AIIFF - Chronic Town - Post 1

Chronic Town is the first movie I've seen in the film festival so far, where I felt completely satisfied. Maybe if I mull on it a while I'll come up with some quibbles. But it's 12:36am as I'm typing now, so I'll just say a little while I wait for the video of the before and after film discussion. Do watch the video. A crew member says very nice things about the people of Fairbanks (not the ones portrayed in the movie.)

After watching Chronic Town, it is easier for me to talk about the other films I saw today - AL's Beef, One-Two Punch, and Bart's Got a Room - and yesterday. It's sort of like when I would grade papers. Often, it was easier to show students a really good paper than try to explain why theirs wasn't an A. When they saw the good one, they could see how much better it was. Watching Chronic Town helped clarify for me what was missing in the others. (last year I wrote up the criteria I seem to use when evaluating a film - they're at the end of this post on winners and my criteria.)

At this point, what I can clearly articulate about the film is that all the characters were real, there was no separation of an actor from his role - I never thought about the acting or that these were actors. The story drifted along like real life, yet the filmmaker made it interesting and gave us genuine peeks into other people's souls.

More tomorrow after I get some sleep. Not everyone liked the film as you'll see near the end of the video.

AIFF - Tim Anderson - One Two Punch

Talked to Tim before the movie One Two Punch just showed. Will talk about it later. Bart Got a Room is starting.


Update: He said after it was shown again that they fixed the problems he was talking about.

AIFF - AL's Beef

I had a little trouble getting up this morning, plus I had a 2 o'clock meeting with the Healing Racism in Anchorage steering committee, so I was going to miss the afternoon showing of Streetsweeper. But I managed to get to Bear Tooth for the last of film of the Subjective Subtleties. Well, there was NOTHING subtle about AL's Beef.

And now I'm back at Bear Tooth - after my meeting - waiting for Bart's Got a Room, so I actually have a moment to blog and there's free internet connection here.

AL's is my idea of a student film or a prototype film where the film maker is demonstrating the ability to do certain kinds of cinematic events - in this case with a Western back drop - but the film maker wants to do it 'different' so it isn't just one cliche after another. The answer: spoof. So we see the spurs before we see the cowboy - but the feet are barefoot, and the cowboy turns out to be a cowgirl. There's a sheriff/preacher (I wasn't totally clear about all the preachers) who practices throwing knives into a tree, but none of them stick. And then there's all the shooting, and all the bullet holes (in people) and gurgling blood. Not exactly my thing.

But all in all, it was funny and reasonably well done.

UPDATE: I found a couple of the visiting filmmakers who'd been discussing AL's Beef. One question was whether it was serious or not. I left the theater certain it was a spoof. but they said it had one Best Drama at another festival. I'm saying that doesn't matter. How could you have someone barefoot wearing spurs in a serious film? And a little kid walking around beating a drum while people are shooting each other and washing the blood off? Then the question came up, why was she all bloody at the beginning? So I checked - it was the Cape Fear Independent Film Festival, formerly the Sometime in October Film Festival, where it got best drama.

AIFF - Opening Night Gala at Aviation Museum - Film makers speak

We eventually made it to the Aviation Museum - several old hangers with an old Alaska Airlines 707 in front. Inside people were spread throughout the museum, eating, drinking, talking, and looking at airplane parts.

Shortly after we got there people gathered in the first room and some of the film makers talked a little about their films. A few even had trailers shown on a wall with a propeller on it. My tiny Canon Powershot valiantly attempted to adjust to the dark room. I can just say, it's better than nothing. You get a little sense of what it was like.

Outside it was slightly above freezing, but the snow wasn't too messy.


[OK, I've got a new problem - second time it's happened - but this time there might be some filmmakers looking who can tell me how to fix it. The movie works fine in iMovie, but after almost a minute (in this case) the video freezes in Quicktime version I saved it to, but the audio is good. How do I fix it. First time it ever happened was last week. I cut out the clip that it froze on. It went further and froze on another clip. I cut that out, and it seems to be ok. Any ideas?]

AIFF - First Films Begin at Bear Tooth - Symphony and Camille

I wasn't expecting much from Camille, so I was pleasantly surprised. A good movie isn't about the plot - though a good plot helps - but about how it all fits together. If you know it's got a guy on parole, a girl with red, red hair, and a blue horse and Niagra Falls, that's all you need to know. For the most part the acting was solid and it kept my attention. If there were any deep messages, I missed them completely. Definitely needed some polishing here and there - when the lady pointed out that Dad had forgotten the wallet, for example, we all had a pretty good idea of what was coming.

The animated short that opening things - Symphony (pic above, head not part of movie) - was a beautiful black and white of some sea creature who just misses being someone else's dinner several times to all in synch with the symphony. With my own short animation due Wednesday, I couldn't help but wonder how they did this. [Update: you can see a trailer of it here. Well worth it.]

AIFF - Animated Films in Competition Schedule

Here's the schedule for the animated films in competition.

Distraxion

USA • 2 min.• In Competition

By Mike Stern

An office worker’s job is made extremely difficult because of his boss’s taste in music.

Symphony

USA • 5 min. • In Competition

By Erick Oh

The topic of this abstractedly crafted animation applies to anything that struggles to be free. It can be a phenomenon occurring deep within the mind, or an individual confronting the standardized masses.

Mock ‘n Boyd

Canada • 4 min. In Competition

By Chris Dainty & Rita Street

Boyd was living the good life until Mock came along. Boyd’s new cage-mate is out to shake his tail feathers like they’ve never been shaken before.

Sebastian ’s Voodoo

USA • 4 min. In Competition

By Joaquin Baldwin

A voodoo doll must find the courage to save his friends from being pinned to death.

The film maker is scheduled to attend the screening.

Yellow Sticky Notes

Canada • 6 min. In Competition

By Jeff Chiba Stearns

Twenty three hundred drawings on 4x6 inch yellow sticky notes with a black ink pen, Yellow Sticky Notes is a small internal reflection on one’s role as an artist manifests into a discussion about major political and environmental crises.

The film maker is scheduled to attend the screening on Saturday, December 13 and he's presenting the animation workshop Saturday at 3:15pm at Out North.

Headwinds

Canada • 2 min. • In Competition

By Brian Sinasac

Ready for his base jump, Dan, perched high above the desert floor, leaps into the open sky. Malfunctioning equipment means doom for our daredevil, who can only be saved by the use of his head.

Operation: Fish

USA • 11 min. In Competition

By Jeff Riley

After a series of mysterious goldfish abductions, a secret agent is dispatched with a time displacement gun to bring the criminals behind the “fishnappings” to justice, and possibly save the world!

AIFF - Short Documentaries in Competition Schedule

The short docs in competition only get one showing each. It's possible one or two might be added to another feature, but don't bet on it. Click the chart to enlarge it.




Here again, just to get this up at all, I'm stealing the list from the AIFF site. Remember, on that site, the snowman in the upper left corner is a link back to the main page. Just click on it.

City of Cranes

UK, 14 min. – Documentary short - In Competition

Directed by Eva Weber

Date completed August 2007

An unparalleled and unique view of London - through the eyes and words of crane drivers.

Health, Peace and Happiness

Singapore - 24 min. - Documentary short - In Competition

Date completed 2008

Details an endearing story of friendship between two terminally ill women involving their families and the staff of the hospital.

Leave Her to Die

Canada, 49 min. – Documentary short feature - In Competition

Directed by Antonia Thomson

Date completed August 2008

An HIV-infected child was abandoned in an orphanage in Northern Thailand Her medical chart read: Leave Her to Die, but one remarkable woman’s story proves that love itself can and is... saving lives.

Reefer Madness

Canada – 23 min. – Documentary short - In Competition

Directed by Steve Hanson

Date Completed: May 2008

Reefer Madness follows Canadian graffiti artist, Fatso, on a journey across the continent to track down the rarest refrigerator boxcars shedding some light on the most recent and unlikely movement in freight train graffiti.

Monster Dudes

USA – 22 min. – Documentary short - In Competition

Directed by Lance Bauscher

Date completed 2008

Documents Boise’s avant-garde noise rock band Monster Dudes.

Splitting Hairs

Germany/USA – 28 min. – Documentary short - In Competition

Directed by F. Stone Roberts

Date Completed September 2008

Splitting Hairs is a documentary about the American invasion of the World Beard and Mustache Championships.

DELTA Meeting and ...

I've been on a statewide steering committee putting together a plan to help prevent intimate partner violence in Alaska for a couple of years now. We're moving along. Yesterday afternoon and today we met at the Sheraton - piggy backing on another education/health conference that members were going to.

Intimate Partner Violence is a broad term to cover people in relationships - whether high school kids are a married gay couple and everything in between. It does not necessarily mean sexual relationship - not all high school kids are sexually active with their boy friends or girl friends. But it also focuses on these relationships rather than other situations of violence. The prevention people focus on developing communities that promote healthy relationships - promoting conditions that lower the risk factors of intimate partner violence, rather than traditional programs that intervene once violence has occurred.

(view from meeting room yesterday)

Anyway, our project is funded with Center for Disease Control money. A key goal is to have some sort of infrastructure in place to help link people working on prevention, facilitate cooperation on developing programs and materials, finding the resources that are already available, getting better data on what is actually happening, and a few other related things. Each one of these can stir up old wounds, suspicions, misunderstandings. We're looking for ways to take advantage of existing state agencies but also giving the people working across the state access and say without this becoming seen as (or de facto) an arm of the state. We want to slightly formalize the already existing informal networks and make them a little less accidental. Sort of a non-cyber Facebook so people can keep in contact and multiply contacts and access to tools, expertise, and resources.

We were done today a little after noon, so I stopped by the Film Festival hospitality suite at the Inlet Towers. This is available for All Film and All Events pass holders and filmmakers. Rand and Tony were getting things ready. Here Rand is adding some short films to show along with scheduled feature length films.

At the Gala tonight at the Aviation Museum they will be showing three shorts continuously - The King and Dick (The real Elvis meets the real Nixon); Nibbles (something about fishing and mosquitoes I think); and Spin, about a dj.

AIFF - DAY 1: Bear Tooth at 7pm for Camille

Tonight is the opening of the Anchorage International Film Festival with a showing of Camille at the Bear Tooth at 7pm. This is the easy day. There's only one movie to see so there are no agonizing decisions about which venue to go to.

Starting at 9pm will be the "Gala Opening." I never did quite get the word "Gala" but that's what they're calling it. At the Aviation Museum. Entry is $18 (Free with an All Events Pass) to the Gala. You get food and you get to rub elbows with local and visiting film buffs and makers. And you probably get to see the exhibits in the museum as well.

Camille

Official Selection

USA - 91 min - Black Comedy - 2008

Director: Gregory Mackenzie

Cast: Sienna Miller, James Franco, David Carradine, Scott Glenn

Young love has rarely been so twisted. Silas has just been blackmailed into marrying Camille. On their honeymoon, an accident leaves Camille deceased and then inexplicably revived, setting the stage for an undead romance as the couple flees from the cops toward the Canadian border.

Friday, December 5, 7:00 PM - Bear Tooth Theatre

There's a trailer here, but it does have an ad first. (It actually didn't work on my computer.)

Anchorage International Film Festival - UFAQs

I'm not sure its cricket to have FAQs if no one has asked any questions so these are UFAQs - Unasked Frequently Asked Questions. This is information people might be or should be asking for. Below are links to posts with general information about the Anchorage International Film Festival.

Where's the official AIFF site?

What do all the categories mean? ("official selection;" "films in competition," etc. )


Workshops - Link goes to a list of the special workshops and a bit about the visiting film maker presenters.

Special Schedules - the official schedule is big and crowded with stuff, so I'm developing some specialized ones to focus on specific groups of films.

• Features films in competition
  
• Documentary films in competition
  
• Shorts in competition
  
• Documentary shorts in competition
  
• Animations in competition
  

What are your criteria for a good movie? When I made my picks for last year's best films, at the end of the post I outlined my criteria. The link takes you to that post, scroll down to second part.

Is there any public transportation in this town? If you're here for the festival from out of town and you don't have a ride to the next venue, just tell people around you and I bet they'll find someone going your way. Really, people will help out here, especially if you are a film maker. I'm told the Festival was loaned several vans that will help visiting film makers get from venue to venue.

What about family films?

The Program Guide - the link takes you to a PDF of the Program Guide the festival used to have on their website. It is what they sent to The Anchorage Press which printed it as an insert last week (Nov. 26). So, if you have that fine. If not, you can get one at the link. I also suspect these will be available at the venues.

Videos of the Festival
-At the First Movie of the Festival - Camille at Bear Tooth Dec. 5
-Opening night video at Aviation Museum Gala

Who Are You Anyways? - who's paying you to do this? does your brother have a film in competition? What is your connection to the festival? From an earlier post here's my Disclosure:

The eagle-eyed might notice that this blog is linked on the AIFF main page. What's up with that? Well I blogged the festival last year and they liked what I did and asked if I would be the official blogger. They promised me I could say what I wanted, but I decided it was better to blog on my own and then if I write something that upsets one of the film makers, the Festival isn't responsible. They also threw in a free pass for me this year.

I probably won't say anything terrible about a film, but I did rant about one film last year that I thought was exploiting its subject as well as boorishly demeaning a whole country. I mentioned in an earlier post that if I sound a little promotional at times, it's only because I like films and I like the kinds of quirky films that show up at festivals, so I want as many people to know about the festival as possible so the festival will continue. Will I fudge on what I write to get people out? No way. There are plenty of people in Anchorage who like films. They're my main target. To get them out of the house in the dark December chill when inertia tugs heavily if they even think about leaving the house. But if others who normally don't go out to films hear about a movie on a topic they're into, that's good too.