Melvin Van Peebles, director of the landmark independent film Sweet Sweetback’s Baadasssss Song, embraces the new age of digital filmmaking with his picaresque comedy, shot using DV equipment and taking full advantage of its creative possibilities. Van Peebles plays a fanciful version of himself, growing tired of life at home when he’s only ten years old and deciding he’d rather see the world than read about it in books or hear about it from his mother. Melvin runs away from home and hitches a ride from a friendly truck driver, but things take an unexpected turn when gangsters kill the trucker and the boy is tossed into the river with just an inner-tube for company.
Tag: 2000s
Tashkent Station in the Uzbekistan capital: Passengers rush to catch their trains. A couple, locked in an intimate embrace, so deeply affects the train driver that leaves the train standing and makes a fundamental change in his life. A miniature by Veit Helmer.
Renata is a young high-class girl and Ulises is a poor guy. They both fall in love, but they must fight against everyone, specially Renata’s rich parents, who want to stop their love by sending her to Canada. The story remarks the difference between social classes in Mexico City, and their characters risk everything just to save their love.
A man gets involved in a kidnapping scheme with the wife of a wealthy businessman. She lets herself be tied up and confined in his house while he sends the ransom demand. When he returns home that night, however, he finds her laying dead on the floor. In a panic he buries her body deep in the woods and tries to return to his ordinary life. One day, he thinks he spots her walking down the street. Is his mind playing tricks on him, or has she somehow returned from the grave?
Trying to make a name for himself in Hollywood, instead, the aspiring actor, Norman, learns firsthand that this is easier said than done. Then, accidentally, Norman stumbles upon a jar of very special butterscotch, and just like that, he becomes invisible. Now, with his newly acquired powers, Norman can turn the tables on all those who treated him like garbage, and what’s even more exciting, he finds out that he can get any woman he wants. However, Norman is not the only one who’s invisible. Could this unseen rival spell bad news for Norman?
Helen finds herself having intimacy problems with men. Her private parts are devouring all lovers and leaving her with an insatiable thirst for blood. In order to satisfy her cravings she becomes a prostitute which leads to a death filled tale of murder, madness, and sex.
One day a commuter, who happens to be a burglar, finds a dead body on a train. As he was just returning from a burglary and not wanting to draw attention to himself, he decides to get rid of the corpse himself. Little does he know that the body is about to embark on one hell of a journey…
The Season of Men is the second feature film by Moufida Tlatli, one of the most important woman filmmakers in the Arab world. The film examines the changing roles of women of two different generations in a society torn between secularism and sharia, and their states of being a woman. Set on Djerba Island, where women live with their children and only see their husbands who work in Tunisia for one month a year, the film takes place in a feminine world away from men. With its delicately woven story, epic narrative, powerful cinematography and characters, The Season of Men is a touching and delightful film about women who want to live as they wish, and not according to the rules of society.