Please Note: We carried the list of the 2005 Tribeca Film Festival Winners on our Inside Scoop section earlier this week. Read Ken's coverage here: http://einsiders.com/iscoop/index.php?subaction=showfull&id=1115047310&archive=&start_from=&ucat=1&

Czech Dream

Directors: Vit Klusak and Filip Remunda

87 Minutes, Czech Republic; Documentary Feature

Don't believe the hype! "Czech Dream" is a film that is all about the "hype" factor and it deliciously demonstrates that anything can be sold to anyone even if there was nothing to sell in the first place. Let me explain. You see, "Czech Dream" is all about a fake marketing campaign waged by two student filmmakers. The business being marketed is something called a "hypermarket" which as best I can tell would be somewhat like a Wal-Mart in the States.

Filmmakers Vit Klusak and Filip Remunda go to extraordinary lengths to make their obvious point: advertising alone is enough to sell anything. At one point, while visiting an advertising agency they are told that the merit of the product might be irrelevant, rather, the advertising and marketing of it is everything. It is suggested that the product itself might not even have to exist. Of course, without a product, where would the profit be in an advertising campaign? Interestingly enough, the two filmmakers answer that question, make a movie about it and even get the funding through a government grant.

"Czech Dream" supposedly created a sensation in Europe and one can see why. It is funny and even introspective when it shows citizens shopping at the existing hypermarkets and the joy it brings them. Apparently, the whole concept of a hypermarket is exciting to the Czech people who prior to changes in the political system had to ration everything. The payoff for this mockumentary is the unveiling of the joke on the unsuspecting public. The resulting uproar from many in the community could have been the subject of a separate documentary.

The film is at its most entertaining when it shows the construction of the false advertising campaign. The filmmakers masquerade as managers even getting makeovers in order to appear manager-like. Television commercials are shot and aired advertising the hypermarket suitably called the Czech Dream. Posters dot the city with ironic slogans like "don't come," and "don't buy." There is even a massive façade built in a field to resemble a huge hypermarket. Needless to say, after the extensive "Czech Dream" marketing campaign folks might be wary of advertising in general, and after seeing this film, so might you.

Bad Blood

Director: Kyle Leydier

Writers: Roger Paul, Peter Cummings, and Kyle Leydier

Cast: Alan Cumming

20 Minutes, Canada; Narrative Short

Taken from a chapter of the same name in the Irvine Welsh novel "Trainspotting," "Bad Blood" is an extremely effective short film about Davie who is a an HIV positive man with revenge on his mind. The film starts with a bloody image and then takes us into the story of Davie as he befriends a man who also has HIV in a support group. The man is very dangerous and reveals to Davie that he is reckless with his disease spreading it willfully mainly through the use of the date rape drug. In time, Davie will reveal a secret to the man as the man lies helpless in his death bed. But is Davie as evil as he would have the man believe? Harrowing and perfect for the short form, "Bad Blood" is a great extension of the "Trainspotting" world.

Co-Writer and Producer Peter Cummings sat down with me for an audio interview. The photograph includes Director Kyle Leydier.

AUDIO Click here to listen to an Interview with Bad Blood co-writer Peter Cummings. (Requires Windows Media Player.)

The Outsider

Director: Nicholas Jarecki

85 Minutes; USA; Documentary Feature

"The Outsider" is a fascinating documentary about writer and director James Toback. It is shot while he is making the film "When Will I Be Loved" but is about more than just the problems Toback experienced during that shoot. Toback is an infamous filmmaker whose exploits are the things that people talk about but don't want to be associated with. Even while at Tribeca this year, when I mentioned the film, critics had little good to say about Toback the man.

We learn that Toback basically made last year's "When Will I Be Loved" without a script and on a small budget with a very tight shooting schedule. He is shown outlining scenes with his actors, including Neve Campbell, and even acting himself. Clips from his films are shown together with interviews with famous actors who have worked with him. An interview with actress Bijou Phillips who worked with Toback on "Black and White" is uncomfortably funny because she says something that sounds trite like he is the best director ever.

Other eclectic interviews abound including a lot of footage with Mike Tyson who appears to be a friend of Toback. It was very interesting to see famous writer Robert Towne (of "Chinatown" fame among other films) converse with Toback following a test screening of "When Will I Be Loved." This causes Toback to re-shoot certain scenes. In addition, Woody Allen is interviewed and discusses Toback favorably as a fellow New York filmmaker.

No matter what you may think of Toback the man, his talent as a writer and filmmaker is significant and "The Outsider" is a unique look into his method.

Adam & Steve

Writer/Director: Craig Chester

Cast: Craig Chester, Malcolm Getz, Parker Posey, and Chris Kattan

100 Minutes, USA; Narrative Feature

Remember all that great cocaine in the go go 1980s? Well, writer/director Craig Chester sure does and he remembers what it was cut with. Did someone say baby laxative?

The romantic comedy gets a makeover for the 21st Century, forget Adam and Eve how about "Adam & Steve?" In the 1980s, Adam (Chester) in full Goth mode visits a NYC bar and picks up a glitterized dancer named Steve (the muscle-bound Getz). The two do a lot of cocaine together and prepare for some man-on-man action. Then the worst thing imaginable happens causing Steve to escape into the night never to be seen or heard from again. Or, so Adam thought.

Skip forward to the present day, Adam is a city park bird watching tour guide and Steve has shucked the solid gold dancer persona in favor of a doctor's lab coat. When Adam has a slip up with a knife skewering his beloved dog, Adam meets Steve again but neither recognize the other from their 80s experience. And why not, Adam looked like Marilyn Manson and Steve looked like Conan gone glam.

"Adam & Steve" is a valiant attempt to transfer the tried and true Hollywood romantic comedy formula to the now generation. Other than "In & Out" which featured a hackneyed attempt to make gay romance socially acceptable for the mass audience, Hollywood has not embraced stories principally focused on a real relationship between two attractive sexually active men. In "Adam & Steve," writer/director Chester smartly couples a sweet familiar love story with gross-out Farrelly brothers' humor mixing in a straight romance between Saturday Night Live's Chris Kattan and Indie queen Parker Posey. The result is a success that brings gay romance unabashedly to the screen without any apology.

Posey is terrific as the once obese best friend to Adam. She is hilarious in a fat suit in the 1980s and her present incarnation is sardonically funny-she's a skinny comic who tells fat jokes no one gets. SNL funny man, Kattan, plays it straighter as the heterosexual roommate of Steve.

Gross-out humor and gay sexuality aside, "Adam & Steve's" best moments are those involving Adam's odd accident prone family and the genuine sentiment expressed by his mother and father. And regardless how you feel about homosexuality, it's time we got over it and accepted that romance is not gender exclusive. I'm ready for a gay action hero. Wouldn't that be a kick?

During the press conference for "Adam & Steve," we were joined by producers George Bendele and Kirkland Tibbels, together with writer and director Craig Chester, and actors Chris Kattan, Malcolm Getz, and the legendary Sally Kirkland.

Chester told us that when he landed Broadway actor Malcolm Getz, he rewrote the role of Steve to take advantage of Getz' dancing talents. Getz' Steve begins the film in the 1980s as a dancer at a glitzy bar named Dancera. In the present day, he and Adam (played by Chester) participate in a wacky over the top gay how-down complete with designer looking Western wear.

Chester jokingly warned people not to eat before watching the film given the gross-out humor. He praised the Tribeca Film Festival because, according to Chester, it has the same feeling as what Sundance used to be. Now, Chester said, Sundance is all like Pamela Anderson parties.

Chester said that he wrote the script after 911 and wanted it to be about lost innocence. Since the film begins in 1987, Chester said that he had to digitally put back into a shot the World Trade Center towers. Chester pointed out that usually it is the other way around and the towers have to be removed from the shot.

Malcolm Getz told us that it was wild wearing Daisy Dukes. In one scene, Getz dances in a very revealing outfit.

"Adam & Steve" received support from the gay community, according to Chester, who said that movies often referred to as Queer Cinema or part of the Queer Cinema Movement seem to be stuck in 1994. He said that the cynicism of that time is not needed now. Chester has excitement and passion for change. He noted that it was strange that there are shows like "Will & Grace" in the top 10 and, yet, many states voted against gay marriage. And there is still a lack of gay images in film, Chester remarked. Unlike other gay themed films, Chester wanted his film to be about two guys in a relationship instead just about longing.

Getz also pointed out that in "Adam & Steve" the film features gay actors playing gay roles. He said sarcastically he was so tired of straight actors playing gay roles and being asked questions like "what was it like to kiss a guy?"

Kattan announced that he was straight, after all, he plays a straight guy in the film. He said that director Chester trusted him to be more than just his Saturday Night Fever personas. Kattan said he was permitted to be genuine in his role as Steve's straight roommate, and director Chester stated that Kattan's face shown the longing the character needed.

"Adam & Steve" is currently seeking distribution.

Symbiopsychotaxiplasm: Take Two And A Half

Press Conference with Writer/Director William Greaves, and Actors Audrey Heningham, and Shannon Baker

"Symbiopsychotaxiplasm: Take Two And A Half" might be the first sequel to a film that was never released. Or so filmmaker William Greaves told us at a Tribeca Film Festival press conference. He sat down with his wife and two of the principal players in his film to discuss his use of cinema verite in creating his two experimental films. "Take Two And A Half" is currently making the rounds on the festival circuit.

The original "Symbiopsychotaxiplasm" was shot in Central Park in 1968 and pitched to the actors as a screen test. The story involves the bitter break-up of a married couple. And the actors are filmed playing their roles over and over again as they experiment with the characters. In addition, Greaves had set up other cameras to capture his interplay with the actors as the "screen tests" were filmed. But as the Greaves website points out, the screen test story is merely a cover for the filmmaker's experiment with reality programming. The result was a strange film within a film that was not noticed until it was screened in 1991 at the Sundance Film Festival.

That was when actor, director, and producer Steve Buscemi saw the film and was taken with it, Greaves told us. According to Greaves, during the screening of the film there was a projector malfunction and the entire screening room went dark. Greaves called out to the audience that this may or may not be part of the film, and the audience laughed. After the screening, Greaves spoke with Buscemi who was impressed with the process of filming.

Then one day, Greaves got a call from filmmaker Steven Soderbergh who as it turned out was a "Symbiopsychotaxiplasm: Take One" groupie. Soderbergh told Greaves that he wanted to help get the film distributed. But Greaves said that Soderbergh had no idea that not only "Take One" had been filmed, but that "Take Two," and even "Take Three," had been filmed as well. Greaves said he had them in the can but did not have financing. So, Soderbergh helped with the post-production work and financed the restoration of the 35mm footage.

The new stuff was shot by Greaves to explain what happened in the intervening years (more than 30 years removed from the first film). This creates an interesting dynamic, Greaves said, to have both the old and the new. Greaves ambitiously intended that each "take" would be its own full-length feature. He was fascinated with improv and the interplay between the documentary and narrative feature formats. Greaves figures that with the explosion of reality television, he was just ahead of his time.

Greaves told us that the term "symbiopsychotaxioplasm" is a permutation of a term coined by social philosopher Arthur Bentley. Greaves added "psycho" to Bentley's "symbiotaxiplasm." According to an article on Greaves' website (link below), Bentley's word referred to "all the elements and events that transpire in any given environment, which affect and are affected by human beings." Greaves' explains adding "psycho" to the term because it "affirms more aggressively the role that human psychology and creativity play in shaping the total environment-while at the same time, these very environmental factors continually affect and determine human psychology and creativity." Greaves continues, "[t]hus everything that happens in the [Symbio] environment interrelates and affects the psychology of the people and, indeed, the creative process itself."

For the complete article featuring more discussion of the term and Greaves' technique, see http://www.williamgreaves.com/symbio_article.htm#11

Also on Greaves website are audio clips taken from an NPR interview in which Steve Buscemi wrestles with the definition of symbiopsychotaxiplasm. He finally admits that if he sounds like he does not know what he is talking about, he probably doesn't. And, you know, that seems to be part of Greaves' intention to be purposely vague and capture what occurs. When the first film was made, Greaves led his actors and crew to believe that he was a bumbling director with no plan, but with the second film, the jig was certainly up. Still, Greaves feels that the effect achieved is unique and experimental.

Look for "Take Two And A Half" on the film festival circuit. For more information visit William Greaves' website: William Greaves Productions (http://www.williamgreaves.com/index.htm).

The Baxter

Director/Writer: Michael Showalter

Cast: Michael Showalter, Elizabeth Banks, Michelle Williams, and Justin Theroux

91 Minutes, USA; Narrative Feature

Elliot Sherman (Michael Showalter) is an unassuming accountant looking for true love. When he snares the dynamic Caroline (Elizabeth Banks) and she agrees to marry him, the main question in his heart is whether he will be able to actually get her down the aisle and whether she will say "I do." And the whole time, there is this adorable Minnesota gal named Cecil (Michelle Williams) mysteriously popping in an out of his life even, at one point, crashing on his pull out sofa.

"The Baxter" is a throw back romantic comedy whose central character is unusual in his squareness. Showalter's Elliot Sherman is a normal guy who just happens to wear a driving cap when he operates a motor vehicle. Sherman is the kind of fellow who offers the alluring Cecil several different pajama options when she spends the night on his couch. He is not alone in is successful nerddom, he has friends that like him are grasping for true love even though financial success is with them. While certain elements of the story are exaggerated parodies of real life, "The Baxter" is genuine and sincere at its core.

Showalter, who is a one man show here (directing, writing, and starring), has smartly surrounded Sherman with a menagerie of familiar faces that play quirky characters in the right tone. Peter Dinklage appears as a pompous wedding planner and effortlessly steals the show in one scene. Dinklage's wonderful facial expressions and hand-gestures are classic. "Six Feet Under's" Justin Theroux is almost scary as the tweaked ultra-cool scientist ex-boyfriend obviously trying to win back Caroline's heart. And Michelle Williams couldn't be any cuter nailing the role of a Minnesota girl whose present boyfriend (Paul Rudd) is nice enough but wrong for her.

"The Baxter" is off-kilter but palatable enough to attract a broad audience. The mix of sweet old-time romance with modern elements will satiate sophisticated viewers. And perhaps, Showalter will use the success that this film already is to craft another film that expands the odd and comforting screw-ball story elements introduced here.

Chicle

Director/Writer: Josh Hyde

Cast: Javier Ramos, Quinn Schmalenburg, and Alan Cuba

14 Minutes, Peru; Narrative Short

Josh Hyde's "Chicle" is the tightly told story of children on the streets of Peru who must hustle for pennies. One child and his older brother sell gum (Chicle) to tourists. When the younger child befriends the lost daughter of a foreign tourist, his older brother gets involved causing trouble. Writer/Director Hyde shot the film on location and is seeking financing to expand the story into a feature film. His story is just interesting enough to warrant a look by a studio searching for the next "City Of God." While the story is clearly different than that Oscar nominated award-winning classic, a feature treatment would certainly be on my wish list.

Various Red Carpet photos (I got them when I could) from the premiere of documentary film "Special Thanks To Roy London." Appearing on the carpet were Hank Azaria, Garry Shandling, Jeff Goldblum, Craig Bierko, Elizabeth Berkley, and others.

Well that's it for Tribeca 2005. The Festival was much better than last year and I look forward to attending in 2006.

Jonathan W. Hickman