[Fredslist] Odey Raviv reviews the Gotham Film Festival Winners

[odeyraviv at aol.com]

The 2012 Edition of the Gotham Film Festival was held at the Friars Club on Wednesday evening, June 12, 2012.  The full house saw an impressive slate of films.  The Documentary category and the Original/Scripted program of 12 finalists consisted of films that were entertaining, inspiring, informative, tantalizing, and whimsical.


The winner of the "Express"(under 3 minutes) Documentary was A Portrait of Diana White by the college film student Victoria DeMartin.  The film captures Diana White's life long passion for ballet in a thoughtful presentation.  We see the Diana White of today teaching ballet to enthusiastic youngsters.  Ms. DeMartin weaves in footage of ballerina White dancing with the New York City Ballet(NYCB) company as a young featured dancer.  The filmmaker is able to capture Diana White's passion for ballet in revealing interviews.  Ms. White glows as she tells of her first meeting with George Balanchine, the renowned leader of NYCB.  The ecstasy that ballet has brought to Diana White's life was captured in this short documentary.


In the winner of the Original "Express" film, Sleeping With Mortals, Dante Russo masters the "new genre" of book trailer.  His film is a promo for the novel, Sleeping with Mortals, by Cathrine Goldstein. Mr. Russo is able to tell us so much about Cadden Jones, the New York mistress, played by Victoria Messing.  With his camera and clever editing, the filmmaker reveals both the young woman's optimism and her depression as she sees her job as the second lady.  Cutting between black and white flashbacks and very colorful scenes of today, Mr. Russo has inspired us to pick up the book or at least anticipate seeing the feature length film.  Ms. Goldstein has sold the film rights for Sleeping With Mortals.  Mr. Russo has performed his service well.


The winner of the Documentary "Local"(under 10 minutes) was My Nose by Gayle Kirschenbaum.  The film focuses on the question of whether the filmmaker "needs" a nose job to find happiness.  Ms. Kirschenbaum's (Ms. K.) mother plays the role of the villain as she insists that her daughter has always been damaged by the bump on her nose.  The film is able to explore this mother-daughter relationship with both humor and pathos.  We see hilarious consultations with plastic surgeons and fascinating interviews with people on the street about the "nose".  The question of whether a nose job will lead to happiness and marriage is handled cleverly by the creative reaction shots that Ms. K. employed.  The opening of the movie with Ms. K. as a new member on Mt. Rushmore promises us a comedic journey.  She easily delivers the laughs but the movie is so provocative that My Nose is being developed as a full-length documentary.  It will surely continue to be an important tool in healing mother-daughter and family conflicts.


In the winner of the Original "Local", Inanimate Object, James Pilott stretches the typical cop-buddy genre into a world of fantasy and lunacy.  Mr. Pilott is able to bring on the laughs with a clever script that twists the expected and features good performances by his cast.  Our hero cop is able to talk to and hear "objects".  The movie opens with a very funny scene of a toaster waking up our hero.   Mr. Pilott quickly switches to a crime scene and some frustrated detectives.  The dialogue is snappy and loaded with cliche bending nuance.  Mr. Pilott uses clever special effects to have walls and closets deal with their conflicts while offering clues to the crime.  Toilets spew hilarious insights about which contents they can tolerate more easily. The bathroom's clues point to a sex trafficking ring with a joke that Latvia has 2 exports "drill bits and sex slaves".  The filmmaker keeps the laughs coming as he takes us to a typical cop bar and has the female cop make her play for our hero.  The constant wit and snappy dialogue has to be seen to be appreciated.  According to Mr. Pilott our hero has "chips on both soldiers", but to us he becomes loveable.  The audience was in stitches, Mr. Pilott put together a wonderful project.
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