Take Two

"District 9" offers summer a sci-fi surprise

In terms of the movies fanboy types were looking forward to this summer, District 9 was until very recently more like District 923. Compared to a new Star Trek, Terminator, X-Men, Halloween or even Judd Apatow, what was this? Something about aliens, yes. But New Zealand-produced, set in South Africa, directed by some nobody and starring no one. (In fact its lead is an old friend of the director’s who had reportedly never acted before—though once you’ve seen the film that’s hard to believe.)

topics: genre films, science fiction, world cinema

In Production

Brant Smith's real, not virtual, directorial debut

In the year 2075 or thereabouts, a beta tester finds himself unable to escape the confines of a virtual reality mock-up of the so-called war on terror. Financially strapped and increasingly anxious, he desperately tries to log out—only to wake up in a different city, and a different body, every time. With every body-switch, a different actor takes over the role.

That’s the delicious premise of Brant Smith’s In-World War, a dark sci-fi comedy that reps the writer-director’s debut behind the camera. A co-writer and one of the producers of the 2004 low-budget sensation Quality of Life (directed by Benjamin Morgan, who’s handling executive producer duties here), Smith begins production July 6, less than seven weeks from today. "It’s going to be hectic to say the least," the Oakland-based filmmaker admits, "but that’s the way we do things in this indie world we live in. It’s even more austere than indie: We’re DIY filmmakers."

topics: bay area, comedy, directors, diy, science fiction

Experience

"Christmas on Mars"--on Halloween

It’s always encouraging when sheer weirdness is rewarded, and the quarter-century survival of Flaming Lips—perhaps indie rock’s equivalent to Parliament/Funkadelic, with Wayne Coyne its bizarro-genius George Clinton—is one such oasis of willful eccentricity in a sea of formulaic audio product.

They’re not studied hipsters; they’re from Oklahoma City, after all. Their psychedelia leans in pop and avant-garde directions, not that Phish-y “jam band” direction that makes me empathize with Cartman of South Park’s frequent cuss “Damn hippies!” They write actual, frequently catchy songs without ever risking MTV Buzz Bin embrace. (Except sole hit single “She Don’t Use Jelly” 15 years ago.) Their live shows are famously berserk. Their album titles are absurdist koans (I’m divided between Clouds Taste Metallic and In a Priest Driven Ambulance as personal fave.) They are possibly the least “industry” act ever to have won three Grammys, or have a hometown alley renamed after them. They wrote a song for Sponge Bob! What’s not to like?

topics: independent film, music, roxie, science fiction

Insider

Kevin Kelly: State of Cinema address

[Editor’s note: What follows is the State of Cinema address Kevin Kelly offered an audience Sunday, May 4, 2008, at the San Francisco International Film Festival.]

Welcome, welcome, welcome! This lovely theater here got dark and I thought, "Oh, great! It’s a movie! I can just sit back." I completely forgot that I have to give a talk. I would just love to sit here. Thank you to the San Francisco Film Festival for inviting me to speak on speculations on the future of where motion pictures are going. My role, I think, is to describe what I see as a little bit of an outsider. My method for doing this is very simple: to come [at it] as an outsider. We’re sitting here in a fantastic movie theater, but in fact more people see movies in airplanes than watch them in theaters. Airplanes and portable DVDs. But the movies aren’t made, usually, with that in mind. So what I’m trying to do is listen to the technology. Carver Mead, a technologist said, "Listen to the technology; see what it wants to say." And for the next 45 minutes, what I’m going to try to talk about is what I think the technology is telling us. The technology around moving pictures, motion pictures.

topics: authors, bay area, science fiction, technology

Found

Q&A: Alex Rivera, "Sleep Dealer"

Alex Rivera’s debut feature Sleep Dealer was developed at the 2000 and 2001 Sundance Institute Feature Film Program labs and won the 2002 Sundance/NHK award and a 2004 Annenberg Feature Film Fellowship. It then moved on to win two major awards at the 2008 Sundance Film Festival. Rivera and David Riker won the Waldo Salt Screenwriting Award for outstanding achievement for their screenplay and Sleep Dealer was also the recipient of this year’s Alfred P. Sloan Prize. The Prize, which carries a $20,000 cash award to the filmmaker provided by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, is presented to an outstanding feature film focusing on science or technology as a theme, or depicting a scientist, engineer or mathematician as a major character. Sleep Dealer was selected "for its visionary and humane tale of a young man grappling with a technological future in which neural implants, telerobotics and ubiquitous computing serve a global economy rife with fundamental challenges and opportunities, and for its powerful and original storytelling and direction."

While screening as part of the 51st San Francisco International Film Festival, the U.S. distribution rights for Sleep Dealer were picked up by Maya Releasing, which intends a theatrical distribution in February 2009. This decision was being reached even as the charmingly kinetic Alex Rivera and I sat down to discuss his film.

topics: directors, q&a, san francisco international film festival, science fiction, sundance, sundance film festival