The Pathway of Independence. Half Empty.

If you wished to venture toward one event that would satisfy as the premiere showcase for the best in American independent films, your initial instinct would likely be Sundance. That is, after all, the public perception. Park City is a fine destination for truly independent work but it isn't likely to be found at the Eccles or the Prospector. The films one thinks of as "independent" - self-produced, first- or second-time efforts - will generally be found at Treasure Mountain. For instance, Todd Rohal's The Guatemalan Handshake, the first of the so-called Maryland New Wave features, began the festival year there as part of Slamdance, followed closely by Michael Tully's Cocaine Angel at SXSW and Sujewa Ekanayake's Date Number One, hitting the self-distribution route a few weeks thereafter. At Sundance? The Jury Prize went to the disturbingly undistinguished Quinceañera, a poorly written picture of ponderous predictability (no surprise, then, that it also received the Audience Award and was picked up by Sony Picture Classics).

This, despite appearances, is not an overall criticism of Sundance. The institute and the festival promote a particular kind of filmmaking that, circa 1989 and shortly thereafter, was fresh and original. Now the majority of US titles pushed through the system have grown tired and formulaic, a near caricature of Redford's noble intentions.

A case study against this style of filmmaking might be the following tale. In an interview with director (and Slamdance co-founder) Dan Mirvish, we talked briefly about his efforts to get the Academy to acknowledge (and nominate) his film in the "Best Musical" category. In the process, he and his friend, actor Robert Peters (not exactly a household name but with over eighty films to his credit, such as his memorable performance as "Eye-in-the-Sky Technician #1" in the Ocean's Eleven remake or "USAF Radio Specialist" in Air Force One) made an impromptu movie in order to reach the qualifying number of musicals in theatrical release. That film, Half Empty, directed by Peters, co-photographed by Mirvish and co-written by both, went on to appear at the Silver Lake, Houston International and Santa Barbara International festivals, where it won well-deserved awards at all three events. Shot in a little more than a week, Half Empty stars Peters as a Handey-esque spewer of aphorisms on a book tour in Germany. He is accompanied by a guide (exceptionally portrayed by German television actress Mareike Fell) who plays cynic to Peters's unshakeable optimism. If, on the surface, this reads like a recipe for disaster, remember that it is also a musical.

All of these elements would, under normal circumstances, conspire to form a heaping miasma, but Peters ably pulls the various threads together into a thoroughly enjoyable whole - narratively, musically and otherwise. Thanks to the efforts of producer's rep Michael A Weiss and an upstart distributor, the film will be spared the usual purgatory of imaginative work with an intended limited theatrical in October. With The Puffy Chair in current distribution and Mutual Appreciation due in September, there is still hope for audiences searching for inventive independent cinema. Sensible audiences ought to show their support accordingly.

Posted by dwhudson at June 13, 2006 12:54 AM