Essential Independents: American Cinema, Now

With a program spanning 32 films, including 14 Australian premieres, the festival represents American achievement in filmmaking both past and present. There are five different categories on show – Essential Fiction, Essential Intrigue, Essential Experiments, Essential Originals and Essential New York – and stunning performances from the likes of Richard Gere (Time Out Of Mind) and Natalie Portman (Jane Got A Gun). Festival curator Richard Sowada picks out five hot tickets from a wide-ranging selection.

1.STYLE WARS

This fantastic documentary from ’84 is the definitive graffiti art documentary made and released at the height of the hip hop and graffiti movements. It is really beautifully put together and is not just a mirror to the movement but an actual part of it. It captures a real honesty of the young artists who make some beautifully simple political comment and social observation… and the art is spectacular!

2.WE’RE STILL HERE: JOHNNY CASH’S BITTER TEARS REVISITED

I love Johnny Cash and this film brings to life one of his great political moments with some of country music’s great artists. Mr. Cash was famous for siding with the underdog and his LP Bitter Tears was a magnificent ode to the plight of Native Americans. A largely unrecognised record – aside from the classic ‘The Ballad Of Ira Hayes’ – Bitter Tears is bought back to life in the studio by Kris Kristofferson, Emmylou Harris, Steve Earle and many, many more. It’s fantastic!

3.THE FITS

This debut feature by Anna Farrell is about as fresh as it gets as we explore the world of an 11-year-old tomboy. Played by Royalty Hightower, Toni spends a lot of time at the local community centre observing the older girls, and what we get is a dreamy and fragmented look at life from a female perspective on the cusp of adolescence. It’s a really lovely and poetic film in many ways and the style is always surprising. If you want to be on the ground floor at the start of what is bound to be a great directorial career – this is the one.

4.RIVER OF GRASS

Kelly Reichardt’s newly restored great first feature has more than a tip of the hat to the indie classic Two-Lane Blacktop. This nugget is sparse, lean and strangely very funny. Two bored losers living in the suburbs accidentally find each other and then go on a crime spree that isn’t really a crime spree, in a relationship that isn’t really a relationship, pursued by family that don’t really care, and in an urban environment that doesn’t really have many buildings. It’s a lovely debut from Reichardt and a little-known piece of contemporary independent cinema.

5.CRUISING / INTERIOR. LEATHER BAR

This double bill is an amazing creative free fall with Pacino on the beat in 1970s New York S&M bars and James Franco reconstructing 40 minutes of footage deleted from the film. You simply don’t see commercial feature films like this, and so this is a rare opportunity to experience the amazing piece of 1970s filmmaking that is still surprising in its content and depictions of a part of gay subculture. It looks and sounds great, is always great to watch and Pacino is excellent throughout.

[Main Image: Style Wars still]

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