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.
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
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.
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.
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 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.]
Sunday (I'm so far behind here) in San Francisco was beautiful and I went along with my son's family and two other couples with kids to Mussel Rock - which turned out to be a hang gliding spot.
If you look closely, there's a hang glider in the upper right hand corner. Gliders are easier to see in the next shot. I'd note that we're technically in Daly City and that water curves right at the top and under the Golden Gate Bridge.
This was also January 1, 2023, the day after San Francisco had record rains and headlines said things like "California brought to its knees by weather." Clearly we were fine, the weather was great and we didn't pass any flooded streets. Beware of headlines, particularly about disasters. The photos tend to show the one or two extreme examples. Of course, there are actual disasters where there is widespread damage.
As you can see from the background, this is the same spot.
And the first moonrise of 2023 was happening above the houses on the cliff above the beach area. I'm sure these houses have great views of the ocean. But I grew up in LA and remember houses like this siding down the side of the hill.
And another sign nearby showed that the parking lot where I took the first pictures from was right on the San Andreas fault line. What could go wrong? But I'm the sort of guy who sees a glass near the edge of a table and I see it getting knocked off the table. And move it toward the middle of the table.
Monday more rain was predicted and there was some drizzle as we headed back down to LA. We had wanted to go back down Highway 1 through Big Sur to look once more for condors and then to the elephant seal beach again. But there was a rockslide a bit north of the elephant seal beach. Coming down Highway 101 was easier and we could cut back to the coast to Cambria and be about 15 miles south of the targeted beach.
It was a bit windy and chilly and there was some rain watching the seals. But I think it would take a long time for me to get tired of watching them. There were a lot more and this time we could see lots of little pups.
I checked several sites because I'd assumed that the ones with the elephant like noses were the miles and the internet confirmed that. So this is a male with the baby that was exploring and generated an attack from a nearby female. The male just put his considerable weight on the pup to keep it from scooting off into trouble.
They work really hard moving on land. You can see this one's trail up out of the water.
So that gets us to Monday afternoon. We spent the night in Cambria again.
Our guests were trying to watch the World Cup game on their phones, so I suggested we check if the Bear Tooth was showing the Croatia v Russia game. Yes.
Tickets were free and at 10am it wasn't crowded. Not the greatest two teams at the World Cup, but a great game that Croatia won on the last overtime penalty kick. Some Russians near us had a drum and a trumpet, but most of the crowd was rooting for Croatia.
The first picture was just after Croatia's first goal.
The second picture is the Croatian team after winning at the last kick.
We stopped at the library for Little J. It's not often that it's cooler inside than outside in Anchorage.
While he was checking out the kids' section, I was looking at the new books.
Here are a couple reflecting our current political situation - though writing books is a multi-year project usually, so these were probably conceived and begun before Trump was elected.
Riddle: What's the difference between Cost and Price?Answer: Cost is the author and Price is the title.
From Kirkus Review:
Focusing on James Madison (1751-1836) and Alexander Hamilton (1757-1804), Weekly Standard contributing editor Cost (A Republic No More: Big Government and the Rise of American Political Corruption, 2015, etc.) offers a revealing look at how their contrasting political philosophies shaped the new nation’s domestic and foreign policies. Although they eventually became fierce opponents, Madison and Hamilton began as allies, sharing a belief “that people were easily led astray by selfish interests that undermined the cause of good government.” State oversight could not be trusted to rein in opportunism and greed. Their proposals for fostering a strong federal government, however, were at odds . . .
If we'd learn our history better, maybe we could argue about the real issues. Maybe we'd understand that the debate is one of conflicting values and fears. Maybe more people would understand that our government is basically there to support the wealthy and everyone else gets just enough to keep them quiet. And that's why they need to keep making lots of noise.
Nesi and Brera open with a vignette from 1999 -- the beginning of the end, they note. They yearn to go back to those good old days, or perhaps a bit earlier, when the mistaken path of neoliberalism could still have been avoided. They're not calling for socialism, but for a kinder capitalism (one which acknowledges the "rights conquered over the course of the twentieth century... a high-quality education available to one and all, universal health care, the right to a job and a home").
Neverthelessm their book is essential for any critic of the contemporary situation, because they achieve more ably than most a clear-sighted and beautifully expressed explanation of how untenable the present situation is. They're angry at corporations that try to avoid paying their fair share -- Brera, as an investment manager, understands clearly how his discipline has come to engage in the destructive delusion that undermining the social contract in pursuit of higher profits can ever be a good thing.
When we got back from the airport tonight my granddaughter told me I could take the training wheels off her bike because she can ride a two wheeler now.
The clouds and rain took a break for the last few days and we've had sun, since Friday I think. It's a very different look.
The weekend consisted of three soccer games for me. I drove the youngest of the three step-grandsons to Olympia for his game on Saturday. Sunday there were two championship games at Starfire soccer complex near SEATAC. It was mostly sunny, but being outside in the low 40s˚F weather with a constant breeze was bracing. But the oldest's team won the US Youth Soccer Championship for Washington. The game was tied 2-2 at the end, so it went into a scoreless 30 minute overtime. So it was decided on penalty kicks. Here's a bit of the ballet of the last game.
A very exciting, if chilly day.
The sun continued Monday. After dropping Z off, I did my walk through the park then drove off the island to get a headlight bulb, picked Z up in the afternoon and took her to theater camp, then home to check out a kindergarten school for next fall. It's an alternative school in the regular school district, but it's small and students are chosen by lottery.
Today was sunny again, but colder. Right around freezing. There was frost on the lawn.
And ice in part of the pond.
And the puddles were more seriously iced up.
My granddaughter's life is pretty full. There was an astronomy activity at the planetarium Saturday when we got back from the soccer game. But all the activities give her opportunities to learn through playing and she enjoys them. And she helped me change the headlight bulb yesterday. And keeping up with her is cutting into my blogging. But I'm sure it's much more worthwhile.
I got notice of this game and live presentation because I know someone on the Washington State team. It starts about now. You can watch it here. Or below.
2017 National League - 18U Boys -
Field 2- 4pm - Day 2 -
Washington Premier 00 vs. NCFC Elite
Here's a link to the US Soccer Youth website. [UPDATE 2pm (Alaska time): The game ended in a 1-1 tie. It seemed to be raining pretty hard most of the game, which should have given the Washington team an advantage since they often play in cold rain.]]
Short Docs 3 has three film in competition - Ghost of the Arctic, Ten Meter Tower, and The Collection. But that's just the programmers' choices and there were films not 'in competition' that I liked better than some 'in competition.'
I've got more on these (and the other short docs in competition here. Including my personal problem with Ghosts of the Arctic.
Ten Meter Tower is wonderful. Despite people's diverse tastes, I would guess that 90% of viewers will like it.
Click on the purple/pink Life Hack link below and you'll know as much as I know about it.
The Last Animals is doc in competition. From what I can tell is a very well funded and marketed film that strongly advocates for saving endangered species. You can see more about it and the trailer at this post on the docs in competition.
But it's playing at the same time as a workshop by Dan Mirvish. I've never met him face to face, but I did a Skype interview with him in 2012 when his film Between Us played at AIFF. It's a loooong video (for me) but if you watch some of it you can get a sense of whether you want to go to the workshop. I'd recommend the workshop simply because you get to see an accomplished film maker live talking about what he does.
For me, there's no hard decision at 8pm - AlphaGo, another documentary in competition.
But others might not agree.
The colored bars are linked so you can see the details - location and short descriptions. Or go directly to the AIFF Sched for Tuesday,
Watch the video tape Seavey posted yourself. The jury's job is to evaluate who is telling the truth and who is not.
Seavey certainly sounds sincere here and the facts, as he presents them, logically raise serious questions. But as a former union grievance rep, I learned long ago there are always facts that my client was leaving out and that I had to reserve judgment until I heard from others involved.
I'd also note that everyone denies the charges. How many years did Lance Armstrong strongly deny the drug charges? And a series of baseball champions denied allegations too, until they finally admitted them.
Those things make it harder for someone who is really innocent. Plus someone does not win four Iditarod races by being timid. I'm sure Seavey has ruffled a few feathers over the years. But at this point, I think the Iditarod board is going to be hard pressed to respond as convincingly.
After watching the slackline walkers at Lost Arrow, we took the shuttle to El Capitan and looked up at the giant rock to look for climbers. I could only find a couple. (I did not take my telephoto lens on this trip, so this was the best I could do.)
Let's put this into the context of the whole rock.
I know a lot more now about El Cap (as the rock climbers all called it) than I did when I talked to Mario and Marlene. I've watched several El Cap climbing videos and realize that where I saw a big rock, the climbers saw various routes and various features that are all named and ranked by difficulty.
At the meadow below El Cap, I asked this photographer which climbers he was following, he said all of them.
Which leads me to believe, now that I have had time to poke around online, that he might well be Tom Evans who has a website call Elcapreport.com which I got to because I saw several vehicles with that url on them in Yosemite. He's got much better shots (yes that telephoto does much better than my camera) there, with a set of photos of climbers on El Cap from this week.
There can't be two photographers who know as much as he did about all the people on the mountain. (Well, sure there can, but I'm betting it's him.) Marlene and Mario (in the video below) are in the background. They had started up the Triple Direct route on Friday and reached the top on Sunday and had just hiked down when I met them.
This is probably a good time to just watch the video. Remember these two had just spent three days climbing El Cap and a fourth hiking down with heavy packs. I didn't quite catch what they were saying about their route, but I've looked up the routes on El Cap, and it was clear they were talking about Triple Direct. So listen for it.
It looks a little different with the shadow, but you can figure it out on my picture above.
We went back to El Cap when we drove home on Tuesday. Here are some more pictures to help you put this all into some context. In the one below, you can see some climbers, and you can see what I mean about all the crevasses and other features that, if you take time, you'll get to recognize.
Click on any of these images to enlarge and focus - I saved some in higher res than normal
On Tuesday, I walked through the woods closer to the base. Here's a sign I passed on the way.
And another:
Here's a look at part of the base from a clearing.
Again, saved this in higher than normal resolution, so click to dramatically enlarge
And here's most of El Cap from below. The wide angle lens does distort it, but this gives a better sense than the other pictures of how big this mountain (It really seems more like a rock than a mountain) is. (I googled "Is El Capitan a mountain?" Wikipedia calls it a "vertical rock formation.")
And here you can see El Cap on the left (and Half Dome on the other side of the Valley in the distance) just before we entered the tunnel out of the valley and headed south. It was still a bit smoky, but not near as bad as when we got there.
After talking to Marlene and Mario and watching some YouTube videos of people climbing El Cap, I'm more inclined to see these folks as much saner than lots of people think about climbers. You have to be pretty well organized to undertake an adventure like this. These people are not, as many of the tourist observers at Yosemite seemed to think, suicidal. They have lots of equipment to ensure their safety.
Here are two YouTube videos that get you much closer to what it's like to climb El Capitan.
These are two very different stories of climbers on the same mountain. Both fascinating stories that fill in a lot more than I got this week.
These videos show us how much more we are capable of than most of us think. But it takes work.
I think I need to check out the rock climbing wall when I get back to Anchorage.
I have so many pictures of so many things, but I want to give you a preview here.
Here's how we first saw the Lost Arrow, though we didn't know what it was called at the time. A man was looking through a humungus telephoto lens up at this jutting rock high above us. Here's the start of the legend of the Lost Arrow from the Yosemite library website.
"Tee-hee-neh, a beautiful Indian maid, was betrothed to Kos-soo-kah, a young brave, who was fearless and bold with his spear and bow. At dawn on the day before their marriage, Kos-soo-kah made ready with other strong braves to go forth into the mountains to hunt bear, deer, rabbit and grouse for the wedding feast. Before leaving, he slipped away from the other hunters to meet Tee-hee-neh, his bride, who was waiting nearby.As they parted Kos-soo-kah said, “We go to hunt now, but at the end of the day, I will shoot an arrow from the cliff between Cho-look, the high fall, and Le-hamite, the Canyon of the Arrow-wood, and by the number of feathers you will know what kill has been made.” [There's an editor's note that says this legend may be fictitious. I guess that refers to the fact of it being a legend, not the story itself.]
Our second view of the Lost Arrow was from the Lower Yosemite Falls view point where you get a better sense of where it is. Here's some more history of it from a climbing website, SummitPost.
"There aren't many climbs in Yosemite that lead to a true summit. But of those that do, the Lost Arrow Spire has to be one of the most famous and exciting of all. The Lost Arrow Tip was first climbed in 1946 by a party that used some rope tricks to rig up a tyrolean traverse, a popular way to end the climb today. The first actual climb to the top was accomplished by Yosemite pioneer John Salathe and Anton Nelson in 1946. They climbed the Lost Arrow via the Lost Arrow Chimney ( V, 5.10a ), the first grade V big wall done in the U. S. Today the Lost Arrow Tip and tyrolean traverse return are one of the classic climbs of Yosemite!"
It's at 6912 feet. And all that is leading to the fact that the man with the big telephoto lens pointed out that there were ropes from the Lost Arrow to the rock to the right and someone was crossing it. I didn't have my telephoto with me, but in this shot below, you can see the rope and the black silhouette of the climber to the right of the Arrow. The black spot on the left seems to be, well, a spot.
click image to enlarge and focus a little bit
This led us to wander further down the valley to see if we could see the "dozens" (we were told) climbers on El Capitan. That's for another post.
[UPDATE 10/18/17: When I uploaded a video with two El Capitan climbers, my video got posted with a bunch of El Capitan videos. Which made me realize I should find a Lost Arrow video there too. There are a number (obviously since people doing this want to document their feats!) So here's one from Agustín Copp showing this traverse.
Ken Burns' Vietnam series is sponsored by David Koch and Bank of America among others.
Watching planes and helicopters fly into makeshift landing zones in the Vietnam series made me scratch my head when NPR reported that planes couldn't land in Puerto Rico because there was no electricity or navigation. People have forgotten that navigation is nice, but not necessary in emergency situations.
But then Puerto Rico's 3+ million American citizens can't vote for president and their congress member doesn't have a real vote. And you thought voter suppression was bad in Texas. Maybe they should establish residency in Alabama, so they can vote for Doug Jones for US Senate against the new Republican Senatorial Candidate Roy Moore. You know, the guy who's been kicked off the Alabama Supreme Court because of his insistence on putting up a Ten Commandments sculpture in the Supreme Court. Go to the link, this guy got support from Bannon and Palin for a reason. He's way out there.
Blacks make up 25% of the Alabama population. But restrictions on voting are a serious obstacle. If you've been convicted of a crime, and blacks are much more likely to be in Alabama than whites, it's hard to recover your vote. A Mother Jones article says a new law loosens that, but convicted felons are still barred forever. The article says about 15% of black voters are affected by these laws. So with an influx of Puerto Rican voters, maybe Doug Jones could win. The election's in December so there isn't much time for Puerto Ricans to get their residency.
Then there's football. People kneel when they pray to God, but if they kneel when the national anthem is played that's bad. Because they are equating the flag and anthem with God? That doesn't seem to be the logic. But, in his Jabberwocky way, Trump is trying to change the debate from killing of blacks to honoring the flag. Distinguishing between symbols of a false reality of America's justice for all and the harsh reality of rampant white supremacy is hard for most Americans.
Just as the Vietnam series is showing us how killing innocent civilians was seen as ok to get better body counts, to show we were winning when we weren't, Americans still believe that killing innocent black American citizens is ok, because - well I guess, you can't tell the good ones from the bad, like with the Vietnamese.
Anchorage cartoonist Peter Dunlap-Shohl has created a truly wicked deck of cards. Peter retired early from the Anchorage Daily News* as his early onset Parkinson's diagnosis hit him and he thought he might not be able to continuing drawing and that his life was significantly shortened.
But technology has made it possible for him to continue drawing and he has two blogs. One, Frozen Grin, continues his political cartooning, and it's where this deck of card was just revealed.
So I'm not at all surprised to see this spectacular deck of cards.
And, yes, they aren't just on his blog (where you can see all the face cards), but they are also available for purchase here.
And yes, I know Peter as a friend and fellow Anchorage blogger, but I get nothing out of this other than the satisfaction that his work might get the recognition it deserves and that people who might find this deck of interest have access to it.
*Anchorage Daily News is now Alaska Dispatch News.
Here are the documentaries in competition with descriptions below.
Docs in Competition
Director
Country
Length
Best and Most Beautiful Things
Garrett Zevgetis
USA
90 min
Drokpa
Yan Chun S
China
79 min
Goodbye Darling, I’m Off to Fight
Simone Manetti
Italy,Australia, United States
73 min
SHU-DE!
Michael R Faulkner
United States
85 min
Happy Lucky Golden Tofu Panda
Carrie Preston
United States
75 min
The Slippers
Morgan White
USA
min
The Cinema Travelers
Shirley Abraham
India
min
Best and Most Beautiful Things
Garrett Zevgetis
USA
90 min
Tuesday December 6, 2016 5:30pm - 7:30pm *** Warning - one showing only!! BearTooth
From the film's website:
"In 2009 director Garrett Zevgetis googled the word “Beauty.”
He had been working on a number of darker-themed documentaries and was determined to find an uplifting story for a future project. The search returned a poignant Helen Keller quote that led Garrett to Perkins School for the Blind outside Boston, a renowned institution where a feature documentary had never before been made. He began volunteering at Perkins. On the last day of his scheduled term, a bubbly student introduced herself – Michelle had found him.
BEST AND MOST BEAUTIFUL THINGS is a celebration of outcasts everywhere, following a precocious young blind woman who disappears into quirky obsessions and isolation. With humor and bold curiosity, "
The Cinema Traveler
Shirley Abraham
India
96 minutes Thursday December 8, 2016 5:30pm - 7:00pm **WARNING - Just one showing BearTooth
This film debuted at Cannes last May where it won a Special Jury Prize. This seems to be one not to miss. I did get see some films shown in rural Thailand on a sheet across a dirt road in Thailand in the 60s, it wasn't quite what this film seems to be documenting. The annual visit by the Chinese opera troupe probably was more like this. From the reviews, it sounds like the film captures the excitement of these events.
"In Shirley Abraham and Amit Madheshiya’s understated documentary, we’re given intimate access to a unique experience: two travelling cinemas that travel across rural India sharing films with people who would otherwise have limited access. It focuses on the lives of the men who put the show on the road, faced with a changing medium and a demanding audience.
Shot over five years, we follow a set of men with different key roles in the process of the two companies. There’s the easygoing manager trying to provide for his family while on the road, the 70-year-old projector mechanic whose weathered hands have helped bring the joy of cinema to thousands and the many serious-minded cineastes who work around them."
"The traveling cinema world, mostly based around Maharashtra, the vast state whose capital is Mumbai, has been bringing the magic of the silver screen to remote villages for some 70 years. Setting up tents in rural fairs that often are several hours from anything even approaching a local multiplex, the screenings draw hundreds, who line up to see the latest Bollywood hits, old Hindi classics and even the odd dubbed Hollywood title.
But it’s a tradition that is nearing extinction. "There are very few of these cinemas left," says Shirley Abraham, who together with her co-director Amit Madheshiya, has spent eight years tracking those remaining in the industry for The Cinema Travelers, screening in the Cannes Classics sidebar on May 15. 'It has been petering out over the years. I don’t think they’re going to survive the march of time and technology.'"
The film's website's press page has lots and lots of links to articles about the film.
The video below features a discussion with the film makers talking about the film. The video isn't great. I haven't found a trailer.
Screenshot from Dropka trailer
Drokpa
Yan Chun Su
China
79 minutes
Saturday December 3, 2016 2:00pm - 3:30pm Anchorage Museum Saturday December 10, 2016 12:00pm - 1:30pm Alaska Experience - SMALL
The site only lists three other festivals in addition to AIFF so we're some of the first people to see this film. From their website:
"DROKPA (Nomads of Tibet) is a portrait of the lives and struggles of nomads on the Eastern Tibetan Plateau. Through intimate individual stories, the film reveals the unprecedented environmental and sociopolitical forces that are pushing the nomads to the edge of their existence. "
Goodbye Darling, I’m Off to Fight
Simone Manetti
Italy
73
Wednesday December 7, 2016 8:00pm - 9:30pm BearTooth Sunday December 11, 2016 2:00pm - 3:15pm Alaska Experience - SMALL
The trailer of this Italian movie is in English with Italian sub-titles. The trailer has the title in English, Italian, and Thai. It's about boxing. And that seems to be confirmed in the English description I found at DocsMX:
"After a painful break-up with her boyfriend, Italian actress and fashion model Chantal Ughi discovered that Muay Thai was the only way to confront the violence she suffered as a child. She went to Thailand to train for four weeks, but ended up living there for five years—training and fighting, becoming stronger than a man."
Happy Lucky Golden Tofu
Panda
Carrie Preston
USA
75 min
Saturday December 3, 2016 1:30pm - 3:00pm Alaska Experience - SMALL Saturday December 10, 2016 6:00pm - 7:30pm 49th State Brewing Company
Where do I start this? There's a duo called Slanty Eyed Mamas. I'll let their own words from their website explain:
"TWO GOOD ASIAN GIRLS GONE BADASS. Thoroughly modern, urban, sexy sounds from the very fresh, street infused Asian-American duo that always causes a stir...You've never seen anything quite like it--part hip hop, part rock, part electroclash, from two rock n roll asian chicks. Slanty Eyed Mama sees the world through the searing electric violin and beats of virtuoso Lyris Hung and the iconoclastic rants from Kate Rigg, aka. Lady K-Sian. Kate is also a Juilliard trained actor/playwright and a well known comedian, who has been on Fox's Family Guy, 2 seasons of the Dr. Phil show where she talked about the Asian American Experience to 5 million people, and has toured extensively as a stand up comic. Electric violinist Lyris Hung is also a Juilliard graduate who also has a metal band called HUNG, tours with The Indigo Girls and has played with Jay Z, Bono, Quincy Jones, and many others."
And the movie? On her website, Kate writes about the movie:
"In addition to keeping busy with theater and TV work, 2016 sees the release of the thoroughly original, mind bending, but gusting, comedy music and spoken word mashup film Happy Lucky Golden Tofu Panda Dragon Good Tie Fun Fun Show- The movie. Shot on location in New York and directed by Emmy Award Winning actress Carrie Preston. The movie captures the downtown New York spirit with live portions filmed in an East Village Club, with musical numbers and sketches blown up and shot on location throughout the City. It examines the "East meets west experience" ways in which we see "Asian-ness" in the West through culture, media, commodities and familiar images-- Hello Kitty, Nail Salons, Chinatown bargain shopping, Pokemon, bowl cuts. Kate's Stand up weaves the show together, with sharp observational, political and outrageous out-there jokes."
It premiered in New York in June, but I can't find much except their own promotional stuff. Eclipse Magazine mentions it in passing when discussing what people will find at the SOHO film festival:
"intriguing oddities like Happy Lucky Golden Tofu Panda Dragon Good Time Fun Fun Show"
Here's the teaser.
SHU-DE!
Michael R Faulkner
USA 85 min Saturday, Dec 3, 2016: BearTooth6:00 PMSunday, Dec 11, 2016:Alaska Exp - SMALL, 4:00 PM
I remember first seeing live Tuvan throat singing 20 or 30 years ago at the Fly-by-Night Club in Spenard. It's other-worldly. So this one piques my interest.
"Khoomei (hoo-may) or Tuvan throat singing, is an ancient vocal tradition originating in the remote Republic of Tuva, which is located in the center of Asia in Siberia, and now, part of the Russian Federation. Considered to predate modern linguistics, Khoomei, involves a remarkable technique for singing two or more pitches simultaneously. The sounds are said to come from the land and harmonize with nature itself. The Alash Ensemble are masters of this vocal art and have been touring the world, sharing their music with other cultures, for years.
Shodekeh, a beatboxer and vocal percussionist from Baltimore, with a vision for creating an "oasis of unity through musical collaboration," has spent his life mastering new sounds and using them, while fostering seemingly unlikely collaborations. SHU-DE! is the story of what happened when these artists came together, utilizing their common instrument: the voice and body."
The Baltimore Sun did a profile of the film maker, Michael Faulkner. Here's a snippet from it:
" . . .The resulting film, "Shu-De!" – Tuvan for "Let's go!" — was one of the crowd favorites at May's 18th Maryland Film festival, where it had its East Coast premiere (its world premiere was a few weeks earlier, at the Nashville Film Festival). Its mix of local interest and exotic locales, not to mention its haunting melodies, proved a crowd-pleaser of the first order. It's since screened at several other festivals, and will be going on a seven-city tour in October
"It's amazing to see your work on a big screen — especially me being a cinephile, someone who loves movies and story in general," says Faulkner, a freelance location manager and film producer who moved from Kalamazoo, Mich., to Baltimore in 1998. 'I was really happy to notice — it's a real movie. It's there; it stands up on the big screen.'"
There's something very film-festivalish about this film, and I mean that in the best possible way.
We don't learn much about what the film is about in the trailer, but we learn a lot about what it feels like.
"THE SLIPPERS pulls back the Wizard’s curtain on the unbelievable story and cultural impact of Dorothy's Ruby Slippers from The Wizard of Oz. Through first-hand accounts and archival interviews, THE SLIPPERS will detail the life of the Ruby Slippers after their sale at the famed 1970 MGM auction. Discovered by costumer Kent Warner, it is unclear how many pairs were found and how many pairs exist. That mystery has only helped to propel the shoes to the forefront of the Hollywood memorabilia market. They have been bought, stolen, and coveted by many. They are considered the most important piece of Hollywood memorabilia and the catalyst for the creation of Hollywood memorabilia collecting."
HtN: So how about access? Did you have any issues there, interview-wise, or footage-wise?
MW: Footage-wise wasn’t so hard. I spent a lot of time trying to collect stuff. So I became very obsessed with the idea that I should collect as much of the material that’s in the film as possible, because I’m making a movie about collecting. So a lot of the things that are in there come from 16mm prints that I bought, on eBay, or on the black market of 16mm-print collecting. Or I bought magazines and newspapers and articles and…whatever I could find on eBay. So in terms of that stuff, it was just me spending time looking for it. Access-wise, for interviews, I mean, everybody was pretty great. Michael Shaw, who was one of the owners of the shoes, he was a little bit complicated to get, because he’s a little bit complicated of a person…
From the interview, it's clear this is movie is about collecting movie memorabilia, not just the Ruby Slippers.
