An Official Entry of the Festival d’Automne
No one knows how many feature films are made in the United States; hundreds are shown only in small, regional festivals, or in local film programs, or receive their sole public exposure through the new “micro-cinemas” currently sprouting up in the US. Often the makers of these “below-the-radar” films are at best part-time filmmakers – musicians, visual artists or playwrights with an idea for a film – who, with the extraordinary access afforded by digital technology, transform that idea into an actual work of art, the truest independent filmmaking in America today.
Curated by Richard Peña, Director Emeritus of the New York Film Festival and for 25 years Programming Director of The Film Society of Lincoln Center, and Livia Bloom Ingram, American Fringe 3 brings this fascinating corner of contemporary American cinema to Parisian audiences for the third time. Eight new works will be screened, followed by discussion with their filmmakers; all will be in V.O. with French subtitles.
The Arts Arena is grateful to the Embassy of the United States of America for its grant making possible the French subtitling of these films.
FILM SYNOPSES:
195 Lewis
A film by Chanelle Aponte Pearson / U.S. / 2017 / 48 min / With Rae Leone Allen, Sirita Wright, D. Ajane Carlton. In this funny, engrossing series of five episodes, a hip lesbian couple decide to try an open relationship. Yuri (Allen), an artist, is quickly dazzled by the many beautiful women of New York City… but Camille (Wright), a recent Ph.D. graduate and aspiring academic, is not so sure their new romantic arrangement is right for her. Fortunately, they have her stoner sister Anne (Carlton, in a scene-stealing performance) and a close group of witty friends to see them through.
Preceded by the short film F*cked Like a Star. A film by Stefani Saintonge / U.S. / 2017 / 8 min
F*cked Like a Star uses lush photography, hypnotic editing, and the writing of Toni Morrison to explore the fantasy life of soldier ants.
ACORN and the Firestorm
A film by Reuben Atlas and Sam Pollard / U.S. / 2017 / 84 min / With Bertha Lewis, Hannah Giles, James O’Keefe
After 40 years championing the rights of the poor, the grassroots group ACORN (Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now) was the target of a video scandal that captivated the nation. By the time the video was exposed as fake, it was too late–it had already gone viral. Featuring interviews with ACORN president Bertha Lewis as well as video makers James O’Keefe and Hannah Giles, ACORN’s downfall is documented in this microcosm of today’s deeply divided American politics.
The Great Pretender
A film by Nathan Silver / U.S. / 2017 / 72 min / With Esther Garrel, Maëlle Poésy-Guichard, Keith Poulson.
With a cast made up of both French (Maëlle Poésy-Guichard, Esther Garrel) and American actors, THE GREAT PRETENDER is a surprising, very contemporary look at the often thin line separating art and life, as the rehearsals for a new play become the stage for an unpredictable psychodrama.
On the Rocks
A film by Ariel Gardner and Alex Kavutskiy / U.S. / 2017 / 90 min / With Chase Fein, Nichole Bagby, Kate Freund.
Distinguished by two wonderful performances by newcomers Chase Fein and Nichole Bagby, ON THE ROCKS is an unsettling yet sympathetic look at a couple that keep to make it—financially or emotionally—no matter how hard they try. The film’s contemporary working class milieu—from bars to auto shops to run-down row houses—is brilliantly captured.
On the Seventh Day
A film by Jim McKay / U.S. / 2017 / 90 min / With Fernando Cardona, Gilberto Jiménez, Genoel Ramírez.
José, a worker in a Mexican restaurant—played by Fernando Cardona, who leads an equally fine, completely non-professional cast—is asked by his boss to take on an extra Sunday shift for a special event; the only problem is the shift clashes with his soccer team’s bid for the championship. Beautifully observed, few films have as successfully captured the texture of contemporary immigrant life. In English and Spanish.
’Florida Man’ and More Short Films by Manual Cinema
Short Films by Manual Cinema / U.S. / 2014-2018 / approximately 65 min
In a day and age of increasingly sophisticated uses of digital technology, the animation collective Manual Cinema goes back to the very earliest forms of projected images, including stencils and shadow puppets, to create magical, highly original works ranging from fairy tales to political brochures. A selection of their short works, including the brilliant ‘Florida Man,’ will be shown.
Rukus
A film by Brett Hanover / U.S. / 2017 / 86 min / With Brett Hanover, Alanna Stewart, Rukus. When a young photographer (Hanover, in his deeply personal first film) takes his camera to a furry convention in Memphis, he finds their strange world more enticing than he’d like to admit. Over the course of this hybrid documentary-narrative film, his relationship with childhood friend Liz (Townsend) grows less casual, as does his fascination with a furry artist named Rukus, who is hard at work on an elaborate graphic novel… while struggling with his own internal demons.
Saturday, November 17 at 10:00 p.m.
SCREENING TIMES AND LOCATION: Salle Georges Franju
vendredi 16 novembre
GF 19h30 On the Seventh Day by Jim McKay – 2017 (VOSTF, 90′).
GF 22h00 195 Lewis by Chanelle Aponte Pearson – 2018 (VOSTF, 48’) +
F*cked Like a Star by Stefani Saintonge –2018 (VOSTF, 8’)
samedi 17 novembre
GF 17h15 A Program of Short Films by Manual Cinema Collective – 2017 (VOSTF,65′).
GF 19h15 The Great Pretender by Nathan Silver – 2017 (VOSTF, 72′).
GF 22h00 Rukus by Brett Hanover – 2017 (VOSTF, 86′)
dimanche 18 novembre
GF 17h00 ACORN and the Firestorm by Reuben Atlas and Sam Pollard – 2017 (VOSTF, 84′).
GF 19h15 On the Rocks by Ariel Gardner and Alex Kavutskiy – 2017 (VOSTF, 90′).
Photo: Still shot from ACORN and the Firestorm