Last night was the filmmakers’ reception for Documentary Fortnight, which followed a screening of Family, by Sami Saif and (So)Phie Ambo (see below). The film was pretty good; the nervous Sami’s emotionally high-pitched quest to find his Yemeni father. Arriving in Yemen, Sami tells one of many “uncles” how he, his brother, and his Danish mother suffered after his father ditched them in Denmark. With girlfriend Sophie behind the camera, the film has an uncomfortably intimate feeling, well suited to its raw subject.
At the party, I met several of the other filmmakers, and we traded notes on the festival, the audiences, Sundance, and PR stunts (more on this later). One standout: Satoshi Ono, whose film Danchizake (Homemade Sake) screened last Friday. It’s a contemplative story of his family’s relationships which reveals itself as his father brews sake. Jeff Hatfield, friend/cameraman on my documentary/artist, came with me, and, wouldn’t you know it, he’s exhibited a fully functional moonshine still in a couple of museums, so they had a lot to talk about.
Ono’s next film will be about his grandparents, (similar to my first project) so we definitely had a lot to talk about. When the Festival folks heard us speaking Japanese, they freaked out, wondering why I hadn’t mentioned it before. (Apparently, there was only budget enough to get a translator for one day, and they’d been doing a lot of sign language.)
Anyway, when I told a couple of other directors about my film and the upcoming presentation of architects’ designs for Ground Zero, they invariably suggested passing out cards for Souvenir at the World Financial Center event. Sounds good to me, so watch for the Kozmo.com jacket again. Remember: Souvenir is screening Thursday at 2PM…
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the making of, by greg allen