“THE PLIGHT OF THE ANGELENOS” (2006)

Written & Directed by Ana Barredo
Official Website

Polly Staffle Rating: ****

Ana Barredo’s mockumentary “The Plight of the Angelenos” is an extremely well made short film. Though its budget is around $500 and the production called for absolutely no cast, crew or any equipment rentals, the finished product is quite brilliant. Maybe too much so as it seems to be highly misunderstood by its viewers.

It was screened in a block with serious documentaries at the Los Angeles Shorts Festival in September. That might not seem that odd until you learn Barredo’s 16-minute film, which was made using mostly stock footage, is intended to be seen as a satirical look at the film industry. In other examples, Barredo received an email from one festival she submitted to that said had they not read the word “comedy” on her application, they too would have taken it as a straight documentary. Recently on an ITunes review show, “The Plight of the Angelenos” was rated a “waste of time.” The reviewer felt the film was extremely informative. But he also said the narration was too dry.

“Okay, I'll give him that. The narrator is a friend of mine whose only qualification for the job is that she speaks with an English accent,” Barredo said of UK transplant Jackie Birtles. “But ‘extremely informative’? How can a documentary with made-up facts and fake data be informative?”

I’ll admit the first several minutes of the film make it seem like it’s going to be a legit documentary and had I flipped the TV on in the middle, I may have assumed I was watching PBS - for all of ten seconds. Though it looks and sounds like you should be learning something from “The Plight of the Angelenos,” the fact it is a Grand Fenwick Production should clue some in. Barredo’s production company takes its name from the fictional country created by writer Leonard Wibberley in 1955 for “The Mouse That Roared,” which was later made into a Peter Sellers film. If that doesn’t work, the absurdness of what is said should.

The creatures of Los Angeles are blessed with such wonderful weather that it is their responsibility to provide the rest of the world with its necessity of entertainment. We are also told the outrageous property values of the hills in Hollywood make for the perfect habitat for actors. The high elevation of their homes is why they are called stars because the rest of the world has to gaze up at them. But Barredo’s fake educational film just gets more and more ridiculous from there.

We meet the fictitious Dr. John St. Clair, who is heavy into research on brain activity in correlation with visual stimulation. Dr. Clair has found that the male brain completely loses interest when there is an actress in a film that is over the age of 35. Everyone has always wondered why there are so many films with older men paired with younger women. Well, obviously it’s due to scientific study. People watch movies to be entertained, not bummed out, we are told in the film. So there can’t be any crow’s feet or droopy breasts and all the images of females have to be younger, skinner and more surgically enhanced than naturally possible. Because of this, we are told there are five plastic surgeons per every actor and actress.

We later learn in the film that Angelenos have more expressive arms, legs that are made for walking red carpets and more pronounced frontal lobes giving them a creative edge on the rest of us. Angelenos are also obviously more adaptable. When the threat of reality TV reared its ugly head, the Angelenos replaced their tripods with shaky handheld cameras instead of running and hiding.

These traits obviously come in handy for Barredo as well. The 1998 graduate of UCLA is a resident of Marina del Rey, which is described by its official website as being located in the heart of L.A.'s Westside and within walking distance of Venice Beach. Without the adaptability of an Angeleno, Barredo might not take the misunderstandings of her work with such good strides.

“As excited as I was to have my movie play at the Arclight Cinemas in Hollywood,” Barredos said of “Plight of the Angelenos” appearance at the L.A. Shorts Festival, “I was also stupefied when I read the description of the group of shorts I was a part of.”

“Overcoming a death, cancer, and losses make people stronger. Watch these characters in these shorts and admire how they exemplify courage,” read the description of the batch of films. The program opened with Barredos film and was followed by “Baptized at Katrina: A Refugee Story,” “Reflections of Life,” “Thai Women: Challenging AIDS,” and “The Test.”

“I was playing with a documentary about Katrina victims, a drama about a woman diagnosed with breast cancer, a documentary about women with AIDS and a courtroom drama about a doctor who touches patients inappropriately” Barredo said. “Thank God my short played first. I'm still not sure if this odd grouping ended up being a good thing or a bad thing. What was good about it, you may wonder? Well, I actually have friends who ended up attending the screening for the sole reason of watching me squirm during the Q&A. Anyway, when the filmmakers were asked to introduce themselves and their films at the end of the screening, I just told the audience that I was the filmmaker responsible for the most tragic film of the bunch – ‘The Plight of the Angelenos.’ Everyone had a much-needed laugh, I thought.”

The next weekend Barredo’s film played the Oxnard Independent Film Festival. There the festival seemed to understand the film, but it’s debatable whether the audience fully did. “It played as part of a comedy program that time,” Barredo said. “Phew! But, according to a friend of mine who attended both events, the L.A. screening got more laughs. That was baffling to me.”

Regardless, Barredo said making the film was a blast and the fact she’s “getting some notice for this is all gravy.” Before this project she felt a bit worn down and creatively drained from her first feature. She said she basically checked off almost every item on the “indie filmmaker must-do list” in 2001. She bought a used Canon XL1 off eBay, used family and friends as cast and crew and financed “A Real Job” with credit cards. The $15,000 movie ended up getting a DVD distribution deal and Barredo got a best director nomination for the 2003 DVD Exclusive Awards. But five years passed and no studios came a calling with million dollar contracts. In fact, Barredo is still working the same job she’s had since 1997. Still plagued with the desire to make movies, Barredo decided to make one that would be less stressful and much cheaper.

So Barredo bided $200 on a film stock library on eBay and got to work on her project, which contains over 100 snippets of stock footage, as well as archival and public domain films. Barredo also used several pieces of video shot with a camcorder by her eight-year-old niece Grace and “A Real Job” co-producer Roman Del Toro. The rest of the film’s budget went towards royalty-free music CDs. Barredo’s day job also came in handy. After all, she works for Image Entertainment, who distributes public domain movies. I thought the clips of old horror and noir movies like “Bride of the Gorilla,” “D.O.A.” and cinema like that were a nice touch. It helped to liven the short up in a way safe sex reels like “Preventing the Spread of Disease” just can’t. It also helped Barredo add some star power. We get Lon Chaney in “Phantom of the Opera,” Curly Howard, Larry Fine and Moe Howard, otherwise known as the Three Stooges, in “Disorder in the Court” and a glimpse of “Béla Lugosi Meets a Brooklyn Gorilla.”

“Luckily, they happen to fit perfectly,” said Barredo. “Ok, maybe I made sure ‘Béla Lugosi Meets the Brooklyn Gorilla’ made the cut. But the rest was all about making them fit.”

Probably even more fitting to Barredo’s film is a clip from Lugosi’s friend and one of his lone supporters towards the end of his life when he had fallen into obscurity due to drug addiction – the infamous Ed Wood. The scene Barredo uses is from one of his lesser known films called “Jail Bait.” Hopefully Barredo doesn’t take this the wrong way, but she and Wood are quite alike. He was a master of using what he had and making it into more. He would take stock footage and clips of various things, dress them up with narration and create a product that was bigger than what he started with. That’s what Barredo has done here. Also like Wood, not every one quite appreciates her work.

“But then again, there are people like you who totally get it,” Barredo said. “That's ok, though. I never thought of myself as someone who's in touch with the mainstream anyway. And maybe this is why I will probably be working at the same desk job for the rest of my life.”

Some times it might feel like it for Barredo, but I quite doubt it. After all, she is an Angeleno.

- CCF, October 2006