October 2014 inductee - CINEMANIA by Angela Christlieb and Stephen Kijak
Have you ever wondered whether your passion and obsession with cinema might have been unhealthy? We at CineCola support film addiction in any ways possible, and even promote it as an alternative to hours of Facebooking and television zapping (or masturbation - although we promote PDA in dull moments of a film at a screening room). Yet, some people take things to extreme levels...
Cinemania is an examination of the most drastic example of cinephelia. Angela Christlieb and Stephen Kijak follow the lives of five New York individuals who also happen to be borderline psychotic obsessive movie buffs. This documentary does show the side of suffering and the result of a life of withdrawal and marginalisation led by these people, as well as hinting at why they would want to escape to a world of darkness and fantasy.
However, thankfully, it does not need to, leaving welcome grey areas that in pure anti cinematic fashion does not need to dictate upon us every single detail and allows for a certain type of fulfilling interaction within the thematic exploration of the settings and even the character study. On top of that, it avoids any type of exploitation of these characters, despite its senes of in spite of turning out to be quite funny and humorous as well as delightfully entertaining though undeniably brutally honest, in its extreme portrayal, to the point of seeming perhaps a little depressing to at least half of the audience that will have seen this film.
In the end, their self-imposed to the alienation also is what makes them so deeply cinematic, out of this world and even fascinating in their own way. The magnetism of these five central characters is so strong that all the filmmakers need to do is turn on the camera and let them speak. In fact after the credits stop rolling it is easy to wonder what might have happened to them after the cameras stopped following them. Interesting, original and very entertaining.
CINEMANIA was entered at all the wrong film festivals. IMDB even forgets to mention that it screened at Locarno, during its dark pre-Mueller years. It won best documentary at The Hamptons and somehow, Rotterdam didn't manage to give it that arthouse publicity kick it needed to garner. As a result, despite its very niche cult following, the film has been out of print for years!
On a positive note, this means it's available on kick ass quality on Vimeo! - vimeo.com/65855103
Left in the 7 scale limbo on the imdb.com voting grid, we say NO! Cinemania is a film of Woody Allen archetypes, with worlds unspoken of traumas and rejection of the world, and examinations of obsessive behaviours.
Thus, it is a worthy first CineCola Darling!
Cinemania from Stephen Kijak on Vimeo.