Atlanta Film Festival 2021 – Closing Time… : Sonic Cinema

Atlanta Film Festival 2021 – Closing Time…

Posted by Brian Skutle Posted on May - 5 - 2021 0 Comment

**Before we get to the main post, the Virtual Catalog of this year’s festival has been made available through Sunday, May 9. If you haven’t had the chance to watch any of the wonderful films from the festival, several of them are available there. The link is in the first paragraph below.

The last days of a film festival, or even a convention, are more laid back by nature, and that was the case with this year’s Atlanta Film Festival. All my drive-in screenings done, it was a weekend at the Plaza, in basically the same seat I spent the entire festival at. Let’s get started.

Friday, April 30
Having personal things like the car issue post-accident, and then having issues with our AC at home, have really put a kink in my ability to get everything watched that I want to. But, I wanted to at least get the short film blocks done, though. On Friday, it was Camp Quarantine, and I’m not sure whether all of them were made in lockdown last year, but they also touch on isolation, sadness and the need to communicate. I had actually already seen two of them in “Raspberry”, “Snowy”, and “Misery Loves Company”. It’s a good thing, though, because the rest of the block was a mixed bag for me, although “Solution for Sadness”– about a sad woman who gets a mysterious monkey mask one day- was a weird and engaging dark comedy I loved very much.

“Sound of Metal” was one of my very favorite movies of 2020, and Riz Ahmed’s performance as Ruben was easily my favorite of the year. When the Marquee screenings were announced, and a film starring Ahmed in a similar vein was a part of those announcements, I knew that had to be part of my viewing. “Mogul Mowgli” did not land as hard with me as “Sound of Metal” did, but Ahmed’s Zed has a similar journey as Ruben did, added to the fact that he has issues with his father to work through. In its own way, it’s a successful look at one man trying to come to terms with his situation.

If you found yourself face-to-face with your abuser, long after you thought they were forever out of your life, what would you do? Christopher Chambers shows us what three Ethiopian women did about it in his fantastic documentary, “A Fire Within”. This played to a sold out drive-in audience on Friday night, although I saw it in advance. In a year of exceptional documentaries at the festival, “A Fire Within” still stands out, with its remarkable blend of history, emotional testimonials and re-enactments as the women in question, who came to America for a better life, are faced with the painful past they left in Ethiopia by chance. It was great to talk with Chambers about making this documentary, and these extraordinary and strong women.

I closed Friday night by taking in the 10pm indoors screening of Edson Oda’s “Nine Days”. Unfortunately, I was pretty exhausted by this point, and I had a hard time keeping my eyes open for the film. I hoped I would have another opportunity to watch the film sooner rather than later.

Saturday, May 1
This marked my final, full day at the festival; it wasn’t exactly intended as such, but it worked out that way. I began it with my last short film block of the festival, Conversations with Strangers. There was a familiar sight in the form of “Alive”, which I watched last year, and is a lovely look at a paraplegic woman’s desire to be desired. Another highlight was the first short, “On My Way”, about the tension that arises between a gay couple in Belgium when a migrant from Nigeria comes into their lives. The best of the bunch, however, was “Witness”, about a woman who goes in quickly to exchange a dress for her daughter, but finds herself faced with tragedy that might have been avoided if more time had been allowed. It was a strong selection of short films to end that viewing experience with.

I feel like, if filmmakers want to tap into the emotions and anxieties of 2020, what it was like to be quarantined and on lock down, they’re going to have to tell stories apart from those literal ideas. One of the best films to capture those feeling actually began life five years ago, when four women- two living in Peru, two living in the Za’atari Refugee Camp in Jordan- found each other online (and through assistance by way of their shared love of filmmaking), and began sending each other messages and video diaries over social media. Those raw materials would become the documentary, “Only the Ocean Between Us”, and it is a thoughtful and ambitious film that juxtaposes these women’s lives as women, and their shared experiences of being displaced from their homeland (Khaldiya and Marah are from Syria, Karoli and Christy saw their community of Cantagallo burn down in 2017). It’s an extraordinary journey you go on with these women, whom have never been in the same room together, and it’s another exceptional documentary from this festival.

After a few hours in between, where I got food and was able to relax, it was time for the Closing Night Marquee offering. Beforehand, I had a chance to sit down with Cameron McAllister, the Associate Director of the festival (as well as a member of the Georgia Film Critics Association), to discuss what goes into putting on a film festival, and gauging one’s success, and you’ll be able to hear that interview in the podcast wrapping up my festival coverage. After that, it was time for “The Dry”, a murder mystery from Australia starring Eric Bana. There are some ways in which it does not go in the direction we expect, and when that happens, it’s a pretty good slow-burn drama, with a good performance by Bana at its center.

Sunday, May 2
My plan on Sunday was simple- spend time being there for mom in the morning until the caretaker got there at 1pm, then head down to the Plaza for my final two in-person screenings of the festival, and maybe try to sneak in a virtual catalog feature under the wire. Unfortunately, mom required more time, and care, then I expected, and while she was well off when I left, my 4pm screening was a no go. But, I was still able to make the 7pm screening of “Nine Days”. More importantly, I was able to keep my eyes open, and let Oda’s thoughtful, perceptive drama about an interviewer (Winston Duke) who is deciding which spirit is going to be able to live wash over me. There’s a lot to process in the film, and it made for a thoughtful, empathetic finale to my screenings downtown.

Post-Festival Viewing
I cannot tell the Atlanta Film Festival enough how grateful I am that they kept the virtual catalog available for a week afterwards; because of how wonky my schedule got on Sunday, there were at least two features I still wanted to watch, one of which was not available via press screener. That one was Xiang Liu’s terrific, suspenseful thriller, “Knock Knock”, about a thief, a delivery boy and a retired cop in a room where someone was murdered. Liu’s smart plotting, and great technical qualities (including a rocking score) make this one worth seeking out when it becomes available.

My final new watch for the 2021 Atlanta Film Festival was what I hoped to see at 4pm on Sunday. The Pattiz’s brothers’s “Carterland” is a look at one of the most maligned Presidencies in modern US history, and shows how it might be the most unfairly maligned of the bunch. Speaking not as a democrat, but as an American citizen, we could probably use more Jimmy Carters in the highest office of the land.

That wraps it up for this year’s Atlanta Film Festival. This has quickly become one of the things I most look forward to over the year, and I’m excited to see how it adapted, and thrived as a bastion of independent cinema, over the past few years when faced with extraordinary circumstances. I cannot wait to see what it transitions into in the future.

2021 Atlanta Film Festival – The Reviews
“Alive”
“Raspberry”
“At the Ready”
“Rita Moreno: Just a Girl Who Decided to Go For It”
“Strawberry Mansion”
“Marvelous and the Black Hole”
“Sons of Monarchs”
“A Fire Within”
“Snowy”
“The Letter”
“Limbo”
“Socks on Fire”
“Akilla’s Escape”
“Clean Slate”
“The Sleeping Negro”
“Landlocked”
“Firstness” & “Frankie” (Short)
“Profile” (Review Embargoed Until 5/11)
“Moon Manor”
“Mogul Mowgli”
“Only the Ocean Between Us”
“The Dry”
“Nine Days”
“Knock Knock” (Quick Take on YouTube)
“Carterland”