36th Film and Video Fest - the North Portland Filmmakers, Part 1

Axioms of a Dishwasher

Vance Malone's Axioms of a Dishwasher is fueled by a sober internal narration delivering exactly what its title suggests: the rules that a restaurant dishwasher has decided to live by in order to get through his job. In seven minutes we see the dishwasher efficiently performing the wash as we hear about the life philosophy that has made him efficient.  It has startlingly good cinematography for a seven-minute short with an esoteric subject (not dishwashing itself so much as speculation on the neuroses of a hypothetical dishwasher.) Good music combines with the professional color and off-center compositions to create the tone, which is somber and workaday, and the editing is precise and rhythmic. This is unimpeachable, about as far as a filmic excerpt of everyday minutiae can go.

Axioms was shot at the Chinese Village restaurant on SE 82nd Avenue at Burnside during the summer of 2007. Malone and his producer, David Cress of North Portland's Future Filmmakers of America, consider it a personal project that has been working  towards completion for two years.

The idea came from a friend's complaint about the general attitude of underappreciation for the profession of restaurant dishwasher. The theme of unrecognized labors of love, of finding one's niche in the world (as surprising as dishwashing may sound as a niche) is a recurring one in the Malone/Cress body of work.

Their 2003 Occularist, about a doctor/artist who constructs artificial eyes, was an attention-getter at Sundance that year, and a current project centering on a woman who trains poodles for the circus doesn't stray from the individual labors of love idea. Malone says he is focused on documentary work which highlights people who have found their calling in life - a rare occurence, and one which fascinates him.

Malone has lived in Portland for 17 years, mainly around Northeast. He divides his time making films between our city and Los Angeles, where he is currently producing a public safety film for the California Department of Health. His shorts have been shown around the country, including at Sundance and North Carolina's Full Frame Documentary Fest, both of which places earned him awards. He is also an accomplished director of commercials for such clients as Laika, McDonalds and Lexus - that work can be seen here: http://www.stationfilm.com/vance_malone.html.

His friend and longtime producer, David Cress,  of the Future Fillmmakers of America production company, considers Malone the kind of directing talent capable of Errol Morris-level precision and investigation. A feature documentary work from the team is in the works for some time in the next few years.

Cress is currently working on the upcoming Gus Van Sant project and will be trying his best to get off that shoot to attend tonight's screening of Axioms.

Axioms of a Dishwasher, part of the 36th Annual Northwest Film and Video Festival Shorts I Program. Friday  November 6, 7 pm, Northwest Film Center's Whitsell Auditorium, 1219 SW Park Avenue.

The Branch

North Portlander Alyssa Timon's The Branch is less than a minute long and runs under a single song with the refrain "You always seem to be on the run," referring to a stream of water. That kind of aural imagery feeds into the aesthetic of this lyrical short, a black and white animation blending a drawing of a reclining nude with those of passing streams, wherein no single image can be ascertained for too long but the cumulative effect is beautiful and fleeting. A nude woman, rain, passing streams, lily pads, morphing shadows and the branches of an overhanging tree intertwine for a lovely 55 seconds.

The Branch, part of the 36th Annual Northwest Film and Video Festival Shorts I Program. Friday  November 6, 7 pm, Northwest Film Center's Whitsell Auditorium, 1219 SW Park Avenue.

Look for upcoming reviews and rundowns of next weekend's NoPo entrants: Sue Arbuthnot and Richard Wilhelm's Imagining Home, about the Columbia Villa housing project, and Irene Taylor-Brodsky's The Final Inch.