Highlights from the Middlebury New Filmmakers Festival

By Bruce Bouchard

Editor’s note: Bruce Bouchard is former executive director of The Paramount Theatre.

The Middlebury New Filmmaker Festival (MNFF)celebrated its 10th birthday last week. The festival has grown into a formidable venture and is now recognized as a first-rate small festival. The festival welcomed Oliver Stone this past week, a great “get” for the festival and for Vermont. What follows are a few suggestions of excellent films from the festival. Some are available on streaming devices. Special note: If you don’t have the free app, JUST WATCH, download it and click the notification button to hear of available viewing platforms.

“Totem” (Narrative feature, subtitles)

Totem: noun, is “the natural or inanimate being or symbol assuming the emblem of clan, family or group.”

A large party, in an urban Mexican city (Monterrey? Guadalajara?) both anticipated and dreaded, is in a swirl of preparation activity. Seven-year-old Sol (Sun) the soul of this film, and a revelation, is paying close attention. Mothers, fathers, grandfathers, aunts, uncles, multiple cousins and friends, come together for this very special event. Sisters squabble, argue and laugh, the children act up. Cakes are baked and decorations hung. A shaman arrives and performs a Mayan ritual of banishing evil spirits. Sol is swept up in a headwind of the birthday about to unfold. The party is for her father, Tona, a celebrated painter. The party arrives and Sol begins to realize the depth of the situation. Near the conclusion of the party young Sol offers a “coming of age” performance unequaled in my experience. For a deep dive into the beautiful Mexican culture go to AppleTV+

“Just Getting By” (Documentary)

This film is by Vermont’s own Bess O’Brien, Vermont’s premiere documentarian (“The Hungry Heart” and many others). Formidable director Bess O’Brien flies directly into the face of the homeless plight in Vermont today with this sweeping yet intimate story. Vermont has the second highest population of homeless people per capita after California. She also shines an unblinking light on the motel housing initiative (just terminated this past June — in which thousands of families and individuals were evicted). Preconceptions and stereotypes are deconstructed as we walk into the lives of the people living in motels — families of five living in a single room, seniors and veterans who cannot survive on their Social Security — in this era of inflation and skyrocketing housing costs. O’Brien humanizes everything she touches with the skills of a truly gifted documentarian, empathy and trust, as she gains entry and takes her camera inside many lives of Vermonters struggling with housing and food insecurity. I would guess that this one will show up on Vermont PBS.

“ Los Frikis ” (Narrative feature filmed in Dominican Republic, with an all Cuban cast, subtitles)

Two dynamic American writers/directors bring a story set in the early 1990s, a severe time of Castro repression. AIDS has come to Cuba. The story, inspired by true events, centers around a group of punk rockers (listening to American music puts people in jail; arguing with the soldiers in the cane fields gets them shot dead) who in search of freedom and living in dire hunger, deliberately inject HIV-contaminated fluids so they can live at a government run sanitorium to create their own utopia. The story centers around two Cuban brothers, Paco (Hector Medina) and Gustavo (Eros de la Puente) and a kindly nurse (Adria Arjuna) at the sanitorium. All three actors are breakout stars, and the performance by Medina is as fine a performance as you will see. This unified cast and the brilliantly constructed arc of the movie makes it one of the finest narrative features I have seen in a long time. It is a perfect film. It was the winner of the Best Narrative Feature in the Festival. Download the app “Just Watch” for notifications.

“Robert Shields: My life as a robot” (Documentary)

Anybody remember “Shields and Yarnell?” This delightful and heartfelt documentary is a one-of-a-kind and I loved it without reservation. Robert Shields, born in Los Angeles, did not speak until the age of 5. He did, however, dance, cavort and dive onto and over furniture. His mother knew he was destined for show business. His evolution as a performer (he perfected the “robot moves” which have become ubiquitous today as a distinct performance style), were wholly unique at the time. Shields quickly went from working as a mime on Hollywood Boulevard to playing to thousands of people in Union Square, San Francisco. He once opened for the Rolling Stones, he played for two presidents and a queen, and after teaming up with (and marrying Lorene Yarnell) they appeared as “Shields and Yarnell,” becoming huge hits on prime-time television and in Los Vegas. Interviews with Hollywood agents and producers abounded. Robert Shields was kissed by angels and the time spent with him seated and talking directly into the camera is time well spent. Caution: he cannot stop performing. Download the app “Just Watch” for notification.

“Hangdog” (Narrative fiction)

This delicious little feature wins the viewer over through the huge talent of the central character.  Set entirely in Portland, Maine, anxiety-riddled Walt (he has a nerdy Sacha Baron Cohen vibe) has been charged with caring for his and his girlfriend’s dog while she is away on business in New York. The dog is stolen after he ties it up outside a weed dispensary (for anxiety, remember). The stakes are through the roof as the girlfriend might just love the dog more than she loves Walt. His uber-hyper odyssey takes him throughout Portland, as he mixes with colorful and eccentric locals and confronts his anxiety and his ability to make human connections. A sweet little movie of affirmation and unity. Desmin Borges’ Walt carries the film. I predict he will have a huge career.