I think I might have found the next two great filmmakers of our time. I can see a great future for both Ronald and Mary Bronstein. If they manage to continue the unique path they began with Frownland and Yeast.
When I first saw Frownland last year it quickly became one of my favorite films of the festival. It was very impressive how this film managed to involve me emotionally and create such an authentic, realistic, unpleasant reflection of a group of people with all their social ineptness and loneliness. It was as rough, ugly, unpolished, unpleasant and claustrophobic as life itself beyond the shiny and sugarcoated front one usually gets to see.
Yeast was a another very precise, uncomfortable, moving and authentic character study, this time of a group of friends and the painful dynamic that evolved from some point in their lives when they found together to distance and separation. Every image, every dialog and every non-spoken sequence contributed to a very dense and successful portrait of the complexity of friendships and how friends can treat or mistreat each other.
Although Yeast dealt with female friendships and how aggressive and physical they can become, I thought this film didn’t necessarily apply to female friendships alone. I experienced similar dynamics in our old clique and a similar course of outspoken and unspoken aggression, mistreatments before we all separated one day and continued our lives into new directions.
In the movie database entry for Yeast I noticed the keyword mumblecore which I haven’t heard before. Wikipedia defines it as
an American independent film movement that arose in the early 2000′s. It is primarily characterized by ultra-low budget production (often employing digital video cameras), focus on personal relationships between twenty-somethings, improvised scripts, and non-professional actors.
If other films in the mumblecore genre are anywhere as great as Frownland or Yeast, I will definitely have to watch more soon.
These films may be ultra-low budget productions with non-professional actors, and highly improvised, but they are some of the most intelligent and accurate psychological portraits I have seen in a long time. Frownland was great last year, but I thought Yeast was even more successful. Absolutely brilliant – I have to applaud Mary Bronstein and her husband. I sincerely hope they will continue producing many more movies in the future. [imdb]
Do you go to the movies for stories that distract you from the problems of life — light-hearted romps in which familiar, likeable characters share some laughter and good times as they topple the obstacles between themselves and their goals? If you answered yes, director Mary Bronstein’s debut feature Yeast is NOT the film for you.
Yeast comes from much of the same team that brought us 2007′s confrontational and claustrophobic Frownland – arguably the most controversial film from last year’s Maryland Film Festival. And as with Frownland, Yeast takes viewers outside their comfort zone with its often-unpleasant characters, its unconventional approach to storytelling, and its uncompromising aesthetics.
Yeast begins by throwing us into an awkward situation — a young woman, Rachel (Mary Bronstein) rousing her disheveled roommate Alice (Amy Judd) for a camping trip they’ve planned with Gen (Greta Gerwig, star of MFF 2007′s Hannah Takes the Stairs). Alice refuses to come, and at first we’re struck by her seemingly unmotivated surliness towards Rachel. But as Rachel and Gen venture into the woods, what slowly emerges is a warts-and-all portrait of a manipulative person who compulsively undermines the people in her life — and the also-imperfect friends who’ve decided they’ve finally had enough.
For that discerning viewer who will revel in an honest portrait of the vicious, grotesque little ways human beings mistreat each other, Yeast provides a special treat. It’s a bold and edgy film that probes complex psychological ideas we may have never seen onscreen before — and in doing so articulates a strong belief in the ability of film culture to keep moving forward. (Eric Allen Hatch)
About Mary Bronstein and the cast and crew of Yeast:
Director and star Mary Bronstein co-starred in MFF 2007′s Frownland. Yeast, which debuted at SXSW 2008, is her feature-film directorial debut.Assistant director and editor Ronnie Bronstein directed Frownland.
Star Greta Gerwig also appears in the MFF 2008 features Baghead and Nights and Weekends (which she co-directed), and the short film Quick Feet, Soft Hands. (from the filmfest-guide)
The following is an short interview with Mary Bronstein, created by the CAmm Cage/Media Lab/Creative Alliance at the Patterson.
