“D.C. Noir” launches FilmFestDC online (four short stories deep in DC’s diverse and often poor neighborhoods)
FilmFestDC at Home is rolling out its online festival this year, with a least one feature and one short every few days.
The festival opened this Thursday morning with “D.C. Noir”, which is an anthology of four short stories that seem to merge together and migrate among the various street characters. All of this was filmed on location in Washington DC, much like “5 Lines” in 2000 (made available around 2003).
(Caption:) Above is full movie from Gravitas on UY
The films are written by George Pelecanos, who directs the first story, “The Lovers” (20 min). It starts with a policeman interrogating a possible hit man (both African American), but soon the film migrates through a couple other characters to a white hit man who apparently was hire by both husband and wife (all white, NW DC) to knock off each other. There is a coy meeting in a bookstore where the attractive white hitman pretends to chase the girl, but then it gets crazy.
The second story is “String Music” (19 min) (no, not “Barge Music” although that would be a good idea), directed by Gbenga Akinnagbe. Here, in SE DC, a black man seems to mentoring a younger guy on the neightborhood basketball courts, and a white policeman seems to be watching them. The film takes us to some pretty wild rock concerts that may have been filmed inside the 930 Club on U Street (it survived; the Town DC club did not and closed to developers in 2018, but the latter could have been a great setting).
The third story, “Miss Mary’s Room” (28 minutes), directed by Nicholas Pelecanos, presents a mom with two white sons, who are surreptitiously walking themselves into a drug gang. One of the sons is arrested and faces automatic five years in prison. He has to behave himself while bailed out, but the outcome will lead to tragedy and grief.
The last story is “Confidential Informant”, 23 min, by Stephen Kingopoulos, and the story follows the title.
The end credits show a lot of black and white scenes of Washington in the 1950s, when I was growing up in Arlington.
These stories are very character driven (rather than just by situations and settings), and I don’t interact in my own life with people like these characters. Can you credibly just “write what you know”?
The festival also offers a 6 minute short, “Driving Lesson”. In Los Angeles, an African-American teen is getting a driving lesson from his dad when they get pulled over and handcuffed by an over-zealous white cop in what looks like racial profiling.
(Posted: Thursday, April 23, 2020 at 12 noon EDT)
Name: “D.C. Noir“
Director, writer: George Pelecanos + 3 others
Released: 2020
Format: 1.85:1
When and how viewed: FilmfestDC online 2020/4/23
Length: 93
Rating: R (probably)
Companies: Pictureshow Productions, Spartan Production
Link: Filmfest