SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 22 – 5 PM
ONE NIGHT ONLY! FILMMAKER Q&A!
(This event is $10.)
THE SHORT FILMS OF CHRISTOPHER JASON BELL
Various. Approx 80 mins.
In English.
Critic, programmer and longtime Spectacle comrade Christopher Jason Bell has been a fixture of the NYC independent filmmaking scene for the better part of this last decade. This selection of short films (hand-picked by Bell, promising a few surprise inclusions) features a Manhattan-set meet-cute with a remarkable slice of real talk at its core, a magic-realist meditation on loneliness inspired by a racist remark made by Ridley Scott to The Hollywood Reporter, a single-take metamovie called THE MOVIE, a hilarious paean to American society’s brain-pureeing embrace of the STAR WARS franchise starring Carl Kranz, a docudrama (?) about one man’s mission to turn his 60th birthday into a live reenactment of the courtroom scenes from MY COUSIN VINNIE, and a lot more.
For whatever reason (probably related to his fidelity to the “slow cinema” techniques of Tsai Ming-Liang, Abbas Kiarostami and many more), Bell is underrated; among critics and programmers, the lion’s share of the hype has transferred instead to directors whose quirk-tastic output is littered with obvious cinephile signposts, and who may also be the children of millionaires. That’s a damn shame: Bell counterbalances a rib-bruising sense of humor with a startling humanism, and his prolific output suggests a filmmaker restlessly experimenting with finding new ways to reconcile cinema with that crazy problem known as “real life” and the people who live within it.
SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 22 – 7:30 PM
ONE NIGHT ONLY! FILMMAKER Q&A!
(This event is $10.)
THE WINDS THAT SCATTER
2015. 79 mins.
In English, and in Arabic with English subtitles.
In just a few years, Bell’s feature debut THE WINDS THAT SCATTER (named from an obscure Qu’ranic verse) would prove eerily prescient: it’s the story of a Syrian immigrant named Ahmad (Ahmad Chahrour) who resettles in New Jersey, but struggles to find a steady job. While the film chronicles his boredom and alienation, Ahmad’s diffidence in search of employment belies a greater despair, the creeping awareness that everything available to him is entry-level at best, the kind of work that was once made available to teenagers. Ahmad’s paralysis gives way to a sad and low-key majestic meditation on the disjunction between highfalutin American ideals and the reality facing people without the privilege of being born here. Set against the landscape of the anonymized corners of the tri-state area, THE WINDS THAT SCATTER is transformed by the cajoling, caustic humor of Ahmad’s friend Mohammad (played by Mohammad Dagman), and Bell’s sensitivity to working with these unconventional leading men, both of whom contributed to the film’s screenplay.
“In casting Ahmad Chahrour, Bell hit a proverbial goldmine of actorly riches; but not only does Bell deserve credit for this casting decision, he also deserves kudos for providing us with such an honest prospective of an abundantly plain, Muslim man. All the while, Bell forges intelligent comments about the impoverished economic state of rural America. Sure, Ahmad’s ethnicity and citizenship limit his employment opportunities, but The Winds That Scatter reflects more than just the Muslim immigrant experience. Sadly, this is a story of modern day working class existence in the United States.” – Hammer To Nail
CHRISTOPHER JASON BELL is a former critic for the blog The Playlist and an active filmmaker. His first feature THE WINDS THAT SCATTER premiered at Northside Festival and went on to play in Madrid, South Korea (winning Best International No Budget Feature Film at the KIXFF), Cambodia, Chile, Argentina, and numerous places in the USA. His latest short film, MOHAMMAD SO-AND-SO, premiered at Sarasota Film Festival in 2017 and can now be viewed on Amazon Prime. He has completed his second feature INCORRECTIONAL and hopes to premiere the film in 2018.