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.

Impressed by the small successes of a local, low-budget filmmaker, four struggling actors decide to head for a cabin in the woods and write their masterpiece — with juicy roles for themselves, of course. Standing in their way? Shortages of just a few things: talent, motivation, energy, and inspiration. Oh, and a surplus of two — hormones and alcohol — as multiple romantic entanglements and a fridge full of beer take the friends further and further away from a completed screenplay.

Jay and Mark Duplass’ prior feature The Puffy Chair established them as filmmakers interested in genre-defying, big-hearted storytelling that manages to put believable, earnest romance on the screen in ways American films so rarely do. Baghead continues that trend, taking us on an unpredictable ride that touches down in drama, romance, dark comedy, and thriller without committing to any one — and yet still feels confident and centered throughout.

Anchored by strong performances — including Greta Gerwig (who also appears in three other films in MFF ’08) as Michelle — it’s a strong film from a team clearly committed to telling the stories they want to tell in the way they want to tell them. For all its genre-hopping, Baghead (which premiered at Sundance and thrilled hometown crowds at SXSW 2008) operates as both a fun popcorn movie and a winning ode to celluloid dreams. (Eric Allen Hatch)

About Greta Gerwig:
Greta Gerwig is an actress, playwright, screenwriter, and director based in New York City. She starred in MFF 2007′s Hannah Takes the Stairs. With Joe Swanberg, she co-stars in and co-directed Nights and Weekends; she co-stars in Yeast; and she stars in the short film Quick Feet, Soft Hands — all of which are also playing MFF 2008. She is currently at work on a script with Alison Bagnall (co-screenwriter on Buffalo ’66). (from the filmfest-guide)

The following is another video-clip by the Creative Alliance with a few shots from the festival Friday. Check out our bikes at 0:11-0:15!

With Dore Mann, Mary Wall, Paul Grimstad, David Sandholm

Website at www.frownlandinc.com

Keith Sontag doesn’t have a lot of friends. The people he’s closest to in this world slam doors in his face — and after spending a few minutes with him, you’ll see why. Keith’s grunts, stammers, and out-of-nowhere apologies turn routine interactions into grueling entanglements. As tension with his roommate and a teenaged female friend escalate over a several-day period, Frownland builds to a fever-pitch of psychological tension. (from the filmfest-guide)

Frownland was the first film we saw on Friday, and wow… what a great film that was. The classic dramaturgical line of a film-story would normally let a character evolve and change throughout the course of the story. A character goes through a series of perhaps adventurous events, and at the end of the film you will find him or her in a better or worse concluding spot. Not so in Frownland: None of the people will find a better spot or become a better person—everybody is a loser, everybody is destined to fail.

I may be wrong, but I felt like it was me who was going through a series of emotional changes…and that I, and not the characters in the film, was following that dramaturgical line instead. The different situations made me feel very sorry for Keith Sontag at times, wishing people would treat him better and that he would overcome his communicative disadvantages. At other times I felt like the other people around him, perhaps irritated or annoyed sometimes. At times I could be angry about his roommate and the way he treated Keith, at other times I could feel sorry for his roommate, being a loser with his own disadvantages himself.

Although it was just a story, I was very impressed by its realism about life, people and loneliness. They reminded me of people I knew myself before…the environment and surroundings reminded me of places I hung out in before… and the situations appeared very familiar to me, too. It could have been a slice of my own or some of my friends’ lives… a film that could almost work as a documentary.

Frownland was uncomfortable and unpleasant. It was ugly and should have felt depressing and not funny at all, but you couldn’t help and laugh at how ugly, horrible and embarrassing the situations were. Maybe there is a lesson to be learned from this film in that no matter how ridiculously bad life may sometimes get, it will be better to laugh about and with it than taking things too seriously and letting it get to you.

If you share my taste and enjoyed films like Blaine Thurier’s Male Fantasy (“I am god. I create this reality”) which was presented at the Maryland Film Festival in 2005, or Vincent Gallo’s Buffalo ’66 or The Brown Bunny I am sure you will love Frown-“I really appreciate it”-land, too. It definitely was one of my festival favorites this year!