headed back to the hotel to
finish preparations and by
preparations I mean more
drinks.
Our car arrives to take us to
the theater. At the theater
there are some media and
small bouts of conflict
between the two competing
film festivals. We file into the
sold out theater and wait for
the movie to start. The lights
dim and there is a hush.
The film opens inside a
psychiatrist office with a
doctor and his younger female
patient. She’s a sexually
promiscuous deviant, and the
doctor is an older married
man on the cusps of his own
breakdown. In the back of
the theater is a lone viewer
mumbling under his breath
sexual charged comments at
the screen. It was too dark to
see what he was doing but I
have a feeling that he would
have been right at home in a
1970’s Time Square theater.
In the second vignette, a
strange tale of homosexuality.
The audience is generally quiet not really understanding what is going on. I look around waiting
for someone to walk out, but everyone sits, waiting for whatever is to come next. On screen the
two guys are in a Chinese restaurant. One of the characters spouts off an off color remark, I look
at the Japanese girls sitting next to me. She’s laughing. Was it polite laughter? Was it genuine?
In the third vignette a group of friends gather to watch a boxing match. It’s a high tension event
because the only fight in the room isn’t on the television. The characters engage in an argument
full of racial slurs, machismo, and jingoism. The audience is unmoved and uncomfortable
laughs echo through the room. At this point I’m sure people are going to walk out.
The fourth vignette featured more yelling, from an unhappy couple driving, but overall giving
the audience a chance to breathe. I can hear the man
in the back of the theater again making comments
about the girl on the screen.
By the time the fifth vignette begins I feel that the
audience is all in. A camera takes us through a party
where naked women are being fondled, men are
pissing in stairwells, and drug use runs rampant. All
this while Franz (Mustafa Harris) gives a brilliant
monologue against the Hollywood system. While he
pours his heart out you can almost feel the audience,
many of which were filmmakers, suddenly and truly
jump onboard to the purpose of this film. Through all
of its ridiculousness, the message was being heard.
At the sixth vignette, the chaos of all the proceeding
scenes were thrown all together into a room, like
ingredients in a gumbo. Every character apathetic
towards the other. Every character out for themselves.
Every character, although outrageous, being very
much a human being. The human being that many of
wish we were not and try so hard to hide from the rest
of the world.
When the lights came back on there was a general
consensus through the room. The film was a success.
It wasn’t perfect, but neither are we. And though the
tag line of the movie was “None of this Matters”, it
was apparent that the message did matter. If only for
that moment.
There were a few more parties after the showing.
There were damages to hotel rooms, and complete
emptying of minibars. Even a neighboring guest had
his room paid for by PEOPLE because of the antics.
Maybe in the grand scheme of things the movie didn’t
matter, but maybe for someone it will. And maybe
that someone will make something that does matter.
PEOPLE will next be showing at the 2016 New
Orleans Film Festival that runs from October 12-20th.
Check listings for showtime.