Last week, I posted about Build a Ship, Sail to Sadness, Laurin Federlein’s highly-improvised, Hi8-sourced, sorta-doc/sorta-musical, which wraps up its one week run at the Anthology Film Archive here in New York tonight. That afternoon, I got a Facebook message from someone associated with the film, urging me *not* to go see it. I don’t know whether or not he was being facetious, but in any event, I didn’t listen. I went last night, and my escort and I were the only people in the theater, and I think it was the most satisfying movie experience I’ve had in 2008 thus far.
This is the kind of balls-out, so independent it’s essentially handmade work of art that’s notable missing from festivals like Sundance. It’s an amazingly beautiful (the totally unstable, borderline psychedelic look of the blown-up video isn’t going to work for everyone, but it works for me like crazy) story about the extremes we go to in the name of combating loneliness. And, just as a hidden-camera comedy, it’s way funnier than Borat.
I don’t know if I can be rational about Build a Ship right now??????it was that mind-blowing of an experience, and I may go see it again tonight and then write something more in-depth??????but I wanted to post something this morning to encourage anyone who has the means to try to catch the film’s final screening at Anthology tonight. I can’t bear the thought that something like this is playing to a virtually empty house.
For screening information, go here.
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SpoutBlog