Review - We Are One Festival

A couple of weeks back, there was an online film festival held on YouTube, called the We Are One Festival. It was a slightly strange mishmash of an event, in which film festivals from around the world provided a selection of films which were then presented to the general public. There's a lot to digest about this and a lot I'm hoping to get to, so let me break down what we're going to do here today. First, I'm going to talk about five films I saw that particularly stuck with me, recommending why you should either seek out them or other works by those filmmakers. After that, I'm going to talk about what I think about the festival as a whole; the idea, the execution, the potential future of the idea. Let's waste no more time then!

Crazy World

Crazy World was the only film I watched that was actually feature length, but it was unique in more ways than just that. For those who are unaware, this is the newest film from Ugandan filmmaking studio Wakaliwood. They hit massive notoriety with their film Who Killed Captain Alex? and this fits exactly the same formula as that. Technically, it's not a masterpiece of action. The budget that these films have is near to non-existent and on screen it shows. However, the flip side of that is that you feel every bit of heart that went into this. A film like Suicide Squad has a huge budget but lacks the charm that films like Crazy World can offer. It also follows on from Who Killed Captain Alex? in having a "video joker", which is a man who talks over the film and makes jokes about it, adding to the chaos and hilarity of the film. Look past the cheap artifice and you find a film that is simply delighted to exist, a delight that is infectious. I watched it with some friends over a watch party service and we all laughed and cheered together for the entire seventy minute runtime. You can pre-order a DVD copy today on their website and while you're there, do check out their other films and merchandise, Wakaliwood both need and deserve your cash.

Blood Rider

I believe that the very best documentaries are formally playful, be they something like Tower, The Imposter or, of course, Exit Through the Gift Shop. Most documentaries don't do that though, so they have to be really exceptionally made to stand out. As you probably guessed from this build-up, Blood Rider is one such film. It is about Nigeria and the issue with getting blood to the right hospitals in time to allow for transfusions. We follow one such "blood rider", a man on a motorbike with a full tank and cooler full of blood, standing by in case he is needed. As you may expect, that time comes. The reason I loved this film was that it redefines itself, switching from documentary to thriller, making its stakes immediately clear. It is a very simple film, but lean and ruthlessly efficient. The feelings it wants you to feel are clear and it absolutely aces it. If you find this floating around, check it out and I know I'll be watching whatever this filmmaker releases next.

Forever's Gonna Start Tonight

Quite a few films from the festival were older films that were submitted to festivals in previous years. One of those films was Forever's Gonna Start Tonight, an early film by director Eliza Hittman. Hittman has released a few features over the last few years, including It Felt Like Love and Beach Rats but had a massive arthouse hit this year with Never Rarely Sometimes Always. This short film is the film that preceded all of those, putting her work on the map and having now seen it myself, I completely get why. This is a beautifully weaved story of a young Russian girl on a night out in New York, capturing that ephemerally gorgeous feeling of being young and carefree. Right now, it's the film I needed, depicting the kind of life that many of us had before a pre-COVID world in a way that could easily be mistaken for a documentary. I hadn't seen anything Hittman made before watching this but immediately after, I paid to rent Never Rarely Sometimes Always and plan to watch that in the next few days.

Vertical Shapes in a Horizontal Landscape

Just like our last film, Vertical Shapes in a Horizontal Landscape is a short film from a few years ago that represents an early work of a now established filmmaker, in this case the Cornish director Mark Jenkin. Jenkin directed Bait last year, a film that many immediately heralded as a modern British masterpiece. Though I haven't seen Bait, Vertical Shapes is clearly a very different film. It's a sort of travellogue in which Jenkin travels through the south coast of England and reflects on the art and artists who live there. It is meandering, slightly aimless and probably far too out there for the average viewer. I, however, am not the average viewer, I thrive on stuff outside the mainstream and I found this a beautifully soothing film, in a similar vein to certain films by Mark Cousins. Honestly, there isn't much to say. It's a simple film but it absolutely hit the spot for me. So much did it hit the spot that I bought Bait on blu-ray after watching it, not just to finally see what the fuss is about but also because of the promise of more short films from Jenkin included as special features. Even if I don't enjoy Bait, more like this sounds like a dream.

The Distance Between Us and The Sky

While watching The Distance Between Us and The Sky, I kept thinking that the dialogue felt a bit wooden and I personally wasn't getting much from it, yet weeks on from seeing it, the film has still stuck with me. It's the story of a man in a gas station who doesn't have enough money to get home and finds himself flirting with another man with a bike, perhaps hoping for a ride or maybe something more. The reason this film works is an intangible spark that all of the best romances have. The two characters, despite their slightly odd dialogue, feel like two real humans, really falling in love and whether down to the actors, the direction or a mix of all three, I would be lying if I said it doesn't work. It all ends on this serene final shot which cemented the film in my mind as this (we're using the phrase again) ephemerally beautiful artifact of a life we can no longer live. Oh to be somewhere in Eastern Europe, accidentally falling in love with a stranger. Whether a rumoured feature length adaptation arises or the director creates something brand new, I can't wait to see it.

We Are One and The Future

With the films from the festival now discussed, I want to talk about the festival as a whole. I'm lucky in that I have been to a few festivals in my life (London Film Festival, London Sundance Film Festival and Cambridge Film Festival), so I'm hoping to try and compare it. Honestly though, a great deal of the comparison could be done by someone who hasn't been to any, because I think the biggest benefit of this format has been accessibility. Film festivals are a wonderful opportunity and due to our current pandemic, we've seen everything from Cannes to Frightfest be called off, but this is a great chance to rethink them a bit. Like I said, I'm lucky that I've been to some festivals. Not everyone gets that chance. If you don't have the money for it or are geographically distant from any major hub, getting to an actual in person festival is incredibly difficult. Putting all of these films on YouTube for free for a week completely levels the playing field. Financial barriers and geographical barriers are removed. All you need is an internet connection, something most people are equipped with, and you can join the conversation. It creates a more inclusive atmosphere than any of the snobbish, difficult to get into festivals could ever dream of, even with their half hearted attempts and programs to aid inclusivity.

There's also the fact that even when people do go to film festivals, especially not as a member of the press, they won't always push the boat out too far. When I go to a festival, I try and make a habit of seeing at least one film I know nothing about but even then, something draws me in. Perhaps it's critical buzz, perhaps it's an actor, it may even be a composer (yeah, I know, shut up), but something always draws me to these films. When every film is free though, I feel excited to experiment. Whereas you may be dissuaded from seeing a short film program because it's the other side of the city to the really exciting premiere you want to get to at a brick and mortar festival, that barrier has again been removed.

I understand that a film being submitted to a big name festival is a really big deal. Even if your film is selected to play at Cannes and is regarded as being pretty shit, the fact is that you still played at Cannes. Institutions like Cannes or Venice have to have an air of snobbery because it's how their label contains value. Having seen how festivals have given over films to be aired free though, I see a future. A festival can select a handful of films to appear under their banner and then can be released globally on a platform like this. What today is a necessity due to travel restrictions could become the next step in film festivals. Exclusivity and limited attendance builds buzz, yada yada yada, but film criticism could certainly benefit from geographic and monetary barriers being levelled, allowing a whole new generation of potential critics to rise, people whose platform is even smaller than mine yet whose writing is five times as good! That is the future that We Are One hints at and personally, though I cherish the in person experience, I think it's the way film festivals should ultimately head.