After the misery of yesterday, it was nice to see three decent films today. First up was ELECTION DAY, a documentary that followed various individuals during the presidential election in 2004. Among the stories followed are an ex-convict voting for the first time; an elections supervisor checking up on various precints; a racially charged sherriff's race in Florida; and an international rights group noting several flaws with the process. The film takes an interesting look at the process, showing how small mistakes can cause problems for tons of voters. Director Katy Chevigny is an experienced documentary filmmaker, and this film comes off with much more technical precision than your average festival doc. She clearly has an agenda, as this film takes a leftist viewmost of the way, which is certainly not a problem when you can back it up. Chevigny weaves the several stories together expertly, leading to one of my favorite moments. A right wing precint captain is interviewed and denigrates the voting problems in 2000 by blaming the voters and suggesting if you can't work the machine then maybe you shouldn't be voting in the first place. Hilariously, a few scenes later we witness the Republican elections supervisor having trouble with a sample ballot, declaring it a malfunctioning ballot until the Democratic poll watcher shows him how to properly work it. The strongest part of the film was the sherriff's race in Gadsden County, FL. In a town that is 70% black, they haven't had a black sherriff since the 1800's. We don't really hear much about the race, but Chevigny gives us a good view of how important it is to the community and as the night wears on the results are very close, providing us with suspense in a film where we didn't expect it. While everyone else is focused on a nasty Presidential election, these citizens are determined to make an important change in their local community. I would have preferred a documentary that followed only this race, but this one will have to do.
PRETTY IN THE FACE is certainly the lowest budget film I saw at this year's festival. Writer-Director Nate Meyer also handled the cinematography, production, and editing duties. Most of it was shot on a handheld camera leading to very distracting shaky photography, and the sound was inaudible for most of the scenes. However, Meyer has an interesting story to tell and for the most part he does a good job in getting it across with his financial limitations. The film is about 26 year old Maggie and 14 year old Daniel. Both have very low self-esteem and get constantly crushed by other characters throughout the course of the film. Maggie must deal with her live in boyfriend's cheating, while overweight Daniel is embarassed by his extremely overweight mother. When Daniel's mother falls ill, Maggie agrees to watch over Daniel while his mom is in the hospital and both begin to bond over their shared grief. For a film with such a low budget, the cast was surprisingly good. As Maggie, Meagan Moses gave a beautifully reserved performance, reaching moments of inner depth that most Hollywood actresses couldn't hope to approach. It's a strong debut that powers the film through the poor technical work. Meyer's ending is a bit weak, as the solutions for each of the characters is fairly simplistic, particularly for Daniel's mother. Still it's an interesting piece of work that should make a good run at the festival circuit, and hopefully someone will give Meyer some money for his next film.
The last film I saw today was the sold out screening of LAST DAYS OF LEFT EYE, a documentary that follows the last few days of Lisa "Left Eye" Lopes' life. Working with her family, the director utilizes footage that Lopes shot herself while on a spiritual cleansing trip to Honduras. For such an emotional subject, the doc at first seems pretty straightforward, chronicling the path of her career by hitting all the major stuff (notably the Andre Rison house burning incident). It actually feels right at home in the hands of VH1, who produced the film. However, the film is unique because of the bittersweet structure of the events. During the retreat, Lisa talked openly about many of the events in her life and career, and the film uses these segments to have her narrate her own life stThis is mixed in with footage of the retreat, showing Lisa's connection to a docory, using archival footage to supplement her own discussions of each moment. This gives the film the bittersweet feel of a person narrating their life story after their own death. tor that sells natural remedies, her charitable work, frank discussion of her fears, and taking us right up to the moment of the tragic accident. At times the film threatens to approach the level of a True Hollywood Story episode, but the sensitive material is mostly produced with class. If anything, the film relies too much on outside footage, when it's the Lopes footage that really captures her strong spirit and unique personality.
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