Borscht Film Festival, The Return of Stoma, & Dancing the Night Away at Vagabond
I gotta admit, I used to be a hater. In this city can you really blame me? I used to have this conversation with people all the time:
"There's nothing to do here", "Miami has nothing going on", "there's no culture in Miami", etc., etc.
Honestly, it is really easy to fall into it, but boy would you and I both be wrong. For example, I just went to look for the listing of REV's Launch Party (Jan 30!) on the Miami New Times calendar and when I put in Music events on January 30, there was a return of 1,370 listings!
Before I started doing REV trying to find out when things were happening was getting increasingly difficult. Where do you look? What source to trust? Who knows about most things?
This is one of the biggest reasons I started REV. There are actually an incredible amount of events going on down here and yet there really aren't many trustworthy sources. Sure, you can befriend thirty million different promoters, bands, venues, parties on Myspace or Facebook, but then you have to take the time to sift through all their stuff to find something that you want to do.
Getting involved with the 'zine has pushed me to find lots to do. Luckily people have also been getting in touch with REV to let us know about great events going on around the city.
I vow to never put crap up on REV, unless they pay me a large sum of money. Then, I'm sorry readers, but you may have to sit through some geezer-rock band, like these guys:
But this night kicked ass, just look at these events from Saturday, December 27: a local Film Festival at the Tower Theater, a show at PS14 with Bands and a Burlesque show, and then going over to The Vagabond to enjoy some great music.
Borscht Film Festival:
Liz already made a post about it, but I wanted to get my two cents in.
I've been to the Miami Short Film Festival over the past couple of years, but have had very little motivation to go again. Not to talk crap about it (but I will anyway), the movies they show are clichè, boring, and not compelling in any way whatsoever.
To me a Short Film is supposed to have a more abstract quality than Feature Length movies. The filmmaker is trying to fit a compelling story into an incredibly small time frame, so there has to be something special about it and not traditional.
The last time I went to the MSFF I walked away feeling like these people were trying to make a Hollywood movie but with bad acting and a lack of vision (not that Hollywood movies have any vision either, but at least they accept the fact that their sole responsibility is to be entertaining).
Possibly the absolute worst was a film that was a dramatization of the structure of a story. The protagonist's name was, "Protagionist", the bad guy was called "Antagonist", and each scene's dialogue was what happened in that particular scene in accordance with the traditional structure of a story. Like, "This is the second scene, when we have a rise in the action and a development of the struggle between the Protagonist and the Antagonist."
How can a movie be abstract when it's based on the super literal interpretation of the structure of a story? And those people get huge exposure for their films!
On the total other end, I felt so privileged to be sitting in the Tower Theater to see the short films of Borscht. To my understanding these are mainly young people creating films on their own. Every single film was entertaining and unique in its own way.
131 Projects, whose YouTube clips are posted in Liz's article, were enthralling. I felt mesmerized especially by Freights & Penits, which links together images and beats (which I think was common in all of their shorts, but stood especially out in that one) of trains and urban settings.
Another film titled Drew was eerie yet endearing; the director doing stop film animation of little creatures made out of paperclips, nails, and wire. Jen Stark had a short called Papermation, which I can only describe as a kaleidoscope of vibrant colors of paper. Liz already mentioned the one film by Lucas Leyva, but seriously, it's a film about a guy who spots a super hot hand puppet and daydreams about falling in love with it, including a semi-graphic love making scene between the guy and the hand puppet! (Can love making between a guy and a hand puppet be graphic?? I'm still debating that one.) Seriously, a human and hand puppet love making scene?! Incredible.
Topping off the night were two Feature Films; Barry Jenkins' Medicine for Melancholy and Aiden Dillard's Special Angelz.
Jenkins, a Miami-bred, San Franciscan transplant, is getting a lot of attention for his film. I got lost in the romantic story of Micah (Wyatt Cenac) chasing down his one night stand, 'Jo (Tracey Heggins). At points Micah was frustratingly awkward in his attempts to get 'Jo to spend more time with him. The film follows a very human portrait of the development of a relationship - that sometimes people may be resistant to getting involved with each other, but a slow boil can turn it into something special.
The other layer of the film was the role of race relations in the city of San Francisco and the gentrification of the city. Micah being an incredibly self-aware black rights activist and Jo being a more laid back and ambivalent black woman.
Unfortunately with ten minutes left to go, the film acted like almost every movie I've ever watched from Netflix and paused itself to inaction, so I'm left hanging without knowing how the movie ends! I guess I'll have to go find it when it's released nationally in February '09 by IFC.
As for Aiden Dillard's Special Angelz, for a much better review than I could give, head over to fellow Miami Art blogger's page, ARTLURKER, along with an interview with Aiden Dillard.
The Return of Stoma (at Shameless Burlesque):
After Borscht, I went over to PS14 to catch the very very end of Stoma's set. Stoma is a local metal band in Miami that has broken up and gotten together several times and on Saturday made another triumphant return to the local Miami music scene. At times I've heard Stoma described as sounding like Mr. Bungle, but when I saw them on Saturday they were ripping it up as a 4-piece metal band.
But how could the night be complete without some half naked ladies (I mean it was a Burlesque show):
That's all I'm showing you pervs out there! Go ogle at your own hot, half-naked women!
Closing out the night was Ska band Better Off Dead. Oh my god, look out, it's 1996 all over again! They even went so far as to finish off their set playing a cover of Bouncing Souls' Hopeless Romantic. That brought back a whole bunch of memories of Less Than Jake and Reel Big Fish. I guess it's almost time for Ska to make its way around the trend-go-round.
Vagabond:
Yes, I went over to The Vagabond after the show, and yes, I love to dance to Indie music, enjoy the outside patio area, and talk it up with local scenesters. There is really only one reason I would mention it - to show pictures of these freaks that were hanging out there:
Nothing to do in Miami my ass! I could spend all night just watching these two guys be weird... and you probably would too.
Borscht Film Festival: www.borscht.info
Stoma: www.myspace.com/stoma
Shameless Burlesque: www.myspace.com/shamelessburlesque
Better Off Dead: www.myspace.com/betteroffdeadsucka
If You Enjoyed This Post, You May Also Like:
- Borscht Wants Your Soul!
- Borscht Film Festival 2008
- Weekend Videos: ArtOfficial, Otto von Schirach, Borscht Film Festival
- Screening of Aiden Dillard's Death Print @ Sweat Records - January 21, 2009
- REV Miami's Launch Party: Christina DerHagopian's "Me As He"
NOTE FOR COMMENTS: Do not flame or leave obnoxious comments, THEY WILL NOT BE APPROVED. Constructive criticism should always be welcomed by any artist, but don't be a d-bag, show some class. Thanks. - REVMiami Staff
