AIFF 2010: Elias Matar Wants You to Bond With His Zombies

The sun was pinking the mountains when I left for the 4pm showing of The Silent Accomplice.  Seeing it on the big screen made a big difference.  I've adjusted my original added this caveat to my original post and Avenue Marie wrote in the comments a very moving account of her experience with the movie. 

Then we enjoyed the world premier of 22:43.

In between movies I ran into Elias Matar, the director of Ashes, who's up here for the Saturday 10pm showing at the Bear Tooth  Out North of his 'infected origins story.'  (How do I find the film makers in the crowd?  Just look at the film maker videos and then look at the audience members videos. The visitors are usually pretty obvious.  Plus Elias was with Don Chan who's the hospitality coordinator, running out to the airport to drop people off and pick them up, and driving film makers around town in his van.  Today he took a van load out to Girdwood for some sightseeing.  I got to take Don for some sightseeing last year. After the festival he got on cross country skis for the first time.

Anyway, here's Elias:



[More on Ashes here, after I saw the film.  Keep scrolling down after you link.]

Shane and Craig over my water glass at the Bear Tooth

Then we went back into the theater for three gay themed films. It began with two shorts and both had a wedding scene - Now and Forever and Bedfellows. The long one - Holding Hands - was a strong video about a young male couple in Sydney, Australia who were attacked one night walking home holding hands. Craig got has face smashed in against the sidewalk and Shane nursed him back together while handling their boarding house business on his own. They also were willing to talk to the press and garnered lots of attention which led to getting the police department to change how they dealt with homophobic violence. The two were interviewed every couple of weeks for over a year and we watch them struggle back from this traumatic experience.

Shane's skull after the 1st, before the 2nd operation

It was a very moving film, well made, which made - how often does this point have to be made? - the point that in the end, we are all equal human beings, deserving of at the very least tolerance, but really respect.

We skipped the the party at Mad Myrna's and I was still up way too late blogging.