Turf Nation is a well-made documentary short film, that gives insight into the roots of the American Oakland-born dance form- Turfing, and also highlights serious social issues.
Turf Nation is narrated by Lavish and his group of friends and fellow-dancers. The style of dance is mostly explained through performances from members of the group. We learn that Turfing combines elements of tutting, gliding and bone breaking, with moves that will leave you saying “wow!”. We follow the group of dancers to where they make their daily income- the streets of the Bay Area and the tunnels and train cars of BART (Bay Area Rapid Transit).
One of the dancers explains that whist he has goals to be on tour or overseas doing shows, performing on trains is a creative outlet and platform to showcase his talent.
Later we see that these dancers also work in music videos, with some being featured on Jimmy Kimmel Live and America’s Got Talent. This documentary illustrates how these young men have created their own enterprise, found work for themselves and have made a business out of their talent. Moreover, it becomes evident they have done this despite the difficulties of coming from a low-economic background and having to deal with a lifetime of prejudices.
This is shown in the scene where Lavish and Zel talk about their history with the Police, saying “It’s not that we do illegal shit, they do illegal shit to us, ‘cause we don’t fuck with them”. The dancer’s then go on to say “you know what the cop did when he arrested us? He said ‘YES! We got three of them’…He said it like he shot a three-pointer”.
This documentary also challenges the classism linked to dance as an elitist sport. “We have changed the narrative of what it takes to be a dancer” says Lavish. It is evident that these young dancers have talent but they also put in the hours of hard work. “We created our own way, our own path”, says Lavish, “there are no limits to anything you want to do… you can start off with nothing…anything is possible.”
As well as having an important story and powerful themes, this documentary is very well made and of excellent quality. Great camera work is used to follow and capture the continuously moving dancers as they travel through the streets and onto the trains.
The soundtrack is cool and relevant to the subject matter, and the choreography does not disappoint. In fact, the dancers are consistently moving throughout as if they can’t stop for the love of it, which nicely captures the main premise of the documentary. This is exciting work form director Jun Bae.
Kindling is an important and insightful new short-film about female relationships, following the event of one young woman’s abortion.
This Coming-of-Age Drama tells the story of estranged friends who reunite for a life changing event. The two girls were evidently close friends in high school but have grown apart with one leaving for collage. It becomes evident that they come a low-economic background, and that there has been tension over their recent life choices. One friend describes them as always being “trailer-trash”, whilst the other claims she is being guilt-tripped for trying to “better herself”.
Kindling does a great job of representing the type of close friendships we have all had- where you might not have seen each other for years but when you reunite it’s like no time has past. Moreover, this short focuses on the specific type of friendship that is two women who have a very intimate yet platonic relationship. As a woman myself, I can identify having this kind of relationship in my own life, but have rarely seen such a close-up depiction of it on film.
Some scenes are so simple, with very minimal dialogue. Instead there is often silence between the two characters, and yet so much is being said in those moments through their actions, body language and facial expressions. This to me, felt like an honest reflection of real-life human communication, especially in close relationships. This is clever, yet brave, work from writer Sheridan Watson and director Xinyi Zhu. Luckily, both Jill Renner and Nicole Falk are brilliant actresses and are able to convey the subtle emotions and intimacy beautifully.
The cinematography by Fannong Li gives a nostalgic and almost vintage affect. I really enjoyed this, as I believe it is relative to how the characters feel as they spend time with an old friend who represents another era in their lives.
Though much of the short’s elements are simplistic, the content is not. I am glad the film was stripped of any heightened drama and frills so that we could focus on seeing how this young girl handles her abortion, and how her equally young friend supports her through it. The discussion around abortion is still so taboo and yet it is not at all an uncommon event in the lives of women.
I believe it is important to stop stigmatising the struggles in women’s lives, and I think this movie does a great job of that by normalising the conversation. I think the fact that this was a very female-heavy creative team, meant that they were able to approach this topic with a large level of sensitivity and honesty.
I had the wonderful opportunity to interview Xinyi Zhu, director of the brilliant new short-film: Kindling. This Coming-of-Age Drama focuses on estranged friends who reunite when one needs the other’s support through an abortion.
Hi Xinyi, where are you calling from today?
I’m in Los Angeles; I’ve been here since the start of the lockdown. I’m planning to move back to my home country, China, maybe soon, but I currently live in LA.
Did you move to LA to study film?
I moved to LA seven years ago for my undergraduate study in Psychology at UCLA, but I’m now studying film at USC.
How did you get involved as a director on Kindling?
Kindling was made in a class at USC. Every semester the school chooses three narrative films to fund, they selected three directors and gave us a bunch of scripts. Usually they are pretty non-relevant stories, but I found Kindling and I really felt like that was me and my friends, and just my experience told in another way. So I pitched for it and I got it.
Did you work much with the writer throughout the process?
Yeh- The writer came up with the original script, which is structurally and tonally very different to what is now the final film. I would say I worked a lot with the writer. Originally the script was kind of snarky and there were a lot more plot lines, but I wanted to cut down on all the extraneous stuff to have this prolonged silence and unspoken conflicts between the two women. I think the writing process never stopped until the end product. A lot of the actual footage came not from the re-writes, but from the rehearsal.
So the writer, Sheridan Watson, was happy for you to make those changes and move things around a bit?
Yeh! I really appreciated the essence of the story she had originally. And I think she appreciated my point of view as a director. When I made my pitch, it was not just that I chose the story but she also chose me. She watched my reel and we all agreed to work together.
Do you have experience with writing? Is that something you are interested in doing yourself?
I do write, it was just the class’s structure that every person only had one position. I’m a writer/director. I actually just finished my first feature script during the pandemic.
What subject matter are you attracted to as a director?
I’m interested in topics about women and women’s rights. Growing up, as a teenager exploring my gender and sexuality I didn’t have much guidance. I was reading old French books like The Second Sex and stuff like that. I couldn’t find a lot of contemporary stuff that would be much easier to absorb as a teenager. Even now I am constantly looking for that. I love when films talk about women’s issues and women’s lives in a normal situation. I feel like people shy away from talking about abortion, saying “it’s in Alabama it’s not around us”, but that’s so not true. I know so many women who have had abortions. That’s from my Grandma to my Mum, to my friend’s Mums, to my friends. I think it is really important to normalize these conversations.
I also feel like as a woman, all of the female relationships I’ve been in, especially the ones that are super close, they aren’t as simple as “just friendship”. I think there’s a big sense of family in it when we get really close, and a bit of romance as well. It’s really ambiguous but I think the only way to define it is to call it women’s intimate relationships. I’ve always wanted to make a film about that.
Would you say you were trying to convey a message with this film? If so what was it?
I think there is a pro-choice message in there for sure. But I think the portrait of the pro-choice is created by showing the two women making a choice. I think the pro-life and pro-choice debate is kind of meaningless, because to me it’s so obvious that a human being needs to have a choice. Pro-choice means she can choose life if she wants, because pro-choice is so big it covers pro-life. I think showing a woman making a choice is the message.
The film seems to be getting some attention for awards, why do you think that is?
First of all I think I had two really amazing actresses who had really amazing chemistry. Also, I think the subject matter is quite “current”. I’m happy that people are thinking that this is worth showing- the concept of normalizing woman’s struggles.
Why and how did you get into directing, and what are some of your career goals?
I got into directing actually quite late. I always liked filmmaking but I wasn’t sure exactly what I wanted to do in it, and I really tried lots of things. I started with producing and production design. When I decided to study at USC, I thought I would only work on writing/directing because that’s what I want to do even though it’s a risking profession. I think I can only write what I can direct, but I enjoy directing so much that I want to direct everything. Going forward, I want to move towards work that has more of an Asian heritage, set in my home town, is literally about my own story and that’s culturally specific.
What’s next for you career-wise?
I’ve joined a new media group where I will direct animation that’s about female sex education, and it’s in Chinese. I’m really passionate about this project because when I was growing up nobody educated me about these things. Even when I as reading some of the research I was like “I never knew this”! I also just finished a short-film script about a teenage girl who wants to run away before the collage entry exams, but that’s all been put on hold during these lockdowns. Then the feature that I just wrote- which is set in my home town- I’ve been sending around to some contacts. I’ve also been making plans to act in a friend’s project about two women’s relationships, which I think she wants to make into a feature. I just feel like I can’t stay still!
The Rental: The BRWC Review – Dave Franco’s directorial debut is a thriller/horror depicting two young couples who rent an Airbnb for a weekend away that turns sinister. With wonderful scenery, a team of fine actors, and a promising premise, Dave Franco and Joe Swanberg’s storyline and script are unfortunately a complete mess.
A horror film where the antagonist uses modern tech as a weapon, and with young successful characters working in the tech industry who have an unfortunate experience through Airbnb, is a cool, relatable, fresh, and current idea. Haven’t we all had secret fears of weekend rentals going wrong, and suspicions of eccentric hosts?
Spoilers Ahead!
When the drugs were introduced, I thought this was again socially relevant, and a good script device to see our protagonists unarmed, and an opportunity for the antagonist to start “messing with them”. This does not happen. Instead we saw an affair play out- leading me to believe that perhaps the group would kill each other off. Another direction was presented when the cheating couple discovered that their misdeeds had been filmed by tiny hidden cameras, making me suspicious of the host.
The host then died of unexplained reasons and the group, thinking it was their fault, decided to hide evidence of the death. As there were some disagreements on the plan, I was led back to my original idea that they would kill each other off. When videos of the cheating couple in the act, started randomly appearing on TVs and iPhones, I started to realise I was watching a cheap rip-off of The Strangers (2008).
The characters then started dying off in the stereotypical horror genre order, but leaving us with a heroin who defied all role stereotypes in being intelligent, flawed, successful, a woman, and Arabic. Unfortunately she quickly died an anticlimactic death and we were left with a masked killer with no clear motive and no backstory. I later read on IMDB that this character’s name was “Old Charlie”, Charlie being the name of one of the renters, which makes absolutely no sense, unless the movie is also of the sci-fi and supernatural genres.
End of Spoilers
Furthermore, the level of “horror” was very family friendly; I expected more from one of the boundary-pushing Franco brothers.
In all, The Rental is a colossal disappointment. There were far too many pointless conversations and loose ends, and the story felt like it had no point. If this film wasn’t written by Dave Franco, I doubt it would have been made.
How To Build A Girl: The BRWC Review – A heartwarming, British coming-of-age story that deals with class, body positivity, and succeeding as a young woman in a man’s world.
Beanie Feldstein and Alfie Allen dazzle in this story about 16-year-old Johanna from Wolverhampton, and her ascent as a writer. Starting out as a music journalist and the only female on her team, we see how she is underestimated, and attempts are made to sexually exploit and body shame her. Additionally, the film gives insight into the classism prevalent in Britain, and illustrates the obstacles to success for someone form a working-class background. This is in opposition to the “Posh” “Cambridge” boys, shown as the gatekeepers in London.
It is so satisfying to watch, that with all of the hurdles she faces, Johanna holds on to her self-belief and heart of gold. And despite her family’s messy appearances, they are inevitably what grounds her.
The only criticism I had would be Feldstein’s accent, and the fact that she’s not a native Wolverhampton, or British, actress. I noticed during the beginning voiceover, that Feldstein’s accent sounded a bit forced and unnatural. I wasn’t surprised to find out she is indeed American. However, the accent was far from terrible and I soon forgot as I became entranced with the storyline, and Feldstein herself. It is sometimes nice, in homegrown films, to bring fame to a local actor who has almost lived the character’s experience. Then again, Feldstein was so enchanting, grounded, intelligent, and loveable that perhaps there was no one else who could have played this role.
I also wasn’t sure about the breaking of the 4th wall in the last scene, surely we could have seen Johanna express her thoughts through her writing, but I know this device is a bit a of a Fleabag fad at the moment.
For fans of Almost Famous like myself, you will love this female-led retelling, with parallels to An Education. A classic coming-of-age tale that is raw and gritty, synonymous with traditional British filmmaking. As much as this film is enjoyable and feel-good, it is also important and socially and politically insightful. The story feels honest and true and I was not surprised to find it is semi-autobiographical of screenplay/novel writer, Caitlin Moran.
There are many beloved English actors playing funny and endearing characters throughout the film, including Paddy Considine and Emma Thompson. Music lovers will adore the rock n roll soundtrack, and fashion lovers will enjoy the 90’s nostalgia. There is a lot to love about How to Build a Girl, and it comes with a very high recommendation from me.
