SXSW.08: This Is What Filmmaking Is All About

Benny & Josh Safdie

Man, I really like the Safdie's. I remember seeing Josh's short, We're Going to the Zoo, at SXSW last year. I also just recently saw Benny's short at Slamdance in January. What's really great about these guys is their natural eye for beautiful shots. They shoot on film--16mm no less--which is refreshing and daunting at the same time. In The Pleasure of Being Robbed, I found myself falling for Josh and his friend Eleanor, as they steal a Volvo and take a long drive to Josh's apartment. Even though I should probably be upset with the moral character of these two, I can't help but find them innocent and lovely.

There's a beautiful scene where Eleanor frolics with a man in a polar bear suit in a river. It could have been silly, but the film literally dances along the screen, in rhythm with the river and the trees. Josh Safdie's eye for cinematography is calculated and capricious at the same time. It's this sort of filmmaking that inspires me to make films myself.

The beauty in The Pleasure of Being Robbed isn't in the story or the dialogue or the setting. The narrative or moral conundrum is really arbitrary, with perspective for the whole scheme of things. It's all of the visual matter that holds everything together--and if that isn't pleasurable, I don't know what is.

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Matthew Lessner

Matthew Lessner recently emailed me this marvelous picture of himself (he's the dude). Along with several others, he was chosen to judge the shorts competition this year at SXSW (his short By Modern Measure played last year).

One film in particular really blew me away. Glory At Sea is an amazing narrative which takes an entirely different look at tragedy. The film deals with flooding in New Orleans, but it's almost a Outopia ("no place"). The dramatic element of the film isn't specifically limited to those who have suffered losses due to natural catastrophes. Instead, it's very human and corporeal. It's almost as if you can reach out and grab it.

There were some intense under water shots that boasted a whole new, peaceful world. It was really surreal for me and difficult to comprehend how I was feeling after-the-fact, but the enticement of the film is still a sparkle in my eye. It's spiritual and noble and true and bold. Somehow, for me, it was both highly--and necessarily--ambitious, yet subtly quixotic at the same time. A quest of a film that mounts on the absurd in a romantic way that casts off any doubt that the events in the film are really happening. As utterly believable as Eleanor and her polar bear, I truly found myself in an under water graveyard, surrounded by hopeful and glorious individuals with Glory At Sea.