 California Company Town Director: Lee Anne Schmitt Writer: Lee Anne Schmitt Cast: N/A Country: US Theatrical Release Date: July 24, 2009 Synopsis: "California Company Town" casts a probing, clear-eyed gaze at the landscape of California towns built and abandoned by the industries that necessitated their creation – onetime boom-towns now haunted by the twilight of the American promise. A versatile multidisciplinary artist, Schmitt creates evocative, deeply felt works that consider everyday elements of American life as cultural ritual, including a series of cinematic investigations of the intersections of landscape with personal memory ("Las Vegas"), with the history of the American Left ("Awake and Sing"), and with urban development ("The Wash").
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AFI Fest
AFI Fest '09
Chipotle Mexican Grill to Award a Filmmaker $2000, April 4, 2010 during the ECOtainment Awards at the Writers Guild Theater in Beverly Hills.
THAT FILMMAKER COULD BE YOU! GOING GREEN FILM FESTIVAL'S motto: REthink. REplenish. REcommit. This is the only festival of its kind to focus exclusively on green filmmaking, from production to content! ALL GENRES ARE WELCOME! Prizes include: $2000 from Chipotle, Hybrid Bikes, Tree Planted in Your Name, Fuji Film, Movie Magic Suite Software, Showbiz Software, Super 8 Production Facilities and much more! Hurry and beat the NOVEMBER 30th deadline! www.GoingGreenFilmFestival.com |
I saw this at SIFF 2009 and the Variety review linked above is pretty dead on.
It’s at times interesting to look at visually and does give some history of various types of company towns setup over the years in CA. Most of which are dead. But the slow pacing and the (by the end annoying) voice over doesn’t really get as richly into the details as I’d have liked. So overall not sure what to make of it beyond there are a bunch of dead towns in CA. Some because big companies set them up (probably both to be up and running quickly in remote spots with the (implied and possibly true) bonus ability to do evil). Others because of failed experiments in either utopian thinking or business ventures. I guess experimental documentary means you have to figure the point out yourself. It ends with a reference to Silicon Valley that left me with no clue as to what the point was. I know some of the programmers at the festival absolutely loved it - so it’s possibly one of those things that clicks or doesn’t for you.
http://seattlefilmfest.blogspot.com