Donald Cried Coming To Netflix August 15

"Donald Cried" was one of the features in competition at the Anchorage International Film Festival last December.  There was a strong group of features, and as I wrote back then, I could have argued for any of them getting one of the three prizes.  But Donald didn't.  But it made a very powerful impression on me.

Here's what I wrote in after seeing the movie:

"Donald Cried starts with Peter coming back to the small town where he grew up to sell his grandmother's house and settle things after she's died.  You don't know all this as the film starts - you pick up more and more details as things progress.  He's lost his wallet on the bus and so he has no money and goes across the street to a neighbor's, who greets him like a long lost pal and practically kidnaps him taking him around town.  The neighbor, Donald, seems like he's got Asbergers or something as he constantly crosses normal conversational boundaries in politeness and topics.  But the history of Peter, Donald, the grandmother, and others slowly is revealed.  But there were still so many questions I had.  And reading the credits - Kris Avedisian was listed as the writer, the producer, the director, and actor - I knew exactly who I wanted to talk to.  My wife asked, which one was he?  I assumed he played Donald, but then I had this thought, whoa, what if he played Peter?  That would have been so weird.  But as the cast scrolled by, he did play Donald.  So I was ready to go home and start looking for an email address for Kris."

I found that email address, sent a bunch of questions, and got a quick response back with a link to a video interview of Kris at a different film festival talking about the film.  (None of his team made it to Anchorage.)  I posted about that and the video here.

This is a quirky film festival type film with powerful characters and an interesting reveal of these two characters' past relationship which you wouldn't have guessed from the beginning, but ultimately makes sense.  And the interview at the link above answered a lot of my questions.

So yes, I'm making a recommendation to watch this film.  The schedule of August movies was on Lifehacker.  

AIFF2016 Followup: Immigration Nightmare - The Movie

[You can scroll down to see the movie, and further to see one of the director I took when she was in Anchorage last December for another of her movies at the Anchorage International Film Festival.  But here's some immigration context for the film.]

Immigration dominates the news these days, but for many there is no sense of the topic.  But let's look at some numbers to put things in perspective.  From the Homeland Security Website:

Below are daily averages:

1,069,266 passengers and pedestrians
- 326,723 incoming international air passengers and crew
- 53,786 passengers and crew on arriving ship/boat
- 688,757 incoming land travelers

So, in a year, there are about 400 million people going through Customs.  And how many terrorist attacks have we had inside the US since 9/11?

Back to daily averages:

• Conducted 1,140 apprehensions between U.S. ports of entry
• Arrested 22 wanted criminals at U.S. ports of entry
• Refused 752 inadmissible persons at U.S. ports of entry
• Identified 877 individuals with suspected national security concerns
• Intercepted 20 fraudulent documents 

I can't find any explanations of these figures or the terms used, so I don't know if there is overlap from one category to another.  Were the 22 arrested already counted in the 1,140 apprehensions?  Were the 20 people intercepted with fraudulent documents also counted in the 752 inadmissible persons?

But for my purposes here, the numbers here are so low that I'll count them all as if they are all discrete counts.  The total comes to 2811.

So, on a daily basis, that comes down to one quarter of one percent  of the people coming through get onto the list of 2811 above.  That's one out of every 400.   I have to assume that the 'perfect' foreigner  like Anna in the film - highly skilled, US education, a place to stay and a job where people are needed badly, no suspicious connections - is one of the 2811 caught up in a typical day.  And perhaps the woman in the wheel chair who couldn't speak English who will have to stay overnight because Anna isn't allowed to translate - is she part of these numbers?  It's not clear.

Here's the whole film which is being highlighted at Short Film of the Week.


WELCOME from Serena Dykman on Vimeo.




Is the situation in the movie an exception to the rule?  It doesn't look like it.  From the Center for American Progress (in Wikipedia identified as a progressive policy group):

"The most serious conviction for many deported immigrants is an immigration or traffic violation. Forty-seven percent of those deported in FY 2012 for committing a crime were convicted of only immigration or traffic offenses." (emphasis added)

Another excellent full length film on immigration we saw at the Anchorage International Film Festival in 2013 was called De Nieuwe Wereld (The New World) and took place in the  no-man's-land between the arrival area and the departure area in Amsterdam (I'm guessing because it was a Dutch film) where people with questionable or missing documents are held pending a decision.



I've got this titled as part of the Anchorage International Film Festival 2016, because the filmmaker showed another film - NANA - at the festival this year.  I mentioned it briefly in this post, but I also had a video of Serena Dykman that I didn't have a chance to post.  Getting work of this film got me to get it ready so I could post it here.  Below she talks about the film she showed at the festival - about her grandmother who survived Auschwitz and took on the mission of going to schools and elsewhere to spread the word from the mouth of survivor.

AIFF2016: Suggestions for Next Year's Film Festival

Overall, the 2016 Festival went well.  There were lots of good films, lots of visiting film makers, and some nice extra touches - like music before some films.  On the opening night, for instance, the Alaska based band whose music was in the opening night film, played before the film.  That was some thoughtful planning.

But there are always improvements to be made and here is my list for next year.

1.  Scheduling -

This is my biggest issue.  Here are two guidelines I'd like the schedulers to strive to follow.


A.  Maximize number of films someone can see.  From one time slot to another, there should be enough time for viewers to get to any of the next films.   Here's an example of what I mean.  Below is the first Saturday morning schedule. ( I realize it's hard to see the details, but you can get the basics points.)

Top row (A,B,C,D) - films that began between 11:30am and 12.  The blue-green stars indicate how many of the four following films a viewer has enough time to get to.
Someone watching film B could get to four.
Someone watching A or C could get to three.
Someone watching D could only get to two.

The pea-green circles show the number of prior films from which one could get to  the next set of films (E, F, G, and H).

Why not schedule the end times and starting times so someone could get from any of the first four to any of the second four?  This also has to take into consideration walking distance between venues.

All it takes is paying attention to
a.  how long each program is
b.  adjusting the starting times (and thus the ending times) of A, B, C, and D 
c.  adjusting the starting times of E, F, G, and H

They didn't need big adjustments as the following image shows.  A few minutes this way and that.

By starting the longest showings of A, B, C, and D a little earlier and slightly adjusting the starting times of E, F, G, and H, the movie goers' options are greatly improved.  They can see ANY of the following four films from any of the previous four films.  And it can work for the next set of films (I, J, K, and L) as well.

If someone is trying to see two particular films, it's not possible if the two are playing in the same slot.  Festival goers understand they can't see every film.   But one shouldn't have conflicts between slots.  (Slot meaning here - all the films that are showing between, say, 11:30 and 1pm, and then 1:15 and 3pm, etc.)

B.  It should be easy to see the films in competition in each category.

Films in competition are the ones the reviewers thought were the best.  I haven't always agreed, but overall, that's a good guide for picking out better films in a very crowded, generally unknown field.  So it should be easy to find and to watch the films in competition in each category.

For feature length films 

a.  they shouldn't be shown at the same time
b.  they should be marked as films in competition so it's easy to identify them
c.  as much as possible, feature length docs and features, shouldn't play at the same time

Shorts and supershorts
These are more complicated because they are shown in programs with other films.

a.  put as many shorts in competition together in the same program as possible
b.  don't have orphans - just one film in competition in any program
c.  put the films in competition at the beginning or end so someone doesn't have to sit through the whole program to catch them
d.  show more of the short, particularly the short shorts, before feature length films - this year, for example, "Arrival" was shown on GayLa night before "Real Boy."
e.  pay attention to which films are repeated in different showings - there were some shorts I saw three or four times and others I never got to see

2.  Other Issues 

Indicate Films in Competition in the list of selected films on the website
This has been the usual practice, but this year this was only done for the Docs and Short Docs.  There was a place for them to be marked, but they just weren't.  Even though the festival was notified in advance, it didn't get done.  Aside from alerting viewers, it's important information that verifies what a film maker says about her film.

Memberships - I don't know how many people are aware of AIFF memberships, what they mean, and what benefits members get. (I don't.)  Membership is not pushed on the website or at the festival.  I suspect more people would join if it were pushed a little.

Locations
49th Brewery basement room - all seats are at the same level and the screen isn't elevated so it is hard to see films,  particularly those with subtitles.  On weekend nights there was a lot of noise from nearby rooms.  Having food available is good.

Alaska Experience Small Theater - temperature regular goes from cold to hot to cold to hot.  If you sit under a vent it's really bad.  Also latecomers have to walk in at the front and opening the door lights up the screen.  Otherwise, it's a cozy little theater.

When scheduling, remember that it probably takes about ten minutes to get from the Brewery to the Alaska Experience and another ten or so to the museum.

Award titles - get them consistent
  Generally, the awards have been titled:  Winner, First Runner Up, and Honorable Mention.  But at least one of the announcers at the Awards ceremonies used other names, like Winner, Second Place, and Third Place.  I'm not sure the official names are the best.  Would someone not associated with the festival who hears "Honorable Mention" realize this is a third place honor?  It might be useful for the board to consider what names they want to use.  And then get everyone to use them consistently.

World Premiers - Mark any films that are world or North American premiers in the schedule, online, and announce it before the film is shown.

Computer Instructions  -  The audience shouldn't have to see the projectionist's computer screen.  It happened often enough - particularly at the Alaska Experience Theater - to be something worth mentioning here.



All that said, I think this was one of the better run festivals.  The volunteers were great - helpful, cheery, thinking on their feet.   The festival remains low key and, from what I hear from the film makers, one of the most hospitable festivals around.

AIFF2016: GayLa Night Filmmakers Bennett Wallace (Real Boy) and Alex Myung (Arrival) Q&A

Back in December I got some video of the Q&A at the Anchorage International Film Festival's GayLa night.  Alex Myung's animated film Arrival opened.  It's a visually beautiful story of a young, Asian-American gay man leaving for the big city and later coming out to his mom.  It got the first runner up award for animation at the festival.

The second film, a feature documentary called Real Boy, follows Bennett Wallace's transition to a boy.  

[You can see the trailers for both films here.]

After the showing, they went on stage together to answer questions.  I've paraphrased the question below.  I got most of the Q&A but I think there were a few more questions I missed.
The first went to Alex.  The Bennett got some, and then it went back to Alex for the last one.

For Alex:

Q1:  Was this how you came out or someone you know?
Q2:  Was it always going to be a film without dialog?

For Bennett:

Q3:  How has the relationships with your parents evolved since the film?
Q4:  Given that the film portrays your cutting yourself, what would you tell kids today who are cutting?
Q5:  Would it have helped you to see a film like this?  [Spoiler:  "It would have changed my life."
Q6:  How did the film come about?
Q7:  How did it feel living your life with the camera on you all the time?  [Spoiler:  "At first I felt I always had to say something really profound.  That didn't last long."  "It was difficult when we filmed in public."
Q8:  How is Joe doing now?

For Alex:

Q9:  I seemed to see a Miyazaki influence, was he a model for you?

AIFF2016: My Picks Alongside The Festival's Picks

I don't have any serious issues with the Festival winners this year as I have had in the past.  Maybe I'm just mellowing, but I think the quality the films in competition was generally higher this year than in recent years.

But there are some films which I thought got overlooked and I'd like to point them out.  There are others that I might have added to this list had I seen them.

The films in competition* in the various categories are listed below with the festival winners bolded.

[*These are films the programmers picked as the best of the selected films and 'in competition' for a prize.]

FEATURES
Demimonde (Hungary) Winner
Donald Cried (USA)
First Girl I Loved (USA) First Runner Up
Heredity (Columbia)
Planet Outtakring (Austria)
Youth in Oregon (USA) Honorable Mention

I could argue why any of these films should have won the top prize.  All had strengths that made them strong contenders.  I think Demimonde was a fine pick.  Youth in Oregon was also a good movie, though it was a Hollywood film with some well known actors - less of a film festival picture.

Here are my top three,   not in any particular order.

I would have put Donald Cried in the top three.  It had a very powerful and complicated lead character who was played amazingly by the actor Kris Avedisian.  This was a powerful film about going home, but also about making amends, as an adult, for treating people badly as a teen.  Here's a post I did after seeing Donald Cried.

And Planet Ottakring was an adult fairy tale of a movie set in Ottakring, a real working class neighborhood in Vienna.  This film has clear cut good guys and bad guys, with Frau Hahn as a Cruella Deville class female villain. The good guys a little more complicated.  The story was written as a vehicle to introduce the concept of a local community currency based on historical events in Wörkl, Austria in 1932.  The writer, Mike Majzen told me via email, that he then wanted to make a more interesting screenplay in which to package that idea.  He succeeded beautifully.  Of course the director and the cast had something to do with that too.  [See more on the Wörkl financial experiment in Planet Ottakring in my post on Features in Competition.  Actually, I have more about all the features in competition at the link.]

Demimonde is like the fanciest, most decadent cake in a Budapest bakery.  It's exquisite looking, it's rich, it's got a dark story to tell.  Attila Szász deserved his second top prize at AIFF in three years.  He and his crew do beautiful and meaningful work.

But Heredity still haunts my mind as well.  This Columbian film explored the long term effects of being abandoned by one's father and the dangers of trusting the mental health professionals.  Luckily for the main character, his wife believed in him.  I need to do some more research on whether this film was based on a true story and if there are examples of cases like this one.


SHORTS (SUPER)
20 Matches  Winner
Death$ in a $mall Town
How To Lose Weight in 4 Easy Steps
A Magician Honorable Mention
On Time First Runner Up

20 Matches was an excellent choice.  An original approach to telling a story that made palpable the grim story being told.   And yes, 20 matches were involved.  On Time was a powerful tale, well told,  with a punch in the gut ending.  A Magician had a good message wrapped in a quick and amusing story.  All good picks.  

​SHORTS​

Curmudgeons
Gorilla - First Runner Up
Il Campione (The Champion )
Like A Butterfly - Honorable Mention
My Mom and the Girl
Thunder Road  - Winner

I ended up seeing Thunder Road four times.  It was worth seeing once, maybe twice.  But I was waiting for the next film to start the third and fourth times.  A really good film should hold up longer.  I know people liked it because it was done in one long-shot and the actor showed a range of emotions.  But those things weren't enough for repeated viewings for me.  And his Karaoke ruined the song Thunder Road forever.  You can watch the whole movie here and decide for yourself.  It also won a major prize at Sundance, so I'm probably the odd man out here.

I only saw a part of Like a Butterfly so I don't have an opinion.  Gorilla  is a solid, satisfying film.  It might have been honorable mention in my choices.

My favorite short wasn't even in competition.  Sing For Your Supper was pulled me in from the beginning.  The basic concept - a land where you literally pay for things by singing and if you can't sing you end up begging - was brilliant, and the creation of a believable dystopian world in a short film was remarkable, as were the musical numbers and the acting.  A terrific short that, in my opinion, should have been the winner.

Another favorite was GlaswAsian Tales.  This film interwove the tales of several Asian-Scots in Glascow seamlessly connected a series of the people and stories with flashes of biting wit.  A look at the world from the view of the 'other' as signaled by the title's play on the usual word for people from Glascow.

Pay Day is a grim Hungarian short that shows the impact of a loan-shark in a small village.  Powerful.

And I want to mention Salt Man too.  A unique short about an artist living and working in a remote salt mine (collecting salt) in Iran, with his young daughter, talking about art and creativity and censorship.  He lives, emotionally, off the awards he wins from festivals around the world.  Another really strong and unique film.


DOCUMENTARY

Documentary Shorts
I’ll Wait Here (Austria)
Pickle (USA)  First Runner Up
Starring Austin Pendleton (USA) Winner  Winner
The BlindSide (India)  Honorable Mention

This seems to be the thinnest category. There were only four documentary shorts in competition. I didn't get to see The Blindside. [Until I was about to post this.  I found it online and you can watch it.  I think it's a more profound film than the other two and gets its message across in 3 minutes.]  I'm not sure why I'll Wait Here was in competition.  Someone shot a video of his grandparents at a Swiss spa.The editing makes it more than a family film.  One could argue that it causes us to pause and ponder what's important.  Some people see Jesus in strange places, so I guess some programmer saw something in this film that I missed. This is not an attempt to put down I'll Wait Here.  But I think there were other short docs that were probably better.  Pendleton was a film about an interesting person - a character actor who was sort of hidden in plain sight.  Pendleton's not unlike The Blindside, in subject matter.  A nice tribute, something you could show at Pendleton's funeral.  But it doesn't have the heart of the Indian film.

[After watching The Blindside online after the festival, and after the first draft of this post, I decided to see what I could find of the other short documentaries.  Mostly I could only see trailers.  I'll withhold further judgment until I can see the whole films.]

Feature-Length Documentaries
Best and Most Beautiful Things (USA) Honorable Mention  (tie)
Drokpa (China) First Runner Up
Goodbye Darling, I’m Off to Fight (Italy)
SHU-DE! (USA)
Happy Lucky Golden Tofu Panda Dragon Good Time Fun Fun Show (USA) Honorable Mention (tie)
The Cinema Travellers (India) Winner
The Slippers (USA)

These were all good films.  The choices were hard.   I loved The Cinema Travellers.  The other winners (I didn't get to see Dropka) were all worthy.  I did hear really good things about Walk With Me (not in competition) and it won an Audience Award.  I'm hoping to see it.


ANIMATION
Murderous Tales (Czech Republic)
Green Light (South Korea)
A Space in Time (France) Honorable Mention
Adija (USA)
Alike (Spain)   Winner
Arrival: A Short Film by Alex Myung (USA)  First Runner Up
Hum (USA)
Just Like it Used to Be (USA)
My Life I Don't Want (Myanmar)
Pearl (United Kingdom, USA)
Red (Iran)
Under the Apple Tree (Netherlands)

The winners were all fine.  I especially liked Arrival.  But I do want to mention My Life I Don't Want.   Using simple graphics Nyan Kyal Say encapsulates the basics of being a woman world wide.  A brilliant film.  So simple, so profound.


I'm afraid I never got to any of the Made In Alaska films so I have no comment on them.

I thought this year's festival had strong films in many categories and I don't have any serious beefs with the festival's winners.  They were all good and the choices boil down to something in the films that appealed to particular judges that were different from appealed to me in some cases.

"Films Worth Freezing For" Was True This Week

The Anchorage International Film Festival's motto is 'Films Worth Freezing For" and this week we had fresh snow and cold.

This thermometer is in Fahrenheit.  (-18˚C)

And yes, the films were worth going out into the cold to watch.

[Yes, I did play with the hoarfrost picture in Photoshop.]

AIFF2016: Film Festival Winners

[UPDATE Dec 11, 2016  10:45pm:  All the awards listed and related photos are up.]

This post was updated many times from when I put up the list of all the films in competition and as the winner were announced in each category, and as I put up pictures of winning film makers and some of the festival programmers.

Todd Salat  Aurora*

Jury Awards
Made in Alaska

Alaska's Mind-Blowing Aurora  Honorable Mention
Find Me
I am Yupik  Winner
Interior
Speaking from the HeART
Super Salmon  First Runner Up

Ryan Peterson - Super Salmon*

Really, I didn't know these two would win awards - I took these pictures less than ten minutes ago.
Ryan said his film would be available online next week.

Alex Myung Arrival**

Animation 
Murderous Tales (Czech Republic)                    
Green Light (South Korea)
A Space in Time (France) Honorable Mention
Adija (USA)
Alike (Spain) Winner
Arrival: A Short Film by Alex Myung (USA) First Runner Up
Hum (USA)
Just Like it Used to Be (USA)
My Life I Don't Want (Myanmar)
Pearl (United Kingdom, USA)
Red (Iran)
Under the Apple Tree (Netherlands)

[UPDATE:  I erroneously marked Adija as the winner - wishful thinking on my part.  I really liked Adija, the spray painting was magical.  But Alike was also good.  And they look almost the same.  Sorry to both film makers of both films if you saw this before the correction.]

Rich Curtner Shorts Programer center*

Super Shorts

How To Lose Weight in 4 Easy Steps (USA)
Death$ in a $mall Town (USA)
20 Matches (USA)  Winner
A Reasonable Request (USA)
A Magician (UK) Honorable Mention
On Time (USA) First Runner Up

Programmer George Pollock (Shorts) Juror Kelly Walters (Features)*

Shorts
Il Campione (The Champion) (Italy)                      
Like a Butterfly (USA)  Honorable Mention
Thunder Road (USA)  Winner
My Mom and The Girl (USA)
Gorilla (USA)  First Runner Up
Curmudgeons (USA)









Documentary Short

I’ll Wait Here (Austria)
Pickle (USA) First Runner Up
Starring Austin Pendleton (USA) Winner
The BlindSide (India) Honorable Mention

Best and Most Beautiful director Zevgetis**  

Documentary Feature Length
Best and Most Beautiful Things (USA) Honorable Mention
Drokpa (China) First Runner Up

Kate Rigg Happy Lucky...*

Goodbye Darling, I’m Off to Fight (Italy)
SHU-DE! (USA)
Happy Lucky Golden Tofu Panda Dragon Good Time Fun Fun Show (USA) Honorable Mention
The Cinema Travellers (India) Winner
The Slippers (USA)

Attila Szász director Demimonde***

Feature

Putnam and Hunter Producers First Girl I Loved**

Demimonde (Hungary)  Winner   AK Small
Donald Cried (USA)
First Girl I Loved (USA)  First Runner Up            

Heredity (Columbia)
Planet Outtakring (Austria)
Youth in Oregon (USA)  Honorable Mention






Audience Choice

John Serpe - Producer The Happys**

Feature - The Happys

Documentary - Walk With Me

Jesse Nesser, Walk With Me, With his Oosik*

* photos taken at Awards Ceremony
**photos taken earlier during the Festival
***screenshot from 2014 Skype interview

AIFF2016: LA Movies

Saturday and Sunday are always full of films most of the day, and this year Friday started at noon as well.  Actually, it began at 10 with a film maker discussion.  So keeping up with blogging has been tricky, even with wifi in the venues.

Saturday I saw two good LA movies, among other things.

Here are John Serpe and Tom Gould of The Happys answering questions about their film after it showed Saturday.  Their movie was about a woman who moves to LA with her actor fiancee who turns out to be gay and how she finds her calling.  I'd call this film not so much a gay film as a food truck movie.








And Jennifer Lafleur talking about No Light and No Land Anywhere.  Lafleur played the role of Tanya in that film about a woman who flies from London to LA to find her long lost father.

AIFF2016: 3 Docs, Awards, Best of Fest on Last Day of Festival

There are three documentaries in competition scheduled so that you can actually see them all conveniently.

There are some Alaska Shorts, two of which -  Super Salmon and Find Me - are in competition, and one or more of the film makers will be there.

The Awards Ceremony is at 5pm at the Williwaw (5th & F Sts where Covenant House used to be) and then there will be three Best of the Fest showings at 8pm.  That means we won't be told what will show where until the end of the Awards Ceremony.  That makes it hard for people not going to the Ceremony.

But I will do my best to get that information posted here.  As I've done with the last several Festivals, I'll try to post all the winners as they are announced here.  It may be one post that I keep updating, or it may be several posts, one right after the other.  Possibly I be able to Tweet them as well at @whisper2world and #ancff.  No promises - depends on wifi, and how fast things move along.

Here's today's [SUNDAY] schedule.  If you click on the image, it will take you to the SCHED website where the drop down menus for each film/event will give you more details.  Have fun.




You can see my overview of all the docs in competition (including the three today) here.  With trailers.  I'm going to Slippers which I haven't seen yet.

AIFF SAT Sched - Lots, A Few In Competition, Nothing At Bear Tooth

I've taken the online guide and matched it with the written guide to add locations.  But click here to get to the online guide so you can see descriptions of the films.

There are shorts in competition in the Shorts Programs.  My favorite short is "Sing For Your Supper" in the Shorts 1 program.  It's NOT in competition, but should be.  [I was wrong.  It's in Hard Knocks which isn't playing again.]

I really, really liked Planet Ottakring which plays at  7:30pm in the AK Experience Small Theater.  It's a fun, light, but serious, almost fairy tale story that takes place in a Vienna neighborhood.  A Feature in Competition.

Happy Lucky Golden Tofu Panda Dragon Good Time Fun Fun Show is a Doc in Competition that is good, but much edgier, Slanty Eyed Mamas rap and sing and talk about being Asian American.  6pm at 49th State Brewery.

AIFF2016: Donald Cried Follow Up

I sent a long list of questions to Kris Avedisian last night (well, early this morning) about his film Donald Cried.



I heard back from Kris and Kyle Espeleta (one of the producers.)  I sent the questions via the Donald Cried website contact page, so I don't have a copy of all the questions I sent.  But one was about who Tom Luke was (the film was dedicated to him in the credits).  Kris wrote,

"Tom Luke is my beloved uncle who passed away right before the film was made. I believe he was in some way responsible for all the snow given to us during production."

For anyone else for whom the characters in the movie were like real people you felt you knew, and about whom you still have lots of questions, here's an April 7, 2016 interview Kyle shared with me of Kris and others at the Film Society of Lincoln Center that addresses some of those questions.  

AIFF2016: John Serpe, Producer of The Happys

I met John Tuesday night, I think.  I missed his film The Happys last Sunday, but it's playing again Saturday at 2pm at the 49th State Brewing Company.

He's also on the panel today (FRIDAY) at noon at the Bear Tooth.  Here's he briefly talking about his film.

AIFF2016: A Trip To Rural India, Donald and Peter, Susie and Liz Great Night

Wow.  This year's festival is offering lots of good films and film makers visiting.  I was tied up all afternoon and got to the Bear Tooth just as Cinema Travelers started.  Travelers documented one of the last cinema teams that traveled from community to community with huge ancient projectors in equally ancient trucks to show reel to reel movies at outdoor night fairs in and around Maharashtra Province.  I'm guessing that because they occasionally announced that the films were in the Marathi language.

We saw them laboriously take down and put up the big tent, break down the camera, load it on the truck, and then put it back together again in the next town.  We saw the crowds of people at the fairs and getting in to see the movie.  We also visited the projector repairman who said he was about 13 or 14 in 1958 or 59 when he saw his first movie.  He said while the others wondered about the story, he wondered about how they got the pictures on the screen and the sound, and he eventually got involved in showing movies.  He demonstrated how he'd created a camera where the rewind was on the bottom instead of the top so the cinema showers didn't have to lift the reels, which looked close to three feet in diameter.  And we watched the cinema traveler buy his first digital projector and learn how to download the movies and take an old projector to a scrap metal man.

It was a touching film that recorded the end of an era.  And it spoke directly to me because I spent two years in a rural Thai community that had similar (though much smaller) night fairs, though we had a movie theater in town.  But we did have traveling troops of actors - both Thai likae (dramas) and Chinese opera who would come through each year.

But the second film grabbed me like no other film in the festival so far.  There have been very good films, but this one seemed to reach out to me and left all sorts of unanswered questions.

Donald Cried starts with Peter coming back to the small town where he grew up to sell his grandmother's house and settle things after she's died.  You don't know all this as the film starts - you pick up more and more details as things progress.  He's lost his wallet on the bus and so he has no money and goes across the street to a neighbor's, who greets him like a long lost pal and practically kidnaps him taking him around town.  The neighbor, Donald, seems like he's got Asbergers or something as he constantly crosses normal conversational boundaries in politeness and topics.  But the history of Peter, Donald, the grandmother, and others slowly is revealed.  But there were still so many questions I had.  And reading the credits - Kris Avedisian was listed as the writer, the producer, the director, and actor - I knew exactly who I wanted to talk to.  My wife asked, which one was he?  I assumed he played Donald, but then I had this thought, whoa, what if he played Peter?  That would have been so weird.  But as the cast scrolled by, he did play Donald.  So I was ready to go home and start looking for an email address for Kris

I hope I've gotten you curious enough to check out the trailer for Donald Cried which I posted in my rundown of the Features In Competition.  It has an early outrageous scene of Donald and Peter that is only a hint of things to come.  (When I looked back on that page, I realized I've now seen all the features in competition and they are all strong films.  The judges are going to have a hard time picking a winner.  I could defend any of them as the winner and if I have time before Sunday, I might try.)

Liz Torres and Susie Singer Carter

I saw Rich Curtner, the president of the film festival board, and asked him why Kris wasn't here because I had questions to ask.  And he could have flown up four different members of the crew and cast for the price of one.  Rich deflected my attention by pointing out that Susie Singer Carter  was here - the director and actor in My Mom and the Girl,  one of the shorts we saw Saturday morning. The film was about Susie's mother and her caregiver - the character I fell in love with.  She was just wonderful.  And Rich then said that Liz Torres, who played the caregiver, was here too.

Photographer Note:  I hate using a flash.  The Bear Tooth lighting leaves a lot to be desired and so my first picture was a bit blurred and looked unusable.  I tried some more pictures, but in the end, I think the first one captures more of the love of life I felt in these two women. I rationalize that if these pictures aren't photographically perfect, they do a good job of reflecting the mood and the ambiance of the Bear Tooth.   So, if you don't like a little blur, just skip the picture.

We had a long and warm conversation and I hope I get to see them again before they go back to LA.  You can see both of them, and Valerie Harper who plays Susie's mother in the trailer I put up on my post about the Shorts in Competition.   I'd also note here that Liz Torres is a two time emmy winner and a Golden Globe nominee with a long history in theater, television, and film.

And here's an article dated March 21 about the film on Broadwayworld that says the film was going to start shooting in April 2016.  So this picture is pretty new.

I had a long day today and J was tired too and so we didn't stay for the Quick Freeze films that began at 10pm or so.  These have gotten better and better each year.  People are given four or five words to include in a film to be completed 24 hours [four days] later.  It's always fun to see what they do with that challenger.

But I was full on two rich and filling movies and had no room for dessert.

AIFF2016: Thursday India, Dragon Animation, And More

I am so busy.  So here are your choices for today.  Click the screen to get to the festival schedule site so you can see the drop down windows.

AIFF2016: Catching My Breath - Prince Achmed, Best And Most Beautiful Things, Real Boy,

I've got lots more video than I have time to go through without staying up to 3am each night.  I'll get it up when I can.  I accidentally got my Rebel to get into this 3X digital video (don't know how I got there or how to turn it off) that works great for after the film Q&A.  But what I got is long and needs editing.  Unfortunately a project I've been working on since last spring or so, requires more of my time just this week.

But this has been a great festival so far in terms of the quality of films and the film makers here.  So here are some glimpses of things I haven't put up yet.

I haven't taken pictures during the movie for a very long time, but it just seemed I had to do it with the Adventures of Prince Achmed.  I'll get more up soon (I hope.)


This was the 1926 German animated film created by Lotte Reiniger.  They say it's the oldest full length animated film in existence. It was wonderful, paper cuttings animation.  The Milestone Films (where you can buy the DVD)  says:

"This cinematic treasure has been beautifully restored with its spectacular color tinting and with a new orchestral recording of the magnificent 1926 score by Wolfgang Zeller."

Miles and Karina with AIFF director Rebecca Pottebaum

Well, we didn't get the 1926 score by Zeller with the film.  Instead we got an enchanted score by Miles and Karina (David Keenan and Nova Devonie).

They are pictured here after the film with AIFF Director Rebecca Pottebaum.

Putnam and Hunter

Prince Achmed was followed by The First Girl I Loved - a beautiful and touching . . .   ok, it's hard to write a short description of a movie without sounding clichéd and hypish.  It's the story of a high school student and her first love, told in a way that makes them any two awkward high school students exploring their feelings and how to connect.    The picture is of the film's producers Ross Putnam and David Hunter.

Tuesday night (it's the beginning of Wednesday as I write) we  The Best and Most Beautiful Things paired with Real Boy.  The two films complemented each other perfectly.  In both documentaries the film makers essentially moved in with the families whose stories they were capturing on film.  In Best and Most Beautiful - the focus was on Michele Smith who, while legally blind, is determined to be herself and live a full and rich life.  The producer/director Garrett Zevgetis - on the right there - said one way they were able to get the trust of the family and the intimacy they got, was by having female camera folks.  I have a close friend who is blind and I appreciated how well the story demonstrated the kinds of barriers society puts up for blind people.  Michele finds an accepting community in the local BDSM community, where, as Garrett explained in the Q&A, people are very accepting and non-judgmental and there is a structure that offers control and safety.  Michele's sign for the gay pride festival says "Redefine Normal."  That's appropriate for the next film too.

Credits Real Boy

Real Boy shares a very similar documentary style of the filmmakers living with the family for a long period of time and capturing candid and difficult conversations among the family members over Rachel's name and body change to Bennett.  An incredible scene shows Ben talking to a bunch of transitioning teens online demonstrating how modern technology is making finding like souls much easier than in the past.  He even finds a close friend named Dylan who is having his surgery the same day and place and they travel together.  I've got some video of Ben's Q&A afterward and will try to get it up before too long.



Real Boy's subject Bennett Wallace was there for the showing, sang a couple of songs and then was joined by animator Alex Myung, whose beautiful short animation - Arrival - showed before Real Boy.  There's a short video of Alex I got opening night here, and I've got video of the Q&A that I'll get up eventually.

Finally I got to talk to John Serpe whose film The Happys I missed last Sunday, but which will show again Sunday [Saturday] at 2pm.  I'll put up the video of his pitch before then.  Of interest to me was the origin of the name - The Happys - which John said was a rough translation of the part of LA where the film was made - Los Feliz.  It's also a part I know from growing up in LA and living in nearby Silverlake before we came to Alaska 39 years ago.

I was going to add dates of the second showing of the movies mentioned in this post, but when I checked, it turns out that most aren't having a second showing.  There are some feature films showing twice, but not most of those in competition. I highly recommend Planet Ottakring which plays again on Saturday at 7pm.  Some of the award winners will play again Sunday night, but there won't be much warning of what they are.  I'll try to live blog and tweet the awards ceremony.

AIFF2016: Tuesday Choices include Alex Myung's Animated Film 'Arrival'

Here's Tuesday's easy choices schedule from the Sched program:

Best and Most Beautiful Things is a documentary in competition.  I have trailer and description here.

Real Boy is a feature in competition, proceeded by a short animated film, Arrival.

Here's the Real Boy trailer:





I talked to Alex Myung opening night and below he tells you little about Arrival.  I've got description

Sorry about the lighting, it was dark in the theater,




Here's the trailer:




And a link to Alex's website.

AIFF2016: Monday Choices Are Easy - Columbia and A Trip To Oregon To Die

From a blogger's point of view, today is the easiest of the festival - there are only two choices.  From the Sched website:

Both films are "Features in Competition."  Both are at the Bear Tooth.

Feature means it's a fictional story 55 - 140 minutes.  In Competition means they have been chosen by the programmers who selected the films that would be at the festival as one of the best and to be eligible for a prize in the festival.  One of the programmers told me that ALL of the Features in Competition this year are very good films. I would agree on that for the three I've seen.

I have more on each of these on my post about all the Features in Competition here.

You can also click on the image and get to the Sched website and the drop down menus for each film will work and tell you about the films.

AIFF2016: Sunday Choices From Climate Change to Auschwitz to Love

Films in competition today, not a lot, maybe there are some shorts hiding.

First Girl I Loved (Feature in Competition)  8:15pm at the Bear Tooth

"The funny and touching story of Anne Santos, who has decided it’s not worth coming out as a lesbian at her LA public school — until she falls in love with Sasha Basañez, a star athlete even more in the closet than she is."

There's a Short Docs and an Animation program at AK Experience at noon today. [UPDATE 1:15pm: Whoops, we got to the theater and found out Animation was at the Museum where we went, and the Short Docs were at the 49th State Brewing Company.  Sorry.  The rest looks right.  But going to a festival is a little like being a ball on a pool table.  You may be going to do something, but you meet a film maker, or something is full, or you go to the wrong venue, and you end up going in another direction, that turns out to be interesting.  There was one film in the animation today that I thought was brilliant - a Burmese film called My Life I Don't Want - which in very basic and simple terms tells the universal story of women.

[UPDATE January 23, 2018:  I've removed mention of a film and the video on the request of the film maker, who has removed the film from circulation.]

NANA - is a film by a granddaughter about her grandmother who died when the younger one was 11. She learns Nana had been in Auschwitz and reads her memoir.  And makes this movie.  2pm at the Anchorage Museum

Global Village is a program of short films at 3:45 at AK Experience Theater today.
At the same time (3:45pm at AkExperience) is the Holly Kane Experiment.  I'd asked one of the Feature programers about good features that didn't get into competition and he mentioned this one.


Age of Consequences is a climate change doc at 4pm at the museum.

The Adventures of Prince Achmed is a 1926 German animated silent film that will get a live musical accompaniment at the Bear Tooth at 6pm.

AIFF2016: Audience Member Talks About Happy Lucky Golden Tofu Panda Dragon Good Time Fun Fun Show

I guess there is sort of a genre category for this film.  The closest I can think of are the comedy acts before an audience on Netflix.  But this one was more than that.  The camera took you back and forth from the nightclub to the streets of New York where the two actors talked about the show and what it means, but then would also go into the routines that were seamlessly picked up back in the nightclub show.  But they also talked to the audience about what they were doing as well.  And there was singing and a violin.

But more significantly, this was two Asian-American women, well, Chinese, well half-Chinese, at least one.  It was a little unclear.  And they talked, sang, rapped about cross cultural, assimilation issues within the Asian-American community,  And they didn't spare anyone.  It's a film that ought to be watched by a lot of folks and then discussed in interracial groups.

While I was taking an advantage of a break between films and trying to write up my comments on the shorts I'd just seen along with Happy Lucky  . . ., John walked into the room so I asked him about his reactions.

He wanted to talk, but not particularly with a camera recording.  But he agreed.  He was much more comfortable when I shut off the camera.  But here's a bit of his reaction.

AIFF2016: Hard Knocks - Wow! Powerful Shorts Program - UPDATED

The first film in this program blew me away - and it's not even in competition.  Sing For Your Supper takes place in a world where you have to sing to get fed or to buy anything.  A good voice and song is the currency, and the star has lost his voice and ends up a bum.  What an amazing world this film creates.  Plus it's done well and all the little details work.  Great concept, great acting, great everything.  This is my favorite film so far.

But the other ones in the program were noteworthy too.  On Time was powerful, luck a punch in the gut.  I don't want to spoil anything, so I'll just say it too was really well done all the way around.

Virgin Territority  was also good, but just not as original as the others.

The next show is starting gotta quit.


UPDATE:
It's 2:52 and we just got out of Happy Lucky Golden Tofu Panda Dragon Good Time Fun Fun Show.   This is one I wasn't sure I wanted to see, but it was starting and I figured I could go see Dropka at the museum if this didn't work out.  But really, this one is like Chinese rap - or as they call themselves - the Slanty Eyed Mamas - doing very political racial cross cultural comedy rap.  I'm not sure there's a word for what they were doing.  It wasn't easy to watch, the humor was oppressive (literally and figuratively).  But it's much more important to watch a movie like this that isn't like any movie I've seen quite before, than another slick Hollywood formula movie.

OK, this will be continued . . .

UPDATE again 3:13 - next movie starts soon.  I talked to John who grew up with Cantonese speaking parents and I got him to talk about Happy Lucky etc. on video and I'll put that up later.

We're now waiting for Planet Ottakring, which I'm looking forward to.

UPDATE again Dec. 4 1am - Trying to put this post to rest.  But I did want to say that two more of the shorts program were really powerful.
Pay Day was a black and white Hungarian film that took place in a small community where the money lender comes out to collect his payments.  Grim, but very well done.  And then there was My Mom And The Girl  the story of the director's mom's Alzheimers with her mom played by Valerie Harper.  It took a bit to draw me in, but then it happened as mom walks out of the house with her caregiver in bathrobed pursuit.

Two more - Virgin Territory and No Touching - were good, but not at the same level as the others.  And only two of these are in competition - On Time (short docs) and My Mom And The Girl,  My favorite was Sing For Your Supper which just had such an imaginative premise and was beautifully carried off.

Briefly - Planet Ottakring was lots of fun, a solid move. (The second movie of the day that had sinister loan sharks.)   Demimonde didn't disappoint my high expectations.  (My second Hungarian movie of the day.)  And Shu-De . . . I looked around and guesstimated about 80-100 people at the 6pm showing of what can be described as a documentary about Tuva throat singing.  That's amazing.  But it makes more sense to call this a concert tour movie in the Tuvan republic of Russia.

Past my bed time, but just wanted to get this a little bit caught up.  Saturday was a very good day at the movies.  Everything was worthwhile and quite a bit was outstanding.