LAFF 2015: MISSING PEOPLE

A scene from Missing People.

Murder and memory

By Miranda Inganni

After Martina Batan’s brother, Jeffrey, was stabbed to death at the age of 14 in 1978, she stopped trying to sleep.  

Thirty or so years later, director David Sharpiro focuses on Martina and her obsession with a relatively unknown artist and her need to delve back into her brother’s unsolved murder in his moving documentary, Missing People.

Martina tries not to sleep for fear of nightmares, suppressing the trauma of losing her youngest sibling. Once an outgoing, upbeat, if off-beat, vibrant young woman, she now distracts herself with building a large Lego cube and caring for her dogs. She is also obsessed with the works of Roy Ferdinand, a prolific artist with no formal training. Ferdinand drew what he saw in the poor African-American neighborhoods of New Orleans, especially a lot of violence.

Having died from cancer in 2008, Martina wants to curate a collection of his work and donate it to an American institution, bringing him the attention she believes he deserves. Before she can do that, however, she wants to learn as much as she can about Ferdinand and find more of his art.

Martina meets Ferdinand’s sisters. While seemingly from very disparate backgrounds,  the three women find commonality in familial sorrow and loss. Whatever hesitations and mistrust may have been present, eventually vanish as the three continue to talk about their relationship to Ferdinand, plus her brother.

Perhaps due to this new found friendship, Martina is spurred on to hire a private investigator to look into her brother’s murder. Despite the fact that the original detectives are dead, PI Conor McCourt uncovers some new and disturbing information. These new discoveries prove to be too much for Martina to handle.

Shapiro and his crew intertwine Martina’s narrative with old footage of Ferdinand and his sisters’ stories of the various personas he invented, as well as commentary from some of Martina’s friends and coworkers. Martina’s quiet hurt, confusion and profound sorrow is presented without judgement and backed with a score -- featuring several new songs from different composers -- that is thoughtful and respectful. (And the soundtrack includes Wire's "Strange" and Buzzcocks' "Why Can't I Touch It?"!)

 

 

Missing People screens at LAFF: June 12, 8:45 p.m.; June 14, 8:55 p.m. For more information: Missing.

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LAFF 2013: LEVITATED MASS

A scene from Levitated Mass: The Story of Michael Heizer's Monolithic Sculpture.

Rock and road

By Miranda Inganni

Energetic and highly enjoyable, director Doug Pray’s Levitated Mass: The Story of Michael Heizer’s Monolithic Sculpture brings to life the 2012 journey of a giant piece of granite through darkened city streets that caught the attention of mainstream media and sleepy communities alike.

In the late 1960s artist Michael Heizer envisioned the idea for “Levitated Mass,” a hulking rock balanced on top a long walkway. Decades later, Heizer received a call from his friends at Stone Valley Quarry in Riverside, CA saying that they had found Heizer his rock. Blasted out of the ground, the enormous mass sat where it was until a suitable location was found and the money raised to attempt to move it. No small feat, indeed. Step in Los Angeles County Museum of Art director Michael Govan and the art-loving donors who helped fund the $10 million transportation project.

Pray’s film does not try to explain Heizer’s vision, though Pray includes many clips from previously recorded interviews and shows a number of Heizer’s other installations and exhibits. And though it took over a year to figure out the engineering and logistics, the rock only traveled for 11 nights. Along the way, something seemingly magical happened, wherever the rock went, people followed. The public’s response was overwhelming. Some folks were bewildered, others saw a conspiracy, but mostly people were impressed at the largesse of it all.

With cinematography by Christopher Chomyn, Edwin Stevens and Pray that expertly captures the scale of the rock and the undertaking and a score by Akron/Family which highlights the drama and suspense (literal and figurative) of the film, Levitated Mass is a movie that will be sure to get audiences discussing the meaning of art and the amazing feats that humans continue to accomplish.

 

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