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Interview with Ginger Gentile

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TAKING ON IVY LEAGUE: INTERVIEW WITH ‘EXCLUSION U’ DIRECTOR GINGER GENTILE

Activist director sets sights on elite universities

 

Ginger Gentile/Core Media

 

Spin the wheel and land on a current hot-button topic that incites anger on either side of the political spectrum and puts grass-roots activists on a collusion course with powerful, moneyed institutions: gun control, abortion, transgender intolerance, immigration, agenda-based news organizations, and of course evergreen racial dynamics.

Roiling in the margins awaits another issue destined for the center stage: the shocking and permissive financial shenanigans of institutions of higher education. Tangential issues—student loan forgiveness, the influence of “woke” progressive professors, the protests of ultraconservative guest speakers—already are popping up in headlines across the nation.

Ginger Gentile’s new documentary, Exclusion U, launches headlong into the controversies, hidden and no-so, of how universities, particularly the Ivy League, sit on billions of dollars while refusing to expand enrollments. It’s a topic ready-made for Gentile, who describes herself as an activist documentary filmmaker who prefers to take on “issues that people don’t want to talk about.”

Her previous documentary, Erasing Family (2022), explores trauma children of divorce suffer when a parent is erased from their lives. That film was financed through a crowdfunding campaign. Gentile also produced several independent films during her post-college stint in Argentina. Her experiences as a Jewish person living in Buenos Aires may very well inspire a future documentary about Jews in Latin America, she says.

When it comes to scandals within the corridors of higher education, Gentile, an Ivy Leaguer herself, knows of what she speaks. As a student at Columbia University, she had a love-hate relationship with her alma mater.

“The education was amazing,” Gentile recalls, but she didn’t cotton to some of the same institutional issues she takes on in her film. “I was always protesting. My time at Columbia informed my outlook on how Ivy League functions.”

Gentile’s film takes on myriad issues: economics, race, politics, legacy benefactors, beleaguered financial aid efforts, intentional exclusivity and even gentrification. But the centerpiece is certainly the issue of endowments. Exclusion U carefully lays out how Ivy League institutions hoard billions of dollars through financial set-asides. The endowments grow exponentially into a largess that rarely find its way back to those who need it most, low-income students and the communities that surround and support the universities.

“I always knew that schools had endowments,” Gentile says. But the extent to which donations and assets are funneled away was staggering to discover. “Everything is public, but not widely known. All these things they do are legal,” she adds.

In addition to students, Gentile’s documentary has many former educators, administrators and admission officials as talking heads. Was there a concern of upsetting the Ivy League culture?

“I only interviewed people who wanted to talk,” she said. “There was fear from students from Harvard compared to other universities. Harvard is such a powerful institution.”

She adds, “Everything is fact-checked. They may not like it but it’s all true.”

Looking to the future, Gentile has her eyes on the subject of math.

“I’d love to do a film about people’s fear and hatred of mathematics,” she says. “Also, I have an interest in the Manifest Movement,” as well as the previously mentioned exploration of Jewish people living in Latin America.

What does she hope viewers will take away from the film?

“That there are schools with a lot of money and power because we allowed them to have those things,” she says. “It’s time for us to do something about it.”

Exclusion U is produced by Veronica Nickel (Moonlight) and includes interviews with Davarian Baldwin (In the Shadow of the Ivory Tower), Tressie McMillan Cottom (Lower Ed), Anthony Jack (The Privileged Poor), Jeff Selingo (Who Gets In and Why) Dan Golden (The Price of Admission) Richard V. Reeves (Brookings Institution), Lauren Rivera (Northwestern University), and Deja Foxx (influencer/staffer for Vice President Kamala Harris).

The film will be released on June 23, and will be available on various on-demand platforms including iTunes, Amazon, and GooglePlay.

Official site here

 

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The Person I am When No One is Looking (2019)

Unrated

An exploration into the aching desire for fame in the age of social media, The Person I am When No One is Looking gets a boost from its lead actor (and director Kailee McGee) and its meta-humor.

The short film is narrated in voiceover by the person we’re watching as she directly addresses the audience watching her. Kailee’s eager for stardom and boasts of her social media following—which isn’t really that large, but larger enough to give her hope. The back of her car is filled with empty cans of Lacroix, of course, and parking violations, but she looks and plays the part of a star.

We sense that looking and playing that part is an essential component. Kailee tells us how she fakes injuries for attention and regales us of her arbitrary tattoos and keepsakes. It’s funny stuff because it’s played straight and delivered precisely in continuous voiceover. We began to wonder why the voiceover is necessary when the actor can just talk directly into the camera, but then she tells us she want her story narrated like a movie. I don’t know if that makes sense, but it’s funny.

We’re swept along on this journey as we meet her equally vapid half-siblings and best friend. There are glamorous photo shoots and dueling bloggers and selfies overlooking L.A. at sundown. And let’s pause to admire an abrupt dance interlude that’s ridiculous for the character, but an impressive feat by the actor. Our star just can’t get enough traction on social media. Maybe a short film shown at a film festival (the one she’s living and we’re watching) can do the trick.

The film is a marvel of editing from Rich Costales: slyly making us believe it’s as capricious as most mishmash social media editing, but there’s real skill behind what we’re watching. Note the jilted girl montage. Even as she’s bummed by rejection from her crush, Kailee can’t help but to goose her followers stats by adding adroit posing and music to the proceedings. It’s real-deal filmmaking posing as slapdash social media shenanigans.

Kailee McGee is superb at blurring the line between documentary and fiction in a town where it doesn’t matter. Her quick wit and excellent delivery turn The Person I am When No One is Looking from a creative exercises into an insightful critique of our lust for fame. There is no person when no one is looking, McGee’s performance suggests. In this day and age, she may have a point.

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Philophobia (2019)

Unrated

Fablemaze

Deep longing permeates nearly ever scene of Guy Davies’ new film Philophobia. And why wouldn’t it? The drama details the coming-of-age of an assortment of teenagers in a small town in the English countryside. It’s well-trodden material that we expect to veer into either sex comedy, feel-good love tale or unexpected tragedy. We get a bit of all of that, but Davies’ velvet-hammer touch amplifies a raw, naturalistic depiction of withering adolescence; well-rounded, stirring performances further elevate the proceedings.

As the school year wanes, we follow several kids awaiting summer. Some, more than others, are ripe to escape not just the school year, but the provincial, listless town that’s squeezing the life out of them.

Kai (Joshua Glenister) certainly seems to have a bright future. He’s a writer with burgeoning talent, despite his fears of pushing through his insecurities. Kai hangs with and gets high with Sammy and Megsy. Sammy (Charlie Frances) drives a milk truck and initially seems to balance his dreams and reality. Megsy (Jack Gouldbourne) is the stereotypical foulmouthed, loud-speaking, trouble-seeker who seems to exist to constantly plunge his friends into unnecessary situations. It’s a testament to Gouldbourne’s performance that Megsy ultimately escapes the archetype foisted upon him.

The boys make up the heart of the film. There’s not a misstep in their performances. It’s interesting that each of the boys is being raised by single mothers. There are adult male influences—good and bad—to be found, including a fed-up policeman and a writing teacher who practices tough love with Kai.

The three main protagonists plug into a wider group of peers who are strategizing their senior prank. Despite various characters moving in and out of scenes, Davies connects us to them (and to a broader sense of longing youths) with strong dialogue and by resisting pushing them beyond their unfocused immature existences.

Into the mix tumbles Grace (Kim Spearman), a beautiful, pensive, mysterious girl who lives directly across the street from Kai. Of course he peeks at her through her window as she undresses. But it’s not simply lust. For quite some time Kai has loved Grace from a distance. She’s smart enough to be aware of his desire and talents, and insecure enough to be entangled in a relationship with the monstrous Kenner. Older, bigger, braver and crueler than the high schoolers around him, Kenner tears through the film like a bull in a teashop, leaving most scenes full of broken china by the time he’s done. Alexander Lincoln plays him with virtually no outward redeeming qualities. His relationship with Grace is one of dominance; with the boys one of neck-stomping Alpha-male humiliation. There’s some sad, distant longing within him, but Kenner’s not going to let us anywhere near it.

One other character is a stag. The majestic creature, usually only seen by Kai, shows up fleetingly at key junctures. I didn’t completely buy the intent of the stag; it seemed more a setup for a late scene of tragedy than providing any real connective tissue to the post-adolescence milieu so well constructed.

Otherwise, the film takes the characters through their paces—there’s a love triangle; a sociopath about to boil over; a make-or-break final exam; a school prank that’s constantly in flux; and a reckoning to grow up for each of the protagonists. We observe the youths at house parties, packed around lunch tables, scattered in classrooms; hiding out on rooftops, frolicking at the lake. All the while, the dialogue and performances pull us to invest in these gatherings. Davies has an ear for dialogue. I especially liked Kai’s moments of poetic voiceovers that speak not only to his worldview, but his knack for spinning words. His speaks to an inner boy who knows there’s a world waiting for the man he will soon become … if he can hold things together long enough to make it out of his town. He carries a dictionary with words underlined and his own notes scribbled in the margins.

Suspense comes in the form of afternoon getaway in which Megsy’s goaded into bringing along his deceased brother’s rifle, and when a senior prank seems to take a dark turn. Davies allows each scene to defy expectations by tweaking them with humor. The Kai-Grace love story is complex in the subtext of abuse, abandonment and self-loathing, but affecting in the outward attempts of the lovers to connect. We see possible redemptions for each of them in their coupling. Spearman and Glenister are excellent in all scenes together. We get a couple of dark turns in the finale I suppose we should have seen coming, but that ultimately reaffirms love and friendship.

We consider one of Kai words “philophobia,” the fear of falling in love. Late in the film we realize especially Kai and Grace, but most of the character, are locked in place by fear. The film seems to speak to the specific period of our youth when we confront and/or retreat from encroaching adulthood, knowing—as all teens do—that a better life awaits outside of our familiar spaces. If only we can summon the means to take the plunge.

 

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In a New York Minute (2019)

Unrated

A separate but interlocking tripartite exploration of loves and losses of Chinese and Chinese-American women in the big city, In a New York Minute works best when it draws us into the lives of it desperate characters. The plots themselves are warmed-over bowls of American rom-com soup. Thankfully, each tale, roughly 25 minutes each, lends most of its time to the development of the women, not the plot. And the three main actresses are more than up to the challenges of engaging the audience and carrying their stories.

Amy (Amy Chang) is an admired city food editor unable to eat in the wake of a devastating breakup. She skulks about her small apartment, goes through the motions of her job, which is admittedly more difficult now that she pukes anytime she tries to eat. She gets an unexpected opportunity to act on food-related television series and an unexpected suitor in a charming but relentless coworker. Despite his overbearing nature, Peter actually helps nurse Amy back to her appetite. He soon proposes, and poor Amy is so adrift she neglects to reject the offer. Chang’s performance is palpable. Her hangdog  Amy is crushed on the inside and Chang effectively plays her as a woman barely keeping herself together.

In the second story we met Angel (Yi Liu). Actually, we’ve already met her as she crossed paths with Amy in the first story—we just didn’t realize it at the time. Angel is an actress and wife of a much older American, Howard (Erik Lochtefeld), who seems to regard his Chinese wife and her culture as fascinating diversions, but doesn’t implore much effort to actually understand her or it. He nods through conversations while hardly looking up from his books. Note a key scene when Howard’s children from his previous marriage visit for dinner. Angel all but disappears amid their discussions about Japanese culture and cuisine. Liu is masterful at presenting Angel’s quiet devastation. In China, Angel had built a reputation as an actress. In New York, acting is a humiliating slog that Howard encourages mainly as a means to give his wife something to do with her time. It’s not hard to image why Angel turned to an affair with the young, handsome David (Ludi Lin), a writer. The lovers have afternoon and evening trysts at his apartment. Theirs are joyous couplings of sex and interesting dialogues and the unending possibilities of young love. Her time with David buoys her in her listless marriage, but Angel struggles to decide if she wants a future filled with love or security. Just as her acting opportunities pick up with a film that somewhat parallels her own life (and brings her in proximity of Amy), the results of a home pregnancy test threatens to derail all opportunities—marriage, affair and career.

Lastly, we meet Nina (Celia Au), an escort of sorts, whose services are bought by mostly older, moneyed men. She has eyes for Ian (Roger Yeh), a kind food-truck operator who dreams of opening his own restaurant, but can’t see a viable way forward in their relationship. Her father and stepmother run a small Pho restaurant (which also appears in Amy and Angel’s stories) and have paid a fortune to bring Nina to the U.S. She is indebted to the family that cares little about her life’s desires or opportunities. Au plays Nina as hard-edged, a survivor, who at first scoffs at the probability of real love, and later fights to embrace her chance at a life with Ian. In continuing the unnecessary crossover gimmick, two of Nina’s clients are Peter and David, from Amy and Angel’s stories respectively; worse is the home pregnancy test, which works its way into each tale, but is truly only important in Angel’s story.

Director Ximan Li, though, slyly allows moments of crossover—Amy lives in the same apartment building as David, Angel’s lover; while filming the TV series, Amy is surreptitiously replaced by Angel—then pulls the threads together in a final act that allows plotlines to converge. Amy’s story is the strongest, with her quietly flailing under the weight of grief; Angel’s, which navigates a marriage, an affair, an acting career and a pregnancy is the most complicated; Nina’s is the most heartbreaking, with her dogged efforts for a life of independence and love crumbling before her eyes.

While the plot approach of In a New York Minute is nothing new, Li’s film nevertheless, transcends its soapy America episodic structure and allows the Asian cast, crew and writers to provide a refreshing cultural take on the material. Mego Lin’s camera gloriously captures New York cityscapes and charming neighborhoods. Like chapters in a book, each story is given lengthy first acts to allow us to imbibe the rhythms of the lives of these Asian characters. There are minutes worth savoring.

 

 

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Cleveland International Film Festival

Princess of the Row (2019)

Unrated

Big Boss Creative

 

A homeless war veteran with brain trauma spends most of his days lost within his mind and cared for by his 12-year-old daughter. But during a key scene in Princess of the Row, he finds a moment of lucidity and tells his daughter, who’s so full of potential, that one day she will have to choose a life that means letting him go and he’s okay with that. He assures her that making good choices for herself will likely mean they will be apart, but it will never keep him from being her father.

It’s crucial advice, even though daughter Alicia isn’t yet in a place to accept it; in the moment “Bo,” the shattered veteran in dirty clothes, ratty hair and mismatched shoes, rises to his responsibility as a father. It is, for me, the heart of this remarkable film: a broken man, who seems incapable of taking care of himself, finds a way to guide and protect his preteen daughter, who spends much of the film behaving as the adult.

Beautifully shot mostly on the tough streets of Los Angeles, Princess of the Row charts the courses of two people who disparately need and love each other, but are on paths separated by health issues, poverty, bureaucracy and opportunities. Undoubtedly, the film offers abundant ways to impact its viewers—through its gritty, evocative photography; its punishing plunge into the dirty, pitilessness of homelessness; the ever-present dangers lurking among the population of L.A.’s skid row; the powerful shield forged from the love of a father and daughter; the tiny seeds of hope sprouting up in unexpected places, like flowers through cracks in the asphalt.

Director Max Carlson doesn’t hesitate to use the many the tools at his disposal to immerse viewers into this world. He gets the biggest assist from the raw, pitch-perfect performances of his lead actors. Tayler Buck, in a star-making performance, constantly underplays Alicia. We hear Alicia’s thoughts and writings through voiceover, but she’s more a girl of action and not words. As Buck plays her, Alicia hardly has time to express emotion because she’s busy reacting to and controlling her situations or her environment. The weight upon her—taking care of her erratic father, moving from one foster home to the next, sleeping on the streets, skirting the dangers of the sex trade industry—is daunting, and makes us instantly protective of the character. Yet, Buck portrays Alicia as quietly confident and optimistic. Perhaps it’s because the skinny little girl with the natural hair is assured of her purpose—to get a job and take care of her father. We see her internal conflict on her face, but she doggedly handles each conflict as they come.

Edi Gathegi (the Twilight series) vanishes into the role of Bo. The man, ravaged by PTSD, injury and poverty, with one cataract-clouded eye, drifts through life muttering to himself. Gathegi allows Bo fleeting moments of lucidity which are often impressive and depressing – impressive, because they allows us a peak at the man he was and could have been; depressing, because they remind us of what has been lost to mental illness and circumstance. But it’s a restrained role, and Gathegi refuses to soften the character. (He brings quiet dignity in a couple of prewar flashbacks where we see him as a loving fable-spinning father.) But he remains detached for most of the film, and can be lethal in anger. It’s a heartbreaking performance in a film filled with heartbreaking performances.

Alicia’s in the foster care system, but her connection to her father keeps her escaping back to the streets. She’s remarkable and resourceful, but it doesn’t shield us from her somber situation. How brutally sad her circumstances that spending a night in a junkyard for her father’s birthday is considered respite from skid row.

Carlson manages to work in themes of homelessness, the state of veterans’ affairs (with a touch of needed humor) and the foster care system, as well as reveal hope that often resides in the margins.

One representation of hope are the Austins (Martin Sheen and Jenny Gago), the latest in a string of foster parents to come into Alicia’s life. He’s a successful author, which could open doors for Alicia, who has a knack and passion for writing and story-telling. But the Austins live 10 hours from the row. The couple live in a beautiful villa up in the hills, its quiet beauty is intentionally isolated from the loud intensity of the city. Alicia’s tight-lipped and cautious with the Austins; of course she is, she’s been down this road before. But her introduction to Ruby, their horse, taps into emotions borne of her fantasy life which involves a unicorn.

There’s also hope from a tireless councilor, Magdalene (a convincing Ana Ortiz), who pushes Alicia to give the new family a chance. Magdalene, time and again, fights for Alicia even when the girl is too stubborn or distracted to fight for herself. In a brief, remarkable scene she encourages Alicia’s creativity and individuality at the crucial moment of decision-making.

A harrowing scene at midpoint underscores the real-world dangers of a little girl in a land of sexual predators. Another reminds us of Bo’s quick-trigger as he explodes in anger in a small hotel room, endangering his daughter.

The camerawork in Princess of the Row is superb. It sometimes glides safety above the trash-strewn streets, other times, plunges into the grit and grime. It solidifies the film’s texture. We see dirty tents line city sidewalks as makeshift homes on the row, and vast maze-like junkyards that can provide a haven or become a deathtrap. We visit hotels rented by the hour and shelled-out buildings perfect for squatting. It all feels real. Carlson keeps the camera everywhere—weaving through and soaring above the wreckage and beauty of manmade structures, sometimes separated by mere city blocks. Julian Scherle score is elegant and ever-present. It lingers subtly over scenes of heartbreak and terror.

Raw, powerful, tender and hard as steel, Princess of the Row transports and transforms those willing to take the journey.

Check out the film now at the Cleveland International Film Festival.

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Impossible Monsters (2019)

Rated R

In the first scenes of Impossible Monsters, an attractive woman passes through a narrow alleyway, making her way to mysterious lounge and into a hidden room. The way the tracking-shot scene is lit and tightly framed, backed by a crescendoing soundtrack, evokes a creepy dreamlike quality. The scene that immediately follows is the opposite: clean and clear and shot close up. Now, the woman’s grooming herself before the bathroom mirror … until she gets the urge to start pulling out her teeth in a bloody mess. It’s soon revealed as a nightmare. So, we’ve gone from a dreamlike scene that was actually reality (we later learn), to a reality-like scene that’s actually the dream. This blurring of waking and dreaming moments will pervade this cerebral thriller. Characters often occupy scenes walking a knife’s edge between what’s real and imagined.

Director Nathan Catucci has seeded his film in those opening sequences. Now, we are introduced to other main characters.

Otis (Dónall Ó Héalai) is a brooding, laconic painter whose artwork seems borne from a landscape of nightmares. For me his work evokes body horror. He sits alone in a small diner that’s obviously influenced by Edward Hopper’s iconic “Nighthawks” painting, but this might be a dream. Otis is suffering from insomnia, you see, which is affecting his work. He’s referred to a second character, Rich Freeman (Santino Fontana), a college psychology professor specializing in sleep paralysis. Into Rich’s class walks Jo (Devika Bhise), the woman from the opening. Soon, Rich has secured grant money for a group study on the sleep disorder, which ultimately includes Jo and Otis.

Two important minor characters include, Charlie (Chris Henry Coffey) and Leigh (Natalie Knepp). He is a professional rival to Rich, who is revealed to have deeper, darker motivations as the film unspools. She is social worker, a quiet cutie who falls for Rich, and seems to harbor secrets.

With the characters in place, the plot begins to spin them in and out of each other’s orbits, even as reality and dreams began to overlap. We are certainly primed for a lover’s triangle, as each of the males are drawn to Jo; she too is attracted to Otis’ dark, reckless persona and Rich’s comforting intellect. Did I mention that Jo is a student by day and an escort by night? Or that there’s a possible serial killer on the loose in the city? Rich is repeatedly courted by another university through a former colleague. There’s a sense that this represents a road not taken by Rich, and in hindsight might have been his best bet.

Catucci’s film is mainly a psychological drama, but eventually its thriller aspects kick in when one of the characters is murdered and another is framed for the death. Indeed, all along there have been sinister character motivations beneath the proceedings, but only Charlie’s are made manifest. The other characters—often facing themselves in the mirror—remain ambivalent throughout, struggling with regrets or secrets that strike out at them from their dream states. A dogged detective on the case (Geoffrey Owens, The Cosby Show) may have bitten off more than he can chew.

The cast is very good, with each actor finding the right notes at portraying the duality of their characters’ beleaguered realities while toying with their darkest natures in the dream worlds. Fontana is particularly good as a seemingly stable, straight-laced man whose darker nature makes us bristle precisely because we buy into his fundamental goodness. Bhise’s Jo could have a movie of her own. Her character is smart, but reckless, icy, but vulnerable.

The sound and camera work are superb. The look of the film is exquisite. Whether it’s beautiful college campus architecture or slick art gallery fetes or ominous sex lounges, the cinematography shines. The beauty of reality is repeatedly contrasted with off-kilter atmosphere (desaturated tones, snakes, slow motion) of dream worlds.

You might not get all the answers you’re looking for, or even those the characters are seeking, but like a dream, Impossible Monsters has an intangible texture that lingers even after it has ended.

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The Magical Mystery of Musigny (2018)

Unrated

Here we have a beautiful, simple black and white animated short film codirected by John Meyer and Emmett Goodman. Meyer, whose voice was made for audiobooks, also narrates. Every word is annunciated with the precision of an orator.

An award-winner on the film festival circuit, Magical Mystery is cleverly inked on cocktail napkins. Every now and again we get a pull-back that reveals the napkins among an arrangement of plates and utensils on a table.

The wonderfully descriptive language is sure to please oenophiles: “the angle of the vineyard hill (of limestone soil) provides excellent drainage.”

A turning point for John arrives at a wine-tasting event, when he imbibes the perfect vintage 1969 Musigny Burgundy. The sip transports him to a shimmering riverbank in Russia as colorful “onion spires of a Russian church” pop up around him. The transcendent serenity of the experience is lost on John’s wife, Suzie. Of course it would. She finds John’s musings on wine pretentious—and the wine itself a nonstarter for his attempts at lovemaking.

A turning point for Suzie comes during dinner at a bistro. She tries the special, a Auxey-Duress, and has an epiphany of her own—scored by the “1812 Overture,” and conducted by Serge Koussevitzky! Ah, finally, a meeting of minds. John gets the last laugh and, it seems, some overdue loving.

The film is wonderful in its construction, execution, scoring and narration. It leaves you with a smile on your face and an urge to reach for the vino.

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Cleveland International Film Festival

China Love (2018)

Unrated

Media Stockade

China Love begins by fastidiously documenting the phenomenon of elaborate pre-wedding photography in modern-day China. We’re introduced to dozens of brides-to-be shot in unbelievable gowns surrounded in unbelievable settings. We witness elaborate underwater setups, shots where couples are made to seem like they are floating in air, and every kind of fantasy made real. The film immediately springs to life, aided by bouncing editing, upbeat tempos—I thought of the kinetic energy of box-office smash Crazy Rich Asians.

Soon, through and around its steady stream of beaming brides and dapper grooms, a richer film flows. The contemporary flash is contrasted with 40 years earlier, when marriages were arranged and nondescript. Elderly couples reflect on a time when it was unthinkable to allow such grandiose celebrations of marriage. They don’t speak with outrage, mind you, but of sadness or regret that their weddings lack such … romance? Fantasy?

Directed by Olivia Martin-McGuire, herself a professional photographer, China Love suggests a better understanding of Chinese culture might be gleaned through this look into how fantasies are served through the ritual of elaborate pre-wedding photos. In addition to elder couples reminiscing on a bygone era, Martin-McGuire documents young Shanghai and Beijing couples caught up in the pre-wedding-photo frenzy. Some do it to walk lockstep with this contemporary trend, others because of pressure to honor tradition.

In the documentary we meet Allen Shi, the young entrepreneur who has ridden this industry into the Billionaire Boys Club. It’s an industry that flourishes in China to the tune of $80 billion. Allen has a stable of photographers, clothing makers, makeup artists and set designers who churn out movie-quality pre-wedding photo fantasies. Allen, with his American personal assistant Eric in tow, speaks the usual billionaire bromides of how anyone can have his level of success if they work as hard as he works. Allen, though, is more than an outsized stereotype. He’s come from stark poverty, and despite his humble beginnings, has amassed 7,000 employees and more than 300 studios across seven countries. Eric nods approvingly. Eric had originally planned on living in China for a year. His connection with Allen put him on a five-year trajectory that shows no signs of slowing down. Is it ironic that Eric chases his American Dream by peddling American fantasies in China?

Later, we learn of Allen’s disturbing and exacting standards when he fines employees for the slightest deviations from his formula of “perfect” pre-wedding photos. If a hair is out of place, if skin tone is not just right, if lighting is off, there are financial consequences—up to dismissal. It’s startling to see the nitpicking when very similar photos are place side by side. Big business means tough standards, I guess. But it’s more than financial success; Allen’s reputation is at stake.

We also meet Kim, one of Allen’s senior photographers. The often-giggling Kim is a skilled cameraman on autopilot. He knows his stuff, knows his clients and the market, and—along with the upscale capital provided by Allen’s deep pockets—delivers with precision.

The director’s experiences as a photographer and her apparent love of China inform the film with it astonishing look. Beautiful vistas abound. The Shanghai skyline with its regal, futuristic-looking skyscrapers; the bustling China streets, the corning stores and restaurants, clothesline between apartments, beachfront glory. As her film goes on, Martin-McGuire digs deeper into the material.

Eventually, we get a peek into “marriage markets,” where desperate “aging” women are paired up with potential spouses. In China, unmarried women run the risk of isolation. Men are advised not to become engage without at least owning an apartment. The pressures of matrimony are tremendous. In one sad interlude we see the divorced mother of featured bride Viona. The older woman, Han Pan, regards an elegant photograph of herself in a wedding dress. Han Pan had the photo taken after divorce, as single woman, wanting her keepsake of the fantasy. Late in the documentary, there is an echo of this moment as her now-married daughter Viona laments returning to China from her post-wedding life in Australia because of a lack of job opportunities for her husband. Viona seems to fear becoming her mother.

I can’t say enough about the photography of the film. Despite countless depictions of pre-wedding photos, the film’s look is forever beguiling and never seems redundant. The director (and her subjects) keep coming up with ways to dazzle us with costuming, set design and lighting.

Through it all there’s something more important emerging in the margins of the film. The older couples recall limited resources, and censured speech. The younger couples hardly seem to live in a time of restrictions. Things within their grasp couldn’t be consider before the Cultural Revolution. Yet, now, they can have their imagination’s and heart’s desires—provided they have the financial resources. It’s interesting that even though the older couples mostly admit they didn’t marry for romance and pageantry, the younger couples don’t really seem enveloped in romance either. There’s a sense of securing stature, of relieving pressures placed on them to marry—but no real efforts for the sake of romance.

A marvelous sequence late in the film involves elderly couples having an opportunity to take the pre-wedding photos they were never able to have. Seeing an 80-year-old woman don makeup, a crown and an off-the-shoulder dress is truly moving. The husbands too find themselves in the makeup chair and rendered dapper in nice suits! And in a moment, the importance of the pageantry of putting on elegant dresses and tuxedos transcends all the expensive glamor that has come before it.

China Love is an oddly compelling—and sometimes sad—look at the culture and commodity of marriage frozen in moments of unrelenting photographic beauty.

 

 

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Talking with Director Sanjay Rawal

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RUNNING TOWARD ENLIGHTENMENT

Sanjay Rawal’s documentary on grueling race reflects deeper issues

Sounding as much like a philosopher as a filmmaker, Sanjay Rawal intones that “running reduces you to your feet and your breathing.”  The documentarian is also a book editor, activist and, unsurprisingly, a runner. “Running becomes a deep, meaningful experience,” he says.

Rawal’s latest film project, 3100: Run and Become, is a synthesis of many of his beliefs—spiritual enlightenment, racial diversity, health-consciousness. The film documents the lives and efforts of participants in New York’s Self-Transcendence 3,100 Mile race, the longest certified road race in the world.

CHECK OUT MY REVIEW OF 3100: RUN AND BECOME

 It’s a grueling race: the runners must run 60 miles a day, for as long as 52 days, around a half-mile loop in New York, totaling 3,100 miles. They don’t take up the challenge for bragging rights or trophies. “People do it for the best reasons,” Rawal says. “I wanted to explore it.”

Indeed, in watching Run and Become, we see the race promoted as one that leaves its participants “changed.” One of the documentary’s subjects, Finnish runner Ashprihanal Aalto, states his goal as using the race to become a better person.

It’s not unlike the way Rawal has used his career and geography to become a better person. Growing up in Oakland, Calif., the Indian-American son of a tomato breeder, Rawal was introduced to the agricultural industry. It informed his award-winning 2014 documentary Food Chains. Despite living in Oakland, Rawal has spent the last 20 years in Queens. He has a strong tie to the New York City borough’s multiethnicity.

“Queens exemplifies ‘oneness.’ It is recognized as one of the most diverse places, with 170 languages are spoken here,” he says. “There’s a wide variety of the human spirit.”

A critical documentary that shaped him as a director is 2008’s Pray the Devil Back to Hell. The film features Liberian peace activist Leymah Gbowee, who along with Ellen Johnson Sirleaf and Tawakkul Karman, received the 2011 Nobel Peace Prize for their efforts to improve women’s rights.

“The film showed me that documentaries can have deep impact,” he recalls.

But it was an interest in famed Indian spiritualist and runner Sri Chinmoy that truly inspired Rawal to make the transfer from California to New York. The late Chimney founded the race, in its 20th year at the time of the filming. Chinmoy himself had been a weightlifter and runner. His mind-body philosophical outlook inspired Rawal to tap into his own sense of spirituality, community, health and competitiveness. During his career he’s worked with not only Chinmoy (on a book and a film), but with South African theologian and activist Desmond Tutu. Rawal himself has a background in human rights activism, including women’s issues, where he served on the first men’s committee for V-Day. Rawal was even a semi-competitive runner.

“What was my place in world? I found that through Sri,” he says. “But it wasn’t until this film that I truly focused on physically understanding the human body.” When Rawal met film subject Shaun Martin, a Navajo descendant, “it really began to sink in that running is a prayer,” he says. In the film, Martin’s run across the desert is a spiritual one.

Rawal’s film takes us beyond the city blocks of the race and on a more expansive journey. The documentary—produced by Illumine Group, shot by Sean Kirby and edited by Alex Meillier—invites us to see the Great Good of running as the film reveals its impact across the globe.

In Africa, original tribes ran to hunt, in other words, they ran for their very survival. Bushmen connect hunting and running and spirituality. In Japan, Buddhist monks circle a mountain in search of enlightenment, undertaking a task not unlike the Self-Transcendence runners. Miles and miles of movement and prayer, totaling a seven-year challenge for the monks. On an Arizona reservation, a Navajo descendant undertakes a ceremonial run to his family’s ancestral home 110 miles away. We see a link between running and spiritually as the man prays for strength and guidance before he proceeds.

Despite a strong spiritual subtext beneath the race narrative, Rawal doesn’t see Run and Become as a message film. It’s not the traditional “talking head” interview type of work, he says. “I see it as more of an art film about running.”

 

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Quik Flix Hit

Posted on by in Film festival, Movies | Comments Off on Quik Flix Hit

3100: Run and Become (2018)

Unrated

Illumine Group

We meet Finnish runner Ashprihanal Aalto in his sparse home eating Ramon noodles right out of the pot. The 45-year-old paperboy is soon to compete in New York’s Self-Transcendence 3,100 Mile race, the longest certified road race in the world. As the window for running such marathons is beginning to close for him, Aalto states his goal as using the race to become a better person. Indeed, the race is promoted as one that leaves its participants “changed.”

The man’s idol is famed Indian spiritualist and runner Sri Chinmoy, who saw “no barrier between spirituality and athletics.” The late Chinmoy founded the race, in its 20th year at the time of the filming.

CHECK OUT MY INTERVIEW WITH DIRECTOR SANJAY RAWAL

The participants are an array of accomplished runners from across the global. Aalto himself is a top-ranked runner who set the record at last year’s race. Now, about this race: the runners must run 60 miles a day, for as long as 52 days, around a half-mile loop in New York, totaling 3,100 miles.

We immediately become aware of the small number of competitors, a dozen, surely a sign of how daunting this run must be. What we aren’t aware of is how Run and Become will take us beyond these city blocks, beyond this race and on a more expansive journey.

The documentary dispenses helpful factoids via screen text: volunteers provide food and medical assistance; runners must consume more than 10,000 calories daily; the race course is open from 6 a.m. to midnight each day. Chinmoy’s legacy is on vivid display. His portrait and posters can’t be missed. He’s quoted in voiceover throughout the film. Meditation is encouraged as much as staying hydrated. A volunteer choir along the route sings of “give and take,” “never quitting,” and “being brave.”

The film is essentially a day-by-day diary for some runners and a peek into some of their lives. Running’s presented as more than a hobby for these folks. It’s more of a deep dive within themselves, a meditation. Runners are seeking meaning and connection, it seems. “Pray through your feet, your breath,” they are told.

Director Sanjay Rawal’s film utilizes wonderful camera movement at ground level, sometimes in lockstep with the runners. The summer days in the city’s concrete jungle are brightly captured: trees between the sidewalks, fenced-in basketball courts, caution barricades and parked cars and buses. Later we’ll see equally impressive camerawork (by Sean Kirby) on African plains, in a Japanese temple and mountains and across exquisite Arizona deserts. Michael A. Levine’s music is understated and blends wonderfully with crosscutting between various locales; it puts the film on a grander scale.

Run and Become invites us to see the Great Good of running as the film reveals its impact across the globe.

In Africa, original tribes ran to hunt, in other words, they ran for their very survival. Bushmen connect hunting and running and spirituality. Once hunting is banned in their indigenous lands, it triggers a conflict for their way of life. Now the Bushmen feel forced to rely upon the government for survival. This is a blow not only to a way of life, but to a sense of sovereignty and dignity.

In Japan, Buddhist monks circle a mountain in search of enlightenment, undertaking a task not unlike the Self-Transcendence runners. Miles and miles of movement and prayer, totaling a seven-year challenge for monks like Ajari Mitsunaga. For Mitsunaga, the path was chosen, the hardships accepted and now he hands his wisdom down to others.

On an Arizona Navajo reservation, we learn of how thousands of Native American children were forced to attend government boarding schools. The children were taught America history that was not their own and not allow to speak their native language. A Navajo descendant Shaun Martin undertakes a ceremonial run from the school to his family’s ancestral home 110 miles away. The run honors his father and others who tried to escape the school. Again, we see a link between running and spiritually as Martin prays for strength and guidance before he proceeds.

Our star, Aalto, is a titan in an unassuming package. He looks plain, he speaks and acts plainly. It is running that defines him. He is described by an admirer as a “bird,” “tiny,” but “physically and mentally” the best for such a task. The film offers a brief and sweet moment between Aalto and his sister in which we come to understand the runner’s motivations.

The hazards of Self-Transcendence are real. We are concerned for Austrian cellist Shamita, who is known for pushing herself beyond her limits. Years ago, she barely survived a difficult marathon. Her daughter worries about the Self-Transcendence. Rightfully so. It’s difficult to watch the effects of the run overwhelm her physical—if not mental—capabilities. We see how the run takes its toll on other participants. Too exhausted to eat, physically rundown, emotionally broken. We are impressed by their commitment and concerned about what they’re doing to their bodies and minds. But they seem driven by a purpose higher than physical worries.

A masterful montage sequence links images of Japanese countryside, an African sunset and Martin’s run through the sprawling Arizona desert (drone photography is especially captivating here), while the soundtrack is filled with Shamita’s perfect cello.

A bit of suspense arrives during the final laps of the race as the gap between the top two runners narrows to a single mile. In the end there is no prize money; of course not. No one runs Self-Transcendence for financial rewards.

 

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