What's that? Last week's preview of a dozen 360 | 365 flicks wasn't enough for you? You people are demanding. But if you're not happy, I certainly can't be happy. So here you go...
"Summer Pasture"
For the last 4,000 years nomads have existed on the lush, rolling grasslands of Eastern Tibet, with little interference from the modern technology and Western culture that inform much of the world around them. But, as has been the case with many societies rooted in centuries and centuries of tradition, so-called progress is proving harder to avoid as parents hope to secure futures for their children. "Summer Pasture" is one of those graceful nonfiction pieces, a la 2009's "Sweetgrass," that pays homage to a vanishing way of life, quietly acknowledging the ever-present human need to adapt or die.
Co-directors Lynn True, Nelson Walker III, and Tsering Perlo probably couldn't have chosen a more charming family to tell this universal story. Locho and Yama keep a herd of yaks, with wife Yama additionally doing the lion's share of the housework and caring for their still-unnamed infant daughter. (They call their roly-poly little beauty "pale, chubby girl.") We watch as this loving couple ekes out both a life and a living with the blessings of faith, nature, and a wicked shared humor, the dopey-sweet Locho confirming that the unwell yet tireless Yama "is the generator around here." But their desire to school their daughter in town means that the ancient nomadic existence will no longer be possible, making "Summer Pasture" a sad but hopeful elegy. (In Tibetan with English subtitles; screens Friday, April 29, Nazareth Arts Center, 7 p.m.)
"The Woodmans"
Francesca Woodman understood her precocious gift for photography, boldly incorporating her naked body into her ethereally achromatic images, but the ambitious young woman was impatient for the contemporary art world to recognize her brilliance as well. A few years after her 1981 suicide at the age of 22, they did. And while "The Woodmans" explores Francesca's short life and work through interviews with her inside circle along with Francesca's own lyrical diary entries, the gorgeously haunting documentary also paints a bittersweet portrait of an unconventional family clearly still struggling to come to terms with a heartbreaking tragedy.
"The Woodmans" spends most of its running time with Francesca's parents, Betty and George, successful artists in their own rights who came from very different backgrounds but found a common passion in creativity and encouraged Francesca and her brother Charles to pursue their own self-expression. Betty and George recall their intensely driven daughter with obvious parental pride and an unmistakable smattering of professional jealousy, with George's work after Francesca's death eerily attempting to mimic her unique style. But, unsurprisingly, the most insight found in "The Woodmans" comes from Francesca herself, whose journals depict a preternatural talent driven by the very same blend of fearlessness and fragility that would ultimately doom her. (Screens Saturday, April 30, Dryden, 1:15 p.m.)
"The Robber"
It's doubtful that even the most creative minds in filmdom could have dreamt up the strange-but-true story of Austria's Johann Kastenberger, a record-setting long-distance runner who knocked over banks in his spare time. Based on the 2008 novel by Martin Prinz, Benjamin Heisenberg's gripping psychological thriller "The Robber" stars the creepily stone-faced Andreas Lust (Götz Spielmann's "Revanche") as the title character, essentially picking up as the ex-con Rettenberger (so renamed in the name of narrative liberties) resumes his dual life of winning marathons and stealing other people's money.
The classic tale of the adrenalin junkie and his dragon-chasing hunt for a higher high, "The Robber" is anchored by the unsettling performance of Lust, who underplays so completely that the drama is provided not really by what he does but by everything he might be capable of. The romantic subplot, however, is weak; Franziska Weisz portrays the love interest as a lonely victim, occasionally derailing the action as we puzzle over the attraction on his end. Because Rettenberger is somehow both a cliché and a cipher all at once; his compulsion to run is symbolic as well as just plain practical, lending itself to some pulse-pounding action sequences as Rettenberger puts his well-honed agility to riskier and riskier use. (In German with English subtitles; screens Saturday, April 30, Nazareth Arts Center, 8 p.m.)
360 | 365 George Eastman House Film Festival
Through Monday, May 2
film360365.com




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