Unknown Pleasures, a festival of American independent film, opens at the Babylon in Berlin tomorrow with Francis Ford Coppola's Tetro and runs through January 16. With special programs focusing on the work of Thom Anderson and John Gianvito, the lineup also features, for example, Alejandro Adams's Canary, Matt Porterfield's Hamilton and Putty Hill, Kentucker Audley's Open Five and a collection of shorts from Red Bucket Films.
While we're in the neighborhood, and to segue into today's roundup of year-end lists, Cargo's just posted "Was vom Jahr bleibt" ("What remains — what lasts — of the year"), a collection in German from contributors and friends.
While we're in the neighborhood, and to segue into today's roundup of year-end lists, Cargo's just posted "Was vom Jahr bleibt" ("What remains — what lasts — of the year"), a collection in German from contributors and friends.
- 12/31/2010
- MUBI
Alejandro Adams sets up worlds and leaps into them, no establishing shot needed. The Bay Area auteur’s third feature film, Babnik, opens with people bunched around a table, the camera panning from tight close-up to tight close-up. Russian is spoken, and narrative groundwork is laid, casually, between phone calls: Rooms need to be rented, models found, websites set up, etc. Where are we? Cut to an introverted émigré being sent home by his American bosses in what could be a scene from Office Space if it weren’t for the notes of dread hanging in the air. (“They told me, gently, that they are getting rid of me,” he tells his wife.) Elsewhere, a broom-pushing scowler works at a deli and watches from the sidelines. Business decisions, all, and only gradually does Adams reveal that the business connecting his ensemble is sex-trafficking, the meat market harvesting young women marooned in a strange land.
- 10/11/2010
- MUBI
Set in our near future, Canary refers to Canary Industries, a multinational company that wants to make sure people are living healthy.
Because that company is responsible for making sure that people living with leased organs are complying with the Conscientious Usage contract they signed. And if they aren't, well, Canary Industries reserves the right to reclaim the organ.
It's a creepy premise made creepier because of the documentary tone used by director Alejandro Adams.
We drift as voyeurs from one scene to another. A family arguing in Russian. A pregnant woman going into labour while shopping for nursery furniture. A young couple on a date. Employees at a medical clinic going about their daily business.
A nameless, silent woman — played by Carla Pauli — is the thread that connects the various people we spy on. She spies on them, too, but they never notice. She infiltrates their lives, their world.
Because that company is responsible for making sure that people living with leased organs are complying with the Conscientious Usage contract they signed. And if they aren't, well, Canary Industries reserves the right to reclaim the organ.
It's a creepy premise made creepier because of the documentary tone used by director Alejandro Adams.
We drift as voyeurs from one scene to another. A family arguing in Russian. A pregnant woman going into labour while shopping for nursery furniture. A young couple on a date. Employees at a medical clinic going about their daily business.
A nameless, silent woman — played by Carla Pauli — is the thread that connects the various people we spy on. She spies on them, too, but they never notice. She infiltrates their lives, their world.
- 10/9/2009
- CinemaSpy
Alejandro Adams' Canary screens in Brooklyn at Rooftop Films tonight. Since I interviewed him on this blog way back in February, right before his film premiered at Cinequest, Adams has become something of an uningorable mascot (and sometimes, thorn in the side) of online film culture -- or, at least, the microcosm of film culture represented on Twitter. There he is, picking fights about the Dardennes brothers! There he is, challenging this reporter on her choice of avatar! There he is, always, at the center of the conflict, however virtual and/or minor that conflict may be. A ...
- 8/7/2009
- by Karina Longworth
- Spout
[Our thanks to Lauren Baggett for the following.]
I’ve attended Fantasia for five years now, and Canary is the only film I’ve ever seen that was met at the end with resounding silence. It’s also one of those films that makes the festival for me – the sort of film that’s blazingly original, but probably won’t get that much attention outside of the festival circuit. In this case, I really hope that I’m wrong, as Canary really deserves some time in the spotlight. It’s a
provocative, truly stunning piece of work, and director Alejandro Adams is one to watch.
I’ve attended Fantasia for five years now, and Canary is the only film I’ve ever seen that was met at the end with resounding silence. It’s also one of those films that makes the festival for me – the sort of film that’s blazingly original, but probably won’t get that much attention outside of the festival circuit. In this case, I really hope that I’m wrong, as Canary really deserves some time in the spotlight. It’s a
provocative, truly stunning piece of work, and director Alejandro Adams is one to watch.
- 7/27/2009
- by Todd Brown
- Screen Anarchy
Fantasia Festival is North America [1]’s premiere (and largest) genre [2] film [3] festival [4]. It is also my favorite film festival and so I could not wait to share the highlights of this years line up. Below is just some of the films we will be reviewing on our upcoming podcasts. Best Worst Movie - Montreal premiere, hosted by director Michael Paul Stephenson and the actor George Hardy Unbeknownst to him, a dentist living in a small town in Alabama has an army of fans who worship him. The reason behind his clandestine popularity? He was a one-time actor who played a lead role in a movie that is now widely regarded as being amongst the worst films of all time: Troll 2. When he hears that the film was being shown at a rep cinema, he attends the screening. This decision leads him on a truly surprising and life-changing journey. Funny and moving,...
- 7/1/2009
- by Ricky
- SoundOnSight
Ok, so I'm lazy.. I copy and pasted the press release, which is after the break, and we have reviews of quite a few of the films playing, including White Lightnin', Left Bank, Blood River, Cryptic, Deadgirl, The Horsemen, I Sell the Dead.. with Kaifeck Murder coming soon (once I can figure out what to write).
Movies I'm really interested in seeing: French Pa flick Mutants, Smash Cut, Possibility of an Island, Immaculate Conception of Little Dizzle, and Thirst.
But alas, I won't be there. Instead, a friend of ours will be providing some reviews for the week he is there, so everyone give a big thanks to DirtyRobot! Woop!
Check out the film greatness after the break! Oh, and there's more to come...
The past 12 months have been a treasure trove for sharp, individualistic visions of the unusual. Keep your hands on the bars as we give you a...
Movies I'm really interested in seeing: French Pa flick Mutants, Smash Cut, Possibility of an Island, Immaculate Conception of Little Dizzle, and Thirst.
But alas, I won't be there. Instead, a friend of ours will be providing some reviews for the week he is there, so everyone give a big thanks to DirtyRobot! Woop!
Check out the film greatness after the break! Oh, and there's more to come...
The past 12 months have been a treasure trove for sharp, individualistic visions of the unusual. Keep your hands on the bars as we give you a...
- 6/30/2009
- QuietEarth.us
Alejandro Adams’ film Canary is the filmed equivalent of an experimental novel. It is dense, complex and spirals off into numerous directions. It is also a small-budget film that successfully blends thought provoking, as opposed to preachy, social commentary with novel forms of visual story telling.
The name of the film comes from its fictional subject: a company called Canary Industries. Canary specializes in “organ redistribution” or leasing organs to people who need them. The catch is that those who accept these organs must also sign a “Conscientious Usage” contract that allows Canary to repo the organs if the recipient abuses their body. To this end, Canary employs various “organ redistribution specialists” to retrieve the body parts when people violate their contracts. Babies, young kids, teenagers and adults all receive the same deal: take care of the organs or they will be taken back.
The name of the film comes from its fictional subject: a company called Canary Industries. Canary specializes in “organ redistribution” or leasing organs to people who need them. The catch is that those who accept these organs must also sign a “Conscientious Usage” contract that allows Canary to repo the organs if the recipient abuses their body. To this end, Canary employs various “organ redistribution specialists” to retrieve the body parts when people violate their contracts. Babies, young kids, teenagers and adults all receive the same deal: take care of the organs or they will be taken back.
- 4/12/2009
- by Rodney Perkins
- Screen Anarchy
Migrating Forms, the festival formed out of the ashes of the now-defunct New York Underground Film Festival, has announced the lineup for their first installment, to take place at New York's Anthology Film Archives next month. In addition to new works by Sharon Lockhart and Owen Land, Forms will present two films we've covered previously, Alejandro Adams' Canary (right; we interviewed Adams when the film debuted last month at Cinequest) and Jessica Oreck's Beetle Queen Conquers Tokyo (see our <a href="../../../2009/0 ...
- 3/25/2009
- by Karina Longworth
- Spout
Alejandro Adams' second feature, Canary, is a wildly ambitious and not particularly audience-friendly (in fact, you could almost call it audience-hostile) work of indie sci-fi with new-fangled digital aesthetics and old-fashioned Altman-esque dialogue patterns put to the service of an overwhelming and surprisingly fresh-feeling sense of dystopian dread. The film premieres at CineQuest on Sunday. I watched it on my MacBook while flying from New York to Los Angeles last week. Adams thinks it's important that I mention that. He says, "I'm glad you watched it on an airplane...that is not merely a valid way to watch my film; that Is my film. I reject all other modes of consumption because they unmake what I made. What I made was for Karina Longworth on that fli ...
- 2/27/2009
- by Karina Longworth
- Spout
I have a soft spot for lo-fi sci-fi like Twitch favorite Primer, or The Girl From Monday, so I am happy to see Alejandro Adams’ Canary playing this weekend at Cinequest 19. I actually had the chance to screen this some time ago, but it has taken a while to wrap my head around it. Set in a near future science fiction, Canary trails an agent (the bewitchingly ghostly Carla Pauli) of a corporation that deals in organ transplants harvested from people that aren’t using them as effectively as their clients will. Lurking around corners and doorways, she eavesrops on her targets lives until having her way with with them in a van equipped for the surprisingly bloodless deed. I watched it right after catching Hartley’s No Such Thing, which helped me negotiate it as the kind of thoughtful sci-fi I grew up with behind stacks of Ray Bradbury books.
- 2/26/2009
- by MLeary
- Screen Anarchy
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