Lions in the Corner is a 9-minute documentary about a Virginia man who, for most of his life, has been called Scarface.
His physical scars, which he’s carried with him for the majority of his life, are the result of a house fire. As he explains it, he had to have over a hundred surgeries when he was growing up. That left him with an addiction to opioids. Growing up in a poor neighborhood, Scarface fell into a criminal lifestyle. He ran with gangs. He did time in prison. At one point, he nearly died after he was shot. Scarface says that he’s one of the few men who can tell anyone firsthand what it feels like to die.
After getting out of prison, Scarface turned his life around. He got married. He had two children. And, in his backyard, he set up something that he calls Street Beefs, a boxing ring where people — mostly, judging from the documentary, young men — can settle their disagreements with their fists instead of out on the streets with a gun or a knife. (At one point, the documentary shows us a pair of boxing gloves, across which has been written, “Glove up or Shut Up.”)
However, it’s about more than just boxing. Whether they win or lose, each fighter is treated like a champion when they step into the ring and each fighter has people in the audience cheering him on. That’s not something that a lot of the men who fight in Scarface’s backyard get to experience in their everyday life.
Lions in the Corner is an effective and, ultimately, moving documentary. It focuses as much on Scarface’s story as it does on the punches being thrown in the ring and, fortunately, the guy is a charismatic storyteller. By the end of this short documentary, you can’t help but wish the best for not only him but also for everyone who steps into the ring.
Lions in the Corner is currently available on Prime.
Still Wylde is an 11-minute film about a long-time couple, Gertie (Ingrid Haas) and Sam (Barry Rothbart), and what happens when Gertie gets pregnant with the child that they hope to name Wylde.
It’s a film that, if I may be allowed to indulge in a cliche, made me laugh and then made me cry. And then it made me briefly laugh again and then it made me cry a lot. It’s an emotional roller coaster and it’s also a good example of why the short film format can be so powerful. A lot of time passes in just 11 minutes and you truly feel like you come to know Gertie and Sam over the course of the film. Because it is a short film, every moment counts. There is no filler. Instead, every minute of the film is about getting to know Gerite and Sam and following them on their journey. You come to care about them. You share their joy and you share their heartbreak and, in the end, you’re happy that they have one another.
From the minute you see Gertie buying every single pregnancy test at the local convenience store and then pacing in front of a dead plant after getting the results, you feel as if you know who she is. From the minute that Sam starts stuttering as he tries to figure out the right way to respond to Gertie’s news, you know who Sam is. It’s kind of impossible not to love Sam and Gertie and to get caught up in their story.
And all it took was 11 minutes!
Through May 6th, Still Wylde and several other films that would have been featured at this year’s SXSW are currently available for free on Prime. Definitely check them all out. Let’s do what we can to support brave and honest filmmakers like Ingrid Haas and so many others during this difficult time.
This video is a tribute to those who are on the front lines, battling the virus. All net proceeds of the sales and streams of We Are Warriors will be donated to help Project HOPE’s relief efforts across the world.
Here’s a full list of credits, taking from the video’s description on YouTube:
Production by: Convicts Producer: Sarah Hawkins Post Production Coordinator: Sarah Steinbach Editor: Rhys Carlill Creative Director: Tom Law
Live footage by Ryan McFadden Lisa Blas ‘”USNS Comfort, March 30, 2020” Digital video, 2020, Courtesy of the Artist
Special thank you to Lindsey Stirling for the beautiful violin added to this version!
The 10 minute short film, Waffle, begins with what appears to be a sleep over. Kerry (Kerry Baker) and Katie (Katie Marovitch) are both sitting on a couch in their pajamas, talking about a time when they hung out with the cutest boys in their class and they all ended up making out in someone’s car. There’s a lot of giggling and hugging and most viewers won’t buy it for a second.
It’s not just the fact that both of the women appear to be a little bit older than the usual sleep over participants. In fact, neither one appears to still be in high school. It’s also hard not to notice that, for two best friends, Katie and Kerry really don’t seem to know each other that well. When Kerry is trying to tell the story about a night that she and Katie hung out together, Katie keeps interrupting her and telling her to change the details. Katie is also quite insistent that Kerry will have waffles, despite Kerry’s lack of enthusiasm for the idea. When Kerry mentions that her friend Rapahel (Raphael Chestang) is coming by, Katie does not react well to the news.
Things only get stranger from that point on. Katie is someone who is not only used to getting what she wants but who also has the money necessary to make sure that no one ever says no. Kerry has her own motivations but it doesn’t take long to notice that she doesn’t seem to be particularly enthusiastic about spending too much time with her “best friend.” The film goes from being a comedy to a drama to back to being a comedy to being …. well, I don’t want to give away too much. Let’s just say that a lot happens in just ten minutes.
Waffle is a clever look at the struggle to make a connection in an increasingly isolated community. Katie Marovitch alternates between being menacing and being almost sympathetic in the role of Katie while Kerry Cook’s performance keeps the story grounded in an identifiable reality.
It’s on Prime, at least through May 6th so, if you’ve got ten minutes to spare, be sure to check it out.
As played by Lewis Pullman, Dan seems like a decent enough guy. He’s a little bit on the dorky side and he seems to be kind of shy. He’s one of those people who you always see kind of shuffling along with head down. When he speaks, it’s in such a soft voice that it can be a struggle to hear him. He’s insecure and anxious and really, it’s understandable once you see what he has to live with.
The thing you have to understand about Dan is that he wakes up every morning and has to deal with the voice of his anxiety (played by Mat Wright), a loud and obnoxious bully who follows him everywhere that he goes and who constantly tells him that everything he’s doing is wrong. Dan can’t even have a friendly conversation with his co-worker, Julia (Trian Long Smith), without the voice taunting him and telling him that he’s useless. The voice is everything that Dan is not. The voice is loud and flashy and obnoxious and totally unconcerned with any feelings that he may hurt. The voice is every moment of anxiety that anyone in the world has ever felt. He’s every insecure thought and lingering regret. He’s ….
Well, there’s actually a bit more to the voice but I’m not going to spoil this short film but revealing all of its secrets. About halfway through this film’s 13-minute running time, there’s a huge twist and I can’t reveal the details. I will say that it’s a very clever little twist and it’s one that will take you by surprise.
The Voice In Your Head is a well-directed comedy about anxiety. Lewis Pullman is sympathetic as Dan while Mat Wright is brilliantly obnoxious in the role of the Voice. I don’t personally know the director, Graham Parkes, so I won’t speculate on what may or may not have inspired this film but, just from watching, he seems to be someone who not only understands anxiety but who also understands a good deal about human nature. The things that cause us the greatest anxiety often appear totally different once we actually confront them and that’s something that this film certainly understands.
It’s on Prime, at least through May 6th. So, be sure to check it out.
Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, South By Southwest has been canceled this year but fortunately, you can still go over to Amazon Prime and watch some of the feature films, documentaries, and shorts that were scheduled to be featured this year. That’s what I’m going to be doing tonight and tomorrow.
I started things off by watching Affurmative Action, which is a 5-minute short film that is largely made up with shots of various “Meet the Team” pages. Those are the pages that appear on almost every business’s website, where you see smiling pictures of all of the people who are in leadership positions. This is especially true of small businesses, where the idea is that you look at all of the smiling, cheerful, hip faces and you say to yourself, “These are people who I want to work with!”
The majority of the “meet the team” pages that are featured in Affurmative Action come from advertising, media, and other creative companies that are located in either New York or Los Angeles, which are two very diverse cities with reputations for being culturally liberal. Director Travis Woods points two things out to us over the course of five minutes:
First off, it’s very common to see a dog (and, in one, case a cat) listed as being a part of the team. Sometimes, they’re listed as being “mascot.” One lucky dog was a Vice President of Barking or something like that.
Secondly, it’s very rare to see any black faces on the Meet The Team pages. In fact, the film makes the argument that you’re more likely to see a dog on the Meet The Team page than you are a black person.
Now, I have to admit that, when I first watched the documentary, I had what is probably a very stereotypical white girl reaction to it. “Awwwww!” I said, “those dogs are so cute!” (I’ll also admit right now that I was the one who suggested to Arleigh that Doc Bowman should become a contributor to the Shattered Lens.) But, once I got over the cuteness of the dogs, I also realized that the documentary was making a very valid and important point about the lack of diversity in many companies, especially when it comes to upper management. The dogs may be cute but they’re not the ones who are being shut out of leadership positions and who aren’t being given the same opportunity to advance in their careers. If nothing else, Affurmative Action is a film that I will remember every time that I look at a “Meet The Team” page.
As I said, it’s a short film. It’s only five minutes long. The dogs are cute. The film’s point is serious and will make you think.
Are your dreams your dreams or are they messages from the dead? It’s something to think about.
Lindsey Stirling is one of my favorite performers and this is another great video from her. During this stressful time, it’s good to know that Lindsey is out there, creating music.
I should also note that I usually get by on two to three hours of sleep a night. If I could, I’d get by on absolute zero but I’m not allowed do that anymore. *le sigh* Oh well! I’ve never actually sleepwalked, though I find the phenomena of it to be fascinating. I do usually have some great dreams, though. Do people have dreams while they’re sleepwalking? I would hope so.
The 2000 film, Escape From Hell, tells the story of two doctors.
Dr. Marissa Holloway (Emily Jo Tisdale) believes that there is a Heaven and that there is a Hell and that, at the end of your life, you go to one of them. The film lets us know, early on, that she’s right by letting us into the mind of a good but irreligious family man who is on the verge of death. At first, the man sees himself heading into a shining light but then, suddenly, he’s plunging into flames! That’s right. The good man who loved his family and helped people out and who never did anything wrong to anyone still went straight to Hell.
Dr. Eric Robinson (Daniel Kruse) doesn’t believe that there’s an afterlife. He believes that everyone who says that they’ve seen either a light or a glimpse of Hell was suffering from a hallucination. He’s hostile to Marissa’s beliefs. Could it have something to do with his difficult relationship with his estranged father? Who knows?
Together, Dr. Holloway and Dr. Robinson solves crimes!
No, actually, they don’t. Instead, they star in a low-budget, evangelically-themed remake of Flatliners. After his father dies, Dr. Robinson is more determined than ever to prove that there’s no afterlife so he decides that the smartest thing to do would be to die for a few minutes and then be brought back to life by another doctor. Like I said, it’s basically Flatliners all over again. The main difference, of course, is that Flatliners imagined a New Agey afterlife with no God while Escape From Hell leaves little doubt that there’s a Heaven and a Hell and just about everyone’s going to the second place.
Dr. Robinson does originally go to Heaven and it’s a nice-looking meadow. (Apparently, he just gets to skip Purgatory so lucky him.) However, the doctor is soon informed that he doesn’t belong in Heaven so bang! It’s down to Hell that he goes. Hell is essentially a rocky place with constantly burning fires. The whole place is tinted red and looks like something you might expect to find in an old video game. Unfortunately, Dr. Robinson doesn’t get to talk to the five people you meet in Heaven but he does get to talk to a handful of people in Hell, the majority of whom are confused as to why they’re down there but who also realize that they somehow massively screwed up and will never get a chance to escape. One of the people that Robinson meets turns out to be a demon. There’s a lot of really cheap CGI that looks kind of silly but, at the same time, still possesses a certain low-rent charm.
While Dr. Robinson is learning about the afterlife, his colleagues are trying to bring him back to life. If they don’t bring him back quickly enough, Robinson, much like Franklin Delano Roosevelt will be stuck in Hell in forever!
(I should admit that we don’t actually see FDR in Hell. I just assume he’s down there.)
If you haven’t picked up on it by now, I have a weakness for achingly sincere films that feature primitive CGI. It’s easy to make fun of movies like Escape from Hell but I tend to view them as being examples of outsider art. Yes, it’s a flawed film that was apparently made by people who weren’t really sure what they were doing but that’s actually the film’s charm. The bad acting, the melodramatic dialogue, the cheap CGI, the extremely literal definitions of Hell and Heaven, and the final message that almost everyone on the planet is destined to suffer eternal torment; all of it contributes to make a film unlike almost any other (except, of course, for the original Flatliners) It’s silly, preachy, and entertaining in its own bizarre way. It’s the cinematic equivalent of the school prayer advocate who says that children who don’t want to pray can, “Simpy lower their heads and think about how they’ve got it all figured out.” It may not be good but it’s always watchable in its own twisted way.
I have two main thoughts on the 2016 religious film, Peter: The Redemption.
First off, John Rhys-Davies is a treasure. The veteran actor plays the role of Peter, the rock of the Church. The film focuses on Peter’s final days, locked away in a Roman prison and suffering torture at the hand of the Romans. He’s told repeatedly that all he has to do to win his freedom (and his life) is to publicly renounce his beliefs and confess that the Christians were behind the plot to set Rome on fire. While Peter waits for death, he is haunted by memories of the night that he denied knowing Jesus. He feels that he is not worthy to be crucified. He worries if he’s done enough to atone for his mistakes. Rhys-Davies gives a powerful performance, capturing both Peter’s anguish and his inner strength. This is probably one of the best performances that you’ll ever find in a low-budget religious film.
My other thought is that you really haven’t lived until you’ve seen Stephen Baldwin plays the Emperor Nero. Baldwin plays Nero as being something of a wannabe hipster, desperately trying to convince everyone that he’s more interesting than he actually is and dreaming of rebuilding Rome in his own image. Baldwin’s Nero is a crazy conspiracy theorist, the type who often seem to be struggling to follow his own line of thought. There’s not a subtle moment to be found in Baldwin’s performance as Nero but, interestingly, his interpretation of the role is probably fairly close to being historically correct. By the account of most of the Roman historians who lived through and actually managed to survive his reign, Nero considered himself to be an artist and an intellectual and his dream was to be as acclaimed as a performer as he was an emperor. It’s been said that Nero was killed as much for his artistic pretensions as his administrative mistakes and that his final words were, “What an artist dies within me!,” and one can certainly believe that while watching Baldwin’s performance.
Unfortunately, Peter: The Redemption gets distracted by a subplot involving the blossoming relationship between a servant in Nero’s court and one of Peter’s guards. It’s the same basic story as Quo Vadis?, just told in a lot less time and on a much smaller budget. To be honest, I kind of liked the film’s low-rent version of Rome. Rome is usually presented as being this glamorous and impressive city but most historians of the era tend to emphasize the fact that the streets of Rome were often dirty and the walls were covered with frequently obscene graffiti. (In fact, graffiti was the main form of political protest in the Roman Empire.) No wonder Nero wanted to burn the place down.
Anyway, Peter: The Redemption is okay. It tells its story effectively enough and the performance of John Rhys Davies elevates every scene in which he appears. The film gets bogged down whenever it concentrates on the romance in Nero’s court but Baldwin and Rhys Davies keep things watchable.
Through the Shattered Lens 