Category: Buffalo Niagara Film Festival

BNFF12 REVIEW: Beware Pickpocket [2010]

Jared Mobarak

“How did you get it?” We all strive to be pure, to be worthy of those we love. Oftentimes, however, such illusions of grandeur are nothing more than a façade to hide who we really are. Even in dream the titular petty thief (David Amito) of Beware Pickpocket sees himself as the bloodied punching bag of the victims he isn’t quite good enough to escape. You can dress a criminal to look upstanding, but he can change himself. So, despite putting on the clothes and practicing the smile of success…

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BNFF12 REVIEW: Kaziah the Goat Woman [2010]

Jared Mobarak

“Maybe because I picked up the brush I can leave a little love behind” Up in Manti, Utah lives a woman for which the word eccentric doesn’t quite do justice. Emotional, spiritual, joyful, and without regret, Kaziah Hancock has overcome a hard life to become an American treasure cherished by those unfortunate families dealt the devastating blow of losing a member during the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. A goat herder by day to sustain herself monetarily, it’s her work with Project Compassion and the vow to never stop painting…

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BNFF12 REVIEW: Aloneliness [2011]

Jared Mobarak

“I’m at the front door” It’s hard to believe that Sid Bodalia‘s Aloneliness is a student film. After living in New Jersey and eventually attending the Maryland Institute College of Art for degrees in design and painting, the young artist moved all the way to Mumbai, India in order to pursue a career in filmmaking at Whistling Woods International. I can only imagine the wealth of talent and collaboration between departments and disciplines that allowed for such a stunning psychological thriller to look and feel as though made with studio…

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BNFF12 REVIEW: Dot Got Shot [2011]

Jared Mobarak

“Stop walking me home” Making its rounds through underground film festivals, Honey Lauren‘s Dot Got Shot brings a relevant psychological punch with its ultra low-budget aesthetic. The acting is not the greatest and the cinematography choices may be a bit too artsy at times, but the story of Dot—a decorated policewoman haunted by the nightmares of reliving the moment she was shot in the head breaking up a domestic squabble—is unique enough to overcome its faults. Written, co-directed with Carlos Ramos Jr., and starring Lauren, the short crime drama finds…

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BNFF12 REVIEW: Tarantula Moonrocket [2011]

Jared Mobarak

“Break a paparazzo’s camera; smash up a hotel room” Before he moved to Los Angeles to live the dream, I had the pleasure of seeing Jack Hunter perform the Richard Burton role in a local Buffalo production of Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? His turn contained a perfect amount of gravitas while the intimate setting of Irish Classical Theatre’s ‘in the round’ layout allowed all to see the nuance in his detailed characterization. So, when learning he starred in a short film donning the KISS-like make-up of a bygone era’s…

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BNFF12 REVIEW: Departures [2011]

Jared Mobarak

“Ne’ wick?” It’s the kind of story you hear about often—spouses separated by continents in order to work towards making a better life for their family. A breadwinner wins the opportunity for immigration to the United States while his/her second half must remain home for years before the chance for reunion presents itself. But whether it takes one, five, or in this instance ten years to once more achieve the loving embrace that feels but a fleeting memory after so much time, the joy of being together again trumps all…

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BNFF12 REVIEW: YERT: Your Environmental Road Trip [2011]

Jared Mobarak

“We’re driving the bed, right?” With a goofy acronym for a name—YERT: Your Environmental Road Trip—and a tagline promising to be ‘An Environmental Documentary That’s NOT Depressing!’, you can imagine a lot of eye-rolling and trepidation when sitting down to see just how true a statement that marketing line could be. But then you meet Mark Dixon and Ben Evans, two guys living their lives with a yearning to do more as their world disintegrates around them. Quitting their jobs—the former leaving the comforts of his cubicle and the latter…

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BNFF12 REVIEW: Dan Zimmerman: Musician, Painter, Cosmic Patriot [2009]

Jared Mobarak

“The phrase that each of us is unique and irreplaceable is so powerful” A man caught between the spiritual world of his faith and the material one of his craft, Dan Zimmerman has lofty ideals to support his work and life. In Thomas Florek‘s short documentary Dan Zimmerman: Musician, Painter, Cosmic Patriot, we experience the thought process behind the New Jersey-based surrealist through his own words. Every second contains either the artist in interview or his voice in song melodically touching our soul as the camera pans over high-resolution photos…

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BNFF12 REVIEW: The Pact [2011]

Jared Mobarak

“You officially have a stalker—ME!” It’s the kind of gentlemen’s agreement you can see yourself making in the heat of a drunken bout with self-pity: swear off the opposite sex for a year in order to cleanse your soul of the one who left. For brothers Grant (Neil Brookshire) and Ancel Fox (Aaron Toronto) it’s a blood pact to reclaim their manhood and find success through independence. Well, maybe just for Grant—earning a promotion at work and meeting girls to have fun with as friends without constantly wonder about the…

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BNFF12 REVIEW: 2 Kings [2011]

Jared Mobarak

“You Left Me” After reading the letter that came with my screener for Jon Alex‘s 2 Kings, I was excited to see what magic was wrought by this young creative who wrote, directed, starred, and did everything but write the song. The praise was high and the name-dropping intriguing—both Norman Mailer and James Cromwell made the cut to recommend the budding auteur through proxy either knowingly or not. Even the premise of identical twins dealing with one’s descent into insanity begged to be treated with an open mind and I…

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BNFF12 REVIEW: Shuffle [2010]

Jared Mobarak

“What was he doing up anyway?” The last line of a Steve McQueen quote used as an epilogue to Garrett Bennett‘s Shuffle sums the theme of the film up nicely: “I was always kind of a coward until I had to prove it to myself.” These are words I believe everyone could relate to—whether you had love growing up or not. At some point each and every one of us must find an excuse to keeping going. We cannot live our lives indebted to another’s cause or desires. So many…

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