We hung out with all the good peoples there like Ashley and David, who were jurors for the Docs at Slamdance.Actually, I'm not sure when exactly it was that I was done with the Sundance festival, but I am. When I went up the hill to Slamdance, with their Rock n Roll attitude, drunk yelling awards ceremony and a party full of people I actually knew- I realized I really liked it there (there was also an open bar)
the next day I was hurting a little on my final volunteer shift. Then I saw the ANIMATION SPOTLIGHT at the Eccles theatre. There were 3 really great shorts in this program.
Dear Beautiful
This short has more going on than most features I saw. And it is the first animated short that has actually scared me. It is half married couple drama, half zombie apocalypse. Pretty fucking amazing.
Western Spaghetti
hey festival programmers, do yourself a favor and start a shorts program with this one. You can;t help but be in a good mood after watching it. It is simply cooking with stop motion. Good times.
And the Alex Orr Award for best thing I saw at this mutha goes to:
I AM SO PROUD OF YOU
If you don;t know who Don Hertzfeld is, get with it. His animated shorts are epics with stick figures. There's nothing better. And I can safely say that this film that runs 22min- is the best thing I saw out of 33 programs- short, feature, whatever- this is The Big Winner. It is about Life and Death, family, love and it is hilarious. There's no reason for me to tell you a thing about any of his films. Just whatever it is you have to do to watch them. That's that, mattress man.
I saw a program and a half of live action shorts and I'll highlight my favorites and just forget about the films that made me doubt that all 5600 submissions could have been viewed if this was what they had to show me.
Abbie Cancelled
Abbie cancels on the dinner party. Funny ensues. let me just say that anytime unexpected gas huffing happens in a short film- I'm usually pleased.
Copper on the Chopping Block
There are moments of this film- where a crazy man is alone with tire swings, gas masks and unwanted kitty that is really goddam great. A nice long lock down of him throwing snowballs against a basketball goal is the best. I just loved the simple things this short did- there are also some big things- but somehow the less was more.
Captain Coulier (space explorer)
Let's say you look at me and say "I wanna make a short that kinda makes fun of star trek."
I would reply. "Good luck with that." and then I'd mumble "Asshole." because that shit is played out. Which is why this short is fucking great, because it doesn't do some simple stupid sci-fi parody. The lead in this short is just funny. So his kicking around and not wanting to do the "space captain" thing is great. and the low-fi saucer on a string shots are great. This short should be a TV series, in my opinion. It's like sci-fi hipster pettiness and bitching. funny shit.
This was about all I saw of shorts program 5 ( I saw all of 1) because I left to see what everyone has been calling The Big Winner. It won Audience award for Dramatic Feature, Grand Jury prize and.....something else.
PUSH: based on the novel by Sapphire
Mo'Nique delivers the goods in this heavy handed drama set in 1987 Harlem. people say this movie is uplifting while dealing with incest and horrible abuse- that's not true - it really isn't uplifting, but it does give white people a chance to feel like they understand the plight of the African American. I just can;t give crying middle aged woman a break when they attend a film like this. I'll admit, the movie is really good. There are parts that give me a chance to daydream about this or that, and the film really took about an hour to really grab me. The thing that hurt this film the most to me was the director talking about it. I don't really like someone telling me how much something will affect me before i see it. But there are some solid performances in this film and they really commit to the "break a puppy's neck" school of filmmaking- that doesn't bother me in this film, liek ti does in others.
ok, I'm bouncing in the morning. I could watch a few more movies tomorrow, but its time to go home. I'll write about the other films I've skipped in the car and post them for all 3 of you guys reading this.
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