I actually saw Exist at Allied Media Conference last weekend. I'm sorry to say it was a seriously disjointed pile of crap. It's NOT an activist film, or created by an activist as became very evident very quickly.

This film was one of the things I thought would be interesting about Allied Media. I heard about it through rooftop films, and I did see godass a few years ago.

I must admit, the concept of the film seemed incredibly interesting to me, but I feel a bit insulted by the film. I wonder if the people who set up the conference saw Exist before they decided to show it.

"Actorvists?" give me a serious break! The storyline in Exist was incredibly contrived, the characters shallow, and the acting horrendous. This is a bubblegum film made by people who know nothing about the issues they're shallowly addressing. It's "activist-lite" at best.

better luck next time. This one's a serious stinker.

If you like the concept of a film made by activists about activists, i'd reccomend the Edukators, which is a German film that actually achieves what this one set out to do, but with stellar results.
# posted by  Anonymous @ 6/27/2004 4:23 AM  

 
A POSITIVE REVIEW OF EXIST--

Review by Brian Bergen-Aurand
of tp://www.clamormagazine.org

" [The]complex articulation of one activist community is the vitality behind Exist"

Top pulls his hood over his head and pedals down another Philadelphia side street. Maybe the next person will help him find Jake. Maybe the next encounter will give him a clue. Instead, Top's frustration grows as every lead becomes someone else who cannot help him. The organizer is preparing a direct action; the filmmaker is cloistered in his basement trying to create a message everyone can understand; the gallery owner is overwhelmed by her impending prisoner art opening. Still, with each meeting Top struggles to explain himself and to help others see what's at risk. If only he could find the courage and words to spell it out. If only they knew how to help.

This is a sequence from Exist, the second film from writer and director Esther Bell--founder of the Unamerican Film Festival. Exist made its North American premiere at this summer's Allied Media Conference in Bowling Green, Ohio. The follow up to Bell's award winning, semi-autobiographical Godass (2001), Exist is currently making a festival tour.

Exist is the character-centered story of a group of squatter / activists, told from the inside out. The main characters are played by activists who bring a complex sensibility and realism to the film. Through Top's search, we discover not a world of flat types who are too self-absorbed to help anyone else, but people who simply do not know all the answers. We find them working on important projects that sometimes bring them together but too often leave them isolated. When one character says, "You can't help me. And I can't help
you," he is not defeated, but yearning for a day when the opposite might be true. This skeptical optimism is at the center of the film.

In a recent article from Kitchen Sink discussing Hollywood movies about activists, Jen Burke Anderson writes, "What I don't recognize is a world where every progressive is a no-fun prig, and every no-fun prig is a progressive. Conventional wisdom has long been that Hollywood is unapologetically liberal. But if that's so, where in the movies are the progressives I know-funny, sexy, smart, open-minded and most of all,
nice?"
They're in Exist. Here, the characters are not idealized heroes working in utopia. They are suspicious, stubborn, selfish, jealous,
compassionate, driven, intelligent, funny, sexy, and, in the end, willing to make sacrifices for long-term goals. This is the activist community I know--not always straight edged or above the fray, but aware of the power and wonder of collaboration, community, and love. This complex articulation of one activist community is the vitality behind Exist.

Exist is a collaborative production that not only confronts Hollywood images of activists but also the standard hierarchies involved in mainstream filmmaking. From casting to workshoping the story, the film was composed through cooperation and improvisation. This approach comes across in moments of non-linear narrative, sirens and police radio calls
that haunt the soundtrack, play with focus and color, and documentary segments woven into a story about people that is more than the sum of its parts.
# posted by  Anonymous @ 9/29/2004 11:03 AM  

 
......, for better or worse, a small, authentic peek into the world of these activists...

...the leads are cute and I could see their performances gaining some mainstream attention.

homosuperior
# posted by  Anonymous @ 9/29/2004 11:25 AM  

 
Clamor Magazine is a joke when it comes to serious criticism.

A boring magazine fillled with boring reviews of boring things.
# posted by  Anonymous @ 12/18/2004 10:35 AM  

 
I didn;t think it was a pile of crap. but is was not that great I agree. What I would like to know is what’s up with people not talking about the new indie film starring Elimu Nelson its Marquette Williams’ new film UNSPEAKABLE. If you have not seen it, get on it! The music alone is creepier than, thanks to composer Adrian Bailey and the story line has so many damn twists it had me and my friend talking about for three days after we saw. Dark, very dark, but an excellent thriller from a filmmaker with a great cinematic eye. There will be some online screenings soon at www.cinema216.com or http://www.myspace.com/cinema216
UNSPEAKABLE on you tube:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yrCBziXs3S4
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1sbPkL6yH6c
# posted by  Anonymous @ 11/08/2007 1:06 PM  

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