by Stephen McCullough

If highly intelligent men can’t stop themselves from hating their fellow man, is there any hope for the rest of us? This is the chilling question ultimately raised in The Parking Lot Movie. Filmed over the course of a year in the Corner Parking Lot in Charlottesville, VA, Meghan Eckman’s directorial debut documentary exhibits an unlikely cast of opinionated parking lot attendants. The film shows the humorous but slightly disturbing result when over-educated intellectuals work a service sector job.

The Corner Parking Lot’s proximity to the University of Virginia makes it an ideal workplace for graduate students. Poets, philosophers, and anthropologists are just some of the learned who work this lowly job. These young intellectuals exhibited their brainpower by finding a job that pays to do almost nothing. The lot owner, Chris Marina, is a jovial fellow who, by his own admission, cares more for his employees than he does for his customers. There’s no need to attract parkers in a busy restaurant and bar district. So Chris is a friend to his employees as much as he is a boss. And his employees respect him. The lack of real effort and the great employer make a job at the Corner Parking Lot difficult to land.

The film maintains a lighthearted, quirky tone as we learn the daily routine. Every morning they decorate the wooden entrance gate with random and cerebral slogans. They paper the walls of the “booth” with newspaper clippings, all of which must somehow incorporate the words “parking lot”. They overcharge the unruly and undercharge the flirtatious. It’s a lively place.

Although it sounds like a great job, there is constant tension between customers and attendants. The educated, bike-riders who work the lot all seem to have a developed a mortal hatred for the SUV driving frat boys that park there.

The attendants wonder why a guy driving a $50,000 automobile would quibble over a paltry parking fee. Does he think he’s entitled to a parking space? They spend a great deal of screen time complaining about people, and their complaining paints them in an ugly light. They are very much defined by their own bitterness. One would expect that years of graduate study would have given these men a decent understanding of humanity. But yet it seems their interaction with customers has done the most to shape their view of human nature.

On the surface The Parking Lot Movie is whimsical and quirky. In fact, I found myself hard pressed to discern any sort of structure. But as I thought about it afterward, the depth of this film became apparent. It is rich in deceptively subtle societal critique. For instance, why do people feel they can behave poorly toward those working service jobs? Do we view people in service jobs as servants, even sub-human? The film goes on to demonstrate that this rotten treatment results in class hatred—even in highly educated, yea even spiritual men. What is it about being looked down upon that makes one hate the condescender? Why would a guy who is about to give his dissertation in philosophy throw a wrench at car that drove away without paying?

While wrench throwing is an overt example of the revenge enacted by the attendants, many of them admit to a surprising feeling of godhood, desiring to mete out judgment on lousy parkers and rude customers in a variety of ways. One guy pulls the parking brake on any SUV that he parks, hoping devilishly that the owner will forget to release it and burn up his brakes. Being disrespected breeds disrespect, and these attendants have become downright spiteful.

The Parking Lot Movie makes us laugh while plumbing the depths of human nature. It is an unassuming but brilliant documentary.

Find The Parking Lot Movie on Netflix instant streaming.

Stephen McCullough is a documentary filmmaker and Christian missionary based in Atlanta, GA.

Rodman Flender’s comic documentary CONAN O’BRIEN CAN’T STOP, which had its world premiere on Sunday afternoon at the South by Southwest (SXSW) Film Festival in Austin, will be released across the U.S. in the coming months in a unique mutli-platform acquisition and distribution deal.  In the deal, AT&T will come onboard as a P&A and multi-platform distribution and marketing partner, and will sneak the film to their AT&T U-verse® TV subscribers on the eve of the film’s theatrical release.  Abramorama has come onboard to handle theatrical distribution of the film. Magnolia Home Entertainment has acquired the remaining Video-on-Demand (VOD) and home entertainment rights.

In 2010, after a much–publicized departure from hosting NBC’s Tonight Show – and the severing of a 22-year relationship with the network – O’Brien hit the road with a 32-city music-and-comedy show to exercise his performing chops and exorcise a few demons. The “Legally Prohibited From Being Funny on Television Tour” was O’Brien’s answer to a contractual stipulation that banned his appearance on television, radio and the Internet for six months following his last show.  Flender’s resulting documentary, CONAN O’BRIEN CAN’T STOP, is an intimate portrait of an artist trained in improvisation, captured at the most improvisational time of his career.  It offers a window into the private writers room and rehearsal halls as O’Brien’s “half-assed show” (his words) is almost instantly assembled and mounted to an adoring fan base.  At times angry, mostly hilarious, O’Brien works out his feelings about the very-public separation with comedy and rockabilly music, engaging in bits with on-stage guests such as Stephen Colbert, Jon Stewart and Jim Carrey, duetting with Jack White and sweating out manic Elvis Presley covers with his band and back-up singers. We see a comic who does not stop — performing, singing, pushing his staff and himself.

“Last year, with no traditional advertising in place and just one Tweet, Conan nearly sold out his entire 42 show tour in a matter of hours, with about 130,000 people in attendance throughout the national tour. This was a remarkable sign of the power of social media, and a clear message that it is not just business as usual,” said the film’s two producers Gavin Polone and Rachel Griffin. “For a film like ours, and with Conan at its center, it was imperative that we not follow typical business models in the release of this film.  This distribution deal has been structured in a way that satisfies our audience in every possible manner, and allows people to see the film on whichever platform they most prefer — be it on a big screen in a dark theater which lots of other fans or the small screen of their choice.  As part of this deal, AT&T will provide exclusive content related to the film to their customers – both on U-verse TV and also on AT&T mobile devices.”

Abramorama, headed by Richard Abramowitz (who steered theatrical campaigns for films that include ANVIL! THE STORY OF ANVIL and the Oscar-nominated EXIT THROUGH THE GIFT SHOP), will shepherd the film theatrically nationwide with special theatrical “event” screenings.  In a last minute piece of the deal, Magnolia Home Entertainment has come onboard and will begin to show the film on VOD following the exclusive window on U-verse TV, and then Magnolia will release the film onto DVD and other digital platforms.

“Conan has a very large and passionate fan base and we’re excited to give them an exclusive, first-look at this documentary on the AT&T U-verse platform of their choice,” said Dan York, president of content, AT&T. “This deal is another example of how we continue to deliver unique content to our customers across all screens and platforms.”

The deal was negotiated by Liesl Copland at WME Global on behalf of the filmmakers, with Brent Imai and Richard Wellerstein at AT&T, Richard Abramowitz for Abramorama, and Tom Quinn at Magnolia Home Entertainment.

by Stephen McCullough

Facing Ali can hold its head up proudly among the documentaries of 2010. It is a unique portrait of one of the most celebrated athletes of all time. It is both inspiring and emotional, while still maintaining the machismo of the sport it highlights. More than a sports documentary about what makes a champion, Facing Ali explores what makes a man.

Although the entire film is about past events, the slick editing and the gorgeously photographed interviews draw us into the story. The film was one of the first features shot on RED cameras, and it shows off RED’s surprising color capabilities. The lighting is dramatic, without losing precise skin tone. These beautiful interviews are interspersed with archival footage that was meticulously restored to stand next to the interviews.

In fact, Ali only appears in archival footage. We never get a personal interview with him. However, that doesn’t mean we don’t get insight into who he really was. On the contrary, we discover that he touched the lives of nearly every man he fought in profound ways. His opponents reveal the immense respect they had for Ali, (yes, perhaps less-so for Joe Frazier), and how for many of them, a fight with Ali put them on the map–even though they may have lost!

On a different level, the film is about respect. Not just the respect one fighter has for a worthy opponent, but the respect that the African American community had for Ali. He stood up and proclaimed his self-worth at a time when such pride was beaten out of many people of color.

Not everybody thought well of Ali, however, and the film doesn’t hide the fact that his religious and political views were deeply divisive in the African American community. But rather than dwelling on controversy, the film uses this tension to highlight the conflict between Ali and Joe Frazier, the man Ali dubbed an “Uncle Tom.” A note of humor is that Frazier didn’t even know what the insult meant at the time!

But the film moves beyond Ali and explores the defining moments in the lives of his opponents, some in the ring, and some out of the ring. As we learn more about the background of Ali’s opponents, a pattern emerges: people who grew up fighting for their place in the world are the best boxers. And yet each one has had maturing experiences that have made them more than a mere pugilist. These interviews provide candid insight into the hearts of some of our nation’s fiercest fighters.

It is worth noting that the film’s structure, following a history of each big fight is simple and easy to follow. The opening credits are a marvel of modern editing and titling. The soundtrack is jazzy and understated. I was hoping for more hip-hop, but that would not have truly represented the eras in which the matches described took place. Bottom line: the film is a masterpiece of character, cinematography, and digital imaging that lays bare the heart of a fighter.

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Stephen McCullough is a documentarian, videographer, and Christian missionary based in Atlanta, GA.

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MUBI Links:

Facing Ali

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by Stephen McCullough

Restrepo is an excellent war documentary–completely down to earth, just like the infantrymen that are part of the film. And it shows us war through the eyes of soldiers. No intellectuals, no politicians, no demonstrators. Just a group of men engaged in brutal struggle.

The story is pretty simple. The U.S. Army’s Second Platoon has been sent to the Korengal Valley to open a roadway. To do this, they have to defend their base against the Taliban insurgents. The film’s name comes from the platoon medic, “Doc” Restrepo, who is shot and killed early in the film. His death is very hard on the unit, but ultimately their sorrow gels their will to fight. To gain control of the valley, they must establish a firebase atop a strategic ridge. The men take the ridge in the middle of the night and hold it for months against constant Taliban assaults. The soldiers proudly dub the new base “Restrepo” after their fallen brother.

From the outset, the camera is right in the middle of the action, lending the film a chilling level of suspense. It feels like any second bullets could start flying and shower the camera with gore. Thankfully, out of respect for human dignity, we don’t see any soldiers dying on camera. But that doesn’t stop the filmmakers from showing men running for cover, glancing about as shots ring out, frantically calling for airstrikes, etc. Restrepo introduces an authentic fear that is intensely disturbing. This fear is not a cinematic device. Rather it is the realization that these men, the film’s characters, are in mortal peril, and the camera is looking over their shoulder.

But it’s not about strategy and tactics at all. It is not even really about the character of the soldiers. It is a rare glimpse at the camaraderie that is born out of life under fire. Although it is not a real-life version of Apocalypse Now, there are significant parallels. The brashness of the commanding officer is not quite at the level of “I love the smell of napalm in the morning…” but it is similar.   He disregards condescends and curses in a meeting with the local tribal leaders. The film demonstrates the challenges of running a combat operation against an insurgency within a primitive culture.

Restrepo is heartbreaking. Watching a tough-as-nails private hysterically weeping over his dying corporal is not something that I will ever want to see again. The aftermath of a raid on a Taliban stronghold is also a horror. The filmmakers didn’t shy away from showing sheet-covered remains of women and children caught in the crossfire. There is also the chilling nonchalance with which the soldiers load their weapons. We see them cheer when those weapons turn enemy combatants into pieces of meat. This is where editorializing could have taken over, but Restrepo refuses to enter preacher mode.

In fact, Restrepo doesn’t directly confront the moral or immoral nature of war. It simply chronicles the emotional roller coaster combat duty. The interviews, taped months after the soldiers’ tour, are more focused on emotional reaction than exposition. We can see in flash-forward that the worst scars of battle are not external.

The film’s true achievement is that it makes us face the realities of raw warfare. We aren’t afforded the luxury of holding the War On Terror at arm’s length. One poignant example is one soldier’s walkie-talkie conversation. He chats with a buddy about the war and talking to folks back home. The phrase “hearts and minds” comes up. The soldier laughs cynically and continues preparing his weapon. We have read over and over that war is hell. Restrepo puts it in your face.

Stephen McCullough is a documentary filmmaker and Christian missionary based in Atlanta, GA.

MUBI Links:

Restrepo

Apocalypse Now

Today’s contribution to shorts week is a brief, powerful propoganda from Alfonso Cuaron and Naomi Klein. From what I can determine, the film is basically a book commercial. However, Cuaron’s powerful use of (and this is admittedly hip for a documentary right now) Banksy-influenced animation and brilliant use of sound effects make this a powerful argument for the existence of Shock Capitalism. I don’t know what I think about what they’re trying to say–but “The Shock Doctrine” is a powerful example of the potential of short form documentary.