Morrie? Does copulate mean what I think it does?

"Morrie?  Does copulate mean what I think it does?  In English I mean?"

The speaker is Paul, a precocious 13 year old who talking to his unconventional teacher in a one-room school house in Montana in 1909.  He goes on:

The morning I asked that, he had had a terrible time keeping a straight face.  Between yawns and cups of coffee that would have given Father's a run for its money and trying to prepare for the Department of Public Instruction inspector coming to lop his head off, he was doing his best to administer Latin to me before everyone else showed up for school.  At that hour I was chipper as Chanticleer, which probably was no help to a bleary teacher who had to come an hour early every day to unlock the schoolhouse and light the overhead lamps and stoke up the stove and then face me and my translations.  Morrie hadn't yet uttered a peep of complaint, however, and now he looked more than passingly interested in my questions.  "Dare I ask why you ask?"

"Just wondering," I dabbed my finger onto the open page of the Latin collection of readings he had most recently provided me.  "Besides, it's right here."

Morrie blanched, then scrambled over to my desk to take a look.  "Navem caper copulas manus ferreas injecebamus" he read aloud hastily, then translated with relief. "To caputre the vessel, we throw ropes with grappling irons." The grappling is not that severe in the English form. But look it up."

My book group finished reading The Whistling Season by Ivan Doig.  As a couple people said at our meeting last week, "everyone is so nice."  I had to disagree and pointed out a few characters who made life difficult for Paul and his brothers.  But generally the conflicts are pretty low key.  And this got me to thinking.  Most authors will tell you something like

Without conflict, you don’t have a story. [from Susann Cokal]

And it seems a lot of writers assume that conflict should be CONFLICT!  Doig finds conflict in everyday life and is able to tell a story without terribly much happening in the sense of big dramatic conflict.  Rather we have Morrie's need to answer Paul's question about Latin translation.  And Morrie's concern about the school inspector's visit.

The book starts out with recently widowed Oliver and his three sons around the table.

. . .  Father had a short, sniffing way of laughing, as if anything funny had to prove it to his nose first. 

I glanced up from my geography lessons to discover the newspaper making its way in my direction.  Father's thumb was crimped down onto the heading of the ad like the holder of a divining rod striking water.  "Paul, better see this.  Read it to the multitude."

I did so, Damon and Toby halting what they were at to try to take in those five simple yet confounding words:

Can't Cook But Doesn't Bite.

Meal-making was not a joking matter in our household.  Father, though continued to look pleased as could be and nodded for me to keep reading aloud.

Housekeeping position sought by widow.  Sound morals, exceptional disposition.  No culinary skills, but A-1 in all other household tasks.  Salary negotiable, but must include railroad fare to Montana locality;  first year of peerless care for your home thereby guaranteed.  Respond to Boxholder, Box 19, Lowry Hill Postal Station, Minneapolis, Minnesota.

Conflict - how does widower cook for his three sons?  Conflict - should he send transportation money to this unknown potential housekeeper?  There's also a wolf trapper and his son who provide some tension, but basically things are unexciting, but in a way that kept me eager for more.

New York Times book reviewer Sven Birkets invoked David Foster Wallace's questioning whether it was possible today to write without irony.  He concludes:

"The next real literary 'rebels' in this country might well emerge as some weird bunch of anti-rebels, born oglers who dare somehow to back away from ironic watching, who have the childish gall actually to endorse and instantiate single-entendre principles. Who treat of plain old untrendy human troubles and emotions in U.S. life with reverence and conviction."

Birkets suggests Ivan Doig fits the untrendy and reverent criteria.  I'd agree.  I can't recall reading such a low stress novel.  Focusing on everyday tasks offers enough literary conflict if done as well as Doig does it.

Clutter Wars - Let's Paint

J has wanted a new downstairs carpet forever and with guests coming this summer, it's forever has a date.  But if you put down a new carpet, you have to paint first.  She told me it was a law of nature.  The good news is that we had to take out everything that was in the open.  So now my back room is full again as is the room we misleadingly call the greenhouse.






But while I've been blogging about the film festival (I've changed the banner back to What Do I Know? even though we still have a couple more days of Best of the Fest), J has been painting.  (I did a little bit of the cleaning out, taping, and 15 minutes of painting a high tight spot, but some things couples aren't meant to do together.)  She claims to like painting and who am I to disagree? 

It really looks much better, even with things still wrapped up.  We have decisions though now.   Probably time to have a new look.  A more comfortable sofa bed for guests.  Get rid of the stuff that we moved out.  

 The fake brick wall that leaves an air space behind the wood stove looks much better painted white.

Catherine Doss Senungetuk's Retrospective Exhibit

[Update Wed Dec. 15:  Catherine is back in the hospital.  It's not looking very good.  The exhibit is scheduled to open Friday.]

We visited our friends Catherine and Joe Senungetuk the other day.  Catherine's been pretty ill, but is now up and about, though still recovering.  She has a retrospective show - 35 years of her work - opening December 17 at Out North 5:00 - 7:00pm. 

Here's the original painting that the exhibition cards will be made from.






 

                                Joe's been working on this mask to be sent to Nome.  Catherine painted it.










Finally, here's Joe in his living room

AIFF 2010: Awards - Live Blogging Over - Winners Lists

10:31  Best of Fest Schedule - The musicians are playing again and people are talking.  I'm done now.  Congratulations to the winners!

Monday
5:30  -  Empire of Silver
8pm  Best of Mixed Media (Live Action and Animation)

Tuesday
5:30  - Statehood           
8pm  - Full Disclosure with A Life Ascending

Wednesday
5:30  -  The Last Station         
8pm - Journey on the Wild Side

Thursday
5:30  -  Anatomy of Vince Guaraldi         
8pm  The Beekeepers and Quick Freeze Winners

10:23

 2010 Audience Choice Awards -  Chosen by audience - over 55 minute films
Documentary -
3rd Place - Brian Palmer - Full Disclosure
2nd place - Exporting Raymond
 1st Place Vince Guaraldi

Best Narrative
3rd Choice -  Drummond Will
2nd Choice - Last Station
1st Choice - Empire of Silver

Snowdance
3rd - Journey Along the Wild Coast
2nd - Beekeepers
1st - Statehood


10:17  Quick Freeze - these were five day films made
Runner Up -  The Clapper
Winner - Dear Self in Ten Years


10:11 Features
Honorable Mention - The Empire of Silver
Runner Up - The Drummond Will
Winner - The Wild Hunt

10:05pm
Snow Dance
Honorable Mention - Portrait of Nikolai
Runner Up - Beekeepers
Winner - Native Time




Documentaries

Honorable Mention - Full Disclosure
Runner Up - Anatomy of Vince Guaraldi
Winner - Stolen

Christian and Trevor Tyler film makers - European Son

9:55pm - starting up again some pics from the break

9:26 - 15 minute break


9:24pm

Best Animation -
Honorable Mention - Millhaven
Runner Up - Not Over Easy
Winner - Ode To a Post it Note  


9:15 John has his pants back on. Now shorts - Chuck and Rich
Shorts
Honrable Mention - European Son
Runner Up - Noble Savage
Winner - Caron



9:10  Supershorts - John is just wearing his shorts  - Jamie is now up there.  
 Three finalists - Canada - Nuit Blanche
Salut and

Honorable mention;  Salut - Jerry Rath
2nd Place  -  Josh Turner - The Foal
Winner  - Nuit Blanche


9:02  Rand is thanking the sponsors and the volunteers.  Tony and Michele just joined rand on the stage.






8:52 - John's talking 




8:47  John - right - is now on stage as MC.

Here's a picture I took a few minutes ago of the Golden Oosikar awards.







8:42 - We're watching Neil Mansfield's The Owl in the Snow.  


8:22pm It's still empty inside as the musicians are practicing great blues and outside the crowd is waiting.

This is not going to start on time.  It will take longer than that for people to find their seats.  I better move up front and go from plug in to battery.

Rand reserving seats for film makers

7:52pm  The Bear Tooth is empty except for people setting up.

40 minutes to go.  For a minute I thought there might not be any live blogging because I could get wifi, but it wasn't connected.  But Jason (I think his name was Jason) got it going and there's even a back up wifi just in case.

Musicians setting up and testing sound

Here's the list of the films of competition in each category.  I've linked the animation - you can see clips from them - and the features.  I haven't seen all the films in any category.  The way they were scheduled made it pretty difficult unless you focused on just one or two categories.  

I'll use this list as the basis and then I'll be updating this as awards are announced. So just keep checking this post starting at about 8:45 Alaska time tonight.   At the bottom of the list of films in competition I have an updated version of an older post on My Criteria for aGood Movie.

Super Shorts

Eulogy Maker*  Leslie Langee USA
The Foal*  Josh Tanner Australia
In That Moment*  Shripriya Mahesh  USA
Nuit Blanche*  Arev Manoukian  Canada
Run Granny Run!*  Nikolaus von Uthmann  Germany
Salut*  Jerry Rapp  USA
The Wasp and the Caterpillar*  Daniel Fazio  UK/Italy

Shorts

Caron* Pierre Zandrowicz France
European Son* Tyler Zelinsky USA 
King Eternal* Ori Guendelman USA
Leather* James Boldiston Australia
The Long Lonely Walk*
The Noble Savage* Wesley Wingo USA
White Other* Dan Hartley

Animation

The Arctic Circle* Kevin Parry Canada
B/W Races* Jacopo Martinoni Italy
Millhaven*  Bartek Kulas Poland  
Not Over Easy* Jordan Canning Canada
Ode to a Post-It Note* Jeff Chiba Stearns Canada
Ping* Jason Oshman USA
The Wonder Hospital*   Beomsik Shimbe Shim USA




Documentary

The Anatomy of Vince Guaraldi* Andrew Thomas USA
Ed Hardy: Tattoo The World* Emiko Omori USA
Full Disclosure* Brian Palmer USA/Various
Keiko: The Untold Story* Theresa Demarest USA
My Perestroika* Robin Hessman UK/Russian Federation
She Wore Silver Wings* Devin Scott USA
Stolen* Violeta Ayala Daniel Fallshaw Australia/USA


Snowdance

The Beekeepers*  Bryant Mainord  USA (AK)
MUSH: The Movie*  Alex Stein  USA (AK)
Native Time*  Sean Morris  USA (AK)
Parlez-Vous Eyak*  Laura Bliss Spaan  USA (AK)
A Portrait of Nikolai* Youth of Nikolai  USA (AK)
Rain Power*  Hannah Guggenheim  USA (AK)
The Yup’ik Way* Beth Edwards USA (AK)


Feature

Bai Yin Di Guo [Empire of Silver]	Christina Shu-hwa Yao	China
The Drummond Will	Alan Butterworth	UK
Hello Lonesome	Adam Reid	USA
Karma Calling	Sarba Das	USA
Son Istasyon [Last Station]	Ogulcan Kirca	Turkey
The Temptation of St. Tony	Veiko Õunpuu	Estonia
The Wild Hunt	Alexandre Franchi	Canada

Quick Freeze








Best of Fest








So what were my criteria? There are several factors. (This is from 2007 so the movie references are to films in that year's festival.)

• Technical Quality A continuum from.. shaky...no problems..very good..innovative. Some might have a combination of more than one of these which makes it harder to judge. Clearly Anonymous and I Have Seen the Future impressed me with their innovative technical styles.

• Content - There's a vague continuum from:
• Negative/disrespectful ...Boring...good story....originality...currency...impact
• I gave my only really negative review to The Dalai Lama's Cat because I thought it was a very negative and disrespectful portrayal. That doesn't mean a film can't be critical - I gave Taxi to the Dark Side lots of credit for being critical of the Defense Department's use of torture. But they provided lots of evidence. The Cat filmmakers began with what appears to be a bogus story about a cat, knew apparently little or nothing about the Dalai Lama or the Tibetan people, and then used Tibet, its people, and its holy shrines as the props for their ethnocentric humor. They used the Dalai Lama's name to sell their picture. It was simply rude and disrespectful to get a laugh and sell their movie. This is not about being politically correct. If you drop a kid on his head for laughs (which they did in the movie) that's not acceptable in my value system. Most depressing was how many people did laugh.
• Content is probably the most variable issue, since what interests me may not interest you. I thought Prize of the Pole and Taxi to the Dark Side both covered important social/political issues well, but that Taxi's was focused on a more current issue and had potentially more impact.
• Friends thought No Place Like Home was awful. I thought it had some editing problems, but there were a lot of things in there that I enjoyed.

• Use of Medium. Movies combine sight and sound and movement. The best movies are those that take advantage of the medium and tell their stories in ways that you couldn't tell it orally, in a book, etc.

• Whole Package. Even with weaknesses here and there, a film could pull it off by doing some things so well that the problems don't really matter.  Just like parts of a face, individually, might be a little off, all together the face can be beautiful. So the same is true for the movie.
  
  Erik Knudsen said this year (2010) that a good movie is one that moves you one that reaches you. I think that's mostly what I mean by the whole package.
  
  So, ultimately, everyone will have different best movies. 

AIFF 2010: Snow Dance 2

The SnowDance 2 program was packed Saturday evening.  This picture was still five minutes before the show began.  More cushions were brought out for floor people. 

The audience made lots of appreciative noises during Peter Dunlap-Shohl's Oblivion 1964, a short animation about the big Alaska earthquake.  Peter has Parkinson's and writes a Parkinson's blog and another one called Frozen Grin, but in this picture he was just fooling around. 

Jack Dalton starred in Native Time.  This movie visually gets across some cross-cultural time conflicts.  The slow motion Native crossing the street driving the fast speed non-Native drivers should be understandable to most.



I'll add some video of the Q&A later today.

AIFF 2010: "crazy Indian family living in New Jersey much like our own."

[I just found this sitting here as a draft.  I thought I'd posted it Saturday.  It's a bit out of date, but here it is.]

Q:  There are so many movies, how do you pick which ones to write about?

A:  You have to embrace serendipity to enjoy a film festival - make some sort of a plan, but be ready to abandon it as things come up.  I remember last year going to the wrong venue and just staying there and getting involved in the best ever Q&A with the film maker.  The audience members just had a variety of expertise relevant to the film and the discussion verged on brilliant.

So, why is Calling Karma on my radar?  Several accidents of life.  I started trying to make a list of all the films in competition in each category, but only made it through the features this year.  Calling Karma is on that list.

And India has always fascinated me - it's this huge part of the world physically and in terms of population.  It's a place where many languages and religions somehow live together - not always peacefully.  It's a place where the past still exists intact almost alongside with the modern.  It's the biggest alternative to the modern world still on earth.  There's a tag on this blog with lots of posts on India.

India has incredible music.  And if all the other food in the world suddenly disappeared, Indian food is so varied and so imaginative and so healthy that after twenty years, few people would miss any of the others - even Thai food.  (Blasphemy!) But even more important, people who know the world in a completely non-Western way are still respected in India, and that gives us tools for alternative thinking as our extreme rationality and focus on money reveals itself as an insufficiently balanced way to live. 


And India has a huge presence in English language literature. Some of that has been translated to film.  A lot of this literature has been expat Indian reflections, and mostly from fairly sophisticated and educated Indians. (I'm getting off on thin ice here as I start speculating beyond what I know.  But bear with me and take this as brainstorming because if I do the research necessary to document this line of reasoning, I won't get this posted before Karma Calling plays tonight.)   I'm not sure how much of the Indian-American experience has been captured directly to film without being a book first.  I can think of one example - the two Harold and Kumar movies.  And one of the locations that Harold and Kumar was filmed is Hoboken, New Jersey.  And Hoboken is where Karma Calling was filmed.

So, that's how this movie got my attention and why I emailed Sarba Das one of the filmmakers who is now in Anchorage and why I'm going to the 8:30 showing at Out North tonight.

So, here's what Sarba had to say in response to some of my email questions.

When we first came up with the idea to make Karma Calling, no one had ever really heard much about Call Centers and "outsourcing" was a relatively new concept.  For us, the journey was personal.   Back in 2003, my brother Sarthak and I were actually writing a screenplay about a crazy Indian family living in New Jersey much like our own.  One day we were sitting down to write and brainstorm, and the phone rang.  It was guy named "Rob" with a very heavy Indian accent on the other end who seemed to be struggling a bit with his English and trying to sell us an increased line of credit.  My brother, fluent in several Indian languages immediately chimed in with Hindi.  Rob seemed relieved.  They chatted for sometime and we soon found out that "Rob" was actually "Rohit" and that he was using an American-friendly name because he was a Call Center Operator--something we'd never heard of before.  He told us about all of the techniques that they were learning in the call center from watching Simpsons episodes to learn about American Culture to Accent Neutralization lessons.  We were fascinated.  Rohit took a liking to us and from there on practically every day we'd sit to write, the phone would ring and he would be calling just to chat, just to find out about our lives in America.  After a few weeks of these telephone exchanges, we found his stories to be so hilarious that it dawned on me...why not include a storyline  in our screenplay about a Call Center Operator calling the Indians living in New Jersey?  And so Karma Calling was born...

She just got to Anchorage early yesterday morning - some preliminary reactions:

I have never set foot in Alaska before and I feel so fortunate to be here now with the film.  The natural beauty is just awe-inspiring and I'm so impressed with the fervent love of independent filmmaking that seems to have taken hold in this community. Grassroots film festivals like the Anchorage International Film Festival are what allows indie filmmakers like myself to share our work with audiences that we'd never dream to have access to otherwise.  It's really an honor to be a part of the festivities.

Karma Calling - 8:30 - Out North - Saturday night

Is this a great film?  Probably not.  It might not even be good.  But this is a film festival and at the very least, you'll get a glimpse of a couple people's take on the Indian-American experience.

AIFF 2010: Phone Dating/Kenny G jokes/European Son/Music and Age

[Brock - skip this post]
I just wanted to write a quick post.  It seems I'm no longer capable of that.  One thing leads to another and short is transformed to long - at least in time spent if not in words.

This started as two brief observations:

Phone Dating

As I watched the big Mama tranny [see comments] character  furiously working her iPhone in Ticked Off Trannies with Knives last night, I thought, gee, in 25 or 30 years people will be able to date films (and find errors) by the kind of phones they used.  It used to be automobiles - "Hey look, that's supposed to be 1955, but there's a '57 Chevy in it."


Kenny G Jokes

At AIFF 2008  Distraxtion won the best animated award based on a Kenny G joke.  This year in the short European Son, two men are discussing ways to commit suicide, and one guy offered, and it went by very quickly, something about just listening to Kenny G for a day.



European Son

So, that was all I wanted to say, except that I liked European Son, but couldn't understand the title.  That's where this post got extended.  It didn't take long to track down the Velvet Underground song.  Here are the lyrics courtesy of MetroLyrics:

You killed your European son
You spit on those under twenty-one
But now your blue car's gone
You better say so long
Hey hey, bye bye bye

You made your wallpapers green
You want to make love to the scene
Your European son is gone
You'd better say so long
Your clown's bid you goodbye

The link isn't completely obvious. I think a blue car was mentioned, but it was the red one he drove off in.  He's definitely over twenty-one.  He is saying bye bye bye.  I thought perhaps the last line might have hinted at suicide, which would fit, but couldn't find any confirmation.  Here's what seemed like the most comprehensive succinct explanation of the song (again from Metro Lyrics - where you can get this as your ringtone and you can hear the song.)

"Discrimination against those who are free, young (both literally and in mentality) and aware. A message to parents, to the intellectuals, to the elite and to anyone who tries to control anyone else in any way imaginable. The freedom explored in the noise is just a literal example of this message. "

Music Taste and Age

And all this raises questions about why I didn't know this old song and about what patterns exist in terms of age and keeping current with music.  In my case, before twenty-one, I knew most new pop music, but after that, my new music intake became seriously limited.  In part that had to do with being in Thailand for three years and away from top 40 radio.  And when I came back FM had grown up and I pretty much haven't looked back at AM since.  Is that a common pattern?  After all, there are radio stations stuck in a time warp playing only the great songs of my youth where you never hear any new stuff.

Help

• So, can anyone out there explain the movie title "European Son"?   
• Does anyone know of studies of new music awareness as people go from teens to twenties to thirties, etc.?  

[UPDATE - January 14, 2011 - I did get to ask European Son director Tyler Zelinsky about the title at the festival. I'm catching up on tidbits like this as best as I can.   He said that he listened to the song while he was doing the film and was hoping that the type of scam that's done in the film would come to be known as the European Son, sort of like the Spanish Prisoner.  This is a really good little short film.  Great acting, wonderfully bizarre events, funny, and good technical stuff.]

I did find a thread on a military chat forum, but I'm just going to give that link and stop looking.

http://www.military-quotes.com/forum/music-taste-age-t8222.html

See how one thing leads to another?  Enough.  There are movies to see.  (I've put my tips - there's a lot going on today I just haven't been able to catch up with - in the Anchorage International Film Festival tab above for today.)

AIFF 2010: Festival Blogger Ethics and Objectivity

This festival blogging started in 2007 when I bought a pass for the festival and was at a screening when some of the filmmakers and actors were hamming it up in the lobby at the museum.  I pulled out my camera and taped it.  And posted it.  [Update: I see this doesn't really link to anything.  Blogging while sleep deprived isn't good for making sense.  I was trying to say here that the blogging sort of just happened and then built up over the years until the Festival people started emailing a month before the festival, "Hey, you're going to blog again this year aren't you?" And as I blogged more, I got to 'know' - in that temporary away from home sort of friendship - film makers who came here for the festivals.  And began to realize that knowing film makers affected how I wrote about them.  It doesn't have to be a negative affect, as this post describes.]

Watching Full Disclosure, which touched on how being embedded affects a journalists objectivity in reporting, I could relate well.  As a blogger I've faced a similar issue covering trials, covering the legislature, and covering the festival.  It's much easier to write about someone or their performance if you don't know them.  But when you actually talk to someone, you get a chance to correct your stereotyping, learn more about who they are and more about the background of the film (or whatever topic.)  But it's harder to say negative things.  So it's a double-edged sword.  I think the most important part is to be honest to yourself and to your readers.

Brian Palmer on Shannyn Moore show

Knowing the people I'm writing about has a very positive side effect.  I think carefully about how to write critical things.  I choose my words carefully and attempt to focus on identifying the specific, tangible events that bother me, rather than using general negative adjectives.  Perhaps if US Embassy officials know there's a chance that their messages will become public, they will write with less snark and fewer pejoratives, and simply report facts.

Dave - one of the Beekeeper Team

All that above has a reason.  I've been pushing Full Disclosure and so I think I need to do my own full disclosure.  At the film festival I get to meet film makers.  (Everyone has that opportunity, not just me.  But as a blogger I'm much more forward about introducing myself than I would be otherwise. And film makers react to bloggers much more positively than do legislators!)  Wednesday (or was it just yesterday?) Brian Palmer gave me a copy of his DVD.  I'd read about Full Disclosure, but hadn't seen it.  So the next day I emailed him to say how much I liked the movie and to ask some questions.  And was he available Friday to talk.  He emailed back he was.  So we met at Fire Island Bakery - a few blocks from where he was staying.  But he was scheduled to be on Shannyn Moore's KUDO show in 15 minutes.  So I took him down there.

While we were there, Dave (I have this nagging feeling that I've mixed up his name with someone else, but I'm pretty sure it's Dave) who does lots of technical stuff for Shannyn, was there and I learned he's one of the people who made The Beekeeper, an Alaskan feature that shows Saturday at 10:20pm at Bear Tooth.  

Then I took Brian off to Campbell Airstrip.  I want these out-of-towners to see at least a glimpse of Alaska.  And we got to walk and talk a bit on the trail.  (I knew my extra ski boots would never fit his feet, so we walked, but the cross-country conditions were great.) 

I want to tell you all this because I've been pushing his film here.  But I did that because I liked the film and because his style has some linkage to what I try to do here - get video of people as natural and contextual as I can.  I think what I'm trying to say is that I didn't write good things about the film because we did things together, but rather it was the other way around.  I really liked his film and so wanted to talk to him more about it.  (But he'll probably say I did way too much of the talking.) 

As the first set of film makers here have or are now departing, a new set is coming in.  I went to the Bear Tooth to see some of the shorts.  When I got out, the line was forming for Summer Pasture - the documentary about Tibet.  Then off to Out North to see Wings of An Angel and Full Disclosure.  I saw Elias there (I met him last night and put up a video of him) and talked him into staying for Ticked Off Trannies with Knives.  Elias has a vampire an 'infected' movie.  (He corrected me, but I can see now that I'll have to ask him to clarify the terminology.)  So I thought he might be a good person to watch Ticked Off Trannies with.  I'm not into blood and gore, but the title of this move was so good I had to see it.  The transvestites, in the non-violent scenes, were great - outrageous and funny.  And as Elias pointed out afterward - the film makers were constantly breaking all the rules of film making - intentionally.  And as I watched them take revenge on the evil and perverted sadists, I was thinking - how are they any different from the people they were now torturing?  The movie was vindicated when Mama asked the very same question at the end.

So more dilemmas.  Elias wants me to see Ashes Saturday at 10 at Out North and I want to see it.  But it means I can't see Beekeeper which plays at the same time. 

Tomorrow (well, technically, it is already 2 hours into tomorrow) there's lots going on.  But I need to go to bed.  I've been making serious errors in my blogging (like putting down the wrong venue for films) and I'm going to blame it on being festlagged.  I didn't have to fly here, but I'm losing serious sleep time.

AIFF 2010: Full Disclosure, Full Disclosure, Full Disclosure

Full Disclosure - For US citizens, this is probably the most important film at the festival as well as one of the best.  (It's in competition for best documentary.) Brian Palmer was embedded in Iraq three times with the same Marine unit.  The footage is raw, the camera rolling as things happen.  No mediating local anchors to summarize it in the chirpy dialect of American broadcast news.  The words of the marines themselves - the fucks not bleeped out - as they talk about their best and worst days (most couldn't name a best day), as you go on patrol, as you (I slipped into 'you' instead of 'they' because it feels like you are there) as you smash your way into an Iraqi home to interrogate the owner, because his neighbor said he's helping the insurgents.  I spoke to a wife and mother of men who'd been in Iraq and she said she couldn't watch the whole thing.  It was too real and painful.     

7pm at Out North Tonight  - Below is a video of Brian briefly talking about the film (he's right after Greg at 22 seconds):



It's possible it will be too crowded for everyone get in.  But that's ok because it will send a message to the programmers that movies like this need to be in the Bear Tooth where there's more room. (And there are other good movies to see at Out North - see below.) The Festival programmers don't want to turn away viewers, but they have a bias for putting the features at Bear Tooth and documentaries in Out North.  For the most part, that strategy is right.  But a big crowd tonight will help get Full Disclosure in Best of the Fest next week and onto the big screen at the Bear Tooth where it belongs.

Brian Palmer, the film maker and narrator of the film will be there to respond to questions.

And, if you can't get in, there are two interesting sounding movies at 7:45pm at the Bear ToothOut North:

The Informed Prisoner (8 minutes)

  She has worked her way up the corporate ladder and is close to becoming partner in the firm. However, there is one thing that is standing in the way of Kathy reaching her life long goal: Amir Mustafa. Amir,currently being held in a federal prison on charges that he attempted to detonate a bomb in an airport, will be the last client Kathy will need to represent before having her partnership.

and

Stolen (78 min)

.   - Australian-based filmmakers Violeta Ayala and Dan Fallshaw originally set out to make a documentary about an under-reported land dispute in Northern Africa. Once they started shooting, however, they gradually stumbled on a story about modern slavery that has become hugely controversial.

Or you can still get to the Bear Tooth for Karma Calling.

Plus, the other movie playing with Full Disclosure is:

• She Wore Silver Wings - This movie (also in competition for best documentary) is about women who piloted fighter planes in WWII because there was a shortage of trained male pilots.  25,000 applied, 1000 were selected. I haven't seen this but heard an enthusiastic report from someone who did.  Plays with Full Disclosre at 7pm at Out North.

AIFF 2010: Conflicts and Another Shot at Vince Guaraldi

The Anatomy of Vince Guaraldi was once.  Sunday at 5pm.  At Out North.  People were turned away, I'm told.  Fanny, Annie, and Danny was shown once - Sunday at 5:30pm.  By lucky fate, I'd previewed both of them on DVD and so when I had to choose between them, it wasn't so painful. 

Both of these are outstanding movies.  I've written about each already.  Both should be shown again so that Anchorage audiences get a chance to see them again. 

A workshop was canceled Sunday at Out North at 3pm, and another showing of Anatomy of Vince Guaraldi is taking its place.  This is good.  But we need a chance to see it once on the big screen at the Bear Tooth.  Fortunately, it's among the documentaries in competition, so it has a chance to get in the Best of the Fest.  You can read why I like it and hear from Andrew Thomas who made it, here.


Fanny, Annie, and Danny is a feature, but wasn't selected to be in competition.  You can hear from Chris Brown the film maker and read why I like it here.  Fanny, et al. is one of my top three for the festival.  I'm hoping that it will get slipped into the Best of the Fest next week so people have another chance to see this film with its fantastic acting and haunting characters. 

There are other features I haven't seen yet which could also be good.  I heard a good review of Hello Lonesome, which plays a second time Saturday at 5:10 pm at Out North.  Opposite the epic Chinese historical drama on a banking family over 100 years ago, Empire of Silver which plays for the first time at 5:15pm Saturday at the Bear Tooth.

And Karma Calling plays for the first and second time
Friday 7:45pm at Bear Tooth and
Saturday 8:30pm at Out North

One other conflict situation arises because there are two venues at Out North.  But the program doesn't reflect that.  It doesn't List Out North A and Out North B.  So it isn't obvious that the program you want will get out in time for the next program.  Example:

5:30  XXXX
7:00  YYYY
8:00  ZZZZ

I thought I could go to all three.  But it turns that YYYY is in one room and ZZZZ is in another and YYYY runs 40 minutes into the beginning of ZZZZ.  You have to check out the length of the film, workshop, or program.  OK, you can tell if they start within 30 minutes of each other, but some of the longer gaps are unclear - especially for people who didn't know there were two separate venues at Out North. 

And don't forget - the second showing of Full Disclosure, the film by a journalist, Brian Palmer, embedded with the same Marine unit in Iraq for three tours.  Powerful. Out North at 7 on Friday.  This is an intimate picture of marines in Iraq.  And the ethical problems faced by embedded journalists.