LAFF '08 NOTEBOOK | Top Docs: "Trinidad," "No Name," "Pressure Cooker," "Loot" and "Boogie Man"

"Everyone feels the need to express themselves and they hope that when they do the world accepts them." Truer words were never spoken by director PJ Raval whose first feature, "Trinidad" (co-directed by Jay Hodges), premiered in competition at the Los Angeles Film Festival in the past week. In Raval's case, he was speaking about the subjects of his film, a group of transgender women who undergo sex-change operations in a small Colorado town. But, he might as well have been talking about himself, Hodges and their competition-mates, a strong group of documentary filmmakers with very distinct stories to tell about the world around them. The diverse pool of talent drummed up by programmers Rachel Rosen and Doug Jones has offered plenty of hope for the future of independent documentaries and, ironically enough, the ones that float to the surface favor aptitude with classic filmmaking models over innovation.
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LAFF '07 CRITICS NOTEBOOK 2 | Mixing Politics and Religion with the Usual Ups and Downs

Programming world premieres at a large festival that runs post-Sundance cannot be easy. I am constantly impressed, however, by the skills of programmers at SXSW and Tribeca for finding good films that have yet to play on the festival circuit. But it is particularly hard for the Los Angeles Film Festival, which takes place last in that circuit of four. That being said, programmers Rachel Rosen and Doug Jones have done an admirable job this year coming up with brand new documentaries and narratives.
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LAFF '07 CRITICS NOTEBOOK | Mingling the Trashy and the Pop & Going High Profile

With two midnight sections and horror films for both the centerpiece and closing night selections, the 2007 Los Angeles Film Festival certainly loves its genre film. Cleverly placing the more serious, truly terrifying films in the festival's "Dark Wave" section and the trashier, pure pop sensations in "Guilty Pleasures," LAFF has, as they do with much of their other programming, declared their devotion to both the entertaining and artistic side of filmmaking. With George Ratliff's "Joshua" and Danny Boyle's "Sunshine" at play in the larger slots, it becomes clear that the two can blend nicely.
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