Thursday, June 30, 2022

Wild Combination (2022 shorts program)

Wild Combination (2022 shorts program)
+Streaming (only); 3 narrative shorts + 3 documentary shorts
  • Un corps brûlant (A Free Run) 🙂
  • Weckuwapasihtit (Those Yet to Come) 👏
  • Bro (داداش) 😑
  • CANS Can’t Stand 👏
  • Jeudi, vendredi, samedi (Thursday, Friday, Saturday) 👍
  • Terminal Norte (North Terminal) 🙂
“Un corps brûlant (A Free Run),” narrative, dir. Lauriane Lagarde, 2021, France, 14m., in French with full English subtitles, US premiere 🙂

Two young women (teens?) do parkour, eyeing one an­oth­er from a distance. They finally meet up, but one of them is hesitant about actually kissing. There is almost no dialogue; we see the protagonists in action, not in con­tem­pla­tion. That suits their characters, but also some­what limits the audience’s ability to relate. Beauti­fully filmed, recommended.

• IMDb page • Official website • Trailer •
“Weckuwapasihtit (Those Yet to Come),” documentary, dir. Geo Neptune & Brianna Smith, 2022, USA, 12m., in English with English closed captions and in Pes­ko­to­muh­kati (Passamaquoddy) with Peskotomuhkati closed captions 👏

Peskotomuhkati young people, “the children of Kolus­kap,” are reclaiming ancient tattoo rituals (especi­al­ly face and hand tattoos) as part of their culture. It’s a fascinating counterpoint to the dominant culture’s way of looking at tattoos, very much from the per­spec­tive of the Native people. It’s worth turning on the closed captions to see the Pesko­to­muh­kati portions of the dialogue. Definitely a must see.

“Bro (داداش),” narrative, dir Sahand Kabiri, 2021, Iran, 19m., in Farsi with full English subtitles, US premiere 😑

A 20-year-old Iranian man from “the right side of the tracks” (an upper middle class neighborhood) gets in way over his head, deciding to graduate from selling poppers to major cocaine dealing — with an initial buy large enough to carry the death penalty just for pos­ses­sion. There’s a strange verbal dance with the supplier, who immediately sees through the would-be dealer’s façade of urban tough guy. We get no context for the characters or the story, leaving the audience wondering who and why. In particular, the LGBTQ content is pretty meager, with some hints that the getaway driver might be involved with the dealer, or maybe the supplier is working an angle. Not recommended.

I think داداش is the title in Farsi, but the title logo is highly stylized, making it difficult to be sure. It might also be دٰآشّ

“CANS Can’t Stand,” documentary, dir. Matt Nadel & Megan Plotka, 2022, USA, 19m. 👏

In 1982, the state of Louisiana revised a 19th-century statute called Crimes Against Nature by Solici­ta­tion, which provided much harsher penalties for acts of prosti­tu­tion involving oral or anal sex, compared to pros­ti­tu­tion involving vaginal sex. Bucking the trend towards liberty and freedom, Louisiana dramatically increased the penalties for CANS, and then in 1991 increased them further, adding a 10-years-to-life registration as a sex offender. Finally, in 2011, CANS was reduced to a misdemeanor, and in 2012, a lawsuit removed the sex offender registration element of the law, but left the prior felony convictions on the books.

Of course, the enforcement of the law fell heavily on women, especially trans women, especially Black trans women. The State of Louisiana gleefully added misery to people who were already in such desperate circumstances that they had resorted to “survival sex work.” CANScantSTAND mobilized to repeal the law, and continues to work for full repeal, alongside TRANScending Women, House of Tulip, and Women With A Vision.

This documentary shines a much-needed light on an archaic law used as a cudgel against some of the most vulnerable people in the LGBTQ+ community. Definitely a must see.

• IMDb page: Nadel • Official website • Trailer •
“Jeudi, vendredi, samedi (Thursday, Friday, Saturday),” narrative, dir. Arthur Cahn, 2021, France, 19m., in French with full English subtitles, North American premiere 👍

Some machinery malfunctions, causing a small fire in the factory, closing it down for a few days. Two buddies take the unplanned days off to do nothing together. The credits say that this film was inspired by the writings of Maurice Sendak, Arnold Lobel, and A.A. Milne. The con­nec­tion between the two main characters (never named) is under­stated but pal­pa­ble. It’s a sweet moment, highly recommended.

• IMDb page • Official website • Trailer •
“Terminal Norte (North Terminal),” documentary, dir. Lucrecia Martel, 2021, Argentina, 37m., in Spanish with full English subtitles 🙂

An Argentinian woman travels around, meeting a vari­e­ty of artists, including ballad singers, rappers, poets in tra­di­tion­al indig­e­nous style (pero en español), and trans mothers. It’s inter­est­ing, artistic, and heart­felt, but with no context for what these “copleros” (gath­er­ings of artists?) are, who the people are, or how they’re connected. Tepidly recommended.

• IMDb page • Official website • Trailer • dispo­nible en Argentina en la plata­forma CONTAR •
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