The Smith Brothers chat with Serbian filmmaker Srdjan Sarenac in today’s episode of “Today at Cinequest,” and Richard von Busack talks about some hot documentaries that will be screened at various theaters around San Jose today, including ‘The World According to Ion B.” and ‘Dying to do Letterman.”
Check back here every day during Cinequest for the Smith Brothers interviews with filmmakers, directors and writers, and Richard von Busack’s Best Bets. And check out this Cinequest Guide, with capsule reviews of many of the films being shown at Cinequest.
Transcript
Today March 4 at Cinequest: 3pm is the Adobe Forum on Mastering the Art of Maverick Filmmaking with Jacob Rosenberg at the Camera 12 cinema. Rosenberg is the CTO of Bandito Brothers, a company that’s worked on Superman Returns and Avatar, using the Adobe Creative 5 Master Suite.
Of the film’s today, a good selection of documentaries are on view: Dying to Do Letterman (at 7pm at Camera 12) is the true story of former San Franciscan Steve Mazan; diagnosed with cancer, this comedian decided to put everything on the line to achieve his life’s goal: to do a set on the David Letterman show. This home-brewed doc is surprisingly effective and of course funny.
Fascinating in a different way: The World According to Ion B. It plays at 3 in the afternoon at Camera 12. It’s all about Yon Barla-dean-u an outsider artist in the literal sense: he was actually living outside when he was discovered by a Bucharest gallery owner. The vagabond collage artist, whose superb work can be compared to Winston Smith and the one-named San Francisco artist Jess, was confined in a mental hospital, perhaps because of the enemies he made during the old Communist regime, though Barladeanu is the first to admit he’s a troublesome alcoholic. A surprising story of redemption through art, it’s one of my favorites at this festival.
Also tonight: Make a Movie Like Spike (Camera 12) 7pm a feature film about a pair of African-American filmmakers who decide to document their experiences on their way to the front in Afghanistan.
The Canadian mystery Small Town Murder Songs (9:30 at the California Theater.) stars Martha Plympton and sinister Swede Peter Stormare (the woodchipper operator in Fargo). And then there’s the midnight movie Bad Behavior at the Camera 12, featuring some typical Australian ultraviolence.
