Indies I Recommend

Earlier this year, when I was naive enough to think I could somehow change the world (well, not the world as much as a city), I got in my head this idea that I could start a screening series called Indies for Indies. We had a willing venue, so armed with a bunch of ideas stolen from Ted Hope, I set up a series of indie films. And, man, we showed some great films in a stunningly beautiful. The thing is, no one showed up. And not just for the series. No one was showing up for stuff like Sergio Leone films, for Annie Hall, The 400 Blows. We put the series on hiatus and soon after that, the theatre closed. It was a shame, because we could have done great things for indie film in Pittsburgh.

What can you do, right?

Anyway, the very first film we screened as part of the series was Amir Motlagh's Whale, a beautiful film about heartbreak, a lo-fi, found art film made by a supremely talented filmmaker. It's messy--intentionally so--but has more raw, honest truth than any film I've seen this year. Amir very quickly jumped to the top of my list of filmmakers to watch.

And now Whale is available for your home viewing pleasure. You can buy DVDs all over the place, and you can even rent it for a mere $0.99 on YouTube. Don't tell me you can't afford that. Do it. Rent it. Buy a DVD. You won't regret it.

whale_feature film trailer_director Amir Motlagh from Amir Motlagh on Vimeo.

Previously...

TILT (28 July 2010)