AIFF2022: While Awards Party On At Bear Paw, I'll Make My Own Awards Suggestions [UPDATED]

[December 10, 2022, 10:45pm: The Updates are bracketed and in red so you can see them easier]

[UPDATE Dec 11, 2022 4pm - Turns out the two features being shown today are the audience awards, not the AIFF awards.  Not sure what that means about the shorts.  I did see the two shorts programs and caught up on films I hadn't seen.  

Sheri is the story of the woman who made the first pacrrafts, and it makes sense this would have been an audience choice - lots of outdoor adventure with an amazing woman.  

The Record had incredible animation and told the story of a record that played the music you didn't remember.  

The Silent World of Barry Priori - The story of a deaf man in Australia who as a child at first was being forced to speak, but then found deaf friends and eventually became a teacher of Australian sign language.]

I was planning to go to the awards party, but I just don't have the energy tonight.  I've been thinking about making my 'best film' nominations here instead and the actual winners should be posted tonight because tomorrow they will show the award winners at the museum, starting with 

12pm Made In Alaska [Shorts Program 1 - Mixes Documentary, Animated, and Made in Alaska

Peanut Factory • Burros • Never Again Para Nadie • Sheri • Safe Enough]

2pm Short Films [2 - mixes Narrative shorts and Animation

Peanut Factory • Burros • Never Again Para Nadie • Sheri • Safe Enough

4pm Narrative Features [The Wind And The Reckoning]

6pm Documentary Features [Pleistocene Park]

Best, of course, is in the eye of the beholder.  Blogging the festival over the years has forced me to think about and articulate different standards for best.  I wrote something on that the other day, but I'll reiterate here:

1.  Quality of the film making - Cinematography, sound, acting, editing are some of the factors here.  Ideally there won't be any flaws.  At best there will be some pushing of the envelope, using film to tell the story or make the point using new techniques or old techniques in new ways.  

2.  Quality of the story/message - Was it engaging?  Was it an important message?  Original?  Able to convey ideas or insights in new ways that might capture people who didn't know or resisted these ideas?

3.  Overall, what was the impact of the film on you?  Some films overcome flaws, or even their flaws add to the impact, to blow you away.  This is the most personal of the criteria.  It depends on you life experiences and whether the film comes to you at a time when you are receptive to it.  

That said, here are my picks:

Made in Alaska - I'm afraid I didn't see enough of these to pick a 'winner.'  Of the films I saw:

• Kakiñiit
• Sabor Ártico 
• Safe Enough

Of these three, I would go with Kakiñiit.  This was a short film in several 'chapters' about Inupiaq tattoos.  I liked how he connected the segments with a pause, showing a finely designed title like page.  It was unique and the first time it caught the audience off guard as we thought it was the end of the film.  

I also like Safe Enough, a story about an arts camp in Sitka where different students are featured explaining what the camp meant to them.  Mostly they said it allowed them to be themselves for the first time, and that the felt really good.  

Shorts -  I saw a fair number of shorts, both narrative and documentary, but there are still a lot more I missed.  

[The shorts winners are not clear.  There are two programs offered tomorrow with five shorts in each program.  I assume they are doing it this way to have a full program.  However it's not clear which films were the winners.  The films in the Narrative program tomorrow are:  Object of Life* • The Record* • Anirudh • The Silent World of Barry Priori • Nakam • Too Rough - *Animated]

Naratrive Shorts I saw: 

• Anirudh
• Brasier
• Burros
• Customs
• Dotting The 'i'
• Duet
• Honeymoon at Cold Hollow
• If You Were Me
• Jelly Bean
• Late Bloomer
• Lead/Follow
• Nakam
• No Ghost in the Morgue
• Sunday With Monica
• Synthbabe
• The Things That Keep Us Apart
• To Be Honest
• Too Rough

I guess I saw more than I realized.  Ones that stand out:

• Anirudh
• Dotting the 'i'
• Late Bloomer
• Nakam
• No Ghost in the Morgue
• Sunday With Monica
• Too Rough

My Choice is Nakam.  Second:  No Ghost in the Morgue;  Third:  Late Bloomer  

I really liked was Anirudh.  It's hard to choose.  

Nakam is a short story that took place in a small, German occupied  town in Ukraine during WWII.  Key German officers are going to have a dinner in a small in and request the piano player and the boy who accompanies him on the violin be there to make cheerful music for them.  The color and look of the film were beautiful.  

Documentary Shorts  The ones I saw were:

Abortion:  Add to the Cart

Gina

Herd

Never Again Para Nadie

Queen Moorea

The Body is A House of Familiar Rooms

[The shorts in the second program winners program are:

Peanut Factory* • Burros • Never Again Para Nadie • Sheri** • Safe Enough**   - *indicates animated and **Made In Alaska]]

Winner:  Queen Moorea - And I'm guessing this one has a good chance of winning with the judges. It's the story of a girl with a disability I didn't quite understand who becomes the homecoming queen at her high school.  That happens pretty much at the beginning.  Then the rest tells us the back story.  

Second:  Never Again Para Nadie - This is probably due to the story that was told - how the Jewish community got together to protest with the Latino community of their town in Rhode Island that had a prison that was used to hold undocumented immigrants.  

I also really liked the visuals in The Body is A House of Familiar Rooms

Animated Shorts - I saw:

• Birthday Wish
• Footprints in the Forest
• Object of Life
• Peanut Factory
• Rain
• Santa Doesn't Need Your Help
• Snowflakes
• Star-Crossed
• The Social Chameleon

I wasn't that excited.  I can only pick one:

Winner:  Rain - This story about a girl out with her family in the rain and who runs away to play in the rain had exquisite visual images of rain, splashes, and the general scene.  

Narrative Features  - This is hard.  All the films I saw:

Dealing With Dad

The Last Birds of Passage

The Wind And The Reckoning

You Resemble Me

were very good films.  This turns out to be all the Narrative Features listed. 

 [The Wind and the Reckoning]

Winner:  The Last Birds of Passage   Told the story of a family of Turkish nomads who every year drive their sheep 500 kilometers across parts of Turkey to the upper pastures.  But age and increasing regulations put this year's trip in doubt.  Lots of little touches as we learn about each of the key characters.  

But I would be fine with any of the others winning.  I'm guessing it will go to The Wind and The Reckoning.  

Documentary Features   [Festival Winner:  Pleistocene Park  the one I hadn't seen, so I can see it tomorrow evening]

• Big Crow
• Crows Are White
• Exposure
• King of Kings:  Chasing Edward Jones

My winner is Crows Are White.  I wrote at greater length about this film here. Also wrote about Big Crow there.  Crows Are White - got into my head.  The film itself embodied all the contradictions and conflicts that the film depicted.  Lots of angst and lots of humor.  This was the most honest and subtle film.  Probably the best film of the festival.  

King of Kings would be my second choice.  A fascinating family story that also tells us a piece of Chicago history as the film maker investigates her grandfather who turns out to be an incredible person.  

The others are good as well, telling compelling stories, but the film making doesn't reach the same levels.  

Now I'll check the AIFF website and FB page to see who actually won.  I'll add that on here or possibly make a new page