Chattanooga Film Festival pt. 3

Chattanooga Film Festival pt.3 - On the final day of the festival I tried to cram as much in as I could. Here is what I had the pleasure to see before I ran out of time.


Disco Graveyard (2020) - My friend and Cool Cat Izzy Lee created a musical montage film that is asking some big question. Watching her growth as a film maker since the days when she was creating shorts programs at the Somerville Theatre has been a pleasure. She is so much a professional film maker and it shows in this short. Check her stuff out and of course, be wierd!


Fulci for Fake (2019) - I am a big fan of Lucio Fulci the film maker and have a pretty full collection of his movies. In this strangely structured documentary we learn more about his personal life while while also touching on the films of his career. The premise that seemed so strange to me was that of an actor who is going to play Fulci seeks out the important collaborators, family and family members to find out who the Man behind the movies was. I found that premise a bit awkward but the information I got about the films connected to his life events at the time of writing the films was intriguing. You can see the themes and emotions of his life being incorporated into each film. That was fascinating how the experiences the filmmaker was having directly showing up in his art. Isn't that what art is all about?.

Scare Package (2019) - So many clever horror ideas packed into Scare Package, it was just a pleasure to watch. Seven directors each taking a whack at a different sub-genre of horror bring our favorite tropes and a great sense of humor to creat a truly charming anthology. When this one comes out on June 18th I will definitely be adding it to my collection. See more Here

 Compartmentalization Storage Facility (2019)- by Eliaz Rodriguez, I loved that this idea was brought to the screen. Imagine if you could take those hang up and emotional scar tissue of your soul and store it away making you a better person as you move forward in life. Well this film explores that theme and does it in a clever way. Part two of this film should be an episode of Storage Wars where without seeing inside the unit people bid on and by other peoples issues.

For Your Consideration (2020) - Not my favorite but sort of an inside Hollywood comedy making fun of the process of making projects and the prejudices that come with generating ideas and putting together teams.

Gabby! (2020) - I really liked this and it wonderful little turns, at 11 minutes it tells a well rounded story about a cartoonist who decided to kill off her main character Gabby but when she witnesses a murder and the killer comes for her things change in an unexpected way.

His and Herzog (2020) - Wow, I really loved this film, such a strange and smart film about relationships and communication using a truly novel technique. A pat on the back (virtual) to Gates Bradley for putting this film together. It may be my favorite short in this festival.

Little Willy (2019) - Inside the world of horror conventions we have the fictional former child star Adam Castle (Andrew Bowser) who struggles with his life appearing at horror conventions selling images, autographs and interactions with fans to make a living. When the doll he starred with begins to talk to him he slowly descends into madness. I loved that both Zach Galligan and Adrienne Barbeau costar in this wonderfully evil little film.

Low (2020)- by Megan Duffy was a cool litttle film where Sasquatch tries to make friends at a party. Cool music and a wonderfully shown story arc for the character made this a really cool watch. It is great when an idea can be reduced to the essentials and then executed with skill.

Pen Pals (2019)- A ghost story with a cool little twist about manipulating the supernatural ability to write and receive letters from a ghost ( or someone in the past).

The Haunted Swordsman (2019)- The most awesome puppet oriented Ronin story that I thought was just wonderful. Some big names in this film including the voices of Christopher Lloyd, James Hong, Jason Scott Lee and Franka Potente.

Chattanooga Film Festivat pt.2

I Who Have No One (2019) - A powerful short slasher that encapsulates the pain of being judged for your size in a world obsessed with fitness and beauty. It also shows the self empowering of one woman in the world through her acts of mayhem and violence. I thought this was saying so much and all wrapped up in a slasher. Written and Directed by Pierre Tsigaridis and Dina Silva. Silva also stars as Frances the lead who melts down from the pressure of having to look beautiful or else being dismissed. Tsigaridis also has a role as Jerome, the devil of a sort encouraging Frances down her violent road to hell.  

Best Friends Forever (BFF) (2019) -  A play on urban legends where saving yourself from the ghost may be worse than dying. This was what it was harmless but not particularity new in conception. Entertaining with pretty decent effects, but just not my cup of tea. The filming is spot on and the stereotypical characters hit their marks so if urban legend stories do it for you check this one out.

Separation (2020) -  Rebekah McKendry's short using body horror to emphasize a marriage's end in the most bloody horrifying way. Smart and too the point the short does not linger, it establishes the situation and conditions and climaxes with a wonderfully bloody scene. Dr. McKendry is a producer Director and Podcaster  as well as one of my personal favorite horror experts.

Maere (2018) -  Explores a doctors interaction with syndrome where people die in their sleep having nightmares. Lots of dream logic and creaking noises make the doctor's own life a tragic story.

Catatonic (2019) - OMG An obsessed cat owners trials and tribulations when his beloved Charles Lickens vanishes. This is both obscenely gross and hilarious in following the lead Cat Daddy (Timmy Ramone) as he pathetically obsesses about his lost cat. Written and Directed by Brian Zahm this one is a strange delight. Could not find any IMDB credit for the film or the people connected to it.

SeaSapian (2019) -  A cool noir fantasy where there is a world below the ocean (the ocean is the sky in this world) and every now and then something falls into it, fish a ship or in this case a mermaid. Cleverly made it is a hard boiled detective story creatively put together by Sasha Carr and starring Leigh Carr as our detective. I thought this was wonderful. Could not find any IMDB credit for the film.

Beauty Juice (2019) - A short and a bit on the nose critique of the beauty industry. SO what though it is well filmed and its five minutes. Written and directed by Natasha Halevi and starring Jennifer Holland it is just the right size for its message.

Live Forever (2019) - A tribute musical to the often forgotten victims of horror movies. Wonderful with gore effects it is a very clever piece. Gustav Egerstedt wrote and directed this really great number that any horror fan can love. It is very much worth checking out.

The Wave (2019) - A bad trip for Justin Long teaches him that the universe strives to right itself of bad behavior and immoral decisions and that he can participate by making the necessary sacrifices. I really dug this film and participated in the Q&A event on Sunday evening. The trippy nature of the film is so wonderfully uncomfortable and the morality tale it tells were so spot on it is definitely one you should seek out.Writer Carl W. Lucas constructs a great tale about having to make amends for our moral failings.  Director Gille Klabin puts it together with a great cast and a wonderful flair.

Metamorphosis (2015) - A Revenge story of a middle-aged woman May Wong (Cici Lau)abused and spurned by her cheating husband and the revenge she gets. Maybe the oldest film in the festival but it cracks with power. The lead actress Wong is excellent and the sad and disturbing results on her actions on her daughter show that this is not a simple revenge thriller where the victim is redeemed and the only consequences are born by the evil doers. Written by Feiyang Sun and Elaine Xia  and Directed by Xia this is a must watch in the festival

Chattanooga Film Festival 2020

Chattanooga Film Festival 2020 - Online but right in time!  I was planning to attend the Chattanooga Film Festival this year when the world experience this horribly debilitating pandemic. I was more than thrilled to sign up and participate online when the opportunity arose. I signed up ready to go and was awaiting the day when I could see some of the great films and shorts, as well as live events that would be the online version of the festival. As always you can give your thoughts on the festival through the comments section of the blog or shoot me an email movies@edhovey.com or tweet @Soresport
The start of the festival is a bit of a sad story for me though. I live in Massachusetts and my Mom has been getting fighting a incurable form of cancer in Tampa for the last three years. I don't normally share too much about my life but I have to shed some tears and type here to get it out of my head today as I start talking about the festival. After a really bad bout of chemo on Monday before the fest my Mom had a reaction where she was not lucid or in control of herself. This was a deciding factor for her deciding to stop her treatment and let the disease run its course. My sister Trish who is caring for her called me and my six other sisters to let us know if we wanted to say goodbye we should come down to Florida as soon as possible. We were taught by Mom while growing up that family always comes first so we all got on the phone and computers and started making plans to get to FL by Wednesday which was my Mom's 76th birthday. Fuck the risk of the pandemic some thing just have to happen and making what will be my Mom's last birthday special as possible is all that mattered. So tickets in hand I met my Sister Dawn and her daughter Shawna at Logan on the first flight down on Wednesday.
  Florida while I was there went from pretending to take the pandemic seriously to opening most things by the day I left. Here in the northeast where we have stayed in our homes to try to bend the curve saving thousands of lives they have taken the Federal Govt. approach and do social distancing but let whomever ignore any rules in place in fact celebrating when they do. Still I was impressed by the number of citizens who seemed to be taking the pandemic seriously even with the lack of leadership on the Governor's part. Since I was already taking a chance in travelling I just kept having that horrible early story of the pandemic in my head where the family got together and half of them later died of Covid-19. I have to say though that wasn't going to stop me on this visit, I felt guilty and selfish while already grieving for what will inevitable end for my Mom.
  It's such a strange feeling to know that you will not see someone again when you leave. During the visit even though you are having laughs, supporting each other with the conflicting feelings, having family meals and making my Mom so happy. Wednesday was a great day for her she was sharp as a tack and so happy to see each new person who arrived. She was a shell of herself for sure, not able to walk and with a voice that seemed a quarter of the strength it had last time I saw her. I visited last right before Christmas (in the photo) and she was in such great spirits and feeling positive she would have much more life. Chemo though is a hard treatment and eventually is worse than the cancer poisoning your body to hold the disease at bay. Still not knowing we were coming my Mom got to see all her kids and many of her grandkids as we each showed up at the house her surprised and joy was so evident. The first part of our visits she was concerned with us wanting to make sure we understood her decision to stop treatment. Then we partied together a family sharing stories and hanging out in the pool and hosted wonderfully by my Sister Trish and her husband Chris who have carried a the burden of my Mom's care for these last few years. I am so thankful for them and their loving hearts and strong hands. As we all moved through the week we knew we would have to have that last visit, time alone to say goodbye. It was so hard for each of us but I have to say being able to come from that goodbye and hug my Sisters and my daughter was so important.
  Just a bit on who my Mom is. She is part of a family (Mills) that has been in this country as far back as the 1700's, they fought all the wars from the revolution on and built lives in New England mostly in Maine and Massachusetts. She was born in Boston and grew up on Fort Hill in Roxbury, pregnant at 15 she married my father but he struggled with alcohol and she left him at age 23 taking her five kids and moving into assisted housing on Franklin Hill in Roxbury. My mom taught me about perseverance and hard work, she didn't settle for her lot she worked her whole life taking any job that would have her to work her way off welfare and to reenter the middle class. Even though we had hard years, where we barely stayed in housing, always struggled to have food and clothes to wear. Moving like nomads when we could no longer afford the place we were ( I went to 9 schools before I graduated High school). She persevered and continued to fight. Not always at home for us we children learned hard lessons on the streets but always stood up for each other. She eventually got us all through high school and with her second husband, Father to two of my sisters lived a very nice life. It is my honor to give this information to you to let you know how great a person can be even if they are not leading anything but a family.
  I arrived back on Saturday and am now hunkered down in the bottom half of my split level home. My wife and I are separated for the next two weeks while I quarantine to make sure I did not bring the virus back with me. I have to say although I am sad, it is a wonderful thing to be able to use the Festival as a distraction from all that is going on. Thanks everyone who made this happen. You are in the right place at the right time for me and I appreciate it.
  So on with what I am watching: I think I will a keep this really spoiler free relying on my feeling about the watching and less about any plot twist and the such that may spoil the film. I am a day and a half into my VIP pass but ready to use it. I will also add to this post as I view more films over the next couple days.

Eat Brains Love (2019) - Zombies and Psychics combine in this horror comedy. I have to say I really enjoyed that the first thing I saw was a comedy. A zombie plague that is contracted though sex that but with twists in how it works to allow the characters to fulfill their roles as high school stereotypes. A secret government agency of psychics who can hunt them down, a movement of infected organizing to fight back, and a high school boy lusting after the prettiest girl in school. I enjoyed this mostly because it was light and entertaining with a new and different take on a genre that seems to never stop seeing innovation. Writers Mike Herro and David Strauss come up with some inventive stuff while Director Rodman Flender paces well and catches some of the comedy bit wonderfully. The acting is good starring Jake Cannavale,  Angelique Rivera, Sarah Yarkin, Jim Titus and the always great Patrick Fabian as the villian. Not to mention the gore is pretty well done in the film.

Inferno (2019) - Writer Director Bishal Dutta, with actors Taylor Cloyes and Craig Ng (as Skullface) give us one of those in late out early seven minutes shorts where you are in the climax of a story when it starts. Nothing needs to be explained as in that seven minutes it is shown not told. Well done with Cloyes portraying the intensity of the characters situation from the moment she is on screen.

The Yellow Night (2019) - The incomplete IMDB entry for this film at this point does not do it justice. Sure it is a story about a group of teens going to a Brazilian island to celebrate the end of high school only to face horrors beyond imagining. It is more than that too. I have to watch it again because I was viewing right before bed and really want to get into the themes presented with a clearer head. It bring quantum mechanics, multi dimensions and crossovers in the fabric of time into a story about kids leaving their old lives as students in defiance of social norms. The use of Patti Smith music ( I loved that, one of the most honest fever dream song writers of her time) as a defining force to show these kids are the outliers. They are the ones that don't fit into this world and them end up in a place beyond the world as we know it was a brilliant bit of writing by Ramone Porta Mota (also Directing) and Jhésus Tribuzi. The pacing was a bit off at times with the trying to show the changes happening around the kids, it left the viewer wanting a bit quicker build up and reveal and some really bigger reveal towards the end. Like I said I was a bit tired when I started it so I would like to see it again with fresh eyes. I have a feeling I missed some of the depth of this multi dimensional film. This is a film where in reviewing it hearing the director talk about the ideas would be very interesting. I will try to feature it later in the future for a full review.

The Droving (2020) Crime Revenge

The Droving (2020) - Small independent films in the age of streaming actually have a fair chance at being seen. If a producer is savvy on social media she / he can get someone like me, who likes to take chances on films to put eyes on a project and get a bit of feedback or in this case a review. NOT that a large audience reads this blog but that does not change my love for films and the desire to write however poorly about them. Since the film is new and the makers Rubicon wants to create a buzz I will do all in my power to NOT spoil the film but talk about the experience in a way that allows for fair viewing without spoiling the plot. Rubicon is a small company (at least right now) and describe themselves as "...Rubicon Films we bring dark fairy tales and folklore to the screen with heart and style.  We produce independent feature films in a number of different genres."
  Martin's (Daniel Oldroyd) sister Megan (Amy Tyger) was murdered and being an ex-military information extractor he is driven to find the person who killed her. In a sort of  Bryan Mills, in Taken (2008) he has a certain set of skills that make him up for the job.  Questioning characters that knew her Tess (Suzie Frances Garton), The Hermit (Jonathan Lawrence Risdon), Simon (Bobby Robertson) he learns about The Merchant (Alexander King) and how that belief lead to Megan's death eventually solving the mystery of who dunit. Much like the film taken one interaction leads to another, then to another with each step getting Martin closer to the killer. On the way we get to see his "skills" and his internal struggle with the things he has done in the name of obtaining information.
The Droving filmed in Northern England, The Lakes Region, Penrith, Cumbria a lovely little town from the looks of it around the time of their winter droving arts festival. A Drover is someone who drive herd animals into town, and the current Winter Droving festival is an arts festival that encourages you to join the herd. This is a film that builds a myth about a supernatural entity called The Merchant, I will say he is a demon or devil who offers those who have lost love ones the chance to get them back. The exchange though is the death of others, which brings us to the story.  
  My impressions on the story and players are that they have a decent main character, with enough back story to fill him out. Oldroyd plays him how I would expect, with a calmness that seethes rage behind his face (mask). Maybe a bit too confident by the last scene we see some real emotion. Although a bit too "this leads to that" in it's approach the story pacing is decent. It's not a long film and I never found myself disengaged. Tess played with a really nice nuance by Garton was an empathetic character. Risdon's portrayal of the hermit was a bit more manic but considering the plot points I wouldn't really fault him for that. I would have liked the mythology of the Merchant to be a bit more hashed out since it was pivotal to the mystery of why. I wonder if I would have criticized it though if we had gotten a bunch of exposition on the myth. I guess it would depend on how organic those scenes felt. With the slight twist of an ending that leads to the continuation maybe more would have been better to fill out the supernatural side of the story. Overall though I liked the movie and was certainly entertained.
  There were a couple of technical things that distract a bit from that enjoyment. The ambient sounds in many scenes were too loud and distracting, birds, wind, fireplaces, and rain at various times interfered with the dialog in a really annoying way. The other criticism has to do with the night scenes and just that those scenes needed to be lit better. In one case there is a fight scene by Martin's parked car and because the scene is too dark it lacks the impact it could have had to show off his prowess. Like I said earlier though overall enjoyable, the Director George Popov keeps the pacing crisp and the cinematography particularly of the landscapes in that part of England makes me want to visit. The place is stunning and captured beautifully by Harry Young. The music was understated and quite lovely. So while you are all spending most of you time at home during this worldwide pandemic watching way too many screens, take a chance on a small independent film, you won't be sorry.

You can see the Trailer on Youtube