Kew Gardens ’18: Moving Parts

You have heard the news stories: immigrants exploited, passports confiscated by employers, families forced to live apart. Yes, welcome to Trump’s . . . Trinidad and Tobago. The truth is the Caribbean nation is one of the leading transit hubs and destination points for trafficked people. Zhenzhen voluntarily came to work, but her smugglers’ extra “taxes” put her at the mercy of the criminally-connected Mrs. Liu in Emilie Upczak’s Moving Parts (trailer here), which screens during the 2018 Kew Gardens Festival of Cinema.

Arguably, Zhenzhen was a bit naïve, but she only wanted to work. It is also rather natural she would want to be with her brother Wei after the death of their father. However, as soon as the boat lands, the traffickers demand more money. Wei had arranged kitchen work for Zhenzhen at Mrs. Liu’s restaurant (someone actually points out “Mr. Liu,” if there is one, has never been seen), but she quickly recruits the young woman for an upscale nightclub-brothel, capitalizing on their thuggish pressure.

Somehow, Zhenzhen manages to attract the attention of Evelyn, the even more naïve and in-denial daughter of a local wheeler-dealer. The gallerist tries her best to ignore his corruption, even though it corroded her homeless brother’s soul, like a form of cancer. Nevertheless, Evelyn might be able to help Zhenzhen, if she can slip away from Mrs. Liu’s operation long enough.

Moving Parts is a well-intentioned film, but it covers a lot of familiar terrain. Still, it is rather eye-opening to see how porous the boundaries are between legit (but exploitative) menial labor and outright sexual servitude. On the other hand, the subplots involving Evelyne and her family are dull and largely cliched. Maybe, you could call her a “Trinidadian Savior,” instead of the SJW-loathed “white savior.” Regardless, screen time not featuring Zhenzhen and Wei is mostly misspent.

Valerie Tian is terrific as Zhenzhen. It is a brutally honest and painfully vulnerable portrayal that does not whitewash or sanctify her. Her character makes plenty of mistakes, but she matures quickly, which gives her an interesting developmental arc to realize. Jay Wong is similarly compelling as the guilt-wracked Wei, who arguably shifts in the opposite direction. Jacqueline Chan is chillingly villainous as Mrs. Liu, but Godfrey Wei is the film’s secret ingredient, adding grace and grit as the restaurant’s head chef.

For the most part, we know exactly where Moving Parts is headed and it breaks little new ground getting there. Still, seeing this story unfold against a Caribbean backdrop gives viewers a fuller sense of the extent of human trafficking crimes. If nothing else, the film should convince patrons it is time for some sort of global treaty prohibiting passport confiscation (without legal due process). There are also some very nice performances, especially from Tian and Wei. Respectfully recommended, Moving Parts screens this Monday (8/6), as part of the Kew Gardens Festival of Cinema.

ADIFF ’16: Gang of the French Caribbean

In the 1970s, there was a demand for postal money orders. That meant post offices often carried considerable sums of cash on-hand, yet they did not have the same level of armed protection common to banks. Being a symbol of the French government made them even more desirable targets for the disillusioned Jimmy Larivière and his gang. For a while they live high and feel empowered, but internal divisions and external pressures will inevitably lead to bloodshed in Jean-Claude Flamand-Barny’s Gang of the French Caribbean (trailer here), which screens as the centerpiece of the 2016 African Diaspora International Film Festival in New York.

Like many colonial immigrants from the French Antilles, Larivière feels like the victim of a bait-and-switch, falsely promised serious job-training by the Bureau for the Development of Migration in the Overseas Departments, but only offered menial employment on arrival. Unlike many disillusioned French Caribbean migrants, Larivière channels his frustration, falling in with a team of armed robbers led by the aptly named Politik.

Politik talks a good radical game and he has connections to radical separatist organizations back in the French Antilles. Unfortunately, he is also loyal to a fault with respects to the gang’s weakest link: Molokoy, a heroin addict would-be pimp deeply in debt to Algerian white slavers. Molokoy’s erratic behavior, simmering resentment, and cowardly violence make him a ticking time-bomb. Larivière also has his own long-term problems, including Nicole, a progressive former resident of Martinique, who recognized him during his first hold-up.

Gang follows a familiar gangster rise-and-fall trajectory, but the 1970s period details are spot-on. Indeed, it captures all the chaos and confusion of the era with a good deal of subtlety. Larivière’s semi-protective relationship with Molokoy’s Algerian prostitute and the French Algerian military veteran (played by Mathieu Kassovitz), who in turn protects him from the Algerian gangsters seeking to reclaim her are particularly intriguing. Of course, there is plenty of anti-colonial messaging, but Flamand-Barny wraps those bitter pills in easy to digest action.

As Larivière, Djedje Apali broods like nobody’s business, while Adama Niane just radiates bad vibes as Molokoy. Eriq Ebouaney also sets off plenty of alarm bells as the slick and vaguely sinister Politik. Whenever those three circle each other, we expect fireworks to follow shortly. Kassovitz makes the most of his all too brief experience as the shotgun-wielding café proprietor Romane Bohringer brings dignity and dimension to Nicole, one of the few female characters who is not largely stereotyped.

Although Gang is just ninety easily-manageable minutes, it feels pretty epic. Fittingly, Larivière and company namecheck the self-styled revolutionary gangster Jacques Mesrine, because the film would make an apt triple-feature with the Vincent Cassel Mesrine duology. Recommended for fans of historical gangster films, Gang of the French Caribbean has its red carpet gala screening this Saturday (12/3) during the 2016 ADIFF.

Fantasia ’16: Battledream Chronicle

Depending on how it is used, the internet can either liberate or enslave. Ask the Chinese how that works. Circumstances will be even more extreme in the year 2100. In this animated future, all nations are connected through the digital universe of Farandjun, where most day-to-day life is conducted, rather than in the toxic real world. Unfortunately, when the rogue AI virus Isfet assumes control over Farandjun, she demands the connected nations conduct a Battle Royale, with the losers submitting to the victors, in both the virtual and physical realms. Princess Syanna Meridian was the first to fall, but she will have a chance at redemption in Alain Bidard’s Battledream Chronicle (trailer here), which screened during the 2016 Fantasia International Film Festival.

Meridian was once the Crown Princess of the first formerly sovereign state pitted against the fierce Mortemonde. As a result, she was the first to learn Mortemondian dictator Isaac Ravengorn has special armor that renders him invulnerable and therefore invincible within Isfet’s Battledream arena. As they will do with successive losers, the Mortemonde victors will wipe the memories of Meridian and her people, integrating them into the lower rungs of their society.

As Meridan and her partner Alytha Mercuri plug away as workaday gladiators in the Battledream, Ravengorn cuts through his competition. The tiny city of Sablereve is the final holdout. A recent defector from Mortemonde has brought news of a relic within the game that can pierce Ravengorn’s armor. However, Meridian chances across the Easter Egg weapon during one of her matches, but is wholly unaware of its significance.

Let’s not mince words. Battledream’s underwhelming CG animation is barely a cut above straight to DVD B-movies like Gene-Fusion. However, its speculative world-building and heady themes are more ambitious than its flat style suggests. Frankly, is looks just adequate enough for viewers to get pulled into the cyberpunky story of oppression and revolt. Bidard has created some surprisingly engaging supporting characters, including Nyssa, the escaped Mortemonde slave, Oramame Alwami, a sadist Mortmonde inquisitor who was once Nyssa’s gladiatorial partner, and Klaus Balrog, the high-ranking Templar and defender of Sablereve.

This is definitely a film about good versus evil. In fact, the internal laws and traditions of Mortemonde are unusually nefarious and cruel. Bidard certainly primes us for some payback. Yet, he avoids most of the clichés you would expect in the final showdown.

Considering it was produced for about twelve cents, Battledream is definitely worth checking out. Animation fans will might find its visuals appealingly retro—or perhaps not. Still, there just aren’t that many animated features coming from Martinique, so this also holds a claim to novelty and national pride. As a bonus, it also features the Sonny Troupé Quartet’s tune “Voyages & Rêves” (see video here) over the closing credits, earning extra points for good taste. Recommended more for fans of dystopian science fiction than animation connoisseurs, Battledream Chronicle screened during this year’s Fantasia.

Latinbeat ’11: Jean Gentil

For one unemployed Haitian professor in the DR, Recovery Summer has also been pretty “soft.” He is incapable of finding new employment, even when competing with the uneducated masses. As co-director-screenwriter-cinematographers Laura Amelia Guzmán and Israel Cárdenas Ramírez see it, his old time religion is decidedly not helping in Jean Gentil (trailer here), a narrative film based on the life of their lead actor and protagonist, which screens this weekend during the Film Society of Lincoln Center’s annual Latinbeat film series.

Jean Remy expects the worst and he is constantly disappointed. A former French and English teacher, the Haitian Remy has no place in Dominican society. He only finds brief moments of respite in his Holy Roller style services, but his fellow Evangelists seem just as inclined to take advantage of him as the rest of the world.

Eventually, Remy lights out for the countryside, where the film appears poised to take a radical turn into surreal Lord of the Flies territory. However, Remy all too quickly stumbles across two plantation workers, allowing his fatal cycles of victimization and self-loathing to continue unabated.

Deliberately toying with the boundaries of narrative and documentary, JG takes a fly-on-the-wall observational approach to its characters travails. This should sound euphemistic for maddeningly slow and drifty, because such blunt terms are not inappropriate for the film. To their credit, Guzmán and Ramírez capture some arresting images, particularly once Remy arrives in the countryside. However, their determination to cast him as the anti-Job, the man whose prayers are never answered, quickly becomes heavy-handed and repetitive.

Consciously playing himself, Jean Remy Genty projects a frayed dignity that is quite compelling—even unsettling. In truth he has a legitimately cinematic, if weathered and weary look. Yet, the filmmakers appear to deliberately use his religion and self-pity to subvert viewer sympathy against him.

Granted, the jungles, mountains, and beaches of the Dominican Republic are truly beautiful. Unfortunately, the film’s narrative is rather slight and frankly kind of mean. Even high-end cineastes should think twice before putting down good money for a ticket when JG screens this Saturday (8/13) and Monday (8/15) during Latinbeat at the Walter Reade Theater.

NYADFF: Panman

The drum has always held great spiritual significance beyond its formal music making role, particularly in the Caribbean. It has inspired artists as disparate as Duke Ellington and Vachel Lindsay. The drum’s elemental appeal is deeply felt by the protagonist of Panman, Rhythm of the Palms (trailer here), which screens as part of the NYADFF this weekend.

The drum in question for Panman is the steel pan drum, which originated in Trinidad, but spread throughout the Caribbean, including the Dutch Antilles. It is the instrument that has given meaning to Harry Daniel’s life, but as the film opens, his traditional style of music has fallen out of favor. He labors through a demeaning resort gig, before his deteriorating body collapses, which cues the extended flashback of his musical rise and fall, told through the narration of his estranged student Jacko.

Though fictional, Daniel’s career follows a path recognizable to those who have seen a lot of musical biographies. As a young man, his musical talent initially makes him a star, but his business concerns are damaged by his troubled brother’s incompetence. Along the way, he meets the right woman, but his obsessive dedication to his music leads him to neglect his family.

Oddly, there is not a lot of steel pan in Panman. It seems more interested in using the instrument as a symbol—representing both the traditional music losing popularity to modern electronic forms, and African culture, as opposed to the Dutch, which many on St. Maarten persist in identifying with. Fortunately, Panman is relatively restrained when addressing issues of cultural identity. (It is considered the first film to be produced by St. Maarten, though directed by the Dutch filmmaker Sander Burger.)

As a result, individual drama takes center stage in Panman, and to that end, screenwriter Ian Valz is quite convincing as Daniel, displaying both rage and nuance in his portrayal. Frankly, the entire cast holds up well, considering there are not a lot of musical interludes to leaven the script’s trials and tragedies.

Although Valz’s Daniel avoided the cliché of self-destructive substance abuse, there is much in his story arc which seems predictable. In a sense, the lack of faith shown in pan music by the filmmakers undercuts their lionization of Daniel. However, things never get irreparably bogged down in melodrama, and Panman does convey a good sense of life on St. Maarten. Highly watchable, it still might disappoint hardcore steel drum enthusiasts. It screens this Sunday and the following Sunday at the Anthology Films archives as part of the NYADFF.

BIFF: Panman

The drum has always held great spiritual significance beyond its ostensible role making music, particularly in the Caribbean. It inspired Duke Ellington to write A Drum is a Woman, the story of Carribee Joe and his personified drum Madam Zajj, for an installment of CBS’ the United States Steel Hour. It was a program that probably would have appealed to the lead character of Panman, Rhythm of the Palms (trailer here), which screened at BIFF this weekend.

The drum in question for Panman is the steel pan drum, which originated in Trinidad, but spread throughout the Caribbean, including the Dutch Antilles. It is the instrument that has given meaning to Harry Daniel’s life, but as the film opens, his traditional style of music has fallen out of favor. He labors through a demeaning resort gig, before his deteriorating body collapses, which cues a flashback of his musical rise and fall, told through the narration of his estranged student Jacko.

Though fictional, Daniel’s career follows a path recognizable to those who have seen a lot of musical biographies. As a young man, his musical talent initially makes him a star, but his business concerns are damaged by his troubled brother’s incompetence. Along the way, he meets the right woman, but his obsessive dedication to his music leads him to neglect his family.

Oddly, there is not a lot of steel pan in Panman. It seems more interested in using the instrument as a symbol—representing both the traditional music losing popularity to modern electronic forms, and African culture, as opposed to the Dutch, which many on St. Maarten persist in identifying with. Fortunately, Panman is relatively restrained when addressing issues of cultural identity. (It is considered the first film to be produced by St. Maarten, though directed by the Dutch Sander Burger.)

As a result, the individual drama has to carry the load in Panman, and to that end, screenwriter Ian Valz is quite credible as Daniel, giving the audience both rage and nuance. Frankly, the entire cast holds up well, considering there are not a lot of musical interludes to leaven the script’s trials and tragedies.

Although Valz’s Daniel avoided the cliché of self-destructive substance abuse, there is much in Daniel’s story arc which seems predictable. In a sense though, the lack of faith shown in pan music by the filmmakers undercuts their lionization of Daniel. However, things never get irreparably bogged down in melodrama, and Panman does convey a good sense of life on St. Maarten. Highly watchable, it still might disappoint hardcore steel drum enthusiasts.