YEAST
In May of 2008 the generous staff of the Maryland Film Festival brought me down to Baltimore for a screening of The Upsetter. I arrived on the Amtrak a few hours early with time to kill and nothing to do. The theater on Charles Street where the festival was being held was literally around the corner from the Amtrak station. I wandered into the theater and after picking up the festival guide I randomly stumbled into an afternoon screening for a film called YEAST. I had never heard of this film - or anyone in it - and the description in the program guide said something to the effect of “most people probably wont like this film” so needless to say I was sold.
YEAST is independent filmmaking at its absolute best. At the Q&A after the screening when someone asked the director (Mary Bronstein) what possessed her to make this film she said she wanted to make a “buddy movie in which the buddies wanted to kill each other.” I love that.
The film’s about 3 girlfriends/roommates in an apartment somewhere that looked like Brooklyn. There’s not really any exposition, back-story or character development (which is refreshing cause I cant bare to watch movies with any of that shit these days) but the assumption is at one point these girls were friends and now they really detest each other.
At the beginning they decide to go on a camping trip upstate together. They run into some guys wading in a creek (my homies Josh & Benny Safdie in a hilarious cameo) and respond to their friendly advances by throwing rocks at them. As the “story” progressed I found myself on the edge of my seat, totally hooked in this psychotic world.
Josh later told me that Mary Bronstein is married to Ronald Bronstein and played the girlfriend in Ronald’s film Frownland. Ronald has numerous credits on YEAST including Editor and Assistant Director.
YEAST is the perfect female counterpart to Frownland. The main difference being YEAST is completely immersed in reality. It plays closer to documentary. Perhaps that’s due to the fact that it’s shot on Mini DV and Frownland was 16mm.
Frownland also has an eerie dream-like quality to it that makes it feel like you’re watching public access television at 3 in the morning after a long night of drinking and a gravity bong hit.
Both films are about roommates that detest each other.
Frownland made me think of a guy in the dorms we used to call Mr. Manners. We never knew this guy’s real name. For an entire year he never left his room or changed clothes. He played Doom constantly on his PC. He was a hairy troll without a voice. The dude in Frownland WAS Mr. Manners.
And perhaps Mr. Manners explains why I love these films so much. Movies that most people detest.
Or perhaps it’s simply cause I’m sick of calling-card indie filmmaking that attempts nothing more than to mirror big budget studio films. You know who you are and you should be ashamed of yourselves.
