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“Have you ever had a memory of a memory?” The question comes from an invisible prosecutor. His beleaguered witness, bewildered, remembers that he once took a friend’s story (a strange story about a pervert who gave away bologna on a street corner) and presented it as his own. Juxtaposed with the dialogue is a still image from “The Sandlot,” the 1993 family comedy.
Comprised of many other provocations (cut-out questions about the industry combined with 35-millimeter publicity stills from many major films, including “Apollo 13” and “Bamboozled”), writer-director James N. Kienitz Wilkins’ “Still Film” is a impressive, sharp critique of the regressive artistic sensibilities that plague contemporary Hollywood.
This challenging experimental film is presented in test form. These are four invisible characters: prosecutor, accused, witness and recorder. Each one has the voice of the director. Players offer conspiracy theories about an evil Tom Hanks and notable talking points about the erosion of the movie experience. Movie stills shine placidly, like old vacation photos projected through a slide projector.
Finally, the circular dialogue finds a center: the film posits that Hollywood, through its dependence on existing intellectual property, satisfies our desire for an uncomplicated past, imposing suffocating limits on artists and crushing the public’s collective imagination. Wilkins demands that we create new cinematic memories, so that we don’t get lost.
still film
Not qualified. Duration: 1 hour 12 minutes. On cinemas.