A New Hero

Or should I say heroine?

She is Melody Gilbert from Frozen Feet Films. If you live in the Twin Cities, you've probably seen some of her work, or at least seen trailers for them. There's her film about people who want a limb amputated called Whole. Or how about the movie about Urban Explorers or the film, Married at the Mall, where she stakes herself out at the Mall of America marriage chapel to show us weddings at the world's largest mall. I'm watching her documentary Disconnected right now on Hulu for free so you can too. It follows students at Carleton College who decided to do without computers.

I met Gilbert at a screening for Urban Explorers. During the Q&A she let the audience know she never studied film, but instead has a deep background in journalism. Afterward, I asked about her outsider's take on the male dominated film industry from her point of view as a woman. Before I could finish my question, she said, "That's why I work alone."

Gilbert talked about the difference between how she holds a camera and how men do. She talked about her interviewing style and how it changes when men are around. I was hoping for some insight or helpful tips about women in the film industry, but I'll just keep supporting women in their efforts to break the celluloid ceiling.

I'm looking forward to a local showing of Gilbert's documentary about Fritz Mondale, showing at the Women with Vision Film Festival at the Walker Art Center this spring and whatever my hero is doing next.

Off and Running

I want to be an official movie reviewer not because I want that as a career or because I want the free films but because I want to be in the middle of the stream of information that flows to reviewers so I don't have to miss films like Off and Running.

I found Off and Running by accident browsing Apple's trailers.

This documentary is about an African American girl who was raised by Jewish lesbians in New York. She has decided to find her birth mother to figure out who she is.

Now I'm going to do all I can to get Off and Running to one of our upcoming film festivals, Sabes JCC Jewish Film Festival (because the family in the documentary is Jewish), Women With Vision at the Walker Art Center (because the film is about women and directed by a woman), and finally, my dark horse candidate (because Al Milgrom, the guy who chooses most of the films, is who he is), the Minneapolis/St. Paul International Film Festival (April 15-29).

The Lovely Bones

A group of friends and I got to see a preview of The Lovely Bones, Peter Jackson's upcoming flick based on Alice Sebold's book by the same name. As we argued back and forth about the religiosity of the interpretation and the room the film left for the viewer to make up his or her own mind, I wondered what impact Fran Walsh and Philippa Boyens had on the choice to make The Lovely Bones. In a pause, I asked the question out loud, and all but the film critic looked at me with blank stares. One asked, "Who are they?"

There were about a dozen of us in the room, all of whom love film and see lots of movies. They knew who played the predator in The Lovely Bones (I couldn't name him, but it was Stanley Tucci) and knew all the films Peter Jackson had directed. But they didn't know the names Fran Walsh and Philippa Boyens. Maybe you don't either, but these are people who pride themselves with their knowledge and understanding of the film arts.

If I have my way, I won't let you be clueless about these women.

Other than Walsh being Jackson's wife, and Boyens being the couple's neighbors, they are Jackson's closest collaborators, and why, in my opinion, movies like The Lord of the Rings trilogy and even King Kong are films that women can love as much as men. The threesome write together, and Jackson calls Walsh his "first assistant director." In a recent interview in the Minneapolis Star Tribune, Jackson says:

They're very important right across the board, not just in writing characters like Susie. We write as a team, Fran Walsh and Philippa Boyens and I. I don't really categorize people as male or female in a funny kind of way, maybe because I've spent most of my life working with women. My producer is a woman and I've had a woman first assistant director for 20 years. I like women more than men in a funny kind of way, to where I'd rather work with them as collaborators. They're more refreshing, they're funnier and I find with women there's no ego involved. None of that blokey kind of macho nonsense.

Now if only the rest of Hollywood could get the impact women could have on film, beyond chick flicks.

I've read two of Alice Sebold's books, The Lovely Bones and Lucky, and it's hard for me to see this film from the point of view of someone who hasn't read her work, so I'm biased. I'm also a survivor, and The Lovely Bones is a tale for survivors. Outside of these facts, it's visually beautiful in both the fantastical scenes and the real-life scenes. The screenplay is an appropriate adaptation and is faithful to the book. Sebold's imagery and themes are reflected in both the screenplay and cinematography. It will knock your socks off if you see it on the big screen.

My rating: Worth $10, hiring a babysitter, and $10 for crappy popcorn and a pop that'll make you get up in the middle of the film to pee.