LA - Skateboarding, Googie, Bernie's, And More

 

If you walk the path along Venice Beach, you'll come across the skateboard park.  

Skateboards first appeared along the beaches of Southern California, particularly Venice.  As a junior high student back then, I joined the others nailing half a roller skate to one end of a 2x4 and the other half to the other end.  We didn't have a lot of control. My street was one of the better hills.  One block to the south wasn't steep enough.  One block to the north was too steep for most.  I survived the steep one a couple of times. This was in the late 1950s and early 1960s.  You can read more about the history of skateboards from the Hermoso Beach Museum site.

Skate boarding has come a long way since then as have the places people ride them.  

Tuesday it got up to 75˚F and we spent a couple of hours at Venice Beach near the end of Rose Avenue.

Friday, when I biked down there, the fog blocked the view of the ocean from the bike trail.

 We went to the LA County Museum of Art on Thursday.  And passed this bit of graffiti on the way.  We also passed an Indian grocery store.  

This is just a part of the loooooooong spice shelf.  One of the reasons that Indian food is so good - lots of spices and thousands of years experimenting how to prepare them.  

We also passed Johnie's Coffee Shop.  It's an example of Googie architecture - but I didn't know that when I took the picture or I would have taken a better picture of the whole place.  My interest was that this coffee shop had been turned into Bernie's Coffee Shop. LAist has a January 31, 2019 story by Jessica P. Ogilvie about this transformation:

"Johnie's Coffee Shop was built in 1956 by architects Louis Armet and Eldon Davis, masters of the space-age Googie style. The restaurant came to be known for its striking design and by the 1980s, began making appearances in films like Miracle Mile, The Big Lebowski, American History X, Reservoir Dogs and City of Angels. In 1994, it was purchased by the Gold family, an entrepreneurial L.A. clan whose patriarch, David Gold, founded the 99 Cents Only Stores.

In 2013, Johnie's was designated an historic cultural monument, and for a short while, the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority debated turning it into a Metro stop for the purple line."

That Metro stop is still being built kitty-corner from Johnie's/Bernie's.  The article goes on to tell the history of how it became Bernie's.  

This is at Fairfax and Wilshire.  Across the street is the old May Company department store - about 

2 1/2 blocks from where I lived as a kid.  Now it's the Academy of Motion Pictures Museum.  Fortunately the kept the historic facade of the building.  They used to have elaborate Christmas display windows right at that corner.  

We ended up checking out the Motion Picture Museum, but passing for now.  Instead we went to the Art Museum that is on the (now, there used to be a street between them) adjoining block.  But I'll save the museum for another post.  

Some of the apartment buildings on the street where I used to live.  Ours didn't have such fancy entrances.  

It was a hazy day which gave these buildings in Century City a surreal look as we drove home.  (None of the pictures in this post were edited except cropping.)

And I'm adding on this picture (below) of the LA airport.  I commented in an earlier post about the unsatisfactory taxi/Uber/Lyft parking lot that's a distance from the terminals.  The whole terminal traffic situation is beyond awful.  There are places where you can pick up arriving passengers.  But during Christmas vacation the three to four lanes are jammed.  You aren't supposed to be stopped unless you are actively picking up a passenger.  But it's near impossible to time when the car gets to the terminal to match when the passenger gets to the curb.  I pulled over at Terminal 5 with the expectation I'd move up to Terminal 6 when my daughter and family got out.  If a cop told me to move on, I could stop again at Terminal 6.  (I have been told to move on at LAX in the past, but no cops were sighted Saturday.)  If I got told to move on at Terminal 6, I'd have to go around the whole airport again.  I'm not sure what the solution is.  They're building a skytrain (which i assume will be similar to what they have in San Francisco) to get passengers out of terminal area.  I'm not sure it's just bad design.  More, just that LA's population grew so much.  They do have a target date to do something - the 2028 Olympics will be in LA.  The Metro line is also supposed to be all the way out to the airport.  The problem has been the taxis and other interests didn't want the Metro to get to the airport, I'm told.  

The airport was much easier to navigate back in 1967 when I drove a Yellow Cab out of the airport for several months between graduating from UCLA and returning to the second summer of Peace Corps training.  Those were good times - mornings at the beach playing volley ball and body surfing, evenings driving a cab.  I learned a lot about LA.  I'd never realized how many bars there were until I drove a cab.  

To the left us at this spot is the Los Angeles Airport (LAX) 'theme building."

"To truly immerse oneself in the world of Googie, a visit to the "Theme Building" at Los Angeles International Airport (LAX) is an absolute must. Completed in 1961, this architectural marvel resembles a futuristic flying saucer perched upon four curving legs. With its observation deck, it was once a popular spot for locals and travelers to admire the planes taking off and landing at LAX. The Theme Building perfectly encapsulates Googie's out-of-this-world charm and stands as a testament to an era when the skies were no longer the limit."  from LA Explained Blog

I had a high school graduation dinner there with a dozen or more friends.  The restaurant is long gone.  

How to Live?

That's the question raised in a book I picked up at the Elliott Bay Bookstore in Seattle during Thanksgiving.

I've just started reading Sarah Bakewell's  How To Live or A Life of Montaigne.  The picture puts the book into the context of the life I'm living at this moment, which, I hope will make more sense after you've read a couple of excerpts.  

"This idea - writing about oneself to create a mirror in which other people recognize their own humanity - has not existed forever.  It had to be invented.  And, unlike many cultural inventions, it can be traced to a single person:  Michel Eyquem de Montaigne, a nobleman, government official, and winegrower who lived in the Péirgord area of southwestern France from 1533 to 1592."    

I no longer assume that people reading something like the end of the last sentence will automatically determine how long Montaigne lived (not quite 60 years), or the historical context (he was born forty years after Columbus reported the existence of a part of the world that Europeans hadn't known existed.  Or maybe some descendants of Vikings knew but others didn't.  I don't take this for granted because long ago I realized that things I do aren't necessarily the same things that other people do.  Though I expect that regular readers of this blog figured that out before I mentioned it.  Or would have if I hadn't placed this parenthetical paragraph here.  The author will offer some more historical context in the following.

"Montaigne created the idea simply by doing it.  Unlike most memoirists of his day, he did not write to record his own great deeds and achievements.  Nor did he lay down a straight eyewitness account of historical events, although he could have done;  he lived through a religious civil war which almost destroyed his country over the decades he spent incubating and writing his book."  

Again, if I didn't know what religious civil war was being referred to, I would have stopped reading and looked it up.  Here's a link to give you more about the French religious wars of the 16th Century.  Meanwhile further south, the Spanish Inquisition was going on.   I think the fact that he lived in difficult times makes the book more interesting to us today as we slide into our own version of an inquisition to rid the country of immigrants and other 'undesirables' in the eyes of Trump's people.  

"A member of a generation robbed of the hopeful idealism enjoyed by his father's contemporaries, he adjusted to public miseries by focusing his attention on private life.  He weathered the disorder, oversaw his estate assessed court cases as a magistrate, and administered Bordeaux as the most easygoing mayor in its history.  All the time, he wrote exploratory, free-floating pieces to which he gave simple titles:"

At this point author Bakewell lists a number of his titles.  I'll skip that.  I'm not trying to copy her book, but rather to focus on ideas I found stimulating.  This was just the context.  And you'll note that while she says he lived in difficult times, the fact that he went on with his life as a nobleman and ran his estate as well as served as the mayor of Bordeaux, suggests that despite the wars, he was privileged enough for them to be irritants rather than serious interferences into his life.  But this musing is based on the words in that paragraph, not further research, so take it with a grain of salt. 

 

"He used [his] experiences as the basis for asking himself questions, above all the big questions that fascinated him as it did many of his contemporaries.  Although it is not quite grammatical in English, it can be phrased in three simple words:  'How to live?' 

"This is not the same as the ethical question, 'How should one live?' Moral dilemmas interested Montaigne, but he was less interested in what people ought to do than in what they actually did.  He wanted to know how to live a good life - meaning a correct or honorable life, but also a fully human, satisfying, flourishing one.  This question drove him both to write and to read, for he was curious about all human lives, past and present.  He wondered constantly about the emotions and motives behind what people did.  And since he was the example closest to hand of a human going about its business, he wondered just as much about himself."

And now we'll get to some of the questions he pondered.  And I hope you will find them to be pretty close to ones we ponder today.  

"A down-to-earth question, 'How to Live?'  splintered into a myriad other pragmatic questions.  Like everyone else, Montaigne ran up against the major perplexities of existence:  how to cope with the fear of death, how to get over losing a child or a beloved friend, how to reconcile yourself to failures, how to make the most of every moment so that life does not drain away unappreciated.  But there were smaller puzzles, too.  How do you avoid getting drawn into a pointless argument with your wife, or a servant?  How can you reassure a friend who thinks a witch has cast a spell on him?  How do you cheer up a weeping neighbor?  How do you guard your home?  What is the best strategy if you are held up by armed robbers who seem to be uncertain whether to kill you or hold you to ransom?  If you overhear your daughter's governess teaching her something you think is wrong, is it wise to intervene?  How do you deal with a bully?  What do you say to your dog when he wants to go out and play, while you want to stay at your desk writing your book?  

In place of abstract answers, Montaigne tells us what he did in each case, and what it felt like when he was doing it.  He provides all the details we need to make it real, and sometimes more than we need."

Okay.  That's your appetizer.  I haven't read further in the book than this, but I thought that this book probably has lessons for the current world.  Though as I read it again to type the words into the blog, I also wonder whether the author is phrasing things in a way that sound perhaps a little too contemporary.  

I much prefer reading books that are not being reinterpreted today, so that the contemporary applications are ones I see, not ones that are spoon fed to me.  But since I haven't read the rest of the book yet,  or anything Montaigne wrote, don't blame Sarah Bakewell yet.  Though her opening paragraph was about people being fixated on telling the world, through the internet, their every action and thought.  

But I'm being overly careful (some would say picky).  I'll give you a better informed opinion later when I've finished the book.  But I think the book might help people overcome the temporal bias that we in the present are far more advanced than people in the past.  Technically that may be true, but as human beings capable of thinking, or moral contemplations, of understanding human behavior, and advanced concepts, the ancient people were just as capable as we are, given what humans understood about how the world worked.  Though many had a better lived understanding of how nature operated than many, if not most Americans today.  

A final note.  I'm not blogging as much as before, in part because life is keeping me busy on other things.  And I have too many things I want to write about.  If I don't get back here sooner, have a Merry Christmas or a Happy Hanukah, or Kwanza or Solstice, or whatever celebration you observe this time of year.  

The Good And The Bad Of Today's Alaska Airlines Trip To LA [UPDATED]

You don't need to read this.  I just need to get it out of my system.  

[UPDATE Monday, Dec 16, 2024:  We each got a $75 discount code for for future flights.  This is fine with us since Alaska is our basic airline.]  

We had tickets (from Anchorage) to Seattle for 10:35am getting to Seattle at 3:11pm (You lose an hour going Anchorage to Seattle)

Then an LA leaving at 4:56pm arriving in LA at 7:45pm

The first delay notice was to 11am departure.

Then 12:20pm

Then 3:00 pm

We had this experience about a year and a half ago trying to catch a non-stop to Chicago.  After many delays, the flight was cancelled and we had to fly through Seattle about 10 hours late.

At this point we've been on the phone to Alaska Airlines changing our LA flights.  Then we got a notice that the LA flight was cancelled.  We were still in Anchorage.  

There was an announcement that another flight was taking off to Seattle at Gate 6.  We walked to Gate 6 and asked if we could get on it.  It was almost noon.  We could.  And we got two seats together.  But we had to get on right away and couldn't redo the LA flight from Seattle. 

Alaska had also sent us four $12 vouchers for today at ANC or SEATAC.  

When we landed at 4:30pm I texted Alaska Airlines and they quickly had us rebooked on a 5:58pm flight to LA.  Just enough time to use our coupons to get some yakisoba and board the plane.  

In the end, we landed in LA an hour later than originally scheduled.  

LAX a couple of years ago banned taxis and Lyft and Uber from the terminals and put them in their own spot.  So you can't get out of the terminal and grab a cab.  There are shuttle busses or you can walk.  When we've waited for the shuttle it's been a long wait, so we walked about 25 minutes.  Then there was a long line waiting for cabs.  It's a poor solution to the jam of Uber and Lyfts that caused them to do this.

But we're here, at my mom's house and the kids and grandkids are due when their schools are out.  So I'm not really complaining.  Just reporting.  

It seems that Alaska is able to quickly change things by phone, but people waiting at the counters seemed to have more difficulties.  And when our flight was changed to 3pm, why couldn't they move us to the other flight that had some empty seats and was leaving 3 hours earlier?  If we hadn't walked over, the plane would have left with at least two empty seats if not more.  

So I'm impressed with being able to book online or by phone so quickly.  And I realize that things happen and planes need repairs that delay them.  Though at one point I had to delete my app and then download it again because it stopped showing the changes we'd made.  

Our original flight didn't leave until 3:15pm.  We got to LA an hour after the original flight landed in Seattle.  

I'd also add that that if you are MVP, you get a phone number that seems to be answered much faster than the regular phone number.  We haven't flown that much in the last few years - not enough to get MVP - but Alaska has extended so called elite flyers status during COVID.  This year they let you get to that magic 20K miles using miles gained through use of your Alaska Airlines VISA card.  

And the people who answer the phone are soo polite and competent.  

AIFF2024: Closing Night Awards Clarification - 8:30pm Alaska Experience Theater

 I checked on the Awards ceremony today.  

It's at 8:30pm at the Alaska Experience Theater.

I couldn't find it online, on the Facebook page, or in the program where everything Saturday is listed.  

It is listed on page 17 of the Festival Program.  

AIFF2024: Saturday Schedule - Lots of Shorts/ Sunday Too [UPDATED]

 Starting at the E Street Theater 

10:00 AM – 12:00 PM: Family Dynamics Shorts Block 

• You First – 5:53
• Big Brothers – 14:32
• The Perfect Tomato – 18:21
• My Boo – 7:40
• My Lens My Land – 23:14

The second set of shorts is marked "SOLD OUT" on the website.  

12:00 PM – 2:00 PM: Alaska Shorts #2 – SOLD OUT

• Word Spaghetti – 4:02
• Born of the Ice – 15:46
• Matt and Megan Don’t Give A Fuck About Speed… Dating – 12:22
• The White Raven – 22:46

Moving over to the Bear Tooth Theater

1:00 PM: SPOTLIGHT SELECTION SHORTS #2 

The Yellow Sponge is The Dish Sponge – 16:39

Not Afraid – 9:15

Stalking the Bogeyman – 9:25

A Beginners Guide to Giving Up – 12:00

Summer’s End – 20:00

Play Date – 12:44

Puppy Love – 11:24

4:00 PM: Drum Song and Other Native Alaskan Shorts 

• Drum Song – 49:18
• Reclamation – 5:00
• Tides of Tradition – 9:47
• Usugilix Awakun – 11:14
• Gath & K’iyh: Listen to Heal – 9:05

I'm not a regular FaceBook user and I only just checked at the AIFF FB page.  They have this announcement:

[UPDATE:  Awards Ceremony at 8:30 at Alaska Experience Theater Sat Dec 14.  See also here.]

I'm guessing they might announce winners there.  

SUNDAY

Sunday's main scheduled film is Hockey Town at the Bear Tooth is sold out.  It's about the Anchorage Wolverines.  I suspect all the players have at least ten people coming to cheer the film and that's why it sold out before the festival even started.  

Sunday will be the day you can catch some of the best films of the festival as festival winning films will be prescreened at the Museum.

The website says: 

"Encore Presentation of Top Festival Films (Times and Films TBA)"

The printed schedule says: 

11:00 am Local Favorites

2:00 pm Best Shorts

4:00 pm Best Narrative Feature

6:00 pm Best Documentary Feature

 All at the Museum

I don't see an award ceremony listed anywhere, though there is a final night dinner  (see poster at the end of Saturday above.)  Maybe they'll announce winners there.   But check out the Sunday schedule online page.

AIFF2024: Cigarette Surfboards; Alaska Native Masks Out In the World

Two more days of festival.  Well only one more for us.  Not that long ago, the Festival website said the festival was Dec. 6-14 and we made our plane reservations for December 15.  Then the more recent edition of the website moved it to December 15.  

This festival has been filled with crazy good documentaries - Champions of the Golden Valley, Ultimate Citizens, Porcelain War, 76 Days Adrift, The Empathizer, Diving Into the Darkness - and I heard Unearth was also great.  And I thought Queen of the Ring was also quite good, but not quite at the level of those others.  

Today we saw two more:  So Surreal:  Behind the Masks and The Cigaret Surfboard.  The basic 'discovery' in Surreal, was how Yupik Alaskan Native masks along with Native Masks from British Columbia had a huge influence on the surrealist artists early in the 20th Century.  This was something I'd learned some time ago.  But the film combined a number of themes - the spiritual meaning and use of Alaska Native masks, the history of how the churches and white government banned the ceremonies in which masks were used and confiscated them, how the Surrealists discovered these masks and were inspired by them, and a detective tale of where some of the masks were today and how to get them repatriated.  The magic of the film is how seamlessly all these themes were intertwined.

Perry Eaton (center) and Drew Michael, both Alaska Native mask makers featured in the film, talk afterward about masks and the film.  

But I also was very pleasantly surprised by how good Cigarette Surfboard was.  I'm biased.  I grew up near Venice Beach, and while I was too lazy to lug a surfboard around (they were big heavy monsters back in those days, and none of my friends were surfers) I was an avid body surfer growing up.  
 

This film starts out with Taylor talking about how cigarette butts are the most numerous item when people are cleaning trash off the beach.  (I had encountered this once long ago when I helped pick up trash with a Covenant House mentee in downtown Anchorage.  So many cigarette butts.)

Not only is the tobacco full of chemicals, but the filters are not biodegradable.  So Taylor decides to make a surfboard using cigarette butts to draw attention to the pollution they cause.  The first one - in the photo - was two heavy.  But he got it down in weight and then got professional surfers to use the boards as a way to get the environmental message across.  The basic question people seemed to ask when they saw these boards was "It must take forever to collect all the butts."  They get told, "Not really, they're everywhere."

So this is an environmental movie and a surfing movie.  We see lots of people riding the waves on their cigarette surfboards.  

Taylor also visits surfers in different parts of the world.  In Ireland one former surfer decided flying around the world to go surfing, while fun, was not environmentally defensible, and he switched to sustainable farming that won't harm the ocean.  In southwest England, a group of surfers had successfully lobbied - with surfboards at Parliament - to end the practice of dumping raw sewage into the ocean.  

A fun film with a message.  

AIFF2024: Friday - Downtown Today

 I'm falling behind.  Last night's showing of Diving Into The Darkness  was fantastic, highlighted by the fact that the director and person highlighted in the movie were there - Nays Bahai and Jill Heinerth.  

But I'm swamped today and so I'm taking the easy way out by just posting a copy of the AIFF program for Friday,

AIFF2024: The Stranger's Case Was Powerful - Thursday Schedule [Video Added]

 It was a full house at the E Street Theater Wednesday night for The Strangers' Case.  The film is packaged with five chapters:  The Doctor; The Soldier; The Smuggler; The Poet; and The Captain.  They all converge in this story that starts out (after an opening scene in a Chicago hospital) in a hospital in Aleppo, Syria.  The doctor goes home to a birthday party and a bomb blast.  The soldier is upset when ordered to shoot a group of men accused of being terrorists, because it include a boy who wrote graffiti.  The smuggler sells spots on a boat from Turkey to Greece, cash only, no guarantees.  The poet is a refugee who is trying to get his family to Greece.  The captain is in the Greek Coast Guard who goes out everyday to look for and rescue boat people.  You can see the trailer in the previous post.

The only actor I knew was Omar Sy, the great French actor who's played in television series and many movies.  It was particularly poignant given that Assad's regime in Syria was overthrown just this week.  A film you should look out for.  

At the film was Ash Avildsen, whose own film, Queens of the Ring, plays tomorrow night.  I asked him for a quick intro to his film at after the showing of The Strangers' Case.  It's below.  At the end you can see his demonstration of appreciation for The Strangers' Case.

[I'll add the video tomorrow morning.  It's still uploading to Youtube and I need some sleep.DONE!]

I've seen so many really good films.  The documentaries are particularly strong this year, though The Strangers' Case is a narrative feature.  I'm hoping that having Omar Sy in the film will help it get wide distribution.  

Thursday's Schedule

9:00 AM: Sonic Storytelling: Music Licensing and Artist Collaboration in Film  Alaska Experience Theater

Moving to the E Street Theater now

10:00 AM – 12:00 PM: Coffee Talk/Panel

12:00 PM – 2:00 PM: Doc Shorts #2

• The Collector – 15:00
• Tentsítewahkwe – 17:21
• Designed by Disaster – 19:52
• Broken Flight – 18:00
• Signal Fire: Towards Reconciliation – 30:00

And now to the Museum

2:00 PM – 4:00 PM: Female Filmmaker Showcase Shorts 

A decade after high school, three old classmates reconnect and reevaluate their lives while hiking a mountain in Alaska.

• Vessel – 17:44
• Derive – 18:38
• Yazidi Women: From Victims To Survivors – 7:06
• The Icefield: An Expedition Memoir – 26:46
• Sunflower Girl – 13:08
• Julian – 6:53

4:30 PM – 6:30 PM: Alaska Teen Media Institute Presents After-School Special – Event Tickets

7:00 PM – 9:00 PM: Alaskan Feature: Uphill 

There's not a lot out there about this film.  It seems pretty new.  TMDB has the bare minimum - but it includes the image I'm using, the actors, and a budget ($15,000).

The DuckDuckGo search engine offers this under Plex.

"Uphill (2024) release date is Thursday, December 12 starring Adam D Boyer, Victoria Summer Felix, Matthew Rush and directed by Adam D Boyer. A decade after high school, three old classmates reconnect and reevaluate their lives while hiking a mountain in Alaska."

It doesn't actually say that if you go to the Plex link.  But if it's true, this is the world premier in Anchorage this evening.  

All this was still at the Museum.  

Now we move over to the Bear Tooth.

5:30pm  Diving Into Darkness

Screenshot from Press Page Photo

If you've gone to any of the AIFF films, you've seen Jill Heinerth swimming underwater in dark caves, and telling us it's the closest thing she can think of to being on another planet.  Wikipedia tells us:

"Jill Heinerth (born 1965) is a Canadian cave diver, underwater explorer, writer, photographer and film-maker.[4] She has made TV series for PBS, National Geographic Channel and the BBC, consulted on movies for directors including James Cameron, written several books and produced documentaries including We Are Water[5] and Ben's Vortex, about the disappearance of Ben McDaniel. . .

In 1998, Heinerth was part of the team that made the first 3D map of an underwater cave.[8]
Heinerth became the first person to dive the ice caves of Antarctica, penetrating further into an underwater cave system than any woman ever[5][dead link] In 2001, she was part of a team that explored ice caves of icebergs[9] where she and her then husband Paul Heinerth "discovered wondrous life and magical vistas" and experienced the calving of an iceberg, documented in the film Ice Island.[10]"

The AIFF2024 program tells us that the 2024 Explorer's Achievement Award goes to Diving into the Darkness.   This is a new award, but I heard tonight that Jill Heinerth is in Anchorage and will be at the screening to receive the award.  

I'm conflicted over whether I should post the trailer here, just because it's been played before every single film/program I've been to at this festival.  Instead, here's a link to the film's website and you can go watch it yourself.  If you haven't seen the trailer, you should.  

Here's from the director's statement:

As our friendship deepened, I discovered that Jill's story was profoundly deep, both literally and figuratively, and how the personal side of her story was immensely captivating. Yet, this remarkable story had largely remained confined to short video formats. Given my unique position at the intersection of the filmmaking and diving realms, I found the call to tell her story irresistible. What followed was a year of intense collaboration, a creative partnership that would prove invaluable as we tackled the herculean challenges of principal photography.

I had no intention of being a passive observer while my colleagues risked their lives to capture the story on film, especially when it came to the underwater sequences. So I undertook the gruelling journey of

becoming a certified cave diver on a rebreather, something which had never been done before amongst

film directors. I descended alongside the cast and crew into the depths of the caves, well beyond the reach of recreational divers. It was an arduous yet exhilarating experience to dive, work, and learn alongside some of the world's most renowned cave divers. Despite the monumental difficulties and inherent risks in directing a crew of cave divers, I would embark on this adventure again without hesitation.

8:00 pm (still at the Bear Tooth)  Queen of the Ring 

From Collider:

"From writer/director Ash Avildsen and based on the book by Jeff Leen, Queen of the Ring tells the incredible true story of Mildred Burke (Emily Bett Rickards), a single mother from a small town who went on to become the first million-dollar female athlete in world history. Mildred was a woman determined to make a name for herself as a female wrestler at a time when it was illegal across most of the United States, becoming a three-time women’s world champion from the 1930s through the 1950s despite all the challenges. At the same time, her personal life was not without its challenges, especially once she meets promoter Billy Wolfe (Josh Lucas), with whom she falls in love, gets married, becomes aware that he’s cheating on her with several of the other female wrestlers on his roster, and decides to stay married as a business arrangement, so that she doesn’t get screwed out of her own money. Through everything, she perseveres, becoming a pioneer in the sport that she loved. . .

"How did this project come your way? Was this just an audition that came up?

RICKARDS: I received the script in my inbox. There was no audition, just a talk with (writer/director) Ash [Avildsen] and questions about whether I had wrestled. The answer was no. And how comfortable I was with physicality, which was very comfortable. I felt very capable of this woman. I’m really grateful that Ash sent me and gave me this opportunity because I wouldn’t have known who this woman was. And I had never gotten to go under such a physical transformation for a character before, one that was not only energetic, but had to have the body structure to find the energy. It has really opened up my eyes, in terms of my process and acting. It just makes me hungry for more. It’s a cycle."

 Grammar note:  I wasn't sure where the apostrophe should go in The Strangers' Case.  Before or after the final s?  I checked the program and put it before the final s.  But that makes it singular, which, after seeing the movie didn't make sense.  There were a lot of 'strangers.'  And I see now that the trailer spells it Strangers'.  So I've fixed it.

The program also misled me on this last film.  The title in the program is Queen of the Ring.  But the title on the trailer is Queens of the Ring.  Colider also has it singular. So I've changed it where I can find it, but it takes too long for me to upload video to YouTube to change it on the video tonight. 

[Update: Dec. 12, 2024, 11:52pm:  I saw Queen of the Ring tonight, and the title on the film was QUEEN, no S.  So I've changed what I could. Editing the video and uploading it again will take a bit more time.  Also, I left an 'l' out of Ash Avildsen's name.  But I've fixed that too.]

 [ACS has been promising fiber optic for two years now, but until then I'm stuck with painfully slow internet.]

AIFF2024: Wednesday: Omar Sy Plays A Smuggler Of Syrian Refugees

 There's just one picture on the schedule for tonight.  

E Street Theater

315 E Street, Anchorage, Alaska 99501

8:00 PM – 10:00 PM: Feature Narrative: The Strangers' Case – Event Tickets

Whether you know Omar Sy from Lupin or Jurassic World or X-Men: Days of Future Past, you know this amazing French actor.  

And just a couple of days after Assad has been overthrown and has fled Damascus, we have this film about Syrian refugees.  

From Deadline: 

"Beloved French actor Omar Sy stars in the debut feature from longtime producer Brandt Andersen in The Strangers’ Case, a searing and international ensemble that is world premiering at the Berlin Film Festival on Friday. [That was last February]

Sy stars along with Yasmin Al Massri in the film, which is an extension of Andersen’s Oscar shortlisted 2020 short Refugee also starring Sy and Al Massri. It’s playing as a Berlinale Special Gala title later this week.

The film follows the chain reaction of events involving five different families in four different countries after tragedy strikes a Syrian family in Aleppo: a doctor (Al Massri) and her daughter, who come home following a chaotic shift at an Aleppo hospital; a soldier who witnesses heinous crimes towards men, women and children in the service of the Syrian regime; a smuggler in Turkey (Sy) who tries desperately to make ends meet for his young son while also trying to save enough money to afford his own escape; a poet from a Turkish refugee camp who barters for space on an overcrowded boat with his young family; and a Greek coast guard captain who spends his days and nights rescuing sinking lifeboats full of migrants."

From Guy Lodge, in Variety:

"The international scope and grueling human cost of the global refugee crisis lends itself to contemporary epic filmmaking of a particularly sober stripe, as seen mostly recently in Agnieszka Holland’s “Green Border” and Matteo Garrone’s Oscar-nominated “Io Capitano.” Shorn of their ripped-from-the-headlines urgency, such stories of humans crossing vast distances and facing hostile odds in pursuit of a better life are as old as time itself. A muscular, assured debut feature from U.S. producer-turned-director Brandt Andersen, “The Strangers’ Case” stresses the sprawling scale of the situation with a chaptered structure that pivots between multiple involved parties in the refugee’s journey, from warmongers to traffickers to rescuers to the displaced victims themselves. . .  

“The Strangers’ Case” is titled for a prescient, Shakespeare-written speech from the play “Sir Thomas More,” in defence of those displaced from their country and barred from others: “Would you be pleased to find a nation of such barbarous temper that, breaking out in hideous violence, would not afford you an abode on earth?” Brandt’s debut hasn’t quite the Bard’s poetry, but the plaintive conscience is present and correct."

 

AIFF2024: Monday's Offerings; Tuesday Is A Day Off

 Alaska Experience Theater

333 W. 4th Avenue (NW corner of 4th & C St. – enter on C), Anchorage, Alaska 99501

9:00 AM: Documenting Reality: The Truths and Trials of Non-Fiction Filmmaking

There are a lot of shorts programs today.  Sunday had some excellent shorts that I'll try to highlight in a later post.  I'll be doing my elementary school volunteer time in the morning so I'll miss the morning shorts programs.  

E Street Theater

315 E Street, Anchorage, Alaska 99501

10:00 AM – 12:00 PM: Other Worlds Shorts 

• At The Riverbank – 15:00
• Terms and Conditions – 5:59
• Into The Thicket – 12:13
• I Know There’s Something Here For You – 16:58
• Syncing Sinking – 17:55

12:00 PM – 2:00 PM: Cinematic Variety Pack #1 12:00 PM – 2:00 PM: Cinematic Variety Pack #1 – Event Tickets

• Nena – 15:00
• Neither Donkey Nor Horse – 28:29
• Buckets – 6:40
• Safety State – 15:37
• Seafoam – 6:00

Still at the E Street Theater

2pm-4pm  Documentary Feature  The Empathizer plus the short Bear Guardians 

 

From the Seed and Spark - what appears to be a crowdfunding site for films

"This project shines a light on the often fraught relationships and opposing perspectives that are still so prevalent between 2nd-gen Vietnamese and their immigrant parents. I was inspired to make this film after comparing my own connection to Vietnam with my mother's, who still refuses to go back. . ."

I find this kind of cross-cultural films fascinating.  Looking at the kids of immigrants going back to the country their parents fled from 30 or 40 years later.  Maybe because I went to Germany as a student 25 years after my mother fled Germany which was 30 years after my father had gotten out.  

Bear Guardians    -  "Bear Guardians is a portrait of a father and daughter wildlife rescue team that cares for sun and moon bears in Cambodia. Follow their work with two amputee bears who have lost limbs from being caught in snare traps."

Now switching to the Bear Tooth Theatrepub

5:30 pm:  SPOTLIGHT SELECTION SHORTS #1

• Ripple - 14:27
• Mecanica - 16:00
• Why Dogs Howl - 4:51
• Esperance to Fremantle  17:45
• The River 14:10
• Revenge of the Language Master 6:50
• Black Silk - 16:02

8:00 PM: Narrative Feature: The Way We Speak – Event Tickets

The teaser for this has been shown before a lot of the programs this weekend, and it's a bit cryptic.  It feels like it was put together by people who knew what the film was about, but it left me scratching my head and not sure I wanted to see it.  

So I've found this interview with one of the actors, Peter Fabian. (He was  Howard Hamlin in Better Call Saul.)

AIFF2024: From Iranian in Seattle, To Afghan Skiers, to Ukrainian Artists - [Updated]

  I'm going to post this quickly and try to catch up later.  This is the director and the person featured in the film Ultimate Citizens.  

Late for Sunday morning movie. More later.

[UPDATE Sunday night December 8, 2024: Yesterday, like every first Saturday of AIFF, was crazy hectic and wonderful.  I met Jamshid and Francine in the Museum atrium before the film, and they looked like they weren't from Anchorage so I started talking to them.  

We connected.  Then I thought about Gita, also an Iranian immigrant who lives in Anchorage and has been involved in the film festival over the years and wondered if she were coming.  Years ago we had an Iranian film maker who spoke no English and Gita had served as the translator for him.  

So I called Gita to see where she was - but I gave the phone to Jamshid and told him to speak to her in Farsi.  

She didn't answer and so he left a message.  I asked what he had said.  "Hi Gita, this is Steve.  I've learned Farsi so I can talk to you in Farsi.  Are you coming to see Ultimate Citizen?

Golden's Alishah Farhang, Ben Sturguleski*
and Katie Stjernholm at Q&A

Jamshid asked about what else was playing Saturday and I pointed out the Afghan skiing film  Champions of Golden Valley and Porcelain War.  Francine was going off to visit an Anchorage friend, so I offered to drive Jamshid to the Bear Tooth.  But after his film, two Iranian Anchorage women kidnapped Jamshid (they asked if they could take him to tea and they'd drop him off at the Bear Tooth).  

We met up at the Bear Tooth and we all loved  Champions of Golden Valley.  And afterward I 

Champion ski instructor Alishah Farhang talking 
with Jamshid Khajavi from Ultimate Citizen

found Jam talking to the Afghan ski instructor featured in the movie, who had fled to Germany when the Taliban took over.  He was part of the crush of people trying to get on planes as the Taliban had taken over Kabul.  Because he had taught girls how to ski, he was a likely target for the Taliban.  

After, Jamshid explained that Farsi and the main Afghan language are like dialects of each other and easy to understand.  

We went back to the Museum to see Demon Box, introduced by the Jewish Museum director, Leslie Fried (left) and Porcelain War. Leslie is standing a little atilt because, she told me before the film began, she'd fallen and broken several ribs and this was the first outing.  Like the trooper she is, she didn't mention that when she went up to do her intro.  

Demon Box was the film submitted by the Alaska Jewish Museum.  A short about the son of Holocaust survivors impressionistically presenting how the stories of his parents and their friends gave him nightmares as a child and guilt as an adult.  A unique collage of a film that comes at you from many directions.  

Porcelain War is a beautiful, horrible film about three artists -Slava Leontyev, Anya Stasenko, Andrey Stefanov, who stay in Kharkiv, near the Russian controlled territory.  Slava created little porcelain sculptures and his partner Anya painted them.  Ukraine, through their eyes, has beautiful natural areas, with exquisite pictures of flowers and birds and insects, all of which she paints in tiny detail.  

One of the magical parts of the film was the animation of Anya's miniaturist paintings on the tiny sculptures.  The image above is only a hint of the color and detail of the painting.  I really didn't capture the richness of the color in this screenshot from the film.  This part was animated exquisitely.  One of the objects Anya decorated was a drone.  

Slava is also in the military, training young recruits how to use their weapons.  The film won the Grand Prize award at Sundance and they are now hoping it will get nominated for an Academy Award in (I'm assuming) the foreign film category.  I would have preferred there was more Porcelain and less War, but obviously, making a documentary in a war zone is going to have to cover a lot of the war.  

By this time we were pretty tired and headed home.  As we approached Lake Otis and Northern Lights I thought we could stop in at Turkish Delight for something to eat.  I walked in, and there was Gita with a friend.  They were talking about the film festival - her friend had never been to one.  So I went back to the car to get the schedule.  Then I gave her my phone and she left a message on Jamshid's phone in Farsi.  Anchorage is a small town.  

So, this is just a catchup of yesterday.  I still have today - Sunday - to tell you about.  Some inspiring  shorts, and amazing feature length films.  Monday's schedule is up in the last post.  Tuesday is a day off and I'll try to get caught up.  

*Ben Sturgulewski, for the Alaskans wondering, is the grandson of Arliss, one of Alaska's most competent, dedicated, and principled politicians.  

AIFF2024: Sunday Schedule Overview

The Festival day begins at the Alaska Experience Theater at 9am for a conversation on  

The Art of Indie Acting: Bringing Characters to Life in Independent Cinema

333 W. 4th Avenue (NW corner of 4th & C St. – enter on C), Anchorage, Alaska 99501

head 1
The AIFF2024 Tab on  top has an index of all my posts on this year's festival.  Or here.

Everything else is at the Museum 

I apologize for not giving you more info on the shorts.  There are just too many of them.  But I love shorts programs.  If you don't like what you're watching, it will end soon and some magic may be ahead.  Also, shorts are how film makers start out.  If a short gains traction, it's easier to raise money for a longer version.  So do go see the shorts programs.  

10:00 AM – 12:00 PM: is the Documentary Shorts #1  Program

• Swimming With Butterflies – 7:44
• Handwoven – 9:00
• I’m Still Here – 25:42
• How We Rise – 23:00
• Cone People – 11:27

12:30 PM – 2:30 PM: is Documentary Feature: 76 Days Adrift 

"From Executive Producer Ang Lee comes 76 Days Adrift – a profoundly immersive documentary that plunges you into the heart of one man’s extraordinary survival story.

Steven Callahan, the author of the New York Times bestseller Adrift: 76 Days Lost at Sea, recounts the night of February 4, 1982, when a catastrophic collision with a whale left his boat sinking in the dead of night. With the Atlantic Ocean surging into his vessel, Steven had only moments to grab what he could before launching himself into the dark, unforgiving sea in a life raft, clutching a basic emergency kit.

For an astonishing 76 days, that fragile inflatable raft became Steven’s entire world as he drifted helplessly across the vast expanse of the Atlantic. Forced to confront his deepest fears, limitations, and the raw power of nature, he discovered an inner strength he never knew he possessed"  From the film's website.  

An interview in the Lexington Observer with a high school friend of Steven Callahan includes how Ann Lee (who directed The Life of Pi) got involved in the film.

From 5:00 PM – 7:00 PM: Narrative Feature: Life’s a Bitch

From a review in CineEuropa:

"Life's a Bitch [+], the second feature film from Xavier Seron, . .

Beware of the dog! It all starts with Tom. Tom is the kind of man nobody remembers, someone you just can’t place, a poor sod ill at ease with both life and the people in it. One day, however, his radiant neighbour knocks on his door. Cécile has a very particular mission for him: to pick up the dead neighbour’s dog. This dog, however, might very well be Satan incarnate. Greta, meanwhile, tends to treat other people like dogs. Well, not as nicely as she treats her own beloved dog, Sophie. So when the latter passes away — and Greta is also forced to replace her personal assistant, severely injured in the accident that took Sophie’s life — Greta is at a loss. She struggled to cope with her absence — the dog’s, of course. The final trio to experience the human-dog turmoil is composed of Franck, Lola, and Perdita, and it forces the viewer to ask themselves: can a love story survive a person’s phobia for their lover’s pet? 

At this stage, you must already know the answer. Naturally, it is bleak and melancholy, yet brought about with humour and tenderness; it is also implacable, Xavier Seron once again exploring the unfathomable complexity of human relationships. Are we ultimately made to live with our fellow human beings? Wouldn’t it be easier to limit ourselves to our apparently simple relationships with our pets? Through these three intertwined stories, moving between different registers, from the (of course) biting comedy to the offbeat love story and the absurd tale, the Belgian filmmaker skillfully explores the themes he’s obsessed with, offering some of the best Belgian actors working today a wonderful playground and confirming his talent for directing performances in the process."

From  3:00 PM – 5:00 PM: Strange Love Shorts 

• Allergic to Love – 11:00
• Tacenda – 14:50
• Church Camp – 13:42
• The Ghost – 10:32
• Eat Surf Love – 9:03
• Things I Made My Roommate Do – 8:30

7:00 PM – 9:00 PM: Narrative Feature: Battersea 

We’ve always gravitated to filmmakers like Cassavetes, Ozu, and Kore-eda. Films like Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf, Old Joy, and the Before Trilogy. The conversational film is a genre all in itself—one that challenges conventions and implicates the audience. In a panel discussion with the DGA, Richard Linklater said, “Most film teachers will say, ‘it’s a visual medium—show it, don’t talk about it.’ But I never approached cinema like that. I always thought people talking was so evocative.” We whole-heartedly agree.

From the film's website:

"Battersea is built on two long conversations, and the challenge, of course, is to make that dialogue work for the medium—to make it cinematic, to command the audience’s attention. It’s no small task, which is why this script took a decade to write, why we auditioned over 700 actors to play the two leads. To commit to such an undertaking in a debut feature, the pieces had to be right, which is, perhaps, another hallmark of our credo—an obsession with getting it right, killing darlings, starting over. Much like the conversations in this film, “getting it right” is a long negotiation of narratives and perspective, an upheaval, a series of mistakes and mishaps. It's a doomed and joyful excavation.

Which is how we find ourselves here, a decade later, overjoyed that after all that excavating, after hundreds of drafts, thousands of pages suffered over and deleted, darlings killed. After countless mistakes, humiliations, educations on the business and craft, cold emails, cold calls, crows eaten, dead ends, all our savings. That after one pandemic, all the Zooms, the Skypes, and the many dozens of meetings with the wrong people, we found two dozen artists as foolishly optimistic as we are—every one of them a perfect fit—all eager to help us make this simple but profound film about two people burdened by the past, who risk a great deal in telling their stories."

And finally at  

9:00 PM – 11:00 PM: Fistful of Suspense Shorts 

• Adjoining – 11:42
• The Bougie Man – 11:04
• Shark in the Dark 25:54
• Stigmata – 7:13
• Betty Bites Back – 3:21
• Pay Back – 17:40
• Endzgiving – 10:45 

AIFF2024: Opening Night, "Bob Trevino Likes It" Was A Crowd Pleaser

The Bear Tooth was packed.  The two new festival directors, Pat McGee and Adam Linkenhelt,  greeted the audience.  

Film maker Tracie Laymon was introduced, and then we saw Bob Trevino Likes It.

A 20 something woman whose mom was gone when she was young and whose dad, Bob Trevino, seems to be always disappointed with her.  

She looks up Bob Trevino on Facebook and befriends another one - not her dad.  The movie then focuses on their relationship.  He and his wife lost a baby years ago, and she needs a father.  He insists he is not her father, but they can be friends.  

On the one hand this was a small film - it looked closely at a few people and their struggles to connect with others and themselves.  But it was also a big film up on that screen.  Nothing pretentious, nothing glitzy.  Just a human story.  I didn't see any actors - the characters were real.  I heard more than one audience member say they would give it a ten out of five.  

Although the credits said it was purely a work of fiction, when Tracie got up on stage after the movie for Q&A, she let us know it was a fictionalized version of her own story.  Several of people said they 'knew' one character or another, that they were that character.  

This is the type of film that film festivals are for.  It was Tracie's first feature length film.  Below, she's talking with audience members after the Q&A was over. 

And here she's talking with three young film makers.  On the right is AIFF Board Chair, Rich Curtner.

I did an overview of the Saturday films schedule here.  

I'll try to get up something on Sunday tomorrow, but I'll also be watching more films.  

AIFF 2024 - Saturday Dec 7 Schedule

There's a lot to see Saturday from 9am until 10pm.  At the Bear Tooth, the Museum, and even coffee with film makers at the Alaska Experience Theater.  

The focus has been on the two films at the Bear Tooth Saturday.  One is an Alaska focused film on fishing in Bristol Bay and the other has skiing and mountains.  Both those kinds of films do well at AIFF festivals, which, I'm sure, is why they're at the Bear Tooth.  And Champions of Golden Valley is essentially sold out already.  Unearth has some seats left in the balcony.  

But for my money, the film to see will be Porcelain War, at the Museum at 6pm.  It premiered at Sundance and has won many awards.  It's a film about Ukrainian artists fighting the war with art.  There's a trailer down below.

So basically, I'm presenting Saturday as chronologically as I can - given that there is overlap between the Bear Tooth and the Museum at 12:30pm

Things start off early at  the first of the festival's "Coffee Talk and Panels" at the Alaska Experience theater.  

"Debut Dreams: The Journey of First-Time Directors"

SATURDAY December 7th at 9:00AM

Alaska Experience Theater 

First features are filled with passion, challenges, and the thrill of discovery. This panel brings together debut directors who dared to dive into filmmaking, sharing insights into their creative processes, struggles, and triumphs. Hear how they’ve shaped their visions into powerful first features and what advice they’d give to those taking their own first steps.

And then at 10am at the museum.   

At 10 am:    Ultimate Citizens

From the film website:  

ULTIMATE CITIZENS is the story of Jamshid Khajavi, an extraordinary 65-year-old Iranian American public school counselor who uses the sport of Ultimate Frisbee to help children heal. In an America where many families are quietly, barely getting by, Mr. Jamshid coaches an underdog team of kids on their way to compete in the world’s largest youth tournament. ULTIMATE CITIZENS is a celebration of resilience and belonging, and the third independent feature documentary from award-winning filmmaker Francine Strickwerda.

It first showed in May 2023, and has been at (and won awards at) a number of festivals this year.  The AIFF/Goelevant site says it was filmed at Seattle’s Hazel Wolf K-8 school.

Then come two shorts programs.  The first conflicts with Champions of Golden Valley at the Bear Tooth.

12:30 PM – 2:30 PM: International Gems – Event Tickets

Ivania – 12:00

Complications – 14:00

K.O.- 27:00

Pioneras – 14:30

Monte Clerigo – 27:30

Meanwhile, at the Bear Tooth:

Two Documentaries,

12 Noon:  Unearth 

Picture from Rogovy Foundation 

"Environmental activist Erin Brockovich has signed on to executive produce 
“Unearth,” a new documentary that will make its world premiere at DOC NYC   on Nov. 16.

Directed, produced and shot by Hunter Nolan, “Unearth” tells the story of two sets of siblings — the Salmon sisters and the Strickland brothers — who live in Alaska’s Bristol Bay. Both sets of siblings are alarmed when they learn of and fight against advanced plans for a Pebble Mine — a massive open-pit gold and copper mine — in the vicinity of their homes. The Salmon sisters, Native Alaskans, work on the regulatory front, pushing the federal Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to block the project, while the Strickland brothers, independent fishermen, expose the truth behind what the Pebble Mine developer is telling the public. The 93-minute doc reveals systemic failures in mining and the balance between the need for materials and their environmental costs."  (From Variety)

November 16 wasn't that long ago, so AIFF audiences will be among the first to see this Alaska based film.  You can learn more about the film at the Rogovy Foundation website. 

As of Thursday night, there are some seats left in the balcony at the Bear Tooth.

2:30 pm Champions of the Golden Valley

Picture from Champions of the Golden Valley website

This film got front page coverage in the Anchorage Daily News yesterday so I won't spent much more time on it here.  From their website: 

"In the remote mountains of Afghanistan, a newfound passion for skiing attracts young athletes from rival villages to the slopes. With minimal gear and makeshift wooden skis, the determined  coach Alishah Farhang organizes a ski race like no other that unites the community in a moment of joy and triumph, just before the country’s collapse

Champions of the Golden Valley captures the spirit of a classic underdog sports story with the heartfelt portrait of a community finding hope amid disrupted dreams. Revealing a stunning unseen side of Afghanistan, it is an uplifting exploration of what it means to be a champion – in all its forms."

As of Thursday night, the Bear Tooth map shows one seat way up in the far corner of the balcony.  

 

For those who have tickets at the Bear Tooth, Golden Valley ends at 2:30pm, and you could make it to the 3pm Alaska shorts at the Museum.  But there will be a number of film makers at the conference.  If Golden Valley has representatives coming, there will surely be some questions and answers afterward.  But if you miss the first or second short, there are more in the program.  

3:00 PM – 5:00 PM: Made in Alaska Shorts #1 – 

The Gingerbread Man – 9:03

The Glacier Pilot – 10:00

Footprints on Katmai – 21:50

The Grace – 13:00

Mending the Net – 11:36

5:30 PM – 6:00 PM: Alaska Jewish Museum Presents – Demon Box –  This film is free at the Museum, it's not clear if you have to buy tickets in advance to be sure you get in.  The IMDB page says:

"After festival rejections, a director revises his intensely personal short film about trauma, suicide, and the Holocaust, and transforms it into a painful, blunt and funny dissection of the film and his life."

It also has a short trailer, that I don't see a way to embed here.  I'd note that Leslie Fried, the director of  the Jewish Museum in Anchorage has unfailingly nominated excellent films every year.  

There's still more on Saturday at the Museum

6:00 PM – 8:00 PM: Documentary Feature: Porcelain War  at the Museum

This is a Ukrainian movie and from what I can tell is one of the movies to see at the festival.  From the NYTimes: 

"The latest documentary dispatch from Ukraine, “Porcelain War,” brings a message of hope rooted in art. Making art does feel like an act of resistance during the Russian invasion, when Kremlin propaganda attacks the very existence of Ukrainian culture. But what’s intriguing is that the directors, Brendan Bellomo and Slava Leontyev, also celebrate Ukraine’s military defense, making for a jangly mix of idyll and warfare.

Slava, who appears in the film, is both a ceramist and a member of an Ukraine special forces unit who gives weapons training to civilians turned soldiers. His partner, Anya, paints the whimsical figurines he creates, and the irrepressible couple weather the war in bombed-out Kharkiv with their more anxious pal Andrey, a painter and cameraman."

From Deadline:

"The film has won 30 prizes around the world, including the Grand Jury Prize for U.S. Documentary at Sundance. This past weekend, it earned the Grand Jury Award for Best Feature Documentary at the Woodstock Film Festival in New York, as well as the Best Documentary Editing Award. And at the Heartland International Film Festival in Indianapolis, it won the Documentary Feature Grand Prize, which comes with a $20,000 cash award."

8:00 PM – 10:00 PM: Narrative Feature: Midwinter   at the Museum

"Nadine is tired and her whole body aches with inflammation and she can sleep. Her son Goldie keeps her active beyond her energy level. Her husband Jack owns a large ad agency and has been a loving husband who has recently expanded his romantic life beyond his marriage to include co-worker Maeve...who happens to be the ex-partner of his sister-in-law Lena. Lena is a burgeoning music writer who, getting over a break-up, takes on an assignment writing about one of her favorite queer indie artists, Mia Hawthorne. Mia is out in the Berkshires, in search of inspiration, a bit frustrated with a high-class problem: the record label wants her to have a co-writer. The mundane poetry of life ensues.

Ryan Andrew Balas

Director, Writer"  (From TMBD) 

Midwinter is also streaming on Netflix and other streaming sites, so if it's been a long day already, you can watch it at home.