Filmmaker Gil Kofman has a rather rough go of it trying to make a thriller in China
UNMADE IN CHINA (Tanner King Barklow & Gil Kofman, 2012)
Cinema Village
22 East 12th St. between University Pl. & Fifth Ave.
Opens Friday, May 3
212-924-3363
www.unmadeinchinamovie.com
www.cinemavillage.com
When Gil Kofman goes to the Far East to make the Chinese thriller Case Sensitive in Xiamen, he has no idea what he’s really in for. Fortunately, Tanner King Barklow tags along to document the very strange events, which are revealed for all to see in Unmade in China. Working off the theme that a film is made in the writing, shooting, and editing, Kofman shows how in this case his film, written in English but translated into Chinese, is actually unmade in those three elements. In order to get his film made (or unmade), Kofman, an LA-based playwright (American Magic) and director (The Memory Thief) who was born in Nigeria and raised in Kenya, Israel, and New York City, goes through a string of crazy situations as he and his team have to essentially bribe local Chinese officials to get permits, the producer keeps delaying wiring him the necessary funds, the translators keep radically altering the script, actors are regularly replaced without notice, and the police may or may not be watching his every move. “We’re on a poisoned shoot,” he says. “I think we’re getting corrupted the more we stay here.” Barklow intercuts scenes of Kofman sharing his tale with an audience at a screening with Kofman in China facing problem after problem and mugging for the camera. Several times over the course of the film, Barklow, one of the producers of the Oscar-nominated documentary The Invisible War, tells Kofman that huge veins are breaking out across his forehead, visible signs of the intense pressure he’s experiencing as he refuses to give up. “Now I know why they chose death over exile in the old Greek days,” the nebbishy Kofman says at one point, “which never made sense until I came to China.” Although Barklow and Kofman, credited as codirectors on the film, try too hard to make grand major cultural statements about East vs. West, capitalism vs. communism, resulting in comparisons that are more than a bit of a stretch, and Kofman whines a whole lot, Unmade in China still manages to be fun to watch, primarily to see what kind of calamity will strike next. Named Best Documentary at the Sydney Underground, Edmonton International, and Bloody Hero International Film Festivals, Unmade in China opens May 3 at Cinema Village for a one-week run.