Discover Your Bliss

Los Angeles Film Festival: Summer Breaks

What's interesting about this particular Australian short is that is loosely based on an actual event.

Here's how the Los Angeles Film Festival describes the short, Summer Breaks:

Summer Breaks is a highly visual portrait of teenage kids hanging out in the burbs. The film is a glimpse into the lives of two 15 year old boys, Benny and Sam. Loosely set somewhere in the late 80s, the story follows two friends as they wander the neighbourhood streets on a sweltering summer’s day.
An unexpected encounter with two of the neighbourhood’s most sort after girls and a local teen thug
leads them to a trip to the local oval and a late night swim. Their day turns to night and becomes a little more interesting than they expected.

It's amazing what a person can do with 12 minutes of film time.  One scene merits an "ouch" award - this award is given when something in the film looks so real that I actually feel the pain while watching.  Without giving too much away, it involves a platform and spring board at a swimming pool.  Ouch. 

I love getting an insider's look into the lives of non-American teens.  It's amazing how nothing is all that different with the Australian teens - just a little slang and location. 

If you'd like to see the trailer, click here. 

I'd love to hear your thoughts and discoveries.

Los Angeles Film Festival: Top Girl

Oh how I love a story where the ridiculed girl has the last laugh.

Here's how the Los Angeles Film Festival describes the short film, Top Girl: 

Truthful, tender and punctuated by ill advised sexual encounters, TOP GIRL is a coming-of-age story about girls growing up in a man's world.

Set in Brixton South London, and shot using a cast of new and non-actors, TOP GIRL is a raw, truthful and tender coming of age tale. Fearless fifteen year old Donna and her best mate Felicia set off on a mission to find Legz, a supercool 20 year old with a recording studio in the bedroom of his mum's flat. The idea is for Donna to MC on a track but events don't go according to plan. Starved of attention, Donna impulsively lunges at Legz and ends up in an abrupt sexual encounter in the toilet. Afterwards she's thrilled and bursting to tell Felicia but at school the next day, word has got out and suddenly Donna finds herself a playground pariah. Unable to handle the humiliation in front of her friend, she lashes out at Felicia. Now totally alone and reduced to hiding from the world any way she can, Donna is at rock bottom. Will she manage to salvage her TOP GIRL status and win back her best friend? With irrepressible moxie, TOP GIRL captures the intensity of youth and the reality of growing up as a teenage girl in a man's world.

The short runs 18 minutes, yet there's so much story and emotion packed into this short amount of time which makes Top Girl shine as a must-see short.

Here's the trailer for Top Girl: 

How important is your reputation?  How does your reputation shape your view of yourself?  Or does it matter?

I'd love to hear your thoughts and discoveries. 

Los Angeles Film Festival: Love You More

I love short films and I saw a wonderful grouping (shorts 5) at the film festival.  Love You More is one of my favorites.

Here's the Los Angeles Film Festival description for Love Your More (it's more of a play-by-play):

Georgia sits in a Geography class covering her exercise book with graffiti. Her classmate Peter watches her with longing. Georgia turns and catches him - but ignores his gaze. After school Peter goes to the local record shop to buy the new Buzzcocks single, 'Love You More'. It's the day of its release and he's desperate to own it. As he's flicking through the rack of 'New Releases' Georgia comes in. She's after the same record... But there's only one copy. And Peter's got it. Georgia quizzes him on Buzzcocks. She's quietly impressed that this seeming geek knows his stuff. But there's still only one copy. Georgia slips it into Peter's school bag and they hurry out. In the street she invites him to listen to the stolen record with her. He hesitates and admits he's supposed to be going straight home. Georgia laughs and leads him to her place - a flat above a pub. They go to her bedroom and listen to the song. It's loud and quick and it ends suddenly. Georgia throws herself at Peter and they devour each other; a frenzy of skin and limbs, the energy of the music propelling them into losing their virginities. Georgia walks Peter home. Peter wants to know if she'll continue to ignore him at school. Georgia says, 'Don't be poxy'. They kiss, tenderly. Peter watches Georgia depart. He's madly in love. Georgia walks away.

I love how this short focused on listening to a particular song on a record.

The writer also wrote Notes on a Scandal and the director is directing the upcoming John Lennon biopic.  

Here's the trailer for Love You More:

I'd love to hear your comments and discoveries.

Los Angeles Film Festival: Dear Lemon Lima

One of the first films I saw at the Festival was A Week Alone. 

Here's how the Los Angeles Film Festival describes A Week Alone: 

Presenting a world nearly devoid of adults, Celina Murga’s beguiling feature allows the mercurial openness of its young subjects to determine the mood and pace of the film. A group of teens and pre-teens is left alone in their over-landscaped, gated housing development while their parents are out of town. Although they still attend school, the children spend most of their time swimming, drinking too much chocolate milk, and breaking into empty houses. When a housekeeper invites her less-privileged younger brother to visit for a few days, Murga reveals the artificial environment to be less Edenic than it first appeared.

Willfully obscuring needless details (the parents’ absence and the children’s relations with each other are only gradually and partially explained), the film focuses on microscopic incidents that chart moments of social or sexual awakening. Featuring uniformly superb performances from its first-time actors, especially real-life sisters Magdalena and Eleonora Capobianco, who provide the film’s emotional center—this is a coming-of-age story devoid of sentimental triumphs or tragedies, but redolent with the fleeting beauty of empty days free of consequence.

I found the film to be an interesting "fly on the wall" piece where I was witness to all things the kids did to entertain themselves.  I give it three out of five swimming pools. 
 
Here's the trailer for this Argentinean film:


What would you do if you had a week alone in a gated community where rules didn't exist?  How would you use your time?

I'd love to hear your comments and discoveries. 

Los Angeles Film Festival: Stella

I'm a sucker for French films...and this one gets 4 1/2 disco balls out of five. 

Here's how the Los Angeles Film Festival describes Stella:

It’s 1977, and 11-year-old Stella Vlaminck is handed a lucky break when she’s randomly assigned to a prestigious secondary school in an affluent area of Paris. But the working-class Stella is more streetwise than booksmart, and she is shunned by her new classmates who view her cheap clothes and academic struggles with disdain. Meanwhile, her home life consists of poker, pinball, pop music, and an odd menagerie of damaged adults. Her parents run a rooming house and rowdy café frequented by ex-cons, drunkards, and prostitutes, where she witnesses nightly barroom brawls and the never-ending drama of her romantically-troubled parents.

Stella seems destined to follow in the footsteps of her barmaid mother until she befriends Gladys, the daughter of Argentine-Jewish intellectuals, who exposes her to literature and a whole new world of possibilities.

Aided by a superb cast, especially young Leora Barbara, who gives a low-key, assured performance in the titular role, writer-director Sylvie Verheyde’s semi-autobiographical film is a remarkable portrait of a young girl’s intellectual awakening.

The little girl that plays Stella is years more mature and wiser than most children at her age.  She's the main focus and gives a performance that's almost impossible to ignore. 

One thing I appreciated about this film is how the viewer gets an insider look as to why Stella reacts to situations the way she does and how her outlook on life is a bit twisted compared to the average girl her age. 

Here's the trailer - it's in French - yet you can get a feel for the film if you watch it:

How do your surroundings shape who you are?  What's one insight you have about how your surroundings influence who you are?

I'd love to hear your comments and discoveries.

Los Angeles Film Festival: Paper Heart

Probably one of the best films I've seen all year - Paper Heart delivers quirky heart-felt comedy that's sure to please.

Here's how the Los Angeles Film Festival describes Paper Heart:

Los Angeles-based comedian and performance artist Charlyne Yi brings her winning and quirky “woman on the street” approach to a subject that has plagued humans for centuries—the search for true love. In this lovingly crafted hybrid of road trip documentary and quasi-fictional romantic-comedy, our heroine and her friend and intrepid director Nicholas Jasenovec criss-cross the country interviewing experts and everyday folks about the meaning and nature of love.

Yi employs her disarming persona to draw vulnerability, insight, and humor from her subjects, who range from biologists to bikers, lifelong couples to lovesick singles. Yi’s quest is underscored by her own dawning romance with actor Michael Cera, which is amusingly staged-for and interrupted by Jasenovec’s all-seeing camera. The couple’s awkward courtship and a few lo-fi animated sequences of handmade paper puppets lend some gentle humor and a generous, expansive spirit to Paper Heart’s weighty investigation.

Thankfully, Paper Heart will hit theaters on August 7th - so mark your calendars. 

If you want an up-lifting and fun movie to watch this coming August, then Paper Heart is the movie for you. 

Here's the trailer:

How does love show up in your everyday life?  Where would you like to have love, but don't?  How can you make that happen?

I'd love to hear your insights and comments.

Los Angeles Film Festival: City of Borders

What a fascinating film subject.  I am so happy I chose to see this documentary. 

Here's how the Los Angeles Film Festival describes City of Borders: 

After stabbing three participants of Jerusalem’s 2005 gay pride parade, the suspect told police, “I came to murder on behalf of God.” This event underlines what’s at stake for the gay community in this ancient city of borders. It’s an unlikely place for gay rights to make any headway, but the sheer impossibility might make it the most important place to wage this fight.

At the center of this powerful film is Jerusalem’s sole gay bar, Shusan, where gay and lesbian Jews and Palestinians drink and flirt with abandon. The freedom of expression the bar offers is precious to its owner, the only gay man on Jerusalem’s city council, and its patrons, including a lesbian couple comprised of a Jew and a Palestinian, a gay couple building a home together, and a Palestinian drag queen who risks dangerous nighttime border crossings where armed guards pose a constant threat. Gay-friendlier places like Tel Aviv and the U.S may beckon for some, but others will stay, determined to win the war, even if it means losing some of the battles.

Even though it might appear that the film is a heavy subject matter, I found this film to also be uplifting and delightful.  It's a real insider's look into a world that many deem impossible. 

The filmmaker said that City of Borders will hopefully air on PBS in the coming year as well as be available through NetFlix next year.  If you visit the film's website City of Borders - you can find a schedule of upcoming screenings - possibly near you. 

Here's the trailer:



I highly recommend City of Borders.  I give it five out of five rainbows. 

Where do you see "the impossible" in your life?  What does "impossible" mean to you?  Is anything in your life ever impossible? 

I'd love to hear your comments and discoveries. 

Los Angeles Film Festival: The Queen and I

Wow, double wow - fantastic!  What a treat it was to screen The Queen and I in Los Angeles. 

Here's how the Los Angeles Film Festival describes the documentary:

Thirty years after the Iranian revolution, two exiles from opposite sides of the divide face off on screen. The “Queen” of the title is 70-year-old Empress Farah Diba, second wife of Shah Reza Pahlavi, an icon with considerable charm. “I” refers to filmmaker Nahid Persson Sarvestani, who, as a teenager, joined the Communist faction of Khomeini supporters who deposed the shah. This fascinating encounter of two women with clashing political visions serves as a primer for problems that every documentary-maker contends with. How far do you let your subjects impose their will on you? And to what extent do you comply with the image people want to create of themselves?

Fearing that Queen Farah will refuse further cooperation, Nahid finds herself unable to ask truly confrontational questions about the shah's regime. Frustrated by the layers of bureaucracy shielding her subject, annoyed with her own timidity, and conflicted about her growing affection for a woman whose husband she so vehemently opposed, Sarvestani Nahid cleverly structures the picture to include the filmmaking process as well as her own doubts and fears.

The filmmaker Nahid Persson Sarvestani attended the screening along with Los Angeles' Iranian popultion.  I not only enjoyed the documentary, I also enjoy the theater atmosphere. 

Before the film, everyone stood for a moment of silent for what's currently happening in Iran.  Very powerful. 

The film is funny, serious, sad and thought-provoking.  Please do yourself a favor and remember the title - The Queen and I - if it comes to a theater near you - be sure to take the time to see it.  You'll be glad you did. 

Five out of five stars.

The Queen and I trailer:


How does looking at your challenges from a different perspective support you?  What gifts can you see in your current challenges? 

I'd love to hear your comments and discoveries. 

Los Angeles Film Festival: Dear Lemon Lima

It's that time of year again and I'm here to report on the nine films I will see over the next week. 

First stop:  Dear Lemon Lima

Here's a quick description from the Los Angeles Film Festival site:

When 13-year-old Vanessa experiences her first breakup, she rebounds by following the boy to his stifling prep school, where she receives the only minority scholarship for her Yup’ik background. Landing at the bottom of the school’s social ladder and confined to the weight room during P.E., she begins to rally with the other school misfits, including an animal-loving boy with overbearing parents, a girl named Nothing, and a pathological liar claiming Puff Daddy is her father. Vanessa’s attempts to find herself and win back the love of her life flounder, until she’s presented with an opportunity to captain the oddball team for the school’s bastardized version of the World Eskimo Indian Olympics—the Snowstorm Survivor competition.

It would be an understatement to say this movie is campy.  The film is reminiscent of that stuck in another time of Napoleon Dynamite and outcast quality of Edward Scissorhands. 

What I liked about the lead character (Vanessa) is her lack of care for being an oddball and outcast.  It wasn't a challenge for her and in fact, she learned to embrace her differences - which quickly proved to be her strengths. 

The supporting oddball cast-off characters were pleasantly lovable and helped to create a delightful environment for the somewhat mystical tale. 

Overall, I would give Dear Lemon Lima four out of five Popsicle sticks. 

Here's the trailer if you'd like to see it.  I don't think it's the best "tease" of the film.

How can you embrace your inner outcast?  How does seeing your "differences" as strengths instead of weakness do for you? 

I'd love to hear your comments and discoveries.