Film
Parade
Cert:(adv 15)
Dir. Brandon Cahoon
USA , 83 mins, 2008
Cast: Ryan Reyes, Tommy Tate, Adam Ruiz, Zach Devitt
The short film Love Does Grow On Trees will be shown before this film.
Two very different takes on Utah are on offer in this year's Uncharted strand: there's Brave New West, a documentary about how corners of the Beehive State have been “morphing at the speed of greed”, and there's Parade, a moodily impressionistic debut feature which follows a pair of best-pal cousins as they explore various urban and rural locales and negotiate the transition from – to nick a phrase from the Kings of Leon – youth to young manhood.
And music of the indie/alternative stripe is a crucial element both in the characters' lives and the ambience created by the director – in this regard, it's reminiscent of Mike Ott's Analog Days, part of the first BIFF Uncharted selection in 2007. But Parade, which was selected for Nanni Moretti's final stint in charge of the prestigious Torino Film Festival last October, is very much its own beast – indeed, part of what makes the film special is that it shows a young, talented director learning about the medium as he goes along, experimenting with tones, textures and techniques, and taking the audience along with him.
If that suggests that the results are in any way provisional or rough-edged, then it may be surprising just how professional, slick (in a good way) and assured Cahoon's debut turns out to be. It's a fine example of “emotion recollected in tranquillity”, an artist looking back at a crucial, transitional phase in his own development.
According to Cahoon, “the period of my life that I remembered as the most ambiguous was adolescence: that phase when we're between 12 and 18 years old, when it feels like we're dealing with insurmountable problems and time seems to be infinite. Later in life we tend to think that those teenage days of our life went by too fast...”
Neil Young
Other films showing that are part of Uncharted States are:
