Attic Film Festival 2010

My film, Light of Mine, has been selected for the Attic Film Festival in Austin Texas. The screening of films takes place on April 16th- 17th.

This was a stressful submission for me since I am on the opposite side of the world as Austin Texas. I sent the movie through email to a friend who burned it and dropped off the DVD. My mom overnighted the submission fee and application. So obviously the acceptance was much appreciated.

Light of Mine was a simple little film that my wife and I made back in September. It was a concept and conceived from a Flikr poster we saw of a woman holding a dead light bulb with xx as it’s eyes. If you look back on my films you will see many with inanimate objects coming to life. Immediately after seeing the picture my brain began to whir away with the possibilities of bringing this light bulb back to life.

The result is the short film posted below.

That’s my wife in the starring role. Eric Smith, again with a film changing score and Foley work. The movie was filmed in a couple hours, edited in a day or two, Attic is it’s first film competition.

Martin Eden: Jack London

“He is four years younger than you,” she said. “He has no place in the world. He has neither position  nor salary. He is impractical. Loving you, he should, in the name of common sense, be doing something that would give him the right to marry, instead of paltering around with those stories of his and with childish dreams. Martin Eden, I am afraid, will never grow up…. Martin Eden, I am afraid, will never be a money-earner. And this world is so ordered that money is necessary to happiness…”

This is an excerpt from the book where the mother of Martin Eden’s fiance is trying to convince her that he is not the man of her future.

Set in San Fransisco, a poor seaman chases dreams of education, literary fame, and most important of all… love. The book is an attack on the individualistic mentality and hits on the futility of ambitions and ultimately their lack of fulfillment in life.

“… their narrow little lives by narrow little formulas- herd creatures, flocking together and patterning their lives by one another’s opinions, failing of being individuals and of really living life because of the childlike formulas by which they were enslaved.”

Considered to be semi-autobiographical, Jack London pours his life, hardships, success, and beliefs into Martin Eden. Whether London intended it this way or not, the story speaks to me about the necessity of a life grounded in something more than what this world can offer. All the things we strive for, all the things we accomplish, all the things we love eventually lets us down or disappointment. When facing these life reality checks, Martin Eden, empty, withered, and broken, crawls back into the oceans womb from wince he came.

Having been familiar with Jack London’s Call of the Wild and White Fang (as every young boy should be) I was surprised at having never heard of this book. I am extremely thankful the novel was recommended to me because the story has instantly become one of my all time favorites. In that vein I highly recommend it to you.

Clash of the Titans (1981): Desmond Davis

Somehow the adventures of Perseus passed by my childhood unwatched. If there is at least one good thing about remakes, it’s that it awakens the interest of the originals.

I expected to simply respect Clash, not to have had so much fun. You have to truly appreciate the time and special care that went into the awe inspiring special effects of that day. There are some impressive tricks found within. That being said, how could they have done such a poor job on something as simple as the seagull soaring through the opening credits. They can bring to life Madussa or the Kracken in a still to this day entertaining and convincing fashion but not a simple seagull?

The Medusa sequence is by far my favorite. From the Ferry Man, 2 headed wolves, to the snake haired goddess herself. I could feel the tension. The pacing was perfect. The lack of music uncomfortable. A great sequence.

I also loved the turmoil between Zeus’s son, Perseus, and the rejected and cast down Calibos. Calibos’s SFX marriage between live acting and stop motion was impressive even today (in perspective).

Above all, Clash is an adventure. As a result the viewer should to some degree feel anxious, excited, and hopeful for the character’s success. The viewer should grow more interested in the movie as the hero rises to new challenges and completes new tasks in pursuing his destiny. Despite the aging and limitations of the 80s I feel that Clash of the Titans is still a movie to be enjoyed.

Last but not least, I could not help but think up this campy Entertainment Weekly style actorial equation. Prince Humperdinck (The Princess Bride) + Jeff Wadlow (director of Cry Wolfe, Never Back Down)= Prince Perseus

Wind on Water

Wind moves on water
Like the gentle playing hands
Of love under sheets

What is haiku?

Sherlock Holmes (2009): Guy Ritchie

One of the best things about this film is that it officially marks the return of  Guy Ritchie. Not just a return, but a new step into a broader world of cinema for him as a director.

The second thing this Christmas day blockbuster has to offer would be a reawakening of Sherlock Holmes as a cultural icon. A new generation’s ears have perked at a sleeping giant in our world’s literature. I myself, who as a kid cast off Sherlock as a character of my father’s generation or my mother’s English class, stormed off immediately to my local bookstore to buy a newly bound collection of this detective’s original adventures. My young cousin of 15 years, began to study his exploits in her literature classes instead of the dry and much less interesting monologues of Colonel Kurtz. Although my mother (an Literature teacher) refuses to see the movie based on her assumption that its modernization is a negative one, you can’t help but smile at the ripples of an awakening literary icon.

All these praisings said, the film is far from perfect. I tire of mindless, domino effect action where one accidental consequence spurs yet 5 more into a disastrous climax which leaves everyone down save the hero who stands with a goofy shrug of Hollywood luck (the hero never dies). But I guess that is the consequences of pleasing the main stream. You must soften the blows and violence of action in some way.

To nod back to Ritchie, there are three elements I love in this movie. One would be the music, which as now been nominated for an Oscar. Second is Ritchie’s ability to capture a moment, to freeze it, show you the ripples of skin impacted by a punch, amaze you with the beauty of an explosion frozen in time, and then slam you back in with perfectly lead sound design and camera movement.

Last but not least, I want to hail the opening credits. I am always sucked into a movie when the opening shot, scene, or credit is lead to pull you in. In Ritchie’s Holmes, the camera travels along the cobbled stone streets of London introducing the makers (or breakers) of the movie as their logos are created from the stones themselves. The mood and world of the movie is set even before the camera pans up to a hurried police carriage armed with Doc. Watson and company. My final comment will direct you to the fact that there really isn’t anything new under the sun these days. Check out the video beneath to see what I mean.

Dusty Old Furniture

A white blanket covers
The dusty old furniture
Mountains under snow

What is haiku?

Food #11: Making Ajvar

Making ajvar is a national pride here in Macedonia. The streets are filled with the smells of warm roasting peppers. The markets are filled with hundreds buying their supplies for the intricate process; a process passed down from one generation to the next until it has become the tradition, the ritual it is today.

There is a special type of pepper used for ajvar, coming from a far south city in Macedonia. First, you take this pepper and you roast it. You roast it until the skin turns all nice, dark, and crispy. This process is what makes making ajvar so communal. Everyone sits around on stools with several different bowls and buckets in front of them. One bucket with the blackened roasted peppers, another with clean water for cleaning, and finally a basket for the skinned and finished peppers. So basically, everyone sits around and peels the peppers. You remove the thick, tough, outer skin which is crucial to the ajvar’s smooth spread-like texture. Slightly burning the skin makes it easy to peel off with your bare fingers. Don’t forget to rip open and gut out all the seeds and innards. From my experience it was a fun couple of hours; laughing, joking, catching up as we mindlessly pulled at pepper after pepper. I imagine this isn’t so fun if your making it alone.

In the next process, Lile’s mom hooked up a grinder to a power drill. She begins now to grind up all the peppers into the peppered version of ground beef. These poor peppers… baked, peeled, ground, fried and canned. I guess I am giving away the process before I explain it, but you can’t help but feel sorry for the guys. So… after the piles and piles of peppers have been laboriously skinned, after Lile’s mother power drills them through the grinder, they are next fried in oil and pieces of eggplant. Lile’s mom stood over a wood fired pot with a big wooden spoon, churning and churning, keeping the ajvar from burning. This is where the wonderful smell comes in. This cooking part lasts a couple hours. The peppers slowly soak and become one. The goal is to have something soft and smooth to spread on bread or eat with salads.

Last but not least the ajvar is canned and saved for the cold Macedonian winter. It’s delicious when spread across a thick piece of bread with white Macedonian sirenje cheese sprinkled across. It’s the best while it’s still warm from the fire.

Now… enjoy.

Nervous

The deer is nervous
He owns the wrong color coat
For all this white snow

What is haiku?

Food #10: The Orginal Greek Gyro

I was there for 6 days and I must have had one a day…oops… one day I had 2!! Welcome to the king of the Greek fast food. And as with all things made within the country it was born… you can’t get a better gyro than the ones you eat in Greece.

High Plains Drifter (1973): Clint Eastwood

Clint Eastwood, in his sunset years, has become a powerhouse Oscar contender and movie making machine. In the wake of his recent successes as a director, I felt compelled to retreat back a couple decades and check out his earlier works behind the camera (which was usually combined with the front as well).

High Planes Drifter’s story is unique to the genre in the since that the movie carries a pretty heavy supernatural undertone. One that in fact is not so clearly explained. Is this Drifter a ghost? An angel? A protector? Or a dead man out for revenge? These questions posed and left unanswered are one reason why I like this movie so much.

The directing of shots and the flow of the story are solid throughout. Eastwood puts his back into the action and lingers on the quiet moments for just the right pace. The best scene is when the Drifter (played by Eastwood) comes strolling into town for the first time. We experience the scene like the townspeople peering from their windows. We are allowed mysterious glimpses at who he might be and what are his motivations with subtle clues and story telling methods (for example: why is the Drifter so startled by the cracking of a whip?)

Drifter is a decent Western to say the least. Some good action, interesting characters, and a new angle to some conventional Western themes. I would say if you’re interested in Clint’s early steps as a director or you are a carnosaur of Westerns in general, then give it a rent. Otherwise… move along, nothing for you to see here.

PS. For more Clint Eastwood directed/drifter/supernatural/westerns see Pale Rider (1985)

Food #9: Bakardan

A very interesting food here. Honestly, I’m not quiet sure how to even talk about this one. The picture was taken back in June while Lile and I were traveling and working around Macedonia. The only way to describe it is like a ground up cornbread that you eat with sour cream. A very interesting snack that’s well known and revered in certain parts of the country. If you want the best bakardan go to this city of Mavrovo.

A feild.

My third attempt at painting. The previous were for my sister and grandfather. This one was made for my other set of grandparents on my mom’s side.

Like my Ohrid Lake painting, this one was also based off a picture Lile took from a field near her grandfather’s village. What I liked about her picture, and I think I captured, is the depth. The strands of weed and grass are huge at the front, and slowly shrink into the horizon. As you also may notice, I did a little better job in mixing my colors and having them not come out quite so childish. Most of that is because my wife was at hand approving my mixtures.

Good or bad, my grandparents bought a small easel for their mantle and use the art as a conversation piece. The main subject of conversation it stimulates is whether or not the bigger weeds are some sort of dandelion.

Food #8: Mekica

When a close friend or relative of yours has a baby, there is typically a celebration. If you are invited to this party, you say “we will go on mekici” (ke odime na mekici). Mekica is the name of a special bread like delicacy that is always served on these “said” baby celebrations.

The texture is hard to describe and nothing like a donut, but it seems to be made in a similar fashion (fried dough). Mekica is most commonly eaten with sirenje (the notorious white cheese) or lutenica (similar to the pepper spread ajvar). Some people can get a little crazy and eat it with honey. Macedonians don’t typically mix salty and sweet, so the only people I’ve actually seen eat it with honey were foreigners.

Mekica… so there you have it.

The Stand: Stephen King

The Stand is Stephen King’s post apocalyptic tale of a world ravaged by disease. The only survivors are divided into two camps; the good gather in Colorado, just beyond the God made wall of The Rocky Mountains, and the bad form their armies in Sin City… Las Vegas, Nevada. What results is a classic tale of good vs evil.  The book is a well thought through examination of our society at the brink.

“Show me a man or a woman alone and I’ll show you a saint. Give me two and they’ll fall in love. Give me three and they’ll invent the charming thing we call ‘society’. Give me four and they’ll build a pyramid. Give me five and they’ll make one an outcast. Give me six and they’ll reinvent prejudice. Give me seven and in seven years they’ll reinvent warfare. Man may have been made in the image of God, but human society was made in the image of His opposite number, and is always trying to get back home.”

As with all of King’s books, he holds no punches on what he perceives as realism in the art of violence, sex, and language. But all in-compassing, he weaves an amazing novel that takes a stand for justice, character, and purity.

The Stand is an epic tale, with hundreds of character, and over a thousand pages of adventure. This is a heavy book, not just in your hand but emotionally as you read through people lives that have come to the edge and make decisions that we as the reader hope never have to.

Reading fiction about epidemics and world spreading diseases has become less like fiction and more of an impending reality. As I turn through King’s pages I can’t help but notice CNN on in the background, heralding the spread of some animal named flu.

I guess this is what Stephen King is getting at. Maybe our society isn’t so hard to tip over and if it does tip over, who will we become? What morals would we sacrifice to for a piece of bread. Would we find our soul tarnished by our fleshly needs or would we remain a humans, who despite all we stand for on a sunny day, is it how we’ll act when the lights go out?

Spirituality is a common element within most of King’s stories. He takes a stomp on religion but points at a more “white”, forgiving, and just form of spirituality. His contrast of light and darkness is one of the reasons I keep coming back for more of his work.

Food #7: Pastramajlia

Pastramajlia has become one of my favorite Macedonian dishes. You can get them almost anywhere in the country but the BEST come from a town to the east called Stip (said SH-TIP). I didn’t really believe they could be better from city to city, but I assure you I’ve eaten a lot of pastramajlia and the best comes from Stip.

I know you may think this looks something like a pizza boat, but this nothing like pizza. The meat on board is pork and the crust is cooked with a special oil from the pig that makes it very distinct in taste and… fluff?

Pastramajlia comes in three sizes… large, medium, and small. This one pictured is a medium and as you can tell it barely fits on two plates.

Definitely one of my favorite Macedonian foods and most definitely to be had in the back alleys of Stip.