AIFF2025: The Awards

 Notice that I didn't say, "The Winners."  Awards is a little better.  There are objective criteria, but if the technical quality is more or less equal, and the content is good, and the story - whether a narrative or a documentary is compelling and well told, then picking who gets an award and who doesn't gets subjective.  The topic is one you are interested in.  You 'like' the actors.  The story touches close to home.  

But awards play an important role for the film makers.  They can use them as evidence that people liked their film.  It gets the attention of other festivals and distributors.  

As  I went through the list, I've added a √ to the movies I thought were really good and I agree it was deserving.  But I didn't see all of the films, so no √ doesn't mean I didn't like them.  In fact, I think all the film makers - particularly those who completed features - have accomplished something noteworthy.  They've managed to pull together a story, a cast, a crew, funding, and pulled off, despite the odds, a full length movie.  That's like running a dozen marathons.  Even if there are flaws, it's still a huge achievement and my respect and gratitude goes out to all the filmmakers whose films we saw this last week.  

So with that preface, here's the email filmmakers got this morning from the directors of AIFF2025.

25th - ANCHORAGE INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL WINNERS 

 

JURY AWARDS

 

Burt at guitar

Narrative Feature - Burt - Joe Burke    

 

Documentary Feature - Remaining Native - Paige Bethmann √

 

Made In Alaska [Narrartive] Feature - The Ladder - Emilio Torres  

 

Made In Alaska Doc Feature - K'etniyi: The Land Is Speaking to Us - Rory Banyard

 

Wáats'asdíyei Joe 
and Nayak'aq Yaahl
Yates

Made in Alaska Narrative Short - My Message To You -  'Wáats'asdiyei Joe Yates √

 

Made In Alaska Doc Short - Carving Lines - Dimitri Surnim

 

International Feature - The World Outside - Katrine Eichberger, Nikolas Mühe √

 

Humanitarian Award - Hidden Roots - Brad Hilwig √

 

Narrative Short - The Singers - Sam Davis 

Josefin Kuschela

 

Documentary Short - Greenland: Living with the Inuit - Josefin Kuschela 

 

International Short - Pierre West - Henrik Larson, Jakob Arevarn 

 

Anchorage Wolverines Sports Documentary Award - Bonnie Thunders: That Beautiful Moment - Corey Bayes 

 

Anchorage Wolverines Sports Short Documentary Award: Shaped By Land - Emily Sullivan 

 

Music Documentary: Goddess Of Slide - Alfonoso Maiorana

 

Music Video: Begin Again - Ava Acres and Matt Farren  tied with Ideal Distance - Danny Chandia 

 

Pilot: Bad Survivor - Alex Dvorak , Katie North 

 

iPhone Super Short  -  Mom And Max - Jade Song 

 

Animation Short: A Little Story About Forever - Max Romey  √

 

Katrine Eichberger and
Nikolas Mühe

Director of Narrative Feature: Katrine Eichberger, Nikolas Mühe - The World
Outside √

 

Director of Documentary Feature: Ryan Flynn - You're No Indian √

 

Director of a Narrative Short:  Chelsea Christer -  Out For Delivery

 

Carrie Lederer

Director of Documentary Short: Carrie Lederer - Wild Horses at the Door √

 

Actor in a Feature film - Laurence Shou for Rosemead √ and Burt Berger for Burt

 

Actress in a Feature film - Katrine Eichberger for The World Outside  √  and Renne Gagner for  I've Seen All I Need To See 

 

I've Seen All I Need To See
Team

Independent Voice Narrative - I've Seen All I Need to See, Zeshaan Younus, tied with Lockjaw - Sabrina Greco 

 

Independent Voice Documentary - Blood and Guts, Katie Green and Caryle Rubin

 

Reel World Impact Award: Comparsa, Vickie Curtis, Doug Anderson, Lesli Pérez and Lupe Pérez  √

Greg Rubner

 

Comedy Short:  What The Heck is Going On. - Greg Rubner 

 

Thriller Short: Hide - Brenden Hubbard

Explorer's Club Alaska Chapter Recognition Awards 

 

Exploration Documentary - The Bride of Mont Blanc - Grace T.S.P. 

 

Exploration Documentary -  In Search of the Arctic Fox - Zach Hellmuth

 

Exploration Documentary - Ashes of the Mountain - Joseph Lindley

 

Exploration Ethics Documentary - Special Recognition Award - Among Thieves -  Dr. Gino Caspari and Trevor Wallace √

Explorer's Achievement Award: The Last Dive, Cody Sheehy and Terry Kennedy 

 

 

Native Voices Legends Awards:

 

Jerry Laktonen - Culture Bearer (For reviving Alutiiq Mask-making)

 

Velma Wallis: Storyteller (Author of Two Old Women)

AUDIENCE AWARDS

 

Ryan Flynn

Narrative Feature - Rosemead - Eric Lin √

 

Documentary Feature - You're No Indian - Ryan Flynn √  

 

International Feature - The Mariana Trench -  Elieen Byrne 

 

Emilio Torres

Made In Alaska Feature Narrative - The Ladder - Emilio Torres √

 

Made In Alaska Documentary Feature -  K'etniyi: The Land Is Speaking to Us - Rory Banyard 

 

Made in Alaska Narrative Short - Matt Megan and Mike dont give an F about Codependency - Justin Lawrence Hoyt, Matt Jardin

 

Made In Alaska Documentary Short - Sunrise Summer -  Ian Mayer, Erin K Stein

 

Narrative Short - The Singers - Sam Davis 

 

Documentary Short - Greenland: Living with the Inuit -  Josefin Kuschela 

 

International Narrative Short - Hearts of Stone - Tom Van Avermaet

 

Music Video - Soiree -  Hannah Claire McDaniel  

 

Animation - A Little Story About Forever -  Max Romey √

SCREENPLAYS 

 

Feature  Screenplay:

Pangea Ultima - by Estevan Padilla -TIED with Mythomania by Nick Jones 

 

Short Screenplay

Parking by  Andrew Klaus-Vineyard

 

Pilot  Script 

Betty Lee Is Missing by Alysson Morgan 

In the past, I've sometimes blogged the awards as they were announced.  But in the past there were much fewer awards.  There was:

Winner, Runner Up, and Honorable Mention

in four or five categories - Narrative and Documentary Features, Narrative and Documentary Shorts, Made in Alaska.  These categories held for Jury Awards (from the judges within the Festival organizers, or film makers they reached out to), and Audience Awards - based on the ballots the audience marked after each showing.  

Sometimes the jurors came up with a special award to recognize an outstanding film that had some unique qualities and/or that didn't quite fit into the festival's categories.  

As I said above, awards play an important role in the post production struggle to get your film seen by audiences and even make some money.  So I think having more awards is good, but there are limits.  A festival doesn't want to be known as giving awards to everyone, because then the awards mean nothing.  Just getting accepted into a festival is a major achievement.  

I hope to follow up with my thoughts on some of my favorite films of the festival.  

AIFF2025 - Sunday's Features

I'm trying to cover the Feature films showing at the Anchorage International Film Festival.  Here are the features - both narrative and documentary - playing on Sunday Dec. 7. 

Hide — Ian Sciacaluga

This is a UK film.

From Letterboxd:

"Angie, an illustrator, is focused on a new assignment - a graphic novel of magical realism. She uses her work to escape the reality of her fractious marriage to Edward, whose behaviour has become erratic under pressure from his failing business. Unexpectedly, Angie’s estranged mother dies. Inflamed by her death, Angie’s sister, Molly, makes an explosive revelation about the sisters’ family past, conjuring up memories of a childhood trauma that torment Angie’s mind and invade her illustrations. Her real and fictional worlds ominously fuse and come alive in the nightmarish woods of her horrific childhood. It’s up to her creative mind to release her from her damning past."

From an interview with director Ian Sciacaluga at Art Film Awards:

"What inspired you to pursue a career in filmmaking?

I was mesmerised by Steven Spielberg’s “Close Encounter sof the Third Kind” when I saw it as a 12 year-old back in 1979 (it came out in 1978). It was a magical and, almost religious, experience for me and the first time that I felt I was being manipulated by a person behind the camera. It was a realisation that this medium called film could make true any story of imagination you could muster for a big audience and you could turn dreams into a celluloid reality with incredible worlds and unforgettable characters. As I grew older and acquired a Braun 561 Super 8 camera, I learned about, not only techniques, but the importance of themes and subtexts, character arcs and mise en scenes to convey narratives, which made the medium of film all the more fascinating and arousing."

Sunday, Dec. 7, 1pm Alaska Experience Theater

Also at 1pm is You're No Indian, at the Museum,  I touched on that here.  

A Little Fellow: The Legacy of A.P. Giannini — Davide Fiore

From Collective Eye Films: 

"Before banks in the U.S. had a branch on every corner, they were an exclusive service for the wealthy. For the poor, working, and immigrant class, saving money was as unreliable as stashing it under a mattress. But at the turn of the 20th century, Amadeo Peter (A.P.) Giannini, son of Italian immigrants, revolutionized the industry with his small Bank of Italy in San Francisco.

As a first-generation Italian-American, his goal was to serve “the little fellow” and breed prosperity within his immigrant community. But, by building trust and giving loans on a simple handshake, he created one of the largest banks in the country – Bank of America.

A Little Fellow tells the story of a man who struck fear into the heart of Wall Street while having everyday people in mind. Known as “People’s banker,” he gave a friendly face to a greedy industry. As one of the first investors in Hollywood, the Golden Gate Bridge, and Hewlett-Packard, his forward-thinking helped the country through two World Wars and the Great Depression."

From an interview with director Davide Fiore at Adobe Blog:

"How and where did you first learn to edit?

Back in high school, I had this little side gig — pranking my teachers. Nothing too crazy, just a couple of cameras, some staged scenes, and a whole lot of sneaky fun. It was my version of "no harm, no foul." I'd film the whole thing and then dive into editing. Honestly, editing was like a game to me at first, just figuring out what crazy stuff I could create.

Fast forward to college, and I decided to level up. I did 3 years of Virtual and Digital Design. I got my hands on Adobe Premiere and After Effects — those were my new toys. That’s when I first met motion graphics. It was 2008, 2009, and I was like, “Wait, this is magic, right?” That’s when I realized editing wasn't just about cutting footage, it was about making the impossible look cool." 

Sun, Dec 07 2025 3:30pm  Anchorage Museum 

The Ladder is at 6pm at Museum.  I posted on The Ladder here.

Crystal Cross - Richie James Follin

From Letterboxd:  

Synopsis

SOMETIMES LOVE MEANS NOT KILLING YOURSELF.

A quirky Christian singer and a suicidal dad drive cross-country, forging an unlikely bond through bad decisions, bizarre roadside attractions, and an all-original soundtrack. “Crystal Cross” is a hilarious, bittersweet road trip about two lost souls finding comfort (but not salvation) in each other’s messes.

Reviewer  Movieswithame at the Austin Film Festival begins:

In Richie James Follin’s Crystal Cross, you can actually sense the joy of making it radiating through the screen. It’s a road movie, a love story, a dark comedy, but more than anything, it’s a film that feels handmade in the best possible way. There’s a rawness to it that can’t be faked. Every frame, every imperfect camera wobble, every sun-flared highway shot carries the energy of a filmmaker who’s figuring it out as he goes, and somehow, that ends up being the film’s greatest strength.

Sun, Dec 07 2025 8:30pm  Anchorage Museum

Also at 8:30 pm - at Alaska Experience Theater - is The Mariana Trench which I posted about here

I'm getting a bit sleepy, so if anyone finds some errors - particularly when and where a film is showing, please let me know.  Thanks.  Just two more days to go.  

What's Going To Happen To Totem Theaters?

On my bike ride back from the Muldoon Saturday Market at  Chanshtnu Park, I rode through the parking lot of the Totem Theater.  I've passed by several times this summer and noticed that while things look dead, once in a while I see someone go in.  And two weeks ago they said they were showing Freaky Friday on the marquee.  

And today again I saw someone going in..  So biked over to the entrance and the man came out.  I asked what was
happening and he said he didn't really know.  But Totem was pretty much closed down.  I asked about the possibilities I've thought about as I've come by here over the summer.  The individual theaters could be used for church services, for musical events, theater, speakers, weddings, all sorts of things.  Even showing movies.  

He said it was a Regal theater - like the Dimond Mall theaters and Tikahtnu.  That the company is owned by a corporation in England.  

When I got home I looked it up.  Wikipedia has a long piece on them.  

"Regal Cineworld Group (trading as Cineworld) is a British cinema chain and operator. Headquartered in London, England, it is the world's second-largest cinema chain (after AMC Theatres), with 9,139 screens across 747 sites[3] in 10 countries:[4] Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Hungary, Ireland, Israel, Poland, Romania, Slovakia, the United Kingdom and the United States.[5][6] The group's primary brands are Cineworld Cinemas and Picturehouse in the United Kingdom and Ireland, Cinema City in Eastern and Central Europe, Planet in Israel, and Regal Cinemas in the United States."

There's a long history including being bought by Blackstone private equity company and then later being sold, buying Regal, COVID, bankruptcy, not necessarily in that order.  

Regal, by the way, is headquartered in Knoxville, Tennessee.

"By 2001, Regal was overextended, and went into Chapter 11 bankruptcy. It became the namesake for the theater chain in which it would be merged into with the Edwards and United Artists chains.[10][11]

When all three chains went into bankruptcy, investor Philip Anschutz bought substantial investments in all three companies, becoming majority owner.[18] In 2002, Anschutz consolidated his three theatre holdings under a new parent company, Regal Entertainment Group.[19] Regal's Mike Campbell and UA's Kurt Hall were named co-CEOs, with Campbell overseeing the theatre operations from Regal Cinemas' headquarters in Knoxville, and Kurt Hall heading up a new subsidiary, Regal CineMedia, from the UA offices in Centennial, Colorado. The Edwards corporate offices were closed."  (from Wikipedia)

The movie theater business has had tough times since Blockbuster came on the scene.  Then streaming video added to the problem and bigger and bigger home screens, and of course, COVID.  

But what happens to a community like Anchorage when big pieces of real estate are owned by far away - Knoxville and London - corporations?  What say do we have?  Who do we talk to and why would they even care?  It doesn't seem to be for sale, yet.  The building and the parking lot are pretty big.  But at the moment we're losing population.  Who locally would buy it?  A developer?

The man I talked to said that the Totem theater was his first job when he was 16 years old.  He stayed with the company until he was 19, when they first got bought out.  That there were a lot of changes all at once so he decided to leave and try something else.  

One day, he said, the general manager, who was also his good friend, called and jokingly asked if he wanted to work at the Totem again, and the he surprised his general manager friend by saying yes.  That was when he was 21. 

He said he is 26 now and that he literally 'grew up here" in the building and that he's sad to see it go.  

"I'll always appreciated the buiding and what it stood for."

Talking to him I was convinced - vibes as much as words - that he's a serious worker, takes the job to heart, and if I had a position, I'd hire him in a minute.  

Then I went over to get a picture of the marquee and I see that across the street from the Totem,  the Wayland Baptist University, has a For Sale sign up.  If you want to buy it, the number is 907 762 5801.

An Alaska Business magazine article begins:

"Texas-based Wayland Baptist University (WBU) is emptying its Alaska classrooms and transitioning to online instruction only. The school’s campus in Anchorage will be sold, its leased location in Wasilla vacated, and classrooms at Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson, Fort Wainwright, and Eielson Air Force Base returned to military service."

How many low cost housing units could be built on the Totem's big parking lot?  How many empty buildings like WBU do we have now?  I say we should look at these as opportunities to reimagine how they can be used and not just let them rot.  

[I had almost finished this last night, but left it for today.  I noticed that the Anchorage Daily News mentions the closure of the Totem in its story today on businesses that have recently opened and closed.]

 

Actions Speak Louder Than Words . . .Why I Really Like tick tick BOOM

I had some kitchen tasks to do - preparing some meals, baking a bread - so I asked Netflix for music and they gave me tick tick Boom as the first choice.  I loved it when I first watched it; enough to watch it again.  And so I put it on a third time. It was still good.  Though I'm tempted to blame me not paying enough attention to the bread and screwing it up.    

So let me recommend it here for folks with Netflix.  

It's musical written by Jonathon Larson, about Jonathan Larson writing an earlier musical that never got performed.  It shows the artist with a vision in his head that's keeping him poor because it's taking him years to get it on paper.  He lives in a 5th floor walkup apartment in New York with his long time school friend,  an aspiring actor.  

The movie switches back and forth from Jonathon talking to an audience about the story and the actual events he's telling the audience.  Music is never more than a beat away.

Andrew Garfield is amazing as Larson.  

But more.  Jonathan Larson, if you don't know (I didn't) went on to write Rent next.  So we are essentially seeing the story of his struggle to survive in New York writing his musicals, waiting tables at a diner, until he makes it. All the while he thinks in music and lyrics. 

Inspiring for people who are feeling despair at today's political situation.  

But the music and the story are also captivating.  And the dancing.  

If you need more convincing, the movie was directed by Lin-Manual Miranda, the genius behind Hamilton!  Here's a trailer. 

Here are the lyrics of the song at the end of the trailer.

from:  https://genius.com/Jonathan-larson-why-lyrics

Actions speak louder than

(Louder than, louder than)

Words

What does it take

To wake up a generation?

[ALL]

How can you make someone

Take off and fly?

[JON]

If we don't wake up

And shake up the nation

We'll eat the dust

Of the world wondering why

[JON]

Why do we follow leaders who never lead?

[MICHAEL]

Why does it take catastrophe to start a revolution

[MICHAEL and SUSAN]

If we're so free?

Tell me why

[JON]

Someone tell me why

So many people bleed

[JON] [MICHAEL and SUSAN]

Cages or wings, Cages or wings

Which do you prefer?

Ask the birds Ah:

Sinners And The Laundromat - From Vampires To Blood Suckers; Plus Lisa Explains Her Fears

[Guide to this post:  This post reminds me of the rambling posts I used to do regularly.  And it feels good, because the world is tangled up in complicated ways - there are few straight lines.  This began as a post about the movie Sinners. But immediately got hijacked by some observations about movie theaters these days. There's a nod to Clarksdale, Mississippi.  But then I switch quickly to what I think is a much more important movie - The Laundromat. But that too gets delayed as I talk about Lisa Murkowski's appearance today on Talk of Alaska and her interpretation of her recent "We're all afraid" comment.  Which requires some background into what ecumenical means.  

If you only want to read one part of this post, I recommend learning about The Laundromat. It's still available on Netflix if you have that.  Skip down to that heading - bold and in capitals.  Then skip past the part on Murkowski to learn about why I think the film is important.]

We haven't been out to see a movie very often lately.  A couple of times while we were in Bainbridge - A Complete Unknown and The Brutalist.  Two movies worth seeing.  

I'd been hearing about Sinners on Spoutible and BlueSky.  Not a lot, but that it was a sleeper big hit, it was a Black themed film.  The parts that had me a bit skeptical mentioned horror elements.  

Well Monday night is a discount night, as two seniors, we got in for a total of $14!!  The tariffs haven't hit Anchorage theaters yet.  But our choice of seats was front row or two separate single seats further back.  We chose the later.  Inside, it was actually pretty empty and we took one of our seats and I sat in the one next to it, my actual seat in the row ahead.  

It did fill up a bit more, but no one claimed my seat.  

When I say it was full, I probably have to remind folks that the theaters have all been remodeled.  There are far fewer total seats, and the ones you get are lounge seats where the head tilts back and the feet up.  So a full theater has a lot fewer viewers than in the past.  

Later:  I didn't finish this.  Sinners is a forgettable movie.  Except for the music.  I don't know what the creators were thinking.  We'll do some Black history, but that doesn't sell enough (a dubious premise) so we'll add some great blues music, and to catch today's audience, we'll add in a vampire massacre.  And we'll locate it in Clarksdale, Mississippi - the Birthplace of the Blues.  (We actually visited Clarksdale and the Blues Museum.  Visiting Mississippi was sort of like visiting Albania or North Korea in my mind - a place forbidden and evil.  It wasn't our destination, but it was between Chicago and New Orleans by car.  But that's a story for another day.) 

This feels like one of my old blogposts, that wandered and jumped, as life does and as thoughts do.  So let's jump back into the present future.  

Why do people say the Democratic party is not really any different from the Republican party?  Because deep down, they are both corrupted by money and protection of the wealthy.  The Republicans are a lot more open about that.  They think rich people are the product of hard work and deserve all they get.  

The Democrats are a little embarrassed by their dependence on the rich.  They cover this addiction (well it's almost required if you want to have enough money to campaign, thanks to Citizens United) by trying to make the lives of those screwed over by the system a little more bearable.  They try to spread a bit of equality to more people, but their hands are just as dirty with money, and they go to parties with lots of people whose wealth comes from less than pristine morals and behavior.  

NO, NO, NO, I'm not saying they are the parties are the same, or that life under a Harris administration would have been no different from the disaster of the current Republican Administration.  [Someone suggested online today, not to mention his name, but to say Republican Administration instead to make sure all the cowards in the House and Senate are fully implicated in what's going on.  After all, they could end this non-violent coups if they chose to.  What do you think?)

THE LAUNDROMAT

So, tonight after falling asleep listening to Lisa Murkowski on Talk of Alaska, in what seemed an attempt to clean up her confession to being afraid, that 'We are all afraid' by saying, "It was kind of an ecumenical 'we' . . . When I say Lisa Murkowski is afraid, it's not in a cowardly way."  She's not, afraid of things like being primaried, she said. She's hearing from Alaskans who are losing their jobs, from Alaskans whose grant monies and contracts have been halted.  "So when I say 'we' I have to include myself as an Alaskan.  She also spoke of her oath to uphold the Constitution and her responsibilities  under Article 1.  "I'm seeing an erosion of the boundaries, if you will, between the Executive and the Legislative branch..."  As I say I fell asleep during this and I'm resurrecting her words through the podcast up at Talk of Alaska. (The comments I'm referring to start around 6 minutes in.)  And if you are a little confused by her reference to the 'ecumenical we' as I was, here's a little refresher.  Maybe she didn't want to say the 'royal we' and 'ecumenical' was the only other 'we' she could think of.  Maybe she thought it would imply some sort of bi-partisan message.  Jews, Muslims, Hindus, Sikhs, Buddhists, atheists and agnostics, not included I guess.  

"The Ecumenical Movement is a key effort in the Christian faith. It works to bring different Christian groups around the world together. Its importance is seen in religious fellowship and the chase of shared goals. The word ‘ecumenical’ comes from ‘oikoumen?,’ the Greek word for “the inhabited world.” Over time, it has gained a special theological meaning. The word’s evolution shows a move from ordinary to sacred, going from a word about geography to a sign of hope to unite Christians.

"The Ecumenical Movement started as an answer to the need for unity in the Christian church. The church was split by arguments over belief and competitive missions. Through history, ecumenical councils played key roles. They helped form the faith’s theology and practices. This includes councils from the Eastern Orthodox Church and the Roman Catholic Church. These meetings show the ongoing effort to find what the Ecumenical Movement is today. This effort is helped by groups like the World Council of Churches and places like Taizé that focus on community spirituality." (From Faithonview.com)

 But all th's Murkowski stuff slipped in because I got a bit of a nap this evening so I felt like I could partake in a bit of Netflix and while randomly exploring, found a movie called The Laundromat.  It turns out I saw this already on Netflix.  

It's an important film for USians to watch to understand why some people say there is no difference between the two political parties.  The very rich invite politicians of both parties to their parties, and most politicians accept the invitations.  (OK, I'm just saying that.  I don't have statistics.  But I'm pretty sure it's true in a general sort of way.)

It's not your run of the mill movie.  It's a semi-fictional account of a woman whose husband dies in a freak boating accident and she learns that the boating company's insurance isn't going to pay.  She is told about shell companies and holding companies and off shore accounts.  We also meet a couple of wealthy men, business partners,  Jürgen Mossack and Ramón Fonseca who tell us their side of the story.  

Mossack and Fonseca.  Is that ringing any bells?  Remember the Panama Papers?  When a law firm in Panama got hacked and all their clients and shell companies got exposed?  That was Mossack and Fonseca.  

It's essentially a movie that attempts to tell us in a down-to-earth way about how the world is rigged against most people by the very wealthy.  Generally we just hear stuff that says we're screwed.  

" 735 U.S. billionaires hold more wealth ($0.4 trillion more) than the bottom 50% of American households."  (I picked this claim because this is from Snopes checking out a statement by Robert Reich, so it was fact checked somewhat.)

The movie tells us a little bit more about how it happens.  

Wikipedia says the movie got mixed reviews.  But I'm guessing because it's imaginative, clever, and takes a very dry and difficult subject and makes it relatable to the average person. And the only vampires are allegorical blood suckers.  

Steven Soderbergh (a very inventive filmmaker) directed it and it stars Meryl Streep as an ordinary USian who wants to know who is screwing her over.  Gary Oldman and Antonio Banderas play the two Panama lawyers who got hacked.  

As Trump is leaning on Congress to pass a huge tax cut for the very rich, this film does give us a glimpse of how slimy it all is.   

>

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.  

Anchorage Stuff - Garry Kaulitz Art, Highway Proposed Over Chester Creek, Film Festival Coming Soon

from Fog 24 Gallery

Garry Kaulitz was a long time University of Alaska Anchorage artist and professor.  His works are still alive and available online.  Here's the link.   Worth a look.  

A letter from the Rogers Park Community Council alerts neighbors of a Department of Transportation proposal to put a highway above Chester Creek.  There's a meeting at the Senior Center - which would, if I read the map right, be under the viaduct.  

Meeting to discuss is  

TUESDAY, DECEMBER 10, 2024 

FROM 4:30PM TO 6:30     

SENIOR CENTER

And I'd be remiss if I didn't remind folks that the Anchorage International Film Festival begins Friday, Dec 6, 2024 and runs through Dec.15.  

This image is from the page labeled 'FILMS'.  It keeps going well below this screenshot.  

There are always great films as well as some that are not so great.  But everyone has different tastes so there will be something for everyone.  Films will mostly be at the Bear Tooth and the Museum.  

There is also a change in the festival organizers this year.  I described that a little bit back in September and you can see that post here.

I'll cover more about individual films soon.  

There's a new tab up on top under the orange banner for AIFF2024.  That will be an overview of the Festival and an index of my posts about the festival.