Matt Ruskin's HIP HOP PROJECT

Plus The Flying Scotsman, The Third Man and some random recollections of Janus Films at SIFF Cinema (Week 7)

HIP HOP PROJECT
Matt Ruskin's directorial debut, a cool documentary called Hip Hop Project was sneak previewed at the Guild 45th theater on Tuesday night, with Matt Ruskin and the film's star Kazi in attendance. The film covers a few years in the life of the New York City-based Hip Hop Project and the young artists involved, focusing mostly on the project's guiding light Kazi. If you'd love to see a pretty good documentary about people using the art of hip hop to tell their stories, to inspire others and to try to make the world a better place, then this is the film for you.
Bruce Willis and Queen Latifah are listed as executive producers (with Willis making a very brief appearance) of this inspiring documentary, and Bruce Willis is also a big supporter of Art Start
The Guild 45th Theater audience responded very positively to the film and gave Hip Hop Project a big ovation at the end of the screening, and immediately after the film ended Kazi treated the audience to a short but very inspired hip hop performance. After his performance, Kazi tooks questions from the audience while director Matt Ruskin watched from the sidelines. Kazi was genuinely endearing and won the hearts of everyone in attendance with his inspirational, positive energy.
Kazi mentioned that the films producer Scott Rosenberg deserved a lot of credit for the film being made, and that Scott was in Cleveland tonight sneak previewing Hip Hop Project there. Kazi said they were going to visit about 50 cities and spread the Hip Hop Project word.
After a long Q&A, Kazi stuck around the theater lobby and spent time with every single person who wanted to speak with him after the screening. Definitely one of the nicest people you'd ever want to meet.
While Kazi was getting mobbed director Matt Ruskin was quietly hanging out with his small entourage nearby and he was nice enough to sign a Hip Hop Project poster for me. He laughed and said it was the second time he's been asked for his autograph. Later on Kazi was nice enough to sign my poster too and he drew "peace plus love - Kazi". Yep, that very accurately spells it out.
Hip Hop Project won the Best Documentary Feature and the Crystal Heart (Documentary) Awards at the 2006 Heartland Film Fest held in good old Indianapolis, Indiana.
Your dreams can become reality. Hip Hop Project proves it and it opens nationwide on May 11th, 2007.

THE FLYING SCOTSMAN
The second preview screening I caught this week was a pretty good biopic called The Flying Scotsman. Director Douglas Mackinnon has done quite a bit of directing for TV but I think this is his debut feature film which dramatizes the life of cyclist Scot Graeme Obree. If you are a cyclist and like a little drama, then you'll love this sometimes thrilling cinematic ride. Make sure you see it on the big screen, because the scenes where you go blasting down a velodrome track just won't be as thrilling on a small TV screen.
The Flying Scotsman was released in the United Kingdom on August 16th of 2006 and ended up with a slew of BAFTA Scotland Award nominations (Best Film, Best Screenplay, Best Director, Best Actor Jonny Lee Miller and Best Actress Laura Fraser).
It's always fun to see Billy Boyd in a film, but darn, it's so hard not to think of him as a hobbit.
The Flying Scotsman flys into theaters across the U.S.A. in a limited run starting on May 4th, 2007.

THE THIRD MAN
On Thursday night I made my pilgrimage to see one of my all-time favorite films, The Third Man and my journey took me to a theater I'd never been to before. The Grand Illusion cinema turned out to be a super-small, super-cozy little theater. Kinda like a miniature old movie palace. A wonderful place for a movie fanatic to enjoy a film. And the 35mm print of The Third Man looked just beautiful on the Grand Illusion screen.
The Third Man is one of the best suspense thrillers ever created and it's one of those very special films that never gets old. It's like a fine wine that can always be used in an emergency to wash the taste of a Norbit out of your mouth quickly.
The folks at The Grand Illusion now begin the third and final film in their series SPRINGTIME IN GREENELAND: THE COLLABORATIONS OF CAROL REED & GRAHAM GREENE with a weeklong run of Our Man in Havana starring the great Alec Guinness. Hope to see you there!

JANUS FILMS at SIFF CINEMA (Week 7)
The celluloid celebration of Janus Films 50th anniversary continues at SIFF Cinema! This week Great Britain, Poland and Australia were spotlighted with three classics......The Lady Vanishes, Knife in the Water and Walkabout.

From 1962, director Roman Polanski's debut feature film Knife in the Water is an enjoyable, suspenseful psychodrama that spends most of it's tense, uneasy time on the water. A cat and mouse game where you sometimes aren't sure who's the cat and who's the mouse. A film where the characters usually keep their mouths shut, but give away their thoughts with their facial expressions and actions. Great black and white cinematography by Jerzy Lipman combined with the great jazz score by Krzysztof Komeda gives this movie a kind of film noir on a sailboat feel. If there is such a thing. :-)
Original and brilliant, riveting and unsettling.
I didn't know it until after I saw the film but director Roman Polanski also did the voice of the young hitchhiker.
Knife in the Water was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Foreign Film.

The second Janus film I saw this week, the Australian film Walkabout, from 1971, still seems to hold the power to captivate and to shock. There were a few folks who walked out of the screening of Walkabout, one of them commenting "it's a real slaughterhouse in there".....the film is an amazing visual masterpiece, but it definitely is an unsettling experience for some, with the hunting (and slaughter) of many animals. The images are quite effectively used in intellectual montage's that are powerfully symbolic. Indeed, director Nicolas Roeg is an absolute master at telling his story almost entirely through images. Brutal images as well as breathtakingly beautiful images.

OK...I admit it...I watched the third Janus film shown this week two times! But then, it was The Lady Vanishes, Alfred Hitchcock's delightful 1938 film that spends most of it's time on a train, full of wonderful Hitchcockian characters involved in a mysterious espionage plot. Ahhhh....a perfect recipe for cinematic nirvana.
A couple of SIFF FooLs (Christopher C and Dan H) were in attendance taking advantage of a FooLish popcorn promotion.
At the Sunday afternoon screening, the SIFF Cinema crowd responded with a nice ovation at the end of The Lady Vanishes, demonstrating that Hitchcock films still have the power to magically entertain an audience in the 21st Century. Some of the special effects in The Lady Vanishes don't hold up compared to some of today's CGI special effects blockbusters, but the cheesy miniatures now give the film a lovely storybook feel.
It's impossible to watch this film and not fall in love with Margaret Lockwood!
The Lady Vanishes takes place in the fictional country of Bandrika, and starts a little slow as Hitchcock introduces all the films main characters, but once the train leaves the station it's a fast-paced comedy suspense mystery that really delivers the goods.
Basil Radford and Naunton Wayne steal the film as the cricket loving Caldicott & Charters.
Keep an eye out for Hitchcock as he makes his cameo quickly crossing the screen at the train station with a cigarette hanging from his mouth!.

Thanks again to the wonderful folks at SIFF for Janusmania! Especially Aubrey and Ian who work so hard to keep the show going at SIFF Cinema. Way to go!

The final week of the Janus Film series is now upon us, with three Japanese classics this weekend: High and Low, Fires on the Plain and The Seven Samurai!

Plus Lawrence of Arabia is playing on the Cinerama screen twice this week (in 70mm glory!) which is just plain cool!