The Big Apple!

Gap-Toothed Women (1988) dir. Les Blank

I watched these films back to back. They're the kind of movie that make you feel proud to be a New Yorker despite only ever having spent a layover (almost entirely) in the bathroom at JFK:

1. Heaven Knows What (2014) dir. Josh & Benny Safdie

2. Dave Chappelle's Block Party (2004) dir. Michel Gondry

Both deeply felt city symphonies and highly romantic illustrations of particular zip codes, one is a celebration, the other a cautionary tale. Unending joy versus constant tragedy. There's a careful distance needed for each of these filmmakers to tell these stories. These are WHITE MEN! who seem to be aware of the responsibility that they've been tasked, who are doing more listening and less asserting. Gondry's at his least Gondrarian with Block Party. His author's hand a little more restrained and consistently carries the film as an opportunity for people to express themselves, rather than to flaunt his style.  Heaven Knows What is heavily stylized but they keep the camera far away, observe and listen, and create distance. We're making love on the pavement, etching stories in stone. There's no one closer to the city than the denizens of Needle Park. The asphalt their home, their lover, their friend. "A lot of our close-ups were shot two blocks away with lenses that are used for safari photography which made it very confining to some of these first-time actors." These aren't the filmmaker's personal stories, this is as "giving voice to the voiceless" as it comes. Merely platforms to exalt a city and the wacky spirits that inhabit it.

**Watch out!! Somehow every interview is sparkling and poignant and funny, but the Ohio boys are my favorites!!

Anyways, these are wild and colorful and luminous New York movies, both shot on 16mm, that make me feel very, very deeply whether that's jubilee or compassion or horror or love or madness, sometimes all at once. 

Heaven Knows What

Dave Chappelle's Block Party

**Harley's sleepy, coquettish, gap-toothed grin just knocks me out!! Is she turned on or does she see something that could match her high, like the danger of a motorcyclist or a fist fight between dueling suitors? This is a Juliet, a nineteen year old's romantic fantasy--one that's warped and skewed, chopped and screwed.  

John's Gone (2010) dir. Josh & Benny Safdie

**Block Party seen in Theatre 2 at NWFF, disc from Scarecrow, Heaven Knows What seen on Netflix