First, Last and Deposit, directed by Peter Hyoguchi

The films screened over this past week at the LAIFF have been a reflection of the festival itself: bold, audacious, trying, regional and varying wildly in quality. Although the films and the festival both have fallen prey to the same problems of accessible storytelling, what ultimately serves the festival well as a harbinger of new American cinema conversely proves to be unsatisfying in the films themselves.

The festival intended an examination of what film means to a much broader palette of filmmakers than had been showcased in recent festival history. The tag of regional filmmaking at the festival has come to mean less instead of an extraordinary level of cinematic risk-taking (conceivable only from filmmakers outside the limited purview of mainstream moviemaking) arose to take center stage.

While a vast majority of films were less than well-crafted, and indeed a number of them so painfully executed as to be nearly un-watchable, there were nonetheless prime examples of a tentative new voice on the American Indie horizon. Bunny (Director Mia Trachinger) dared to convince an audience to care about recent immigrants who found work as costume-clad sidewalk bunnies; Bruno (Director Shirley MacLaine) fanned the dreams of a cross-dressing nine year-old boy; Cowboys and Angels (Director Gregory C. Haynes) crossed Touched by an Angel with the Marlboro Man and came away with a thoughtful, romantic comedy full of the glorious pain that is love, and in one extraordinary brush stroke, George Washington (Director David Gordon Green) brought home the honor and pain of a soft-headed, soft-hearted young boy living in the deepest of poverty.

Also in this category, were films that struck at the heart of the traditional filmmaking process. A festival audience tear jerker, First, Last and Deposit from Director Peter Hyoguchi and Co-Writer/Producer Duffy Hecht was one of the few films at the festival to exploit the new digital medium with explicit regard to its desired aesthetic. "There are storytellers out there without access to millions of dollars," explained Hyoguchi, "who, like me, grew up with a video camera as their sketch pad. It was time to show Hollywood we have a voice worth watching as well."

Hecht and Hyoguchi partnered on the story of a young teen whose mother's job-loss renders them homeless as the inevitable spiral of trying to earn enough for the 'first, last and deposit' drives them further and further from a home made of walls. Kicked out from their apartment when they are four months late with the rent, their nightmare starts first as a night or two on friends' couch, then moves to nights spent on the beach and finally into the backseat of their car as their options become fewer and farther between.

What makes the story all the more difficult, is that this mother and daughter team live in the extremely wealthy community of Santa Barbara, California. In Santa Barbara, there simply are no poor people. Or so believes 13 year-old Tessa as she tries vainly to hide circumstances from her friends at school.

The hype carried on the cresting wave of the 'new media' for film exhibition and distribution had its influence upon Director Hyoguchi, as he cheerfully admits. "I saw The Blair Witch Project as a festival program synopsis writer at Santa Barbara Film Festival," Hyoguchi explained, "and I saw the film without knowing anything about it. No one knew anything back then, and this film fooled me. It got me; I was really blown away.

"I figured," continued Hyoguchi, " that if I could be fooled into thinking it was real, and I'm a filmmaker, then my emotions would be really vulnerable. I knew I could use that in my storytelling: lure in the audience, make them think what they are watching is real so they'd identify with the characters more, then create a difficult situation that puts everything at risk.

"In the west, we all think video means the image is real. Real life. I admit this is manipulative filmmaking, but I wanted to use technique to force the audience to care about the characters."

Hyoguchi also used his equipment to his best advantage. By serving as his own DP with just a small, $1500 DV camera and a hand-held Mic, Hyoguchi could often slip into the background as his actors performed. "I didn't have a crew and a shooting schedule," Hyoguchi proudly revealed, "I'd just call the actors up, say 'hey-I got my mom's car, let's go shoot some stuff' and the actors would be ready. Without the big camera and all the other equipment, it was far easier to get the actors to be intimate."

The performances Hyoguchi was able to coax from his striking young actor also relied on a casual yet intimate approach. "I asked Sara (Sara Wilcox, Christine) and Jessica (Jessica White, Tessa) to just hang out a while before we shot anything. They became fast friends, so the first day on set they had already bonded as a single mom and daughter would."

Eventually, First, Last and Deposit is a deeply flawed film in need of a much stronger and surer hand both in the scripting and the directing. However, it is also the first of what will most certainly be a flood of films from filmmakers ready to push in the Hollywood door rather than wait politely for it to open. And while Hyoguchi's contempt for the traditional system of filmmaking may be forcing a hubristic rationalization of the value of his film, his belief in the artistic potential available from a more simplistic approach to the process is the very thing that will shape a new vista for Indie filmmakers.

FilmFestivals.com reporter
Kathleen McInnis