[Event Review] Unnamed Footage Festival

While I couldn’t attend the festival in person, I was able to screen several truly original found footage and faux documentary films from the Unnamed Footage Festival and was thoroughly impressed with the levels of talent and ingenuity displayed within the curation. 

Focused mainly on feature length films with a few showings of shorts such as Posted No Hunting, a clever little stop motion animated horror film from Alisa Stern, there was a nice combination of horror, sci-fi, and thriller sub-genres. The films were screened March 17-20th in several different venues in San Francisco including the Alamo Drafthouse, The Roxie, The Balboa, and others. 

It takes a lot of effort to really make it in the found footage world. For every The Blair Witch Project, there’s twenty lesser known and less successful attempts, and as difficult as the sub-genre can be to pull off, it is the very definition of DIY filmmaking. Often inexpensive and almost always challenging to shoot, found footage can be an acquired taste. The shaky camera and sometimes cringey acting can distract from whatever scary image is hidden in the frame, but at the same time, there is something so very sinister in only being able to see what is directly in front of you. The camera is both a foil for witnessing everything that is happening and our only way into the story. It can be infuriating to hear the screams of terror off screen, only to witness the aftermath. It can be exhausting thinking the characters should be putting the camera down and running for their lives instead of stupidly wasting energy (and a hand that could be used to protect themselves) “documenting” the encounter as if it matters after they’re dead. 

All that said, there’s an undeniable magic when watching a good horror found footage film. The anxiety that is built is palpable. We get to know the characters as if they are our friends. They make us want to scream (hello, Heather Donahue), they are us if we were unlucky enough to lose our way while hiking in a haunted forest, they make stupid decisions, but wouldn’t we if that level of terror were inescapable? 

The darkness that envelops a tent, the distant sounds of screaming, the surreal descent into madness after the death of a friend, the moment before jumping headfirst off a cliff – these are only a few of the moments explored in the films I screened for the Unnamed Footage Festival. 

The Zand Order

The Zand Order from writer/director Sarah Goras Peterson is a somewhat by-the-books story about a woman searching for the cult she believes was responsible for her daughter’s murder. After hiring a filmmaker to document the search and an experienced tracker to help guide the group on the trail of the cult, the women encounter strange happenings once the sun goes down. As the clues lead them further into the woods, time and location become obsolete, causing hysteria and paranoia at a deep level, ultimately leading to the women turning on each other. 

The Zand Order has too many familiar aspects to really stand out as original, and the acting at times feels too unhinged, bordering on melodramatic. The mother/daughter angle would have been harder hitting if there was more of a sense of urgency, but as the story stands, the character is merely attempting to prove that the cult exists. 

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Bolt Driver 

From Van Alpert and Nick Corirossi, Bolt Driver hits a little close to home in the current U.S. political landscape. The film, inspired by Taxi Driver, follows outcast Travis (Nick Corirossi) as he takes a job as a driver for Uber-like ride share company Bolt to make money and meet women, documenting his rides and life primarily through social media streams. The film is shot entirely on an iPhone, providing a brutally accurate look at incel culture. 

Travis deems himself worthy of the attention of every woman who books his Bolt ride, and when they ultimately become creeped out by his incessant negging, the audience gets a terrifying look at just how dangerous it can be for a woman merely looking to pay for a ride home. Bolt Driver is a mirror held up to a particular subsect of society, unfortunately that sect wouldn’t get the message even if they saw the film, and I have no doubt there are some who would idolize Travis as much as any other incel live streamer. 

FTW

In what feels akin to 90s do-nothing slacker films (such as Harmony Korine’s KIDS), Jorge Torres-Torres’ FTW is an intimate look at the aftermath of the death of a friend. Classified as a documentary, FTW watches Kristopher and Ryan stumble through life, increasingly untethered to a reality whose rules they refuse to adhere to. In a series of random thoughts and scenes, FTW requires patience and empathy from the viewer, as some of what the characters say and do can be difficult to understand. But as a means of exploring the often-confusing stages of grief, the film is deeper than one would initially assume and is well worth the time. 

Base

There is an entire community of people who live their lives on the edge, always searching for the most extreme levels of adrenaline, risking it all for the thrill of the jump. Base jumpers are about as extreme as it gets, and Base, a mixture of real-life footage and a loosely drawn narrative, is the most thrilling film I’ve seen in a long time. 

To be honest, I don’t want to say too much about Richard Parry’s Base. Starring the late Alexander Polli, a real-life base jumper, as a man who becomes infatuated with his dead friend’s girlfriend, the film features nerve-wracking footage of base jumping that would in itself keep the viewer on the edge of their seats. That combined with a heartbreaking and morally gray storyline provides a fantastic viewing experience. 

The Outwaters

From the most thrilling, to the most frightening, The Outwaters from writer/director Robbie Banfitch is a film I’ll most certainly be adding to my collection when it (hopefully) gets its Arrow Blu-ray release. 

When four friends travel to the desert to film a music video, the limits of space, time, and sanity are tested as something otherworldly, and horrific, is awakened. Through spine-chilling diagetic and non-diegetic sound design, that which isn’t seen in the often-narrow beam of a flashlight is the very terror that haunts your nightmares. The Outwaters delves into extremity in artistic and unique ways, crafting a one-of-a-kind film that absolutely must be seen to be believed.

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