AIFF - Thursday, A Good Day at the Movies

El Pallasso i el Führer
(The Clown and the Führer)

A first rate movie. From a play, presumably based on a true story (they did tell us at the end what happened to the main characters) from Spain (in Catalan I believe). So, I'm going to guess the clown was from Spain. 1944, invited, as the greatest clown in the world, to perform for Adolf Hitler's birthday. This was a film with many layers that somehow managed to tell a rich, complete story in movie time. Its theater provenance, I'm sure, made this much easier than had it been adapted from a book. I'd say this was the best film I've seen at the festival. Funny - in deeply ironic humor, not sitcom funny - layers of intrigue, subtlety, good acting. My favorite so far.

A Cheval à Travers l'Alaska
(Crossing Alaska with Horses)

I have a vision of a giant cross superimposed on a map of Alaska - the cross entirely made up fo horses. But while crossing Alaska from Valdez to Prudhoe Bay by horse was a fantastic adventure for the two Frenchmen and the Korean-American in the film, the film was not so fantastic. This is of the "let's make a movie about our adventure so we can pay for our travel" genre. Asiemut's story of biking from Mongolia to Calcutta was the same sort of thing, but they made as good a movie, if not better, without a film crew following them around. Perhaps this is because when you live in Alaska, Alaska is not exotic. And Alaskan love to see movies about Alaska and love to catch all the errors. Watching the DVD version may also have diminished the film. There was lots of (in French) "Gee, wow, magnificent, natural wonderland, traveling in the wilderness" gushing about Alaska. At least the travelers realized and told us that once they got here they realized that maybe traveling with horses across Alaska wasn't such a smart idea. Perhaps one of the more ironic scenes was when they met with a couple of the Pilgrim family sons in McCarthy and went with them to see the glacier. Last week in Anchorage the Pilgrim children testified in court how Papa Pilgrim beat them and raped the oldest daughter and he was convicted to 14 years in prison. In the movie the sons talk about the idyllic life living in the wilderness. Not everything is what it seems to be.

This movie was sold out. People came into the theater and had to leave because it was totally full, with even some people sitting on the floor. They've added a showing Saturday at 5:30 (check the AIFF website for sure) as well as the scheduled Sunday showing, or so they said.

The director came all the way from Paris and answered questions after the film. But no one turned the lights up and we had to get to the museum.

Then we rushed down to the museum to catch the shorts there. We figured that there would be at least one really good one - but the feature movie at the Bear Tooth and the one at the Fireweek, if either wasn't great, we were stuck. The shorts turned out to outstanding. I particularly liked

Il était une fois ... Sasha et Désiré
(Once upon a time ... Sasha and Desire) which took us to the day the daughter of Russian (Jewish it appeared) immigrants to Paris, met the cafe-au-lait descendant of African slaves and French colonists in Martinique. A beautiful film.

To Spiti me tis Elies
(House of the Olive Trees) another, very different young couple, in Greece. Interesting people in real situations. While we've previewed her stubborness in the opening shot of her baptism, we don't know anything about him. This felt like a excerpt from a feature film, but it had a sobering ending that left many possibilities.

Dear Lemon Lima, was another snippet, it seemed, from a future feature length film. Beautifully shot with good acting, it had lots of potential. Though I think the mother was a bit exaggerated. (I'm sure the writer will say 'not at all, I know her well'.) The director - I think that was her role - was there after the film to talk. She also talked about a feature to be filmed next summer that is set in Fairbanks. To her credit, she's been to Fairbanks - after writing several chapters of the screen play - but it will be filmed in Seattle (did she really say Seattle? How can you do Fairbanks in Seattle?) because, you know, it's really expensive to do it in Fairbanks. You know, I think that people in Fairbanks and Anchorage would put the whole crew up in their houses to help you keep the costs down. If those other guys could walk their horses across Alaska, you can surely shoot your film that takes place in Fairbanks, in Alaska. Imagine a movie, "Crossing Alaska with Horses" filmed in the Alps, because, you know, going to Alaska would be so expensive.

I've got some video, but it's going on 1am and tomorrow morning is the Kott sentencing. I'll get some up tomorrow.

I'll put this up now and check maybe do some editing tomorrow if it's terrible.

AIFF - I Have Seen the Future going to Sundance

Cam Christiansen, the director of "I Have Seen the Future's," email address was on the AIFF link to the movie, so I emailed Cam to say how much I enjoyed the short animation. I got back this email.


"Hey thanks.. thats great.. We just got accepted to sundance so.. very pleased"


Assuming it was "I Have Seen the Future" [it was] and not another film that got into Sundance, we can say we saw it first at the Anchorage International Film Festival.

AIFF Martini Matinee - it didn't work for me

The phone call lasted longer than I expected so I decided rather than rush around, I'd take my time and just go to the Martini Matinee. I'd never been to the Anchor Pub before. According to someone there, it used to be a bank. It's very NOT Anchorage. Lots of little leather couches and low coffee tables. Lots of martinis. Three or four flat screens on different walls. It had a nice atmosphere for a fancy bar, but I had to sit at a bad angle to see the screen. It was like being in a bar with music, but people are talking during the sets. Only the movies were the sets. A friend - who turned out to be the designated MC for the night - said there were seats under the big screen further 'inside' the place. I moved to a more comfortable seat, but the opening to the kitchen was there and looking toward the screen I also looked toward this brightly lit hallway.

All in all it was not a great venue and I left at intermission while they were having a movie trivia contest. But there were a couple shorts I'd like to mention.



I Have Seen the Future was a very classy animated tennis game in shades of green and yellow. The camera swept around, the tennis court warped, the main tennis player had an interesting face - not some standard look - and it all worked well with the song by the Canadian singer Chris Demeanor. (Who could forget a name like that?) An original look for the whole film(at least for me) and it all fit together nicely.

Before Dawn is a haunting, beautifully made Hungarian film [Did you read this far Ropi?] in early morning black and white. The only sound, besides all the people talking and the rattle of dishes in the Anchor Pub, was a large truck driving on a one lane work road in the middle of wheat? fields. The fields were beautiful abstract patterns in the predawn light. It stops. Quiet again. Even the room was quiet now. The horn is blasted. Rustling in the fields as bodies slip out and into the truck. Engine starts. Drives away. Then flashing lights and helicopters as the people sneaking into the country are rounded up by Hungarian(?) version of INS. It all worked well together - the darkness, patterns of wheat and roads, the story. Probably the best film of the night - at least the ones before I left. (There were others on the schedule I'd seen earlier at the animation night. I haven't written about that. All were technically well done, but few had content to match the technique. My favorite from that night was Process Enacted. which I can't quite describe. Each frame becomes like a polaroid picture in the pile of pictures that make up the movie, all very cleverly done.)

Shuteye Hotel (you can even see a snippet at the link) is a slick little dark mystery animation in seven minutes. As I write this I realize that shut eye may have more than one meaning. Was that an eye? Maybe not.

It was an attempt to have a different kind of venue - smaller and cozier - but for me it didn't work. Too much distraction from the main attraction - the films. Oh, and when I hit the power button on my digital camera I realized the battery was still in the charger at home.

Blogging the AIFF

Blogging the film festival is totally different from blogging the trials. There are way too many movies for me to see them all. The venues are scattered around town - probably about five miles at the greatest distance (Out North to Bear Tooth) - which is ok with a car, but the schedule makes it a little tight if you want to go to another venue.

But what should one blog? Movie reviews? Sometimes I don't have that much to say, or it takes time to sort through. I thought showing preview like bits of the films, but it's hard to get the good parts and I have limited space on my camera's memory card. Show the people milling around and talking? In a lot of cases that wasn't happening that much, it was very dark, or I got into the conversation and forgot. I've tried to get people to talk about the films they saw, and that worked ok for some. You just have to get people who are comfortable talking to the camera.

So tonight is the Martini Matinee. This is for all events pass holders and $10 for others. You can see the list of shorts at the link. Maybe there will be lots of minglers and people willing to give their impressions of the festival and the films they've seen. I'll use a lower resolution so I'll have more space. I'm also restrained by a 5pm conference call I have. So I'll miss the 5:30 showing of Fat Stupid Rabbitwhich looks better than the title suggests. That leaves Taxi to the Dark Side, at 6pm, which I saw and which everyone should see, and Greetings from the Shore at 6:30 whose title sounds better than the description and would have me late for the Matinee. (I thought matinees were in the afternoon.) Depending on how long the call takes, maybe I'll just go late to the Rabbit and if it's good, try to see the beginning at the Vault - the film headquarters where all pass holders can watch all the films on their dvd players. Well you could if they were open more during the week.

But considering this is put together mainly by volunteers working off their love for movies, I'm not complaining. Just observing. So thanks for making all this happen here in the far north.

King Bhumibol's Birthday

I got the above picture in an email from Kamphaengphet, Thailand, where they celebrated King Bhumibol's 80th birthday yesterday. I taught English there long ago. This is the continuation of the ceremonies that began last year celebrating his 60 years as King and the yellow polo shirts that are seen all over Thailand honoring the King. Below is part of a Fox News report:

Devoted But Worried Nation Honors Thai King on His 80th Birthday

BANGKOK, Thailand — Thailand's 65 million people celebrated King Bhumibol Adulyadej's 80th birthday Wednesday, honoring the world's longest-reigning monarch with countrywide festivities amid concerns about his health and political instability.

Bhumibol, also the world's only U.S.-born monarch, last year celebrated 60 years on the throne, an achievement marked by an outpouring of public devotion in which hundreds of thousands of people gathered to glimpse him waving from a distant balcony at Bangkok's Royal Plaza.

AIFF - The Metrosexual

I had class tonight so we went to the 10pm movie at the Fireweed. This was the first real Hollywood type film I've seen at the festival. It was slick, it was funny at times, the acting was good, and it was a lot less interesting that most of the others. Even Oil on Water last night took me into world I'm not normally in - and despite the poor acting, it was genuine in a way this movie wasn't. The characters in Oil were all people I'd never seen before, and I had no idea what was going to happen next until the very end.

The Metrosexual is in the "we need to get out buddy [a girl, laid, married, you fill it in]..." genre. Our buddy in this case isn't a 40 year old virgin, but a 33 year old anal retentive. The movie is full of the cranked out jokes we see on television any night and there's always a movie like in the theaters. If you like that genre, it was well done. But Metrosexual? Even in Anchorage the title is two years late.

But I did run into someone I needed to see, so that was good.

Tom's First Night

If everything went as scheduled, Tom Anderson checked into Sheridan yesterday about noon and spent his first night in prison last night. And is today doing what prisoners do. Something to think about as you go about your day. (No, I'm not feeling sorry for him, just trying to give some perspective.)

To get a better sense of Tom's experience here's what Bill Bailey blogged about his arriving at prison last April:

The cabbie knew exactly where to go, having delivered 5 or 6 other inmates over the last year who were either returning from furlough or transferring from another prison. Twenty minutes and $30 later I arrived.

The time to enter the rabbit hole had arrived.

After checking my driver's license, the guard directed me to the control center.

Just inside the entrance of the main building hangs a sign: "Through these portals walk some of the finest correctional officers in the world." The clock read 11:58a.

A man sat behind the reception window. I introduced myself and he instructed me to take a seat and announced over the loudspeaker: "New commit self-reporting at the control center."

I knew my life was about to change but I was having a hard time getting worked up over it. The place was totally non-threatening. I felt like a freshman registering for college or perhaps entering a military prep school.

As I write this it is Sunday afternoon, April 1. I have actually written over 20 pages of notes on a variety of subjects and am going back over them to write the final drafts before mailing them to my wife.

I have had 48 hours to assimilate what is going on around me (and to me). It would take forever to recap it in one long narrative. Instead, I will simply recount different experiences as separate posts.

For more of Bailey's first days in federal prison you can go to Bailey's April posts.

AIFF - No Place Like Home

Steve and Johanna called out to me as I walked into the Bear Tooth theater and I invited myself into their booth. Afterward Steve told me this film was made in 1975 and then was lost for 30 years and recently completed. The program says it's the sequel to The Harder they Fall.

Actually there are a number of stories that get crunched into one movie

• The making of a shampoo commercial at a Jamaican beach and waterfall
• A New York woman film maker staying an extra few days and getting her groove on as she learns about the friendly, laid back, community life or rural Jamaica, but also about
• The capitalist pressures to buy up the beach front and kick out the villagers who live there and the Jamaican mafia working this process.

The shampoo commercial took way too much time as the excuse to get the film maker to Jamaica. What I liked about the movie was its unhollywood pace and makeup. The sky was generally overcast, the jungle was green, but not hollywood GREEN!!!! We spent time driving along the back roads, rocking in a hammock next to the beach, meeting various locals that you wouldn't meet on a tour. This was similar to the experiencing of a different world that we had Sunday night in Vida de Circo's (Circus Life), portrayal of the everyday life at an Argentine circus as they set up the tents, fed the animals and the people, talked about their sexual conquests, and performed their dancing and acrobatic acts. Saturday night's Joe Strummer movie also pulled us into a different world. But these two were documentaries, where No Place Like Home, was a feature.

There was one magical scene - a thunderstorm explodes and the night rain becomes an abstract animation in perfect sync with the Jamaican music. And I can't forget the great music throughout. The video I've posted below is lame. I was running out of battery and didn't get much footage, but I do like the way you can see, barely, the seats and tables in this theater where every other row of seats was replaced with tables and your dinner is delivered to your table.

AIFF - Oil on Water

I don't know anything about the people who made this film, Oil and Water. Visually, it had beautiful people and beautiful settings. The beginning conversations - the students talking about the meaning of art - sounded totally scripted and unnatural. Additionally there is nothing profound about listening to amateur philosophizing. Anna's narrating sounded like a high schooler's pretentious philosophical nothings. Either I got used to it or the acting got closer to normal sounding. And eventually we realize this is someone's project to tell the world about the problems of schizophrenia. And then you fell a little guilty about having all those nasty thoughts about the movie. We spent a lot of time trying to figure out where it was taking place. We had it down to either Australia or South Africa - the speech patterns weren't as pronounced as people I know from either of those places. It turned out to be South Africa. If this was a professionally made movie, I'm unimpressed. I would say the woman who played the old family friend of Max stood out as a competent actress. If this was someone with a story who made her own movie, it's more understandable. But Autism the Musical was a much better way to tell the story of a mental health problem. [And Body/Anti-Body was an even better way - it told us about obsessive-compulsive disorder, not by telling us, but by making it part of the main character's behavior in a totally absorbing movie.]

AIFF - Autism the Musical

The power went back on yesterday in time for the showing of at Out North. (The paper this morning says a car took down a power pole nearby.)

The video shows just a snippet of this documentary. I was very impressed. If you haven't been with autistic children at all, this movie will give you a lot more understanding of what the challenges that society unnecessarily adds to the challenges the kids and their families already have. There's no sugar coating here. While there are triumphs now and then, nothing looks easy. Like all the showings I've been to, this one was about 80% full.