There’s a great movie desperate to be set free with Stephen Sawchuk’s “Hell is a Teenage Girl” and sadly it’s only a pretty good movie when all is said and done. There’s so much lore and back story hinted at that the movie, at fourteen minutes, barely scratches the surface of. And we’re told that protagonist Parker is blamed for her dad being the Springsboro Slasher. But why? There are a lot of “But Why?’s” that will be spouted during the short. Although it is a neat, creative (if not wholly original) short, there’s just so much more tinkering and glossing up that needs to happen before/if a feature is ever greenlit.
Lina Suh, Director of “Meeting You, Meeting Me”
Up and coming filmmaker Lina Suh took time out of her busy schedule to discuss her newest drama “Meeting You, Meeting Me,” a great film about the bond and friendship between two women the spans years. Suh discusses her inspiration, casting and her methods for staging some powerful moments of tension. “Meeting You, Meeting Me” is currently hitting the festival circuit.
Five Favorite Mike Flanagan Productions—So Far [Fantasia Film Festival 2024]
This year, Fantasia will be awarding their 2024 Cheval Noir career award to U.S. filmmaker Mike Flanagan. “For his imaginative and heartfelt horror visions; boundary-breaking achievements in making soulful, character-driven genre television commercially viable without compromises; and the extraordinary work he’s done in popularizing landmark authors to a new generation, While it may strike some as odd to bestow an achievement award to an artist who’s almost certainly not yet reached a mid-career place, Flanagan has been so extraordinarily prolific and consistently brilliant in his output that the filmmaker has already accomplished several lifetimes of creation.”
In honor of his stellar achievement, here are five of My Favorite Mike Flagan productions – so far. As he has a long, rewarding life of filmmaking and film curating ahead of him, I imagine this list will look different in fifteen years.
Crocodile (1979) [Synapse Films]
Currently available from Synapse Films on Blu and DVD.
Following the killing of his wife and daughter, a man goes on the warpath to find and kill the giant killer crocodile responsible.
The Bootleg Files: The Magic Machines
BOOTLEG FILES 872: “The Magic Machines” (Academy Award-winning short film about sculptor Robert Gilbert).
LAST SEEN: On YouTube.
AMERICAN HOME VIDEO: None.
REASON FOR BOOTLEG STATUS: It fell through the cracks.
CHANCES OF SEEING A COMMERCIAL DVD RELEASE: Unlikely.
Making a nonfiction film about a visual artist is always a tricky proposition. After all, the finished product is often a work of genius but the process of bringing it to fruition is frequently a tedious process. And truth be told, not every visual artist is a magnetic raconteur or a force of personality.
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Belief (2024)
Premiering at the LA Shorts International Film Festival, “Belief” directed by Christian Loubek is a very good short film about mothers. Christian Loubek’s drama is a great tribute to the big things and little things that our mothers make for us. Whether it’s the big things we see, or small things we don’t see, mothers sacrifice a ton and give up a lot of themselves to ensure enrichment for their children.
Meeting You, Meeting Me (2024)
Selected to screen at 2024 CAAMFest, Lina Suh constructs what is easily one of the best films of the year. “Meeting You, Meeting Me” is a wonderful chamber piece about two kindred spirits that meet under the most unlikely circumstances. So much of “Meeting You, Meeting Me” is based on whether or not the pair of stars Annika Foster and Sam Yim can spark any kind of chemistry, and lo and behold they have it. “Meeting You , Meeting Me” felt very much in the tradition of masterpieces like “Before Sunset” where circumstances put two people together who didn’t know they needed they each other.