Dispatches From VIFF #1
Secret Mall Apartment & Brief History of a Family
Dispatches from VIFF #1
Hello dear readers, the time has come yet again for the Vancouver International Film Festival! This year features some of this year’s standouts from Cannes, Venice, Toronto, and more, and while these films are much anticipated, I’m hoping to highlight some under-the-radar features from this year’s festival. I plan on (attempting) to send a daily report, as I will be seeing a minimum of one screening per day throughout the festival. So please enjoy this, the first of many dispatches from the Vancouver International Film Festival.
Screening #1: Secret Mall Apartment
Director: Jeremy Workman
91 mins
In 2003, a group of artists found a long abandoned room in the Providence Place Mall. After secreting in a couch, a television, a China cabinet, and literal tons of cinder blocks to build a wall, the artists create a home in the building which lead to them losing their homes in the first place. Seventeen years after the formation of their secret apartment, director Jeremy Workman brings together footage the collective shot themselves at the time, together with interviews of the members, to create a documentary which uses the oddity of this one project as a launching pad to discuss much more worldly things. With Secret Mall Apartment, the initial caper of sneaking into this forbidden space leads to discussions of the line between life and art, and what if anything is an artists’ responsibility.
The film does well in expanding beyond the initial hook of the secret apartment. While a wild story, it becomes evident that there would not be much more than a quirky story here if the apartment remained the focus, a human interest story and not much else. In focusing instead on the work of Michael Townsend, the main contributor to the apartment and the only person until this documentary to have been involved in it’s creation, the film becomes an exploration on the act of creation. Townsend is an absolute delight on screen, a truly significant and special subject of a documentary. His desire for creation and art of exuberant, and the film takes side tracks to explore his other projects, which are deeply human and provide further context to his desire to develop the apartment.
The film flourishes when focusing on Townsend and his art projects, but even with this other interest outside the apartment, it does at times feel to be searching for meaning in it’s own creation. It touches on ideas of gentrification, racial profiling, art as history and art as storytelling, and the dynamics between members of the art collective, but none of these elements are explored with his much depth or intuition as needed. Some subjects, like the gentrification of the art district of Providence, are given good coverage and play into the themes of the film, others feel like they were included only as an afterthought. This gives the film somewhat of a shaggy dog quality, a work that, unlike the art explored within it’s from, seems tethered to the tradition of it’s format.
A fairly formula forward documentary, the story and characters do much of the heavy lifting in making this film so effective. The archival footage is astonishing and edited in both compelling and, at times, hilarious ways. But the interviews are rather formulaic talking heads, and one can’t help but wish for a more creative outburst to have come forth due to the subject matter. And while there is a rather wonderful scene that combines reenactment and nostalgic embrace, there is nothing truly unexpected in the direction of the composition of the film. But that doesn’t diminish the impact of the story, and more importantly doesn’t diminish the work of Michael Townsend. In introducing the wider world to his wonderful work and perspective, the film succeeds tremendously.
Screening #2: Brief History of a Family
Director: JJ Lin
99 mins
In this audacious debut from director JJ Lin, a well off family has their life turned sideways when their underachieving teenage son Tu Wei (Lin Muran) befriends loner Yan Shou (Sun Xilun). With his obsession with video games, underappreciation of his mother, and disinterest in furthering his studies, Wei causes much distress for his parents. Shou, alternatively, is a disciplined student, takes interest in the same music and activities as Wei’s father, and helps Wei’s mother with rediscovering her youthful loves. As his parents become closer and closer with Shou, Wei sees his own opportunities and life begin to slip from his grasp.
One can not help but think of similar films of the recent past when discussing this film, such as Parasite and Saltburn. A lower-class person infiltrating and inserting themselves in the lives of an upper-class household, the film could easily fall into a broad allegory of class divide we see in those films. And while this is an element touched on, the film is much more interested in the inner lives of the upper-class family than the other films mentioned. Shou’s motives are never entirely clear, to the point that one could argue he never has any. The film perfectly balances an unnerving sense of dread throughout it’s runtime, without ever dipping into malicious intent. Writer/director Lin plays it close to the chest and we’re rewarded with a film that has no easy answers.
The film easily shifts perspectives between out four characters, and gives equal amounts of empathy to all of them. The mother we find is someone who has lost their love for life, a soul made for wanderlust only to be kept nothing more than a wife and mother. The father is a serious man, a scientist who sees the world in blacks and whites, who loves both his wife and son but lacks the passion to express this love. In Wei we see someone adrift in teenage ennui, eyes constantly glazed over from hours of video screens, but who nonetheless holds his one passion (fencing) in high esteem. Finally in Shou, while remaining in a shroud of mystery that begs for a last minute reveal, we see a lonely boy who may just need the love of a family to be more than another forgotten soul. The dynamics between these characters shift and twist throughout the film, and while elements of the story may be familiar, where these characters end up is still incredibly interesting.
The story and the interactions of our characters are seen through the perspective of the vibrant and ambitious camera of director Lin. Lin’s emphasis on shadow and shallow focus helps create tension out of otherwise normal interactions. His use of slow motion and close ups help thematic motifs pop, and make us constantly question what could happen next. The camera is very dynamic, constantly pushing in on quiet conversations and pulling out to show the overwhelming concrete jungle the characters exist in. His exuberance with the camera and his beautiful handling of the characters makes him a director well worth keeping an eye on.
Great to read about these. Glad you'll be posting daily. Thanks!