I’m a little behind the curve with this post but nevertheless it seems appropriate as I am on my way to Park City and a week at Sundance.
Overall I’m happy to report that 2011 was for me one of the best years in film for a while. It seemed we started to emerge from a slump not only in the market but in creativity as well. Most exciting for me is it seems we’ve started to leave behind the trend of what I like to call ‘accidental’ films that for the past 5 years or so have dominated a lot of the conversation in the indie world.
While I do believe that all of those in the latest generation of emerging filmmakers have led a truly evolutionary movement, I anxiously awaited the carelessness of films that intentionally ignored skill or discipline to go out of fashion. Hopefully 2011 harkened a return to thoughtful, purposeful filmmaking.
For me, some indications that it did included films like (in chronological order as I saw them) TAKE SHELTER, PIONEER, PARIAH, NATURAL SELECTION, KNIFE (full disclosure – I produced this but that’s because it is the kind of film I wanted to see come to fruition), WE NEED TO TALK ABOUT KEVIN, TREE OF LIFE, SHAME, THE DESCENDANTS, ORDINARY FAMILY, WARRIOR, A LITTLE CLOSER. There were more but these are off the top of my head.
These were all films in which story, cinematography, acting, score, sound and lighting were taken into careful consideration and not treated as mere accidents of recording things with a camera. Let’s hope that this trend continues and permeates all sectors of the filmmaking community from the lowest to highest budgets.
Not only were these films purposefully made but they were about purposeful people. Their stories were filled with characters that took action – for better or worse – even when they weren’t sure which action was best or if their actions would have any consequence at all. These were characters that were strong, stubborn, foolish, regretful, mad, murderous, vengeful, depraved, naive and more but above all, they were not idle.
For a generation like mine (of which I am very much a product of) that tends to criticize, over-analyze and cynicize (real word?) to the point of paralysis, these are the kind of characters we need to see depicted larger than life.
Let’s hope 2012 has some more of the same in store. From the looks of this I’m optimistic. - AJ