Arts & Crass: The Highbrow Lowbrow Film Podcast: Ep.19A - Virginia Film Festival 2017 Special Pt.1

Arts & Crass: The Highbrow Lowbrow Film Podcast: Ep.19A - VAFF 2017 Special Pt. 1

Tod and Cullen make their triumphant return to podcasting with the first half of their 2017 Virginia Film Festival coverage!

Part 1 includes general comments on the festival, plus discussion of the following screenings:
Bonnie and Clyde (Penn, 1967)
Magnum Opus (Elliott, 2017)
Lighthouse Studio Shorts
Shadowman (Jacoby, 2017)
Downsizing (Payne, 2017)
Shelter (Riklis, 2017)
Tonsler Park (Everson, 2017)
Birth of a Movement (Gray & Cram, 2017)
Word is Bond (Jenkins, 2017)
Krystal (Macy, 2017)
Ismael's Ghosts (Desplechin, 2017)
The Lodger (Hitchcock, 1927)

Stay tuned for episode 19B, featuring discussion of the second half of the festival.
Subscribe on Apple Podcasts or iTunes and leave us a review!

Link to listen to Ep.19A: 
https://archive.org/download/ArtsCrassEp.19AVFF2017SpecialPt.1/Arts%26Crass%20Ep.%2019A%20-%20VFF%202017%20Special%20Pt.%201.mp3


Link to:  Arts & Crass: The Highbrow Lowbrow Film Podcast

That's right, we're back!  Visit the Links above to listen to the new episode as well as episodes 12-15 (not posted on this blog).  Episodes 16-18 are recorded and simply sitting in editing backlog, and Episode 19B - VAFF 2017 Pt. 2 will be released very soon, so keep an eye out.

We are also making plans to record more new episodes as we speak, including extensive coverage of the 2018 VAFF.  Hooray!

Fellowman - Sobriety (Official Video) - boy in a box productions

- directed by tod gorman and co-produced by boy in a box productions
- other well deserved credits included below the video 

Published on May 10, 2016

Directed and Edited by:  Tod Gorman (boy in a box productions)
Shot by:  Arthur Crafaik & Tod Gorman
Starring:  Joe Roberts, Harli Saxon, Bernard Hankins, Michael Monroe, Tracy Saxon, Mike White, Louis Hampton, Phil Green, Jon Fields, Dillon Koon, Ohmar, Addison Dodds and Fellowman.
Budget:  $0 - $100
Locations:  Charlottesville, VA

Fellowman - Raw Data Vol. 1 mixtape available now at http://fellowmanrap.bandcamp.com/
Facebook: Spititout Inc
Instagram: fellowman_spititout
Twitter: Spititout_inc

Special thanks to Joseph Roberts (introducing and starring), Arthur Crafaik (camera, production and all around go-to), Tracy, Bernard, Mike, Mike, Lou, Jon, Ohmar, Addison, Dillon, Harli, 
D Johnson, Ed and all of the many extras and friends that assisted generously with their time and talents, and, of course, Cullen - for driving the creative process and project, and for offering us some real hip-hop with soul.

For further info and music by Fellowman, I highly encourage you to visit the following links.

Link to Fellowman presskit:  http://fellowman.wix.com/presskit#!contact/guq4k

Link to Fellowman Bandcamp page:  http://fellowmanrap.bandcamp.com/releases

First Cousin Once Removed - Documentary Film of Interest - Highly Recommended

First Cousin Once Removed - by Alan Berliner, 2012, USA | 78 minutes

I saw this film at the Virginia Film Festival nearly two years ago, followed by a Q&A with director Alan Berliner.  It is a Poignant, Poetic, Echoing meditation on memory, life, time and the personal, philosophical considerations of existence in the moment and reflections of the past.  Berliner's Q&A was a bonus and privilege - he paralleled the film with thoughtful, generous, sometimes ambiguous and emotionally complex responses and unsolicited shares.

At the time, the film was relatively early-on in it's initial festival run.  I was new to Charlottesville and the VA Film Festival (by which I have become increasingly impressed), but I was aware of Berliner through some of his earlier films, thanks to one of my favorite film professors/friend, which gratefully drew me to the screening.  The film has since received relatively wide critical acclaim, though still remains somewhat obscure.  It is now promoted, distributed and exhibited through HBO Documentaries (well deserved and hopefully opens a wide audience).

Extraordinary filmmaking and still resonating in my head. An honest, personal profile, not only of the life of a brilliant man, Honig (and the duality of that brilliance), in the depths of Alzheimer's, but of life in general.  Alzheimer's is rarely mentioned, but echoes through the film in abstract subtle trembles that are both haunting and oddly elating in life-affirmation. Truly unique, beautiful piece of work and experience, for the filmmaker and for us.  The most effective, expansive and broadly reflective documentary that I have seen in years. Highly recommended, to say the least.

Continue reading for complete Synopsis, Review and Trailer.

-Synopsis:
"Sometime in the new millennium, Edwin Honig—the distinguished poet, translator, critic and university professor—began showing signs of Alzheimer’s disease, which gradually but inexorably brought on the loss of his memory, command of language and relation to the past. Filmmaker Alan Berliner—for whom Honig was a cousin, a friend and a mentor—documented their meetings over five years; his new film chronicles the steady decline of Honig’s mind and body, but also the strength and stamina of his spirit, as well as his innate charm and wonderfully playful way with words and sounds. Occasional moments of lucidity offer an insight as to the ways in which Honig attempts to make sense out of what is happening to him. First Cousin Once Removed is an unflinching essay on the fragility of being human, and a stark reminder of the profound role that memory plays in all of our lives."

From: New York Film Festival (2012)

-Review:  

Devastating and Philosophical, Alan Berliner's Alzheimer's Portrait 'First Cousin Once Removed' Is His Best Movie

By Eric Kohn

Documentarian Alan Berliner is frequently the focus of his movies, but his intentions extend beyond his neuroses. Rather than the star of the show, he's a vessel for bigger ideas and evades the perils of self-indulgence that could result from putting himself in front of the camera.

That tricky balance is on display better than ever in the stirring "First Cousin Once Removed," which deepens an oeuvre that has already dealt with the tender issues of father-son relationships ("Nobody's Business") and insomnia ("Wide Awake") by exploring his fears of senility to devastating effect. Using a powerful focal point to manifest the movie's central concerns, Berliner makes his interest in the topic relevant to everyone.

His case study is Edwin Honig, the first cousin of Berliner's mother, a bond that gives the movie its title. But there's more about Honig -- once a world-class poet and founder of Brown University's creative writing program -- that has been removed beyond his relationship to the filmmaker. Suffering from Alzheimer's disease before the movie begins, Honig has lost grasp of his identity or any firm understanding of his relationships to those around him. Still haunted from his own father's death from the disease, Berliner sets out to understand the nature of Honig's increasing frailty by working to unlock the older man's dwindling memories.

Equal parts psychological mystery and lyrical treatise on the passage of time, "First Cousin Once Removed" predominantly centers on Berliner's interrogation of Honig in his Rhode Island home during various stages of his condition (the specific chronology remains unclear). From the outset, Berliner utilizes an aggressively fractured narrative that replicates his subject's state of confusion by showing the filmmaker arriving at Honig's home several times in succession with various results: Sometimes Honig recognizes his relative, and other times Berliner only gets a blank stare. But in even when he lacks complete lucidity, Honig still has the capacity to grapple with his deteriorating state. "I know there's a past and I know that I lived it," he said, leaving much else up for discussion.  
Continue reading:  Indiewire Review

-Trailer: