Cinefile

Now that the 46th Chicago International Film Festival has come to a close, some significant titles have surfaced as surefire contenders for numerous Top Ten lists at the end of the year. Added, the CIFF hosted world premieres for movies like Ben Berkowitz’s Polish Bar and also offered special screenings for younger audiences through Cinema Chicago’s Education Outreach Program.

The best feature length selection that I saw was Ralf Schmerberg's hugely moving Problema, an event documentary film that demands to be seen on the big screen. The opening titlecard to Problema reads: "One bright day in the early 21st Century, there was a gathering of human beings unlike any before." The description, I assure you, is not an exaggeration. Schmerberg and his filmmaking team assembled over one hundred influential figures from around the world and had them sit in a huge public roundtable in Berlin in order to participate in a recorded video dialogue concerning our modern world. Each individual had a small HD camera mounted on a stand in front of their face; after every question was asked over the microphone, each person would speak directly into the camera with their thoughtful and different answers. Questions ranged from "What if all Chinese people want a car?" to "Can ordinary people really change a government?" It's a dazzling experience since Schmerberg was able to edit over eleven thousand hours of footage into a riveting ninety-minute documentary that's a testiment to the human experience.

Problema is the result of an ongoing project known as Dropping Knowledge and it is the best film I have seen so far this year.

Out of the many short films I was fortunate enough to watch at this year's fest, no film permeated off the screen quite like Vicky Mather's Stanley Pickle. Employing the stop-motion animation made popular in such films as James & the Giant Peach and Coraline--but with using actual live-action people instead of puppets or claymation--Stanley Pickle works as a beautiful piece of cinema.

Pickle follows the day-to-day routine of its titular hero as he safely operates within the "clockwork" functionality of his country home. Living with his parents, Stanley has everything where he needs it--close and at hand. On a sunny day, Stanley sees a young lady frolicing around the tall grass outside and the idea of escapism and discovery is planted in Stanley's head from that moment on. What develops next is unexpected, strange and refreshing.

Vicky Mather's work can be found on her Vimeo page and you can watch the trailer for Stanley Pickle below.

NOTE: Cinefile was able to talk to both Schmerberg and Mather at the festival, so be sure to look out for those exclusive Movie Nation videos soon!