The Parking Lot Movie (D: Meghan Eckman; USA)

It would seem strange that anyone would want to see a documentary about a parking lot, but director Meghan Eckman has been able to craft in The Parking Lot Movie an interesting, funny, and revealing film. It is not so much about the physical space of the parking lot, but the people, culture, and life revelations and lessons that can be gained from minimum wage labour at a very peculiar parking lot in Charlottesville, named the Corner Parking Lot. Run by a laid back, hands on employee-centered owner, the Corner Parking Lot in the university town of Charlottesville acts as a counter-cultural counterpoint to the mostly straitlaced conservative rich town and its inhabitants. Its attendants are, as a group, almost entirely over-educated, many being PhD candidates, masters or bachelor students in anthropology, philosophy and other such contemplative disciplines in social science and humanities, and/or artistic leaning, consisting of many band members and solo artists both musical and visual. All are young men who, while being outcasts in the town, have found solace in mindless employment in the seemingly socially and culturally detached, but centrally located nexus of the triangular parking lot. The movie embraces the humour and banality of the work at the parking lot while fully exploring the philosophical conundrums of too much brain power and plenty of time that prompts many in depth often grandiose, yet earnest ponderings from the attendants on the meaning of life, society and class conflict. In a stark criticism of our society and culture, the film shows how little respect many people pay to minimum wage workers who have little recourse other than moral judgment of their customers, at least amongst themselves. It  also shows the ridiculous sense of entitlement and arrogance that is imbued in people who are simultaneously willing to pay ridiculous prices for Hummers and Land Rovers but harp and complain about paying 50 cents to park their car. The main characters are all intriguing underdogs who are all somewhat socially maladjusted but have, from their job in the parking lot, gained a core group of friends, camaraderie, and perspective. Many begin initially aimless but through the course of the film slowly discover who and what is important to them and by the end, most have moved on from their parking lot job back into “real life” with a better understanding of themselves. The film ends with, out of the dozen or so featured attendants, 5 becoming university professors, several being active and variously successful musicians, and others in less vaunted positions in academia. Filled with hilarious one liners, megalomaniacal posturing, and subtle clever insights, The Parking Lot Movie is definitely a film worth seeing that emphasizes that minimum wage doesn’t mean worthless, in jobs or people.4

1991 The Year Punk Broke (D:David Markey; USA)

1991 The Year That Punk Broke is an archival documentary that is rarely seen and unavailable in DVD. Through the use of performance footage and behind the scenes footage, it chronicles the  Sonic Youths 1991 European tour with Nirvana and Dinosaur Jr., among other bands. Filmed by Markey, a close friend of Sonic Youth, the film shows a very raw, casual, often whimsical snapshot of a specific point in time for the aforementioned artists that shows the jovial, mutual affections and  interactions between the various members that includes everything from Kurt Cobain having lipstick put on him by Kim Gordon to Dave Grohl talking to fruit. A especially revealing and candid scene has Thurston Moore waxing poetic about the difference between early tours where Sonic Youth played to mostly empty rooms to their film present tour headlining filled arenas. The centerpiece of the documentary is definitely the myriad of excellent quality and full song performances by all the bands, sandwiched between the revealing behind the scenes stuff, that captures a live almost-there quality with fantastic professional video editing and sound quality. Giving a vivid context for the meaning and impact of the doc, Hot Docs wisely had Damian Abraham of Toronto hardcore band Fucked Up give a short, but impassioned intro where he related how the film had changed his life when he saw it at 13. He explained how its direct energy and rawness convinced him to give up the “hippy music” of The Grateful Dead and others and embrace punk and hardcore full on. It is indeed in my opinion this visceral, honest and non-pretentious quality of the film that is its greatest strength. Between the hi-jinks and blissful performances, the film captures and distills a moment in punk.

The People Vs. George Lucas (D:Alexandre Philippe; USA)

The highly anticipated  The People Vs. George Lucas is ultimately, and perhaps unfortunately in the opinion of some, a friendly and loving expose into fan reaction to the second half of the Lucas legacy, including the Special Edition versions of the original Star Wars trilogy and the umm… disappointing quality of the Star Wars’ prequels. It explores the issue of cultural ownership and whether or not something so embraced, integral, and absorbed into pop culture and popular consciousness such as Star Wars becomes in a way owned by the fans and should not be tampered with even by the creator and legal owner of the intellectual property. Featuring candid interviews of fans, cultural pundits, and other filmmakers and Lucas mentors’ like Francis Ford Coppola, interspersed with tons of great clips from fan made videos, homages and remakes, Philippe creates a film that reveals the extraordinary alive and endlessly detailed debate and embrace of the Star Wars franchise by members of the public.

The bulk of the film centers around the impact the franchise had on fans and the rapid ascent of Lucas to the status of god after the original trilogy and his increasingly dramatic fall to become the devil in response to his unilateral “adjustments” to the original trilogy and the critical disaster of the prequels. The film effectively and passionately through interviews, recreates an oral history of the sense of the anger, outrage and confusion the fans had and continue to hold of Lucas’ unilateral changes to the original trilogy and his decision to discontinue and remove all availability of to the original versions. The latter move is seen by almost all as tantamount to rewriting history and an arrogant crime against those who had loved and supported Star Wars as it was. The film emphasizes that in today’s participatory culture, any art is a dynamic relationship between the creator and the fans, where everyone perhaps should have certain rights, rather than a static product subject to the complete whims of the creator. The film also equally aptly depicts the massive anticipation, eagerness, and expectation that the prequels were met with and the slow sad admission of their ultimate, in the opinion of many, horrible quality. Through such a recounting, the documentary explores the debate on whether the legacy of a creation can be damaged by that which follows, or whether it is possible, in the words of fans, that “George Lucas raped their childhood”.

What arises most dramatically from the documentary is a portrait of a complicated and conflicting person in Lucas that, on one hand is a militant creator and business man all about control, ownership and profit, but also on the other hand a completely open, embracing and daring true artist willing to push the boundaries of what is possible in special effects. This dichotomy is especially epitomized in his harsh totalitarian obliteration of the original version of the classic trilogy, contrasted by his vigorous encouragement of fan creations derived from Star Wars that lesser people may have prosecuted. Most poignantly is that in either case, the documentary reveals a person who has been trapped by the success of Star Wars and by the endless pressure from fans for more.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, May 18th, 2010 at 10:58 am and is filed under Arts, Events, Film. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.