In DRUNKTOWN'S FINEST, Sydney Freeland explores life in today's American-Indian town

Hard to believe, but it's been 27 years since the last really good movie -- Smoke Signals -- about modern-day American Indians hit the screen. DRUNKTOWN'S FINEST, the new film from first-time/full-length filmmaker Sydney Freeland, is not in that league -- it doesn't possess the poetry: visual from director Chris Eyre, verbal from screen-writer Sherman Alexie -- but it is still a movie worth seeing. More "modern," due to its inclusion of a transgendered character, as well as an adopted Indian raised by "whites," and of course the usual alcohol-problemed guy, the movie touches some of the new "bases" while remaining a relatively honest look a society ever in transition and trying to hold on to what's best about its past.

Ms Freeland, pictured at left, works in a realistic mode, while allowing a little leeway for the usual Indian "visions" thing. But she also lets her characters -- a couple of them, anyway -- appreciate the irony and humor of some of their "spirit" endeavors. And her New Mexico scenery is, as expected, often a pleasure to view.

As a screenwriter, Freeland's plot and dialog tend toward the plain and believable, despite maybe a coincidence or two too many; as director, she has surrounded herself with a professional crew, while keeping things moving along at a good clip and drawing decent performances from her mostly adept cast.

In her screenplay, Freeland gives us three main characters, the (somewhat) bad-boy-with-a-firewater-problem Luther (Jeremiah Bitsui, above), transgendered Felixia (newcomer Carmen Moore, below),

and the adoptee struggling with identity issues (MorningStar Angeline, below). All three characters are connected in ways that will not become apparent for some time. Fortunately, their connection does not insist on some clever plot surprise; it's just part of typical small-scale reservation life.

The film begins with the statement that this town is more likely a place to leave than a place to live. Two of our three characters are trying to get out, while the other is being prevented from getting in. What the moviemaker appears to be telling them -- and us, of course -- is that they ought to try to find some way to bring their life and location together.

To that end we meet some of the subsidiary characters: the kindly grandparents (one of whom is shown, above left), the problemed parents of two of our kids, and the far-too-into-the-drug-and-booze-culture friends of the three. Yet no one and nothing is held up as villainous and evil. We can understand and sympathize with the whole batch we meet here.

Finally, if things come together a little too easily, at least Ms Freeland does not tie up every loose end and smooth over all the rough patches. The finale -- which involves a young girl running (Magdelena Begay, below)-- reminded me of the ending in the current and quite exceptional Oscar nominee, Timbuktu. Except that here, the running is something positive and wonderful. It lifts our spirits -- as does, despite its flaws and pretty much in its entirety, Drunktown's Finest.

From Indion Entertainment the movie, running 92 minutes, opens this Friday in New York City at the Quad Cinema. Elsewhere? No idea, but as the film is a product of Sundance, with Robert Redford credited as an executive producer, one would imagine the film might open at one of the several Sundance Cinemas.

Four shorts by young Russian filmmakers premier in NYC -- then head for Sundance

Want to check out up-and-coming Russian movie-makers?  Here's your chance.  Four of this breed will introduce his or her new short film this Thursday evening, January 21, 7:30pm, at the Tribeca Cinemas, 54 Varick Street in NYC. (There'll be a $5 suggested donation requested at the door.)

A presentation of CEC ArtsLink (the filmmakers' visit is being hosted jointly by CEC ArtsLink and the Sundance Film Festival), this four-film screening will also offer a Q&A with the filmmakers after their work has screened. (The entire running time of the four films is 73 minutes, and if the Q&A's last a quarter-hour each, figure this as an approximately two-hour-long program.)

Immediately after the North American premier screening in New York, the filmmakers will head out to Park City, Utah, for a program of industry networking events at the Sundance Film Festival. Their US visit is part of the Open World Cultural Leaders Program, whose aim is to promote cross-cultural understanding through professional exchange. While in New York City and at Sundance, the filmmakers will attend industry events, meet with their US counterparts, and partake in a range of cultural activities. The purpose of CEC Arts-
Link, according t its press release, is to create constructive relation-
ships in the arts between the United States and Eastern and Central Europe, Russia, Central Asia and the Caucasus. Working with artists, arts organizations and community-based groups, CEC ArtsLink provides an essential structure for ongoing dialogue.

Now to the films: Three of them last around 20 minutes and the fourth runs only eight. All are worth seeing and each shows distinct possibilities for a filmic future for its creator. The most "complete" of the four, I would say, is THE BOSS (a still from which is shown above), written and directed by Yuri Bykov.  Beautifully filmed in crisp, rich black-and-white, Bykov offer what initially looks like a Funny Games spin-off -- but with the power placed a little differently.  At the film's beginning, we watch what looks like a typically happy, middle-class nuclear family, with dad and son playing soccer in the backyard and mom sweetly nattering about being careful.  By the end, our perceptions -- not to mention our allegiance -- has shifted noticeably.  In a very short time, Bykov has given us one of the tightest and most disturbing looks at modern Russia and its power structure that I have seen.

The Russian male's love of mother is given a good workout in Ilya Kazankov's MOM (shown above), a 21-minute hymn to mama. Here, a choir conductress is about to lead her Naval Academy boys in a program put together to please the big brass. Two young fellows who should be performing have other ideas -- which they carry out in not-so-smart fashion and which lead to one instance after another of mother-love, shown about as sweetly as you can imagine. This is a very "Russian" film in the most traditional, old-
fashioned manner, and it works like a charm. By the finale, it's clear that the "boys"  here, young and old alike, will always love mom.

At only eight minutes long, BOULEVARD (above), directed by Alisa Khmelnitskaya, is actually the best of the bunch: swift, smart, funny and real, as its shows us the conversation on a park bench along a large boulevard between a depressed older woman and an energetic young girl. They're both waiting for their guys, late as usual, to show up, and their varied responses to the situation and to each other speak volumes. The war between men and women has seldom been seen to such smart effect. Before it's over, this short film offers surprise, change, humor, feeling -- even wisdom.

The only disappointment, for me, was the longest of the films (at 23 minutes), THE GUST OF WIND, directed by Ekaterina Telegina. This one certainly looks good -- and has picked up a couple of awards along the way: Special mention for excellence in cinematography, 2009 Kinotavr Film Festival (Sochi); People’s Choice Award and special jury mention, ARTkino Russian Festival of Art Films -- and it offers the most complex structure of any of the four films. At its opening and close, young children tells us what they want to do with their lives. Then we cut to an adult driving along in his car and see just what this guy has managed to do with his life. In quick succession, we meet his co-worker, his kid, his ex, his new girlfriend and his best friend. We get flashbacks, fantasy, and even -- suddenly -- a Headless Woman moment. Then the Furies arrive in the form of sexy twins (shown above, with our "hero") and finally an ironic surprise. It's all here, but somehow it seems an awfully lot like standard movie-making that uses "experimental" tricks we've now seen time and again to tell a tired tale of personal failure.
But, as I say, it looks good.

If you want to see these films, Tribeca Cinemas, Thursday, January 21 at 7:30 pm would seem to be your best -- maybe only -- bet.  But as seats are filling up quickly, I am told, you will need to RSVP to Anna Kadysheva-Yong (email address: akadysheva-yong@cecartslink.org).