that he has cancer and its spreading fast. When most families would just grieve, shut down, mourn. But Joel's father chose to take his grief and directed towards the one art he knows, video game development. This film takes us on this personal and emotional experience.

I wont talk to much about the story because it would be better to experience it by watching the film and playing the game That Dragon, Cancer when it is released. Instead this review is more a reflection of the film making.

We see scenes from the game but more importantly we see scenes in which the game is being made. The voice acting from their other children, the animation of the game, and the scripting. The scene that really got me was watching people's reactions as they played through the demo of the game.

Joel's father made a game filled to the brim with heart, and anyone playing through the game could feel that. Just simply watching this film, you could literally feel the emotions that the family was going through.

Childhood cancer is already a tough subject to talk about it, so the fact that the filmmakers were able to create their beautiful film is a testament to their artistic ability. The film was empathetic and gentle. It didn't shove the sad facts in front of you, it presented them to you for you to react however you would like.

Thanks For Playing is an amazing film that will leave you crying but happy because you were able to experience this amazing piece of art. You really do need to see this film, but watch it with a box of tissues beside you.

I look forward to when That Dragon, Cancer comes out. This film seems to be a perfect companion to the game, and I hope the final production is as emotional and wonderful as this film was.

In closing I just want to wish my deepest to condolences to Joel's family.

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CHOO CHOO!!!!

In Transit. On paper, the consecpt for this film looks unimaginative at best. But in reality, it is an amazing film that is simple and charming.

At its core, In Transit is all about stories. The stories of the people riding the train line known as Empire Builder. Its a 3 day trip from Seattle to Chicago and vise versa.

The passengers onboard range from those simply looking to get away to those looking for new beginnings. The interviews are short, sweet, and full of emotion. The stories these passengers have are ones with heart and soul. And it makes for an amazing enjoyable film.

The cinematography is also very impressive. Who here can honestly say that the interior of a modern passenger train is even remotely nice looking? The answer there is no one. And yet, the direction focuses not on the train, but the passengers, their interactions with one another. Its the people who make this train as it is, how they spend their time to make the long journey seem shorter.

In Transit is a delightful film that I think everyone will enjoy.

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Broadcasting Doubt

Machine Gun or Typewriter. Where do I even begin with this one. Out of all of the films I have seen at this festival, in my life, this by far is one of the most abstract ones.

The story is a simple one, a man broadcasting and illegal radio show suddenly receives a mysterious email from a woman, they meet, fall in love, and so on. But the presentation is what makes this film unique.

The entire narration was done in one take and takes on the perspective of the man broadcasting his thoughts. He tells us the story in a raw gritty emotional voice. The images we see are those that are going on through his head. They can be calm peaceful images to violent rough film of protests and over violent acts.

They story is a work of fiction, but many of the things the man is telling us are based on the actual history of Los Angelas and aare usual the more dark and violent parts. But the story does a rough job trying to connect the histories to a central story.

There's not much more I can say about Machine Gun or Typewriter. It is honestly a film that you need to experience to understand. There are many aspects of the film that I just cant explain and the conclusion the main characters story has a plot twist that is work sitting through for.

The only question I have left after seeing that film was "Why did he take her to zion?"

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Where The Hell Is Uncertain?!

Lying on the border or Louisiana and Texas is the tiny little forgotten town of Uncertain. It is "Where you go to disappear", a land where ex-criminals are allowed to carry and use antique rifles for hunting. It is a crude, swampy land where all there is to do is hunt and drink.

Uncertain has a wonderful charm about it as is follows the stories of several residents. An elderly guide who spends most his days fishing, a diabetic man trying to escape from town, an ex-criminal on the hunt for a sinister boar, and an scientist studying Weavils.

This film does a wonderful job slowly introducing us to their characters. We see how they live, how they make a living and then we are given their stories. Gradually we learn why many of these people are still hear. Its only after we grow attached do we discover their dark secrets. This film frame the people it covers in a beautiful and empathetic way.

And then there is the cinematography. Lets admit it, a swamp isn't exactly something that is very interesting to look at. This film does it perfectly, every shot looks like a picture from an art museum. The lighting, the direction, the action, it all conveyed this feeling of wild, untamable wilderness while making it feel friendly and inviting.

Throughout the film, we are given glimpses into a major problem the town is facing. An invasive, fast growing weed that is literally choking the life out of the lake. Information we receive about this problem is slow and sporadic, but by the end of the film you understand why.

I don't wish to spoil the film, but lets just say it ends with Weavils kicking ass and bring hope.

Uncertain is a film many people can enjoy. The characters are charming and relatable and the cinematography is undoubtable beautiful. I would highly recommend everyone to see this film.

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Snorespace

I think the title really says it all. Now before I start I should be fair and say that this film is a work in progress. The film maker even seemed hesitant to place his film in the film festival.

Bluespace, a film with a really cool topic Terraforming on Mars. At the same time it showed the current state of our waterways in New York City. Created by the filmmaker that brought us King Corn, Bluespace spends half of its time telling us a vague history of mars and the terraforming theories. It then spends the other half giving the audience and even more vague look at the waterways of NYC.

Do you partial NASA control recordings? Do you enjoy low hum like music with no clear melody or rythem? Are you a fan of random long drifting shots of such things as tiny fishes, polluted water, or random people doing things in random bodies of water. Than this is the film for you?

The biggest sin that this film makes is the random series of poorly framed lingering shots that filled that last 10 minutes. Allow me to put you in the same point of view as the audience. You have been watching a film, it has done nothing as far as educating or informing you about anything truly noteworthy for over an hour. Then a shot is framed of polluted water and a bottle slowly floats by. Your expecting the end credits to start rolling, but no. The film, cuts to black and fades into 10 minutes of slow motion shots with droning music and NASA noise.

Im not saying that this is a terrible film, but it was boring. When the final credit sequence introducing everyone who was seen in the film was more interesting that the rest of the film, then you know you did something wrong.  

Let me finish by reminding my reader that this was in fact still a Work in Progress. My review is of an uncompleted film. However the audience was told that the film was  “mostly finished”. For the sake of the filmmaker, I hope he is wrong.

Bluespace has the potential for becoming an intriguing interesting film. But only after some change in the soundtrack, arrangement of interviews, and reshooting of many shots. King Corn was an interesting piece that catches the eyes. This is the type of film they play in a museum that the only people who actually sit down and watch it are elderly people resting their feet and tired exhausted children.

The future of Bluespace is on the edge, it is almost a smashing success or a miserable failure. I for one, hope that they do learn form this early premiere and it can turn around.

I wish the creators of Bluespace the best of luck. I will be watching your progress with great interest.

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Looking For The Best Light

Film makers often ask themselves, how can I make a film that makes veiwers emphasize with my subjects? How can I make my subject known throughtout the world. How can I reach people who I would never be bale to reach? These questions are ones that film makers ask themselves and more often than not, fail to find answers for.

Frame by Frame is exactly how a documentary film should be made. I don't know where to begin. How do you begin to summarize something that is almost perfection?! This film tells the story of a group of photo journalists living in Afghanistan, a country until fairly recently it was illegal to take a single photograph. It is still a country where photographers arnt exactly welcomed.

The lives of these people are often hard and full of heart ache. They photograph subjects and material that needs to be seen. There is only way for them to try and bring awareness to the struggles around them, they document and show the world.

This film is gripping, its emotional, its cinematic, and above all its beautiful. The subject of photography never flowed so seamlessly with cinematography. the direction was absolutely brilliant. Every single frame of this film looked like the work of the photographers. Every still clearly has a story and provokes emotions. This in a photographer is hard enough, but in motion film this is almost never happens except in big budget Hollywood films.

This tiny film has more heart, more empathy than anything else I have ever seen. Hands down, Frame by Frame is one of the best if not THE best of the year.

Watch this movie. Trust me you will not regret it.  

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What Do We Do With It All?

Containment is a documentary film that talks about nuclear waste and where it all will go. It also covers the legacy of where we place it all and how to discourage generations thousands of years away to never dig up our waste.

The film does a great job cover most of the facts about this topic, but it does seem to miss opportunities to discuss previous events relate to nuclear disasters and connect them to the future and present.

The biggest error I feel the film has thought is the lack of focus. It seems to present three different stories with three different perspectives that all center around nuclear waste and disaster. We are presented the story of WIPP a facility that specializes in the containment of nuclear waste and their goal to allow them to contain high level nuclear waste. We are also given the stories of a few Japanese individuals that suffered in the wake of the fugishima disaster. The final story is lighty covered about a facility in Georgia that used to be a a working nuclear reactor that soon became a place to contain waste.

All three of these narratives are about the same topic but feel so disconnected from each other. Parts of the film seem to drag as they cover minor insignificant things like a man talking about how often he returns home. I understand why making these kind of decisions in direction could work, but in this case it just makes the film slow down.

The final act of the film leaves you with a bored feeling with no hope in nuclear technology. the WIPP facility fails, the Japanese never return longer than a day, and nothing has even happened in a long time at the facility in Georgia. The future of nuclear technology looks bleak, uneventful, and with waste haphazardly spread everywhere. With all of this, the film also just seems to constantly repeated the same message and asked the question “what do we do with the waste when it stays dangerous for 10,000 years.

Overall, this films is good for introducing you to the controversial world of nuclear tech. If your someone who is already aware of the issues surrounding this topic, than you will find this film boring and even unsurprising.

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Fucking Brutal

The Ground We Won is a New Zealand film shot in black and white focused on a rugby club in Rapora. It follows the team during one of their seasons, seng how the celebrate, how they cope with loss, and what they do when they arnt playing rugby.

Most  the club members are simple dairy farmers. When they arnt tackling one another on a muddy field, they are helping their cows give birth or rangaling them. This shows that despite how aggressive, how violent, or how crude they get once they put on their uniform, the members are still just honest down to earth people.

These characters feel authentic, they feel real and almost relatable. They drink, they sing, they shove each other around. They even get one each others nerves but despite all of this, they are all still friends.

So when you leave the film you ask yourself what it was about. Was it trying to show us  the hard brutal lives of rugby teams? Is it an insight into what friendship really is like? Or is it even a study on what brutal training and tons of alcohol do to the body? The answer is really of these. The films covers a wide range of topics in such a short amount of time while being entertaining.

The Ground We Won is an incredible film that is enjoyed by nearly everyone. You don't need to be a sports fan or even know what rugby is. All you have to be is a person who enjoys film and beautiful cinematography

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Bidder 70

This 2013 documentary tells the story of Tim DeChirstopher, a college student who performed one simply action to challenge “The man”

but Bidder 70 is about so much more than that. This is the story of a man standing up for what he believes, fighting against something that is clearly evil and in the end getting punished for it. 

But that still is not the story that is presented. instead we are given the story of how one person can challenge an entire country, can awaken an entire movement, can save an entire beautiful landscape. 

Bidder 70 is the story of determination, of courage, of belief. Its a story that all should see. 

Aesthetically however, bidder 70 can be a bit bland... the story and message are engaging enough, but at times the film feels as if it drags on. Perhaps this is done in order to make viewers feel what Tim went through every time his court-date was pushed back. But to the average viewer watching, it seems slightly dull. 

the direction needed to be something that caught the attention of the masses. The only ones likely to watch this film are supporters of the cause, and people who enjoy documentaries. In this age, a film like this needs to be flashy, it needs to catch the attention. It needs to be done in a way that it ignites a flame in the hearts of Americans and under the ass of the government. 

Overall, Bidder 70 is an enjoyable film. Tim’s story is one that everyone needs to see and hear. He is an inspiration to everyone, not just those supporting a greener future. His tale is one of courage, he doesn't give up even after he is jailed. He isn’t scared by those on top, instead he tries his hardest to scare them right back. 

And that’s something we all should strive to do. For we are the ones with the power.

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