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December 22, 2008

Hohokam on DVD

I'm sitting here in the San Jose airport, waiting to find out how many more hours my flight is going to be delayed, looking through weeks of old news that's all new news to me. Amongst the more personally relevant items: Frank V. Ross' Hokoham is now available on DVD from IndiePix. This is the first of Frank's triumvirate of (officially recognized) features to be released; I say it's about time. This slice of desert dystopia is, I think, the film that marked Frank as a creative force to be reckoned with - if only people would pay attention!

Allow me to make a slight digression, to Karina Longworth's year-end recap at Filmmaker Magazine:

Now, I lie awake at night worrying if people who are making films as personal and indifferent to Hollywood commericalism as those by Gerardo Naranjo, Matthew Newton and Frank V. Ross will ever get to have a career anything like Steven Soderbergh's –– because before we can even wonder if they'll ever get to prove their mettle through the moderately-budgeted studio films which lead to the franchise blockbusters which result in the clout necessary to mount completely uncompromising 4.5 hour dream projects, we have to wonder if they'll ever see success on the level of the million-dollar Sundance sale.

At this point, when the best the filmmakers Karina cites can hope for isn't much more than distribution-by-way-of-festival-run, I can't even begin to picture Frank making a studio picture - which wouldn't be a bad thing at all if all these non-studio masterpieces he's been making were given the time of day. This release, hopefully, is something of an upswing, one which will continue when Audrey The Trainwreck bows next year; and hopefully, by then, Present Company and Quietly On By will be available as well. Until then, watch Hohokam. It doesn't deserve your attention; you deserve it.

Posted by David Lowery at December 22, 2008 3:52 PM