JESUS IS coming to San Jose. John Turturro, immemorial as lavender-jumpsuited bowler Jesus in The Big Lebowski, will be here to open Cinequest 21, March 1-13. The annual film festival debuts with Turturro’s new directorial effort, Passione.
When not adding his haywire energy to the Coen brothers’ films, Turturro directs, as seen in his musical Romance and Cigarettes. His Passione is about the music of Naples. The opening-night showing commences the circuit of screenings, workshops and meet-and-greets that bring thousands to Silicon Valley. Cinequest co-founder Halfdan Hussey says, “We’re not changing what’s really working. The core is still about memorable films and spectacular people. It’s staying the same, but we’re improving it.”
By improving, Hussey describes a larger schedule of parties, augmented by the kind of social media Cinequest understood years before other festivals got a grip on it. “Picture the Possibilities” is the festival’s effort to bring cameras and information to teens in Los Angeles and East Palo Alto. Hussey says, “We’re going into those community to empower teens and make them catalysts of change.”
The Cinequest Mavericks Studio will be inaugurating a race to challenge teams of filmmakers, using social media to influence results. “Some big-name moderators are going to be announced shortly,” Hussey says. “You become either a Facebook friend or a Twitter follower, and you see some of the video content. Audiences actually influence the producers to pick who they think are the better actors for the roles.” As always, various days of the festival emphasize aspects of filmmaking. This year, the Day of the Writer focuses on science fiction, with Blade Runner scripter David Peoples returning. A day on 3-D brings Step Up 3-D director Jon Chu to the festival.
Cinequest is temporarily installing a Barco DP2K-32B projector—the brightest digital projector available—to bring some 3-D features to San Jose Rep. Notes Hussey, “Once, digital film was 20 percent of Cinequest; now, it’s 80 percent. Of course, the technology doesn’t make the person creative, even in low-budget films. But today the low budget gives no excuse for a film not being well made.”
Among the dozens of offerings at this year’s festival worth considering: America by Latina indie director Sonia Fritz is a tale of an abused woman seeking freedom; it co-stars Edward James Olmos. Iceland’s entry into the Oscars is the Alzheimer’s-themed drama Mamma G-g-. Martha Plimpton and Peter Stormare star in Small Town Murder Songs, Ed Gass-Donnelly’s mystery set in a religious farm town in Ontario. The documentary Dying to Do Letterman concerns former San Franciscan Steve Marzen, a comedian whose terminal illness spurred him to seek a gig on Late Night With David Letterman before it was too late.
Village Without Women is a comedy about what Cinequest associate director Mike Rabehl describes as a story of “country bumpkins from a village of Serbian bachelors trying to find these women in Albania, a country that they’re not on good terms with.” Jenna Fischer, Chris O’Donnell and John Turturro’s cousin Aida Turturro star in the comedy A Little Help. Uma Thurman’s new comedy, The Ceremony, was shepherded by executive producer Jason Reitman (who directed Thank You for Smoking).
After director Tom Shadyac (Bruce Almighty) was hurt in a traffic accident, he decided to search for the spiritual side of life; his documentary I Am interviews everyone from Noam Chomsky to Desmond Tutu in search of answers. Sherry Horman’s Desert Flower is about the tragedy of female circumcision, with Liya Kebede starring as Waris Dirie, U.N. spokeswoman, former Bond girl and Chevalier of the Legion of Honor.
The closing-night show is Soul Surfer with AnnaSophia Robb as surf legend Bethany Hamilton, with members of the Santa Cruz surfing community expected in attendance.
Sodankyla Forever, a perfect film for a film festival, is a documentary celebrating one of the world’s most remote gatherings of cineastes, the Midnight Sun Festival in Finland. If nothing else, San Jose has better weather.
Wrapping with Jesus, Rabehl recommends a film that apparently should not be knocked until it’s tried: Little Baby Jesus of Flandr, the story of the Three Wise men filmed by a cast of actors with Down’s syndrome. More shortly in the weeks ahead.
Cinequest 21
March 1-13, San Jose
