AIFF2018: Enjoyed Datsche And Some Of The Shorts

First shows began at 3.  We were still finishing up other things so we got there late.  Walking into short animated film program or a movie about Russian labor camps that was half over was an easy choice.  The animation was fine, but nothing really got me too excited.

5:30 we saw Datsche.  The description and trailer didn't raise my hopes too high, but it really was a good film.  All the basics - photography, acting, etc - were fine.  And the story was one I could get into.  A young man goes from New York to Berlin for the summer to check out a summer garden home he inherited from his grandfather.  He spends the summer there with the mostly older German neighbors and an eclectic group of others he picks up.  Just well done, interesting characters, and a genuine, not Hollywood, positive movie.

8pm was supposed to be Thunder Road.  By 8:30 the Festival one of the board members announced that it was the one film that wasn't available without downloading it and that would take awhile.  An audience member suggested they play the opening night shorts program - which was cancelled because of the earthquake.  So we saw shorts.

A few that I particularly enjoyed:

The first two are Alaskan films.

Blue - If I understood this right, it was a young girl daydreaming about biking on the ice.  But the photography of a group of cyclist riding across a glacier are spellbinding.  I'm guessing this was the world premiere - since it's listed as such in the program and this was supposed to be Friday night.  Here's the website, unfortunately no pictures or videos from the film.  It was pretty short.

Wild Woman - Great, original animation with strong feminist theme by Vanessa Sweet who lives in  Shishmaref.



ENOUGH | The Empowered Women of Korogocho - A short doc about a 75 year old woman who lives in the slums of Nairobi, where it's dangerous for older women.  She sets up women self-defense classes.  You can see the whole movie below.

ENOUGH | The Empowered Women of Korogocho from Brent Foster on Vimeo.


The Field Guide To Being A12-Year-Old Girl  - Twelve Australian 12 year old girls put on play of sorts, on stage at their school, explaining to the world being a 12 year old girl.  Original and well done, but not too deep.

JUCK - A provocative documentary about a group of Swedish school girls who practice a rather violent pelvis thrusting dance as a way of taking back their freedom to be themselves in public spaces.  I'm still thinking about what this tells me about personal freedom.

Under Mom's Skirt - A French woman with her mom for a gynecological appointment in Miami. The daughter is there to translate.  She learns a lot more about her mom than she ever wanted to know.  In the middle of this is the attractive gynecologist who's a strong Trump supporter.

[UPDATE Dec 4 11:30am:  There was another film - Inga -about an 88 year old Norwegian woman that lovingly looked at her aging feet and hands and face, as she told us about living and we watch her strip down at the lake and go in for a swim.  It made me think of my mom's gnarled toes at the end, and my own sore feet right now.]