#MondayMovies: Mike Formanski
mike formanski + the iron wall
Mike Formanski is a filmmaker I’m rooting for. Yes, he’s an incredibly talented director and writer… but it’s also because I’m a little biased.
His latest short, The Iron Wall, which premiered at Palm Springs International Short Fest last year, is about toxic masculinity and the impact of homophobia in blue collar New England. Formanski has roots and a deep interest in the working-class of CT, a strange and misunderstood microcosm…and so do I. When I read the script for the first time a few years back, I remember feeling as if someone was telling a shade of my own story.
The film follows Dave, an aspiring photographer working for his father’s construction company, who is is mistaken as gay after a drunken party. Confronted with the desire to be the person his parents had hoped for him to be, and watching as his attempts to fit in deeply wound one of his closest friends, Dave now has to grapple with who he really is and what he stands for.
Supported by a strong script and brought to life by an excellent cast, The Iron Wall is a fantastic short, and after watching it, I’m sure you’ll be as excited for Formanski’s future as I am.
Where to Watch
See what films inspired him below!
good will hunting
“A big reference point mostly because it’s set in a very similar world and deals with the feeling of being an outsider. There’s a lot of the same machismo and New England sensibility, but the big thing is how Will tries so hard to be part of two worlds at the same time. He has one foot in the world he grew up in working construction with all of his friends and sharing their antics, but his other foot is stepping away into a different kind of life that he feels drawn to. He spends a lot of time wrestling between these two, which is very similar to the struggle Dave is going through in The Iron Wall. There was a lot of times when I was writing the script that I would look to scenes from this film just to think about how the characters navigate these situations.”
Where to Watch
the graduate
“A big part of why The Graduate was an interesting film to look at was because of its artful visual storytelling. There are so many images in that film that tell such a specific story just based on how Mike Nichols sets up the framing, which always lends itself to creating such a successful dynamic in the relationships between different characters. The famous image of Mrs. Robinson putting on her stockings in front of Benjamin creates such a tangible dynamic between the two of them, it’s clear who holds the power in their relationship and what the nature of their relationship is like. When it came to directing The Iron Wall, these were the images I was looking to when thinking about how to frame the relationships between different characters in the film.”
Where to Watch
vivre sa vie
“An interesting film too look at, in a big part because of Godard’s ability to build upon the subtext in relationships between characters. Throughout many of the scenes, he’s able to build barriers between characters even while they’re in very intimate situations. Also, the way he’s able to frame the audience’s perspective of the characters in the film and at the same time be critical of it is really interesting. It puts in perspective that we’re watching characters doing certain things in a certain time, and that as an audience we have judgements of those actions based on our social context. This is really interesting because it has a certain level of self-awareness. So for me, while making a film dealing with queerness which many people still respond negatively to, it’s important to take into account how the audience responds to these characters and how you as a director can construct your film to engage with their responses.”