New Hampshire Film Festival 2023 Wrap-Up
NHFF is a celebration of small, weird, indie stuff that barely gets noticed.
Last year was my first time attending the New Hampshire Film Festival. Or any film festival, for that matter. While I knew festivals other than Cannes and TIFF and Sundance and the like existed, I’d only ever hear people talk about those Goliaths. They sounded like a mix between trade shows and critic screenings, where filmmakers attempted to find distribution and build early buzz. Which is to say, not for someone like me, who’s not at all connected to the industry, and just loves movies.
Through my love of film, I’ve made a number of friendships, and one of those friends just happened to take over running the screenplay competition at the NHFF a few years ago. She asked me to be part of the army of volunteers to read those scripts and provide feedback, whittling down the myriad of submissions to a few finalists. I was honored, as well as anxious: I’d never done anything like this. But some gentle urging convinced me, and I’m glad: it was so much fun!
As a thank you for volunteering, I was given a weekend pass to the festival. Given it was just a short drive away in Portsmouth, NH, a town I absolutely adore, I figured I might as well check it out. It was amazing, seeing such a wide variety of stories and forms and visions and visuals, surrounded by filmmakers and actors and other members of the public. Now I intend to attend every year I possibly can, whether or not I’m involved with it in any way.
It’s a four day festival, starting with a full day of movies which have some tie to New Hampshire, be it director or location or production company or something. As soon as the full schedule is released, I pore over the whole thing and devise my schedule for each day. Fortunately, NHFF is an event where your pass gets you into every screening for no additional charge, provided there’s space. And it’s a small enough event that screenings almost never fill up, so you’re almost certain to get in to everything you want. Not only that, but there are multiple venues showing movies (or blocks of shorts) at the same time all four days, so you always have a choice of what to go see.
Alright, I’ve given you a bunch of preamble, since I didn’t have this blog last year and so haven’t written about it before. But what you’re really here for (I presume) is to hear my thoughts on what I saw, so you know if you should seek it out when it gets released, if it gets released. That’s the thing about such a small, indie focused festival: many films don’t yet have distribution, so it’s possible you’ll never have the chance to see them. For example, my favorite film of last year’s festival (Disfleuncy) was not, so no matter how much I tell people about it, most will never get to experience it themselves.
This year, I caught 27 shorts and 17 feature length films. Which is a lot. I added up their runtimes, and I spent about thirty-three hours watching movies over the weekend. So I’m not going to write a full review of each one, not even all the features. Between viewings, I jotted down some notes on everything I watched, so I’ll be rating and reviewing everything more informally on my Letterboxd if you’re curious. But below, I’m just going to mention the movies I thought were notably good, and give a short blurb of why you should check it out if you get the chance. Enjoy!
Documentary Shorts
Another Season Together
I can’t quite place why this landed so well for me, but god damn, it did. Just a little five minute, 8mm piece about a bunch of friends getting together for ski season, chasing the first and last bits of snow cover they can. It’s fast paced, funny, and gorgrous. The heavy grain really suits it absurdly well. They’re having a blast, and it just perfectly captures that snow sport obsessive. So it’s probably more about vibes for me than anything, but I adored it.
Brian Hall, Not Afraid to Fall
This had the potential to just be inspiration porn, and to some degree, it is that. But I’d argue that by talking more in depth about Parkinson’s and experimental treatments, and also just showing how charming Brian is, it rises above. It doesn’t treat Brian as a superhero, just someone who’s determined as hell, who found something which works for him, and has achieved some cool stuff. It didn’t blow me away or anything, but it was absolutely worth the sixteen minutes spent watching it.
Narrative Shorts
Prep
I love me some surreal, dream-like, intense visuals set to a killer techno score. Even better when it’s almost exclusively using visuals to tell the story. Prep tells us of a bodybuilder and his struggles with eating, body image, and mental health as he pushes his body (and mind) to the brink. The theme of objectification courses throughout, with respect to both the main character (played by Chibueze Anyasor) and others around him, such as the female presenters. It’s intense and abstract and upsetting, which is to say it accomplishes all it sets out to do.
Knowing Me, Knowing You
The more I think on this, the more I like it. Especially given the context of the past few years and COVID.
Daniel (Jacob Roberts) is still reeling from being dumped when we join him. His roommate is a therapist, conducting her sessions over Zoom from home, which begins as an annoyance due to their apartment’s thin walls. But then Daniel overhears a recently divorced patient whose situation sounds very comparable to his. And decides to seek a true connection.
This is a beautiful and heartbreaking story about human connection, its frailty, and how difficult it is to ever truly know someone. How you can feel like you’ve known a new friend for years, while an old friend can be a complete stranger. And how the smallest ripple in the pond can disrupt everything.
Honorable Mentions: Trying; The Watcher (watch it); The Third Ear
Documentary Features
Q
No, no that Q.
This concerns a secretive religious women’s group based in Syria called Qubaysiat, and specifically the relationship between “the group” and the family of director Jude Chehab, who live in Lebanon. Her and her grandmother play a role in that, contextualizing the family’s religiosity and traditions. But it’s mostly focused on her mother Hiba, as she was a devoted member who nonetheless left the group a handful of years ago. It’s never made clear whether or not it was voluntary, nor what happened. The focus is instead on what Hiba’s involvement in the group meant for the rest of the family, including her husband Ziad, and how that power and influence remained even after leaving. It’s intense, it’s personal, it’s raw, it’s illuminating, and it’s messy.
Citizen Sleuth
I’m honestly a bit mixed on this one, but it pulls off what it’s going for well enough and on an important enough topic that it deserves to be talked about.
True crime is a super popular genre, aided by how anyone can start a podcast for relatively cheap to document their process of investigation. Picking up leads the police and trained journalists missed, and sidestepping the pitfalls of the Blue Wall of Silence and garden variety corruption. Speaking truth to power, as it were. Which is a good thing…right?
This follows Emily Nestor from the beginning of her investigation, as she finds her footing as a podcaster, gains some notoriety, discovers she has a very real voice, and eventually is forced to face some uncomfortable truths. The film takes a while to get to that point, during which time you may confused as to what in the hell I’m talking about. Just be patient, it will pay off.
Honorable Mention: Everything to Entertain You: The Story of Video Headquarters
Narrative Features
Perfect Days
This was the closing night feature, so I ended the weekend with my favorite film. Wonderful. Slow, meditative, pensive, and quiet, this is the type of film you can fall asleep to. We quickly establish the rhythms of the life of Hirayama (Koji Yakusho), who’s employed cleaning public toilets in Tokyo. We see his routine, and how it does not change. How even disruptions to it don’t deter him, then just force some improvisation. And we start to get some hints of who he is, and where he comes from. This is a hypnotic, transfixing film which will not be for everyone, but it is 100% for me.
Eileen
This is already scheduled for an early December theatrical release. I’ll probably catch it again, and write a proper review on it then. For now, suffice it to say it’s a psychological (psychosexual?) drama, in which we experience the life of the titular Eileen (Thomasin McKenzie) being turned upside down when she gets a new co-worker at the prison, the captivating Rebecca (Anne Hathaway). Hathaway is incredible: it may be her best performance ever. Definitely Oscar worthy. McKenzie is wonderful throughout, with a few turns that are absolutely transcendent.
US release: December 8, 2023 (wide)
Sometimes I Think About Dying
One of the strangest, slightest, and yet most impactful love stories you’ll ever see. Fran (Daisy Ridley) works at the port authority, so we’re treated to tons of scenes of idle small talk, dumb jokes, and intense awkwardness. But as she develops more of a rapport with the new guy, Robert (Dave Merheje), we begin to understand that while she’s a bit odd, she’s simply struggling to connect to a world she doesn’t readily understand. It’s incredibly sweet, and raw, and funny as hell, featuring smart characters and great performances.
US release: January 26, 2024
Booger
I’ve been enamored with Grace Glowicki ever since she popped up in Strawberry Mansion, because she just has such weird and fascinating taste. Even Tito, which I didn’t particularly like, was a big swing, which I appreciate. Booger is no different. It’s a tale of love and grief, of strained relationships, and of…cats. Well, one specific cat. This is another surreal, dream-like experience, drenched in neon and otherworldly imagery. It’s funny and dark and strange, intense and weird in all the right ways. What it has to say is nothing new, but it does it in such a stylish and unique way that it feels fresh anyways.
The Sweet East
The summer of Ayo Edebiri continues! Well, sort of. She’s in, I dunno, ten, fifteen minutes of this film?
In any case, this is probably the most aggressive of my favorites. Unlikable might be a better term? It features high school senior Lilian (Talia Ryder) drifting through the northeast, going where the wind takes her. She encounters a number of groups, mostly extremists of some sort, and with no beliefs of her own easily falls in with them and later passes off their stories and ideas as hers. All she meet want to use her for their own purposes, as a pawn in their game, but her tendency to take nothing seriously serves her well.
The vibes are very odd, and the story meandering, which ends up a fascinating journey through the cultural landscape.
US release: December 1, 2023