criterionforum.org

Over a period of 35 years between 1984 and 2019, filmmaker Lynne Sachs shot 8 and 16mm film, videotape and digital images of her father, Ira Sachs Sr., a bon vivant and pioneering businessman from Park City, Utah. Film About a Father Who is her attempt to understand the web that connects a child to her parent and a sister to her siblings.

With a nod to the Cubist renderings of a face, Sachs' cinematic exploration of her father offers simultaneous, sometimes contradictory, views of one seemingly unknowable man who is publicly the uninhibited center of the frame yet privately ensconced in secrets. With this meditation on fatherhood and masculinity, Sachs allows herself and her audience to see beneath the surface of the skin, beyond the projected reality. As the startling facts mount, she discovers more about her father than she had ever hoped to reveal.

Special Features and Technical Specs:

Four short films by Lynne Sachs:
Drawn and Quartered (4 min. color 16mm, silent, 1986)
Which Way Is East: Notebooks from Vietnam (33 min., 16mm, 1994)
A Month of Single Frames (14 min. color sound 2019 )
Maya at 24 (4 min. 16 mm 2021)
Film and Family: a discussion between Lynne Sachs, Ira Sachs and Kirsten Johnson
Audio commentary with Director Lynne Sachs
Theatrical trailer
Booklet featuring essay by Ela Bittencourt

From master director Jia Zhang-Ke (Ash Is Purest White, A Touch of Sin) comes a vital document of Chinese society since 1949. Jia interviews three prominent authors—Jia Pingwa, Yu Hua, and Liang Hong—born in the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s, respectively. In their stories, we hear of the dire circumstances they faced in their rural villages and small towns, and the substantial political effort undertaken to address it, from the social revolution of the 1950s through the unrest of the late 1980s. In their faces, we see full volumes left unsaid. Jia weaves it all together with his usual brilliance. SWIMMING OUT TILL THE SEA TURNS BLUE is an indispensable account of a changing China from one of the countrys foremost cinematic storytellers.

Special Features

* VISIT a short film by Jia Zhang-Ke commissioned by the Thessaloniki Film Festival
* Video introduction by Jia Zhang-Ke
* Q&A with Jia Zhang-Ke moderated by Michael Berry, Director of the Center for Chinese Studies at UCLA
* Theatrical Trailer

Robert Chipeska wrote: Sat Dec 18, 2021 2:36 am God damn but their website is fucked up... anywhere else to buy these titles? They need to sort that mess out.

hearthesilence wrote: Sat Dec 18, 2021 11:16 pm

Robert Chipeska wrote: Sat Dec 18, 2021 2:36 am God damn but their website is fucked up... anywhere else to buy these titles? They need to sort that mess out.

I don't know if you had the same issue, but I noticed that if I put something in the cart and it seems to "disappear" when I go to another page, it's actually still in there and will show up once I move through the checkout process.

Glowingwabbit wrote: Thu Feb 10, 2022 5:12 pm Still Life wasn't a Cinema Guild release, but Big World Pictures who are now with OCN Distribution. I wonder if eventually a title like this will get rereleased by them on the Vinegar Syndrome site with a better scan and special features.

The Elegant Dandy Fop wrote: Thu Feb 10, 2022 6:17 pm

Glowingwabbit wrote: Thu Feb 10, 2022 5:12 pm Still Life wasn't a Cinema Guild release, but Big World Pictures who are now with OCN Distribution. I wonder if eventually a title like this will get rereleased by them on the Vinegar Syndrome site with a better scan and special features.

I believe its discussed in the Big World Pictures thread, but there's no way this film can look any better considering the circumstances and tech used to make it. It's probably as good as it will ever look.

Glowingwabbit wrote: Thu Feb 10, 2022 7:10 pm

The Elegant Dandy Fop wrote: Thu Feb 10, 2022 6:17 pm

Glowingwabbit wrote: Thu Feb 10, 2022 5:12 pm Still Life wasn't a Cinema Guild release, but Big World Pictures who are now with OCN Distribution. I wonder if eventually a title like this will get rereleased by them on the Vinegar Syndrome site with a better scan and special features.

I believe its discussed in the Big World Pictures thread, but there's no way this film can look any better considering the circumstances and tech used to make it. It's probably as good as it will ever look.

Good to know. I didn't realized they had a thread. I guess best that can be hoped for is an edition with some special features and maybe an essay.