Archive for the ‘Reviews’ CategoryFebruary 13th through the 22nd, The Wilma Theatre was overrun with filmakers, volunteers, and fans of the documentary film. I was one of the fans (and volunteers), and here I’ll be sharing with you thoughts from some of the almost fifty films I saw this year. The festival is growing and getting better every time, and I’m proud to have been a part of it once again. 
The Choir directed by
Michael Davie, 2007
Was very glad that this film won an award. To sum it up in three words: Music can heal. Poetry in Motion directed by Ron Mann 1982
 A standout section of the film for me was when Charles Bukowski compared writing poetry to taking a beer shit. Most poetry should be flushed away. There’s some good poetry out there, but I’ve found myself shying away from most poetry, and most poetry readings. A lot of it is too pedantic and overwrought. Bukowski provides the spine of the film with his anti-narrative ranting against poets. I enjoyed the film on many levels, especially because it covered so many different styles of poetry, featuring a variety of poets. Ron Mann introduced the film, telling us that he shot over 100 hours of footage. Anticipating the question of how he chose which poets to include from such a huge library of materiel, he said that some poets wrote great poetry and were poor performers, while others were great performers who wrote horrible poetry. Using that as a measuring stick, he was able to find a middle ground and create a great film. I’ve never been a fan of the over the top avant-garde jazz, preferring Coletrane and Davis to some of the other “weirder” musicians. This film was enjoyable, as it exposed me to music I would never had otherwise heard. Watch Cecil Taylor Bill Dixon – Imagine the sound on youTube. Coober: A Desert Speedway Story 
The description for the film alludes to a big race that promises a celebration by the community and lots of fun. The race never really happens, people just talk about how great it is. I think that is the success of the film. Promise never realized. This is a broken town full of tough, proud people, but it’s also a dying town. I Love Alaska directed by Lernert Engelberts & Sander Plug, 2008
 I was talking to one of the BSDFF staff members about this film. He said he didn’t like it. I told him that I’m fascinated with communication, and that I loved it. he said, “Yeah, but there was no communication”. I agree with him in that there was no communication between user #711391 and her husband, which is why the searches took place, and that if they had communicated better, their relationship may have been better, and the searches may hev been less interesting.
Because the movie was so intimate, it was at times difficult to watch. User # 711391 is lonely, desperate, paranoid, and not very aware of the world. The minimalism here is incredible, building a character around user #711391 that is fascinating. I cannot say enough about how much I enjoyed this movie.
Thankfully, you can watch it online. Links below.
Jennifer directed by Stewart Copeland, 2008, WINNER Best MiniDoc 2009
 Growing up in a family of educators, watching this film for me was great. What an achievement for Jennifer to have been able to pull off what is probably the most memorable lesson ever in these students’ lives.
An interesting companion piece to the film would be to track down those kids today and get their memories of the day. The Oldest Tree directed by Dale Elrod, 1997
 The oldest tree in the world gets cut down by a scientist. That’s the film.
Beautifully shot, with a “gotcha” that isn’t terribly surprising if you have a cynical view of humanity. The problem was that Elrod tried too hard to be “poetic” in the film. The Bristlecone is a fascinating tree and the story of Prometheus (aka WPN-114) is one worth telling. This film only gets it part right.
Crude Independence directed by Noah Hutton, 2008
 Hutton does a good job telling the story of Stanley, ND with an objective eye. He first introduces us to the town and its people before the oil men show up and change the town forever. He portrays all sides equally, giving the point of view of the land owners, mineral rights owners, oil workers, company owners, townsfolk, all who have a slightly different take on what’s happening in and to Stanley.
The film, using many long shots of the North Dakota plains, allows the story to seep in and the viewer begin to ask his own questions about oil dependence and consumption in the United States. South: Ernest Shackleton and the Endurance Expedition directed by Frank Hurley 1919
 Incredible story about the ill-fated expedition. The silent film was accompanied by a live performance by the Alloy Orchestra, which made it one of the most amazing film going experiences I’ve ever had.
Goth Cruise directed by Jeanie Finlay, 2008
 Not sure what I expected from this film, but I didn’t get it. More about defining what a goth is than anything, just happened to be set on a cruise ship to frame that definition. I walked away knowing that goths are professionals, own homes, have families, not groundbreaking stuff. The film held my attention, though, and I enjoyed it for what it was.
I Think We’re Alone Now directed by Sean Donnelly 2008  Obsession can sometimes lead to delusion. Very interesting movie about a couple of very interesting people.
Mellodrama directed by Dianna Dilworth, 2009
 This film could have been amazing. The problem with “Mellodrama” is that there *was* no drama. Show me, don’t tell me, and there was a lot of showing going on. Had the people talking been illustrated with more examples and they talked less, this film may have been stronger. Not sure how that could be accomplished without some heavy editing.
BSDFF 2009 Review: Saturday February 14thFebruary 13th through the 22nd, The Wilma Theatre was overrun with filmakers, volunteers, and fans of the documentary film. I was one of the fans (and volunteers), and here I’ll be sharing with you thoughts from some of the almost fifty films I saw this year. The festival is growing and getting better every time, and I’m proud to have been a part of it once again. Even in poverty and chronic fatal illness, the people in this film are able to find snippets of happiness. The singing by the children was incredible, the cinematography amazing. It’s great to see that the gogos are trying to educate the young. It was also surprising to me that those doing the testing and processing of test samples did so without eye protection or gloves.
 Bonecrusher directed by Michael Fountain, 2008Lucas the father is Bonecrusher, and Lucas the son follows his father into the mines for a life fraught with the dangers of coal mining. The women behind the men were largely silent in the film, while Fountain focused upon the relationship between the father and the son in this compelling story where mining overshadows all aspects of life in this small West Virginian town.
There is a beautiful scene in Bonecrusher where Luke has just been honored at a little league softball game. He’s been a huge advocate of and volunteer for the softball program all of his life. The camera cuts away to a train pulling coal cars. As the whistle whines, we are reminded that mining permeates every aspect of the Dante, West Virginia people’s lives.
 In A Dream directed by Jeremiah Zagar 2008Heartbreakingly beautiful film. Isaiah Zagar, responsible, by his count, for over 100 murals, 7 buildings and 7 alleyways in Philly, opens himself, and his family, up to us intimately and without looking away. The film truly was a “mysterium tremendum”. Amazing.
Gogol Bordello Non Stop directed by Margarita Jimeno, 2009
Having heard of Gogol Bordello, and heard some of their music before, I was glad to be able to see what all of the fuss is about. The film is about what happens when you start following your dream and doing what you believe in.
It would seem that these guys must be seen to be believed, and I cannot wait to see them live. The film captured a lot of that energy, fun, love of life and good times.
 American Swing directed by Mathew Kaufman and Jon Hart, 2008Plato’s Retreat is the backdrop for a story that was really about the loneliness and egotism of Plato’s owner Larry Levenson. Kaufman and Hart have fashioned a compelling film using archival footage from Plato’s, talk show appearances by Levenson , and interviews with members and employees of Plato’s.
 Originally uploaded by BigSkyDocFF Thriller in Manilla Directed by Joe Dower, 2008I was too young to remember the details of these fights when they aired, but remember them being on TV. I never realized how much of an asshole Ali was, betraying his friend after Frazier supported him for years when he couldn’t box. Ali was the most barbaric poet in the world – rasicst and mean to his friend. Ali did say, afterwards, that he said some things he shouldn’t have. That doesn’t make up for the damage done to their friendship. A well-told story using interviws and archival footage. We are Wizards, Directed by Josh Koury, 2008Never having read the Harry Potter series, I wasn’t really sure what to expect from this film. Its main focus was on Wizard Rock, with bands like Harry and the Potters in the forefront of the movement. The film also delved into the Harry Potter boycott, started by a 16 year old girl who ran a fan site on the interwebs that was sent a cease and decist letter by Warner Brothers. I really enjoyed the film as it took me into a world I’d never experienced before, and erased preconceived notions about what a Harry Potter fan is.
Omen, Directed by Oksana Sokol, 2007Cinemetography really captured the movement of the art as it is being made. Watching the flow of the paint as it came out of the can, listening to the words of the artist – very inspiring. Number One With a Bullet, Directed by Jim Dziura, 2008
Well told story about gun violence and its consequences. Anti-gun without being preachy. Some things I scratched in my notebook as I watched: “Violence begets violence.” Tupac compared to JFK, Martin Luther King, John Lennon. “Hip hop doesn’t show this” (from a doctor in a hospital emergency room.) I’m live blogging the festival as I experience it via Twitter. Find me there, I’m @marcmoss. See you in the theatre.  Mother Lode Theatre for the premiere of Butte, America Growing up in a union household in a workingman’s town, I felt a strong bond with Butte, MT the first time I visited it. My father was the union president for the Fraternal Order of Police in Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio, and he did his time working a union job in the rubber shops of Akron at Goodyear and then at Firestone, just as his father had. My grandfather helped form the first unions in the Akron rubber shops. I remember listening to my ‘ole man tell stories of the difficult conditions when he was building tires, conditions that the union always fought to improve. And I remember him telling me, that even as union power in America began to decline, that it is because of unions that American workers have many things that we take for granted, like eight hour days and five day work weeks. Remembering this, I very much looked forward to seeing Pam Roberts’ and Edwin Dobb’s finished documentary film, “Butte America”, which premiered in Butte last Saturday. Roberts, a Montanan, but not a Buttian, sought to tell a Montana story that had national significance, and she found her story in the dusty hills of Butte. She knew the challenge ahead of her and recruited Edwin Dobb, a Buttian who wrote the 1996 Harpers article Pennies From Hell: In Montana, the bill for America’s copper comes due. Dobb, who returned to Butte after a 25 year hiatus, was dragged “kicking and screaming” into the project, wary of “entering into such an extreme collaborative process”, being used to working alone as a writer. The time away gave Dobb perspective with which to help craft a compelling film. The duo formed a good team, creating a movie that spans 120 years of history — the rise and fall of the labor unions in Butte, and, by extension, in America. They capture the “feel” of Butte well, illustrating the ambivalence of a town’s dependency on “The Company” via footage with former miners, old timers who worked underground before they were “turned into truck drivers”, or just quit mining altogether when the pit mines opened, because their spirit was broken, their livelihood stolen from them. They were proud men who did hard work in the mines underground, and they helped to build America. But the story is more than just a story of workers and a boomtown gone bust. The story is a human one about the bonds that hard work can forge within a community, how hard work can actually become the defining element of a community. Those bonds and that sense of identity can be destroyed when work dries up. In the case of Butte, the work dried up as a result of corporate greed, when finally, mining left the town forever. More than this, though, is Butte’s story – a story of survival. Montana’s own Pat Williams introduced Roberts and Dobbs, speaking eloquently about Butte and its spirit of survival. Pat told the story of how he was able to get a job in the mines of Butte taking care of the miner’s tools, noting that it was because of his grandmother’s relationship with a local alderman that he was able to get the job. The crowd laughed knowingly, and it was that sense of camaraderie among those in attendance that I most enjoyed about the screening. The theatre was packed – a 1,200 seat building sold out. Some people were dressed to the nines, and Buttians young and old settled in for an evening of celebration of their town, their history and of themselves. One difficulty Roberts and Dobbs faced in making the movie was the lack of first-hand accounts available. Many of the people who were alive during Butte’s heyday are dead. Killed in the mines, or by miner’s consumption. Half of the characters in the film have died since the film was made. Those who are still living were in attendance, though, and stood to be recognized, to wild applause. Roberts gracefully used the live resources available to her to create a beautiful film that blends archive film footage and photographs, donated home movies, and recreations, telling an important story in American history. The screening was a gripping one. Now that the film is finished, it will be shown over the next year at various places across the country. There are talks in the works with PBS for distribution of the film. Roberts and Dobbs will also work to get the film into the hands of students in local communities, along with footage not included in the film, to create learning opportunities for students and encourage them to become more involved in their community through history and community pride. Pam has been working on the film with co-writer and co-producer Edwin Dobb since its inception in 2000. Along with the following screenings, the film will also be shown nationally on PBS and on Montana public television in the fall of 2009. To view links to the “Butte, America” press kit or to catch a sneak peak of the film “Butte, America” Screening Schedule: Emerson Theater (Bozeman) – February 6th @ 7:30 pm Myrna Loy Center (Helena) – February 21st @ 6:00 and 8:00 pm Butte, America Teaser & Press Kit [link]
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Today the Hawk Takes One Chick
The Supersuckers opened. Nashville Pussy played next. Then the Rev took the stage and wore us out.
The performances by all bands were amazing. high energy, fantastic rock and roll.
Why was the sound so muddy? Specifically the vocals. I was sitting about 3 rows back from the pit and the sound was terrible.
Reports I got from folks who were right up near the stage were that the sound was better, but that’s because they could hear the monitors on the stage.
Who’s fault is the terrible sound quality? Knitting Factory Entertainment? The Wilma? I know hope you guys can do better than that.
Anyone else have a similar experience?
2008-03-29 Springsteen Seattle 1091
Originally uploaded by albabe
“Nils just played my pants off!” she said as the band launched into “She’s the One”. I could see why, as Nils’ scorching guitar work on “Because the Night” lived up to the hype its been getting during this tour. As a Springsteen fan since ‘84, and a longtime tour veteran, I was proud of my friend’s newfound love for the band. “I just fell in love with Nils,” she said, and I knew I had a new convert. Her first tour, Abby drove with me 8 hours to Seattle from Missoula for her Bruce baptism. She was not originally a fan, and I tried to prime her on the drive over with as many of my Bruce CDs as I could grab on the way out the door. She did me proud, rocking out, singingalong with some of the songs she recognized, and even calling out “Waiting on a Sunny Day” before I recognized it.
When we arrived at the venue, ticketless and soaked from the rainy walk over from the hotel, I was skeptical she would have a good time, though. I had bought tickets in the parkinglot before,paying well below face value for them. (The last time I saw The Boss, in Jersey, back in 2002, I paid $15). She, however, had never arrived at a show without tickets before, and was getting nervous after we had turned down three different scalpers asking $100 a pop. On our second pass around the complex, she was nearing her last nerve, so when the scalper walked towards us I was ready to deal.
“Got tickets? Need tickets?” he said.
“What do they cost?” I asked.
“Don’t waste my time. What’s your budget,” he said.
“$60,” I said. He countered, I countered. We ended up paying $140 for a pair in section 211.Nosebleeds, I know, but factoring in the “convenience charge” Ticketmaster charges, we still paid below retail.We made it into the venue, and she waited for another friend from Missoula who had been to the Portland show while I went to check out the seats. When I returned to them, we eventually balked at the $7 beers that we couldn’t take to our seats, and headed up towards our seats around 8. The show, slated to begin at 7.30, was finally underway just a little after 8.30.And what a show.
I had been warned that it was different from any E Street show I had ever seen, and those reports were right. Absent was Dany Federici, recovering from melanoma treatment. In his stead was Charles Giordano, the Sessions Band keyboardist and accordionist. Patty was also thankfully absent as well, back in Jersey dealing with the teenagers who had “kegs of beer rolling up the driveway, and 100 pizzas were delivered. Pot cookies were coming out of the oven. Patty’ll take care of that. She’s got that shit down.” At least she’s got something down. Lord knows she hasn’t figured out how to be a part of the E Street Band.
From the flubbed opening strains of Jimmy Cliff’s “Trapped”, of which Bruce said, “A little panic, good for the band,” Bruce Springsteen helped us celebrate “the final curtain on eight years of magic tricks” for a little over two hours. It was a politically charged show, with a heavy focus on the new stuff. The favorites, some coming from scrawled request signs in the crowd, (“Tenth Avenue Freeze Out”), some coming as audibles,others, as evidenced by the handwritten setlist posted on brucespringsteen.net, were planned out. But “Point Blank”? Amazing. Sandwiched between “Your Own Worst Enemy” and “Devil’s Arcade”, this gem hasn’t been played with the E Streeters since June 14, 2003 in Denmark. The re-working of”Reason to Believe”, for me, was the favorite. Bruce re-invented it as a driving, foot-stomping rollick, haunted by his opening imploration to “SSSSHHHHHHHHH” before the harmonica intro, and punctuated by the haunting treatment of his voice through some sort of effects pedal. Incredible.
I talked to ‘ole Abby today, and she confessed that she couldn’t stop singing Bruce all day.”When are you going to let me borrow some CDs?” she wanted to know. Wait until I give her,thanks to the power of the Internet, the entire show at 203 kbps.
Thanks Bruce, and thanks E Street Band.
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Filed Under (Art, Collaboration, Experimental, Film, Inspiration, Life, News, Reviews, Social Commentary, community, youtube) by Marc Moss on 14-03-2008
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The only CD I ever checked out of a library that I never returned was “My Life in the Bush of Ghosts”, the David Byrne/Brian Eno collaboration. (After many overdue notices arriving in the mail, I went down to the library, told them I’d lost the item, and paid for it. they now have another copy in their stacks). I loved MLITBOG for a lot of reasons, the layered sounds, the samples, the beats, the moods that it created. At the time, I was already familiar with David Byrne’s solo work as well as his work with The Talking Heads, but I had only heard about Eno. Since then, I’ve come to love Eno and his work with a variety of other musicians, including his production work with Devo, Talking Heads, Jane Sieberry (now Issa, who, like Reznor, gives her music away for free) and especially James and the “Laid” and “Wah-Wah” albums. Eno, the “non-musician”, is most known for his prolific catalogue of ambient music, including the fantastic “Music for Airports”, as well as being an amazing record producer and contributor to such movies as David Lynch’s “Dune”.
Eno has always been fascinated by technology and how to twist and bend it for his own purposes. He’s experimented with generative music, music that composes itself, and has branched out into visual art as well, creating a computer game that generates a possible 77 million paintings, chosen by Eno himself. He is currently working on the soundtrack for the multi-player game Spore, “that allows a player to control the evolution of a species from its beginnings as a multi cellular organism, through development as a sapient and social land-walking creature, to levels of interstellar exploration as a spacefaring culture.” [Wikipedia].
I’m here to make the case that Trent Reznor is the new Brian Eno.
Reznor got his start in Cleveland creating what would become Pretty Hate Machine by himself after-hours at the Right Track Studio where he worked as an assistant engineer and janitor. He became proficient at manipulating sounds and bending technology to his own purposes as well, just as Eno learned to do. He’s produced many record albums, including a handful for Marilyn Manson, as well as the phenomenal “Natural Born Killers” soundtrack and the “Lost Highway” soundtrack. His subtle contribution to Tori Amos’ “Past the Mission” on her “Under the Pink” album showed how quiet he could be when he needed to be. It was also the first time I can remember hearing him sing quietly while someone else took the spotlight.
Reznor’s original music from id Software’s video game “Quake” was long one of my favorite ambient pieces of music to load into iTunes when I needed to get some work done and didn’t want to be disturbed. He expanded his fascination with technology and its possibilities with the release of “Year Zero” and its companion alternate reality websites/reality game and subsequent user-submitted art in 2007.
Eno once predicted that music would one day become user-modifiable constructs, and imagined a day when future generations would look at past generations in wonder, asking in wonder, “you mean you listened to the same music over and over?”. Reznor took that idea and ran with it, releasing “The Hand that Feeds” from his dismal “With Teeth” 2005 release as a multi-track Garage Band download that fans could get for free and remix as they pleased. His newest release “Ghosts I-IV”, was released in a variety of formats, including a free torrent seeded by NIN itself. “Ghosts” was released as with a Creative Commons license (no copyright), and Reznor announced yesterday that the tracks can be used to participate in a NIN sponsored film festival on You Tube.
Talk about user generated content.
The album itself is supurb. I’d love to hear Eno’s thoughts on it. Those of you who haven’t hear it, go grab it at NIN’s official site and give it a listen for yourself. Grab the torrent if you’re familiar with the technology.
“Ghosts” ranges from smooth and quiet piano to the heavy muddy guitar and keyboard laden layers we’ve come to expect from Reznor. I’m looking forward to what people come up with, and might even make a contribution myself if I can find some time along with everything else I have going on.
NIN Ghosts Film Festival on YouTube
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Finding Normal
Listening to the Q+A session after the film, it was good to hear that some of those depicted in the film have seen the film and liked it. They were present at screenings of the film in Portland and were able to interact with audience members, validating their process and strengthen them at the same time. Lindstrom said that he made the film because he believes in the program’s strength, and that it deserves to be replicated in other communities. He admitted that there were ethical concerns of following individuals on such a fragile journey, and, to his credit, said that their recovery was the most important thing. He said that if he thought at any time that their recovery was in jeopardy, he would have backed off. This responsible approach validates the folks in the program, giving them strength, and, by the director’s own accord, telling them that they are important and valuable human beings.
The director Brian Lindstrom took great care in patiently setting up the story of each character involved. The film follows three of the people involved in the running the mentoring program, David, Jill, and to a lesser extent, Randy. Their stories are told through their interactions with the people entering treatment. The film focuses upon three key individuals, a 36 year old white kid (who I thought would surely drop out of the program by the end of the film — he didn’t), Peni, a recovering drug addict (Peni eventually drops out), and a black ex-con who was to me the most ready to change from the very beginning of his introduction into the program.
David, the main councilor, is amazing as he non-judgmentally walks new inductees through what they can expect as they enter into the program, telling them in a no bullshit way what they’re up against. At the same time, David validates their addiction and fear of overcoming it through personal stories. David, like Jill and Randy, believe that people can change, and believe that the change is so profound and so worth it that they are willing to do everything in their power to help those who want help.
Jerky camera work and editing throughout the movie seemingly paralleled the confusion of someone entering and participating in a recovery program. Cutting back and forth between letting those in recovery tell their story, and letting those running the mentoring program tell their story, the film does a good job of depicting the difficulty of overcoming addiction. Around about the half-hour mark in the 77 minute film, I began to get fidgety. Lindstrom’s choice to attempt to tell two distinct stories is the film’s largest fault. Attempting to blend both the stories of the people in recovery as well as the stories of the people running the program proved to be too big a task and weakened what could have been a stronger film. Had he chosen to focus on one or the other of the stories, the secondary story would have told itself, and with more grace. The stronger of the two stories in the film as it stands is that of David, Jill and Randy.
The three mentors have been through so much in their lives, and have beaten their addictions in order to create new lives for themselves. The power of this accomplishment leads them to want to reach out and provide that opportunity for others, and that, to me, was the story the film was telling most eloquently. During the question and answer session after the screening, Lindstrom’s comment about “..what David, Jill and Randy had to deal with…” as they provided help to those in the program spoke to this idea that the film really should have been more focused upon the program itself, and those who created and run it.
Butte, America
Growing up in a union household in a workingman’s town, I felt a strong bond with Butte, MT the first time I visited it. My father was the union president for the Fraternal Order of Police in Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio, and he did his time working a union job in the rubber shops of Akron at Goodyear and then at Firestone, just as his father had. I remember listening to him tell stories of the difficult conditions when he was building tires, conditions that the union always fought to improve. And I remember him telling me, as union power in America began to decline, that it is because of unions that American workers have many things that we take for granted, like eight hour days and five day work weeks.
Remembering this, I very much looked forward to seeing Pam Roberts’ rough cut of her work-in-progress, “Butte America”. Roberts, a Montanan, but not a Buttian, sought to tell a Montana story that had national significance, and she found her story in the dusty hills of Butte. She knew the challenge ahead of her and recruited Edwin Dobb, a Buttian who wrote the 1996 Harpers article Pennies From Hell: In Montana, the bill for America’s copper comes due. Dobb, who returned to Butte after a 25 year hiatus, was dragged “kicking and screaming” into the project, wary of “entering into such an extreme collaborative process”, being used to working alone as a writer. The time away gave Dobb perspective with which to help craft a compelling film.
The duo formed a good team, creating a movie that spans 120 years of history — the rise and fall of the labor unions in Butte, and, by extension, in America. They capture the “feel” of Butte well, illustrating the ambivalence of a town’s dependency on “The Company” via footage with former miners, old timers who worked underground before they were “turned into truck drivers”, or just quit mining altogether when the pit mines opened, because their spirit was broken, their livelihood and stolen from them. They were proud men who did hard work in the mines underground, and they helped to build America.
But the story is more than just a story of workers and a boomtown gone bust. The story is a human one about the bonds that hard work can forge within a community, how hard work can actually become the defining element of a community. Those bonds and that sense of identity can be destroyed when work dries up. In the case of Butte, the work dried up as a result of corporate greed, when finally, mining left the town forever.
Roberts acknowledged, in the Q+A session after the showing, that one difficulty she faced in making the movie was the lack of first-hand accounts available. Many of the people who were alive during Butte’s heyday are dead. Killed in the mines, or by miner’s consumption. half of the characters in the film, Roberts told us, have died since the film was made. Roberts gracefully used the live resources available to her to create a beautiful film that blends archive film footage and photographs, donated home movies, and recreations, telling an important story in American history. Though the film is technically unfinished, (the movie still had many editor’s marks like running times and other video notations), the screening was a gripping one.
Roberts intends to put the finishing touches on the film, including more voice-over narration and more original scoring, in time for a spring 2008 release. I’m looking forward to seeing the final version.