A (very) few highlights from Cinequest 2010

The Cinequest Film Festival started last week and movie fans have another week to catch the shows. If I could take two weeks off work and afford a VIP pass, I would see as many films as I could. But as it is, I limited myself to two screenings today.

The first screening I went to was at the San Jose Repertory Theatre, "No Tomorrow," which had it's world premiere at Cinequest. One of the highlights of Cinequest is that some of the filmmakers show up to talk about the films. But in this case, the filmmaker was snowed in in New York and couldn't make it out. Roger Weisberg and Vanessa Roth made the film as something of a follow up to their 2002 film "Aging Out." In their original film, they followed Risa Bejarano as she ages out of the foster care system. The film shows her graduating from high school, heading off to college, but it includes the struggles she faced growing up and the struggles she continues to face as she starts her life on her own.

A year or so after the film was wrapped, Risa was brutally murdered in an alleyway in a bad neighborhood of Los Angeles. But instead of being another anonymous Jane Doe, the prosecutor soon realizes that the documentary can be used to help make his case of a life that was just beginning being cut short as he pursued the death penalty.

The filmmakers started the new project, "No Tomorrow," as a way to deal with their ambivalence about their original project being used as ammunition to sentence someone to death. The documentary is a well-painted portrait of the complications of the death penalty, and though the filmmakers state their opinion against it early on, they offer points of view from all sides. There is footage of the trial, interviews with the jurors, graphic images of Risa with 13 gunshot wounds at close range. The filmmakers ask a lot of hard questions about the death penalty, and they offer a lot of different points of views and perspectives on the complicated issue. Anyone interested can catch the film one more time, March 6, at 6:30 p.m. at the Camera 12 in San Jose.

For the second screening, I headed to Camera 3 for a shorts program called "The Darker Side of Growing Up." It had five films, and included a mix of serious pieces as well as lighter fare. As with all short film programs, there was also a mix of good pieces and some stuff that was just plain weird.

My favorite of the films was "Anna," by Danish director Runar Runarsson. The piece follows Anna, an adolescent girl who is having a rough go of it since her father left the family. She goes every day to her father's boat and drains out water to keep it from sinking. Her sidekick, a blond-haired, blue-eyed boy named Ole rides her around on her bike. The film shows the extreme vulnerability of preteens as Anna one second is cursing at her mother to leave her alone, and hours later, is climbing into bed with her for comfort. In one scene, Anna's mother shields her eyes from a sex scene on television and then begins to tickle her as the girl writhes in laughter. The film shows the delicate balance of a kid in turmoil who is trying to assert her independence, but still needs a strong parent.

The other film I liked was "Brother," directed by Mary Bing. The film follows Lucy who has to deal with an annoying a little brother. The film is short, but it made me laugh as the little brother does all kinds of things to annoy his big sister, even faking an episode of allergic reactions that sends Lucy guilty to her room to hide. The acting was that great, but the sibling rivalry was amusing.

The first film shown was "Ana's Playground," by director Eric D. Howell, which is supposed to be a commentary on children of war. The film has very little dialogue in it and it has quite a surprise ending. But it just didn't quite work for me in sending the message it was supposed to send. The young actress in it posted footage from the set on YouTube, for anyone who is interested.

The other films were both filmed in New Zealand, including "Patu Ihu" by Summer Agnew and "The Six Dollar Fifty Man" by Mark Albiston and Louis Sutherland. "Patu Ihu" follows a young boy's interaction with his uncle and older cousin's at a funeral, but it is quite short and just didn't have enough substance to really tell the poignant story it was trying to tell. In "The Six Dollar Fifty Man," a young boy who is somewhat bullied and ostracized by his peers finds redemption in an unlikely place - the principal's office.

Cinequest continues through March 6.