Due to technical difficulties
with the site, I was forced to skip this morning’s screening of Ross McElwee’s
documentary Bright Leaves. I showed up in time for the press conference
and nabbed the few shots that you see above.
The film is about McElwee’s own family and its legacy in the tobacco industry.
His great grandfather created the Bull Durham brand, and was arguably swindled
out of his share by competitors. Apparently, as a dose of
irony, Gary Cooper once played a character in an obscure film that was based on
his grandfather.
I don’t have an opinion to add to this one, so I’ll have to leave it there.
Though it pains me to say this, I walked out
of the afternoon screening of Since Otar Left. I wasn’t feeling well and
it was dragging. There wasn’t a moment of dramatic involvement for me and I
couldn’t bear to sit through 102 minutes of it.
Instead, I’d like to talk about The Toll Collector, the10-minute short
that preceded it. The Toll Collector, as conceived and directed by Rachel
Johnson, played somewhat like a female take on Tim Burton’s world. It
had a dark, almost gothic aesthetic and featured a lonely grotesque character as
the lead.
Having a little experience with animation and knowing a few doll-makers, I think
the solitude portrayed in this short perfectly captured the psyche of somebody
who expresses herself with dolls. To create an animated film
takes time and precision. It’s not like being on a regular movie set with lots
of people around. It says something about the type of person who chooses to work
in this medium – namely creating a lifelike illusion from inanimate objects.
The Toll Collector was enjoyable. It was the correct length and offered
no need to be taken to a greater scale. It was also nice to see at the festival
because it stood out as unique among the other short films.
Copyright 2003 by Jamie Stuart