Independent film arose from a need to tell stories about various cultures and peoples in ways that Hollywood studios deemed too financially risky to attach a production budget to. Cornellians will get the opportunity to see some of the best of these films this weekend.

At the Indie Films @ Cole festival this Thursday, November 20^th, 2008, three films, Choking Man (dir. Steve Barron), Arranged, (dir. Diane Crespo & Stefan C. Schaefer) and Ben X (dir. Nic Balthazar) from the library’s Film Movement subscription will be shown at 6:00pm, 7:45pm, and 9:30pm (respectively). Along with the films, the library will offer free popcorn and soft drinks along with an assortment of door prizes. Admission is free, and patrons are encouraged to attend one or all three of the films.

Fans who haven’t gotten enough independent film have the opportunity to attend four other screenings from the library’s subscription sponsored by the Cornell College Student Senate and the Student Theater Council. On Friday, November 21, Hop will be shown at 6:30pm and Hawaii, Oslo at 8:30pm in the Kimmel Theatre. On the following day, Saturday, November 22, Buddy will be shown at 6:30pm and The Man of the Year at 8:30pm, also in Kimmel Theatre.  Please be advised that all films contain one or more of the following: adult themes, violence, hard language, or nudity.

Overview of films for the Indie Films @ Cole festival:

The evening’s first film, Steve Barron’s Choking Man, focuses on the experiences of the ethnically diverse staff of the Olympic Diner of Jamaica, Queens.  Barron, a veteran of Jim Henson’s Creature Workshop, is best known for his work in music videos, such as A-ha’s “Take On Me” and Michael Jackson’s “Billie Jean“, and feature films, such as Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and Coneheads. In Choking Man, Barron uses elements of fantasy and animation to portray the psychological anxieties of the immigrant experience.  Barron’s protagonist is the diner’s dishwasher, Jorge (Octavio Gomez), a shy, Ecuadorian immigrant. Jorge is overwhelmed and suffocated by the experience of living and working in a foreign land. Jorge’s shyness and poor mastery of the English language make him a stranger even to the viewer as we are shown only pieces of his inner world through animated fantasy sequences and through snippets of conversation with his domineering roommate.

Jorge longs for a connection with the beautiful and energetic Chinese waitress, Amy (Eugenia Yuan), but his efforts to communicate with her are hindered by the loud and boisterous cook, Jerry (Aaron Paul). Around this trio, Barron incorporates a talented ensemble cast of the diner’s other workers, including the charismatic diner owner, Rick (Mandy Patinkin) and the veteran waitress, Terri (Kate Buddeke). Even these minor characters seem tangible and real, and the film’s action is driven by the friction of each of these strong personalities rubbing against one another.

While the diverse ensemble cast delivers moving performances, the neighborhood of Jamaica, Queens is the real star of the film. Diverse, crowded, sometimes exhilarating and terrifying, Jamaica is New York City stripped of the glamour of Manhattan, and Barron wants to capture all of it. His camera falls in love with the neighborhood and its people; shots of rusting fences, neon store fronts, musty carpet warehouses are interposed with schizophrenic bag ladies, subway stop preachers, businessmen who spread sprinkles on their bread and butter.

Set in Brooklyn, the evening’s second film, Diane Crespo and Stefan C. Schaefer’s Arranged, examines the lives of two young teachers. Rochel (Zoe Lister-Jones) and Nasira (Francis Benhamou) are two women from different cultures (Orthodox Judaism and Islam, respectively) who find the similarities of their experiences as others seem obsessed with pointing out their differences. Both women struggle with finding their identities inside of their own traditions while living in a western world. Rochel and Nasira bond over a mutual dissatisfaction with their families’ matchmaking practices, and when it seems like Rochel is ready to give up on the traditional arranged marriage, Nasira steps in to manipulate the process in Rochel’s favor.

The film’s strength lies in its refusal to fall back on cliché. The portrait of arranged marriages blends eastern traditions with western culture to create a process doesn’t preclude the love at first sight experience of the romantic tradition. Rochel and Nasira’s frustrations with their various matchmaking services have little to do with the tradition itself and are mostly focused on the lack of quality options. The women’s parents are far from being the domineering mother and father usually associated with portrayals of arranged marriages and are sensitive to their daughter’s concerns. At the same time, each parent struggles with the pressure of adhering to tradition and the community’s opinion of the family. If any clichés are presented in the film, they come in the form of the young women’s well-meaning, but ultimately insensitive colleagues who are first overly politically correct before trying to open up the women towards being more feminine in the western sense.

The festival headliner, Ben X, Nic Balthazar’s film directorial debut, is the story of Ben (Greg Timmermans), a young boy with a highly functioning form of Autism known as Asperger’s Syndrome. Ben is a bright student who excels in examinations, but he is constantly tormented by the other tests of adolescence, friendships, bullies, and romantic relationships. To escape these trials, each morning Ben retreats into the MMORPG Archlord, where he quests with his healer, Scarlite. After leaving home to meet up with the real Scarlite, (Laura Verlinden), he returns to his family and school to enact revenge on those who torment him.

Ben X, previously a play that was turned into a best selling book, is Nic Balthazar’s third attempt at telling this story, and he makes the most of the options that the new medium offer him. Frequent documentary style interviews with Ben’s teachers and parents talking about an ominous event appear throughout the film giving a greater insight into those who want to support Ben but are frequently clueless as to how. Scenes from the Archlord game are interspersed with live action sequences, and before long the two become entwined as menus and inventories from the game appear next to Ben as he prepares himself each morning for the battles that await him in school. These special effects succeed in showing Autism from a perspective where most other films fail. In many films with Autistic characters, such as Barry Levinson’s Rain Man, the Autistic person is turned into a fascination or an idiot savant, an unknowable quantity who struggles to function in the world while performing remarkable feats with his mind. In Ben X, we see Ben as a person first who sees the world itself as an unknowable quantity. The emotional effect is powerful and sometimes heartbreaking as the viewer is able to read both him and the world, yet unable to realize for Ben the connection with the world he desires.

Balthazar will get a fourth attempt at filming this story next year as an American version of Ben X is currently in production.