AIFF 2011: Rainy, Windy, and Pushing 50 After AIFF2011 Day 2

I saw most of three films today. I already wrote about Andante. Senior Year, a Filipino movie about the last year in a parochial school was a serious, but light take on finishing high school and looking toward college. It might be interesting to have high school students around the world exchange films like this to see how similar things are. But this was clearly a fairly prosperous school and serious problems were in the background. One student's father was taking drugs and beating her mom, and gay issues were touched very superficially. The worst thing that seemed to happen was when the senior class came in second to the junionrs at the school's athletic tournament. Then I finally got to meet up with my wife at the Bear Tooth where we saw a powerful Rwandan film, by Alrick Brown. From his website bio:

Alrick Brown has a MFA from NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts. A filmmaker and teacher, he has found his calling writing, directing, and producing narrative films and documentaries often focusing on social issues affecting the world at large. It was after visiting the slave castle of Elmina, in Ghana, that he was inspired to attend film school. For over two years he served as a Peace Corps volunteer in Cote d’Ivoire. The interactions with the people of his village and his overall experiences in West Africa have informed his creative expression; an expression first fostered by his birth in Kingston, Jamaica and migration to, and upbringing in Plainfield, New Jersey. A fluent French speaker, he graduated from Rutgers University with a BA in English and a Masters in Education. Since then he has devoted his energy to changing the world by giving a voice to the voiceless and telling stories that otherwise would not be told.

 Kinyarwanda plays again Sunday December 9 at 10:30pm at Out North.  I highly recommend it.  This is a very different picture from Hotel Rwanda - and one that has a hopeful take on things.

JC and his dad Carl Hoffma

Rand Thornsley, right

Then I went over to the party at Spenard Road House where I met Bartlett High School student JC Hoffman and his dad Carl.  JC has a school assignment to check out the film festival.  He got to meet Tony Sheppard and Rand Thornsley, who is in town for the Festival and said he did have a small role in the programming this year. He was a key player in the last three festivals before moving to Washington State earlier this year.   I'm putting up his picture so his teacher can see he was really there.



It's late and Sunday has a don't miss film makers roundtable at Out North at 11am.

Meanwhile the outdoor thermometer is pushing 50˚F (10˚C) at our house, it's raining, and the side streets and parking lots are turning to ice.  And the wind's blowing.

AIFF 2011: Dream Factory - Strange World Without Dreams in Israeli Film Andante

If Anselm Kiefer were a film maker, I imagine his films might look like this one.  Industrial, dark, wood, and machinery.  I like films that experiment with the idea of what a film can be, that explore beyond the literal story telling of most movies.  And I had read the blurb about the film, so I wasn't completely clueless about what the director had in mind.   Actually, this description, a part of what is on the film's website, is more than the film festival offered:

The men and women of the society in Andante had lost the physiological capability of dreaming in their sleep, and consequently the means of achieving deep and meaningful sleep in itself. At the belly of some sort of a factory, fast asleep in his bed is an old man - the last person who is still dreaming. The technological means were found at the factory to extract the signals produced by his brain in order to then project his dreams onto a screen used for public screenings as a synthetic substitute for the lost privet faculty. The plot takes place during a single night when the old man is expected to pass away, and follows Sarah – a young woman that is found out to have been dreaming again. As a replacement for the dying old "Mr. Coma" is desperately sought after, Sarah is then worked through the various technological and symbolic induction procedures, into the role of eternal sleep.

But it was more a movie for just letting go of preconceptions of movies and just watch the lighting (perhaps darking is more appropriate here), the textures, the sounds.  Such sounds, deep and industrial (there's that word again) that penetrated your body.  This is the kind of movie where audience members who didn't know what to expect, leave somewhere along the line.  I'd guess there were maybe 20 folks in the theater, but I don't think anyone left.

Here's what some audience members thought:   


Reviewer Richard Props who saw Andante at the Indy Film Festival in Indianapolis gave it some credit but said, "Andante is all style without substance."  The Anchorage audience reactions seems to agree - even those who liked it had no clue as to the story line if they hadn't read it in advance.   A film doesn't have to have content, but given the lengthy description of the plot on the Andante website, it would seem that an audience member should not have to read the description before going to the movie.

Ron Paul Gets Some Things Right - Imagine China Invades Texas

The link to this video was sent to me by a friend whose country has all these things happening to it. If you go far enough left and far enough right, there's common ground on some key ideas. (But not all.) Ron Paul isn't getting any traction among the Republican primary voters, because for most of them, whatever the US does is right. And all those other countries should follow our lead. I suspect this sort of thinking twists their brains much farther than they can bear. But his message here has a lot Americans should heed.

AIFF 2011: Voices of Bristol Bay Precedes Inuk Opening Night

Opening night was sold out and packed.  Lots of people.  Lots of noise.

The opening short was a light and fun, yet very important look at people who live in Bristol Bay.  They gave 60 some people digital video recorders and asked them to video tape part of their day.  A wonderful glimpse at the people of the region.  It also got Alaska Native people into the theater to watch the Greenland film about troubled kids going out with traditional seal hunters.  I talked to one young man from Kotzebue (originally) after the film and he said he could understand a lot of it. 

Tony Sheppard introduced both films - it was strange without Rand Thornsley there - and then we saw the films.

Inuk was powerful and the story mirrored the story of many Alaskan Natives faced with the modern world impinging on their traditional way of life and with the added problems of global climate change having a huge impact on their frozen worlds.  The cast was all real people - kids at a shelter for troubled kids acted with traditional seal hunters.  One of the seal hunters - Ole Jørgen Hammeken - was there with the director Michael Magidson and writer Jean-Michel Huctin and they took questions afterward.

Even a film glitch with stopped the film and darkened the room toward the end didn't take away from the enthusiasm of the crowd. 




The video starts with Director Magidson telling the crowd how much they wanted to show this film in Alaska.  There's a brief clip of the film - after the glitch - and the Q&A.  The lighting in the Bear Tooth for Q&A has always been bad.  This year they did get a bit of light on the film makers. 




Here's a schedule for Saturday's films.  I'm late for the 1pm shorts at Out North.  Then I think I'll check out the Israeli SciFi flick at the Alaska Experience Theater at 3.  Unless I get sidetracked.

AIFF 2011: In The Shadow's Jorge Sermini and Nicole Elmore

Also at opening night I got to talk to Jorge Sermini and Nicole Elmore who between them wrote, directed, and acted in the Puerto Rican set film In The Shadow which involves an American tourist who gets involved with a local healer. But they can tell you better themselves. And since Tomás might read this, I asked Jorge to explain it again in Spanish. But don't shut it off then because Nicole talks at the end.

This one plays at the same time as Love You To Death on Sunday at 2:30, at the Alaska Experience Theater.

AIFF 2011 Yuki Ellias - Love You To Death

I caught Mumbai film maker and actress Yuki Ellias  at the Opening Gala of the Anchorage International Film Festival. Her film Love You To Death,  plays Sunday at Out North at 2:30pm. That's the only showing. 

AIFF 2011: Nayeem Mahbub, Mutant Chickens director, Interview From Kenya

Each year I seem to want to do more and more and feel like I'm doing less and less.  But I think, at least pre-festival, I'm doing more, but in a more focused area.  It seems that this year I've concentrated on the Animated Films in Competition.  There's already a post up with an overview of the seven. 

I've tried to contact the various film makers of these animated films to talk with them in advance.  I know that Gergely Wootsch [This is Not Real] is planning on being here for a week from London and that Patrick Neary [Landscape with Duck] is doing a reverse migration trip to the north in winter for the festival.

I've had some email communication with others and just had a skype chat with Nayeem Mahbub who is in Kenya for the wedding of a good friend.  The video quality was poor to begin with.  I did a video interview with Brent Scarpo before he came to Anchorage, but that was using my little camera to record the screen.  This time I have software called Call Recorder which records the skype audio and video directly.  As I say, the video quality I saw on my screen was pretty squirrely, but I'll leave it because Nayeem is still pretty expressive.

I had some questions that related to the cultural context of the film.  Nayeem is from Bangladesh. 

Q:  Is there a market for films like this in Bangladesh? 
A:  Not really 
Q;  Is there something that a Bangladeshi audience would get that an American audience might miss?
A: We follow a lot of conventions of Bangladeshi films - some dancing, a lot of sounds and uses of sound, and other conventions Bangladeshi audiences would recognize and combines them with a modern zombie style film.

I'm giving you these answers here because I still haven't figured out how I want to use what I got, given the quality of the video.  But I decided to take a three minute part of the chat to give you an idea of how much fun it was to talk to Nayeem.  I'll figure out how to use the rest later - there's too much going on with the festival starting now to do this well now.  But here's a teaser.

AIFF 2011: Anchorage International Film Festival Begins Today - What's New?

I've barely scraped the surface of things this year. I ended up being more focused on the animated films in competition. But here are a few things I've noticed about the festival that are different this year.

1.     Reduced Role of Bear Tooth
Rand Thornsley, as manager of the Bear Tooth theater, was half of the Tony Sheppard and Rand team at the heart of the festival.  He's moved to Oregon [Washington] to run his own theater there, and while I'm told he still programs the Bear Tooth he's not been involved in the festival this year. [UPDATE Dec. 5:  I ran into Rand Sunday night and Monday again.  He's in town for the festival.  He did have a small role in the festival.  He move to  Washington, not Oregon.  Camas to be exact - east of Vancouver, WA. and owns the Liberty Theater.]  Last year the Bear Tooth was non-stop film festival which included showing all the winning films again the week after the festival.  This year there are eight showings at the Bear Tooth, all features, all at 8pm.  A key festival staffer says that the manager at Bear Tooth has been very supportive. 

2.  Increased Roles of Out North and Alaska Experience Theater
These two venues will take much of the load from the Bear Tooth.


3.  Tickets and Passes
Individual tickets remain $8 - a bargain for film festivals.  (I think we paid $11 Canadian at the Vancouver Film Festival).  There is only one pass this year - all films.  The all events pass is gone.  The all films pass is $90, up from $80.

4.  All Animated Films in Competition in One Program
In the past it was a hassle to see all the animated films that were selected to be in competition (ie eligible for an award) because they were scattered over different programs. (Program meaning a grouping of films that all showed together.)  But this year there weren't that many animated films that got selected for the festival and all those in competition are in one program.

5.  Awards Ceremony moves to Organic Oasis
The awards ceremonies have been in the Bear Tooth the last two years.  This year they are out again.   I haven't been in the Organic Oasis for a while.  It will be interesting to see how they organize the awards there. 


6.  Cyrano's and Wild Berry Theater Join the Festival
There will be two showings (in HD) of the film  at Cyrano's of "A Director Prepares" on Tuesday at 7pm and 9pm.  The description says:

A DIRECTOR PREPARES is a 94 minute "hybrid" documentary/narrative-drama chronicling Alaska's foremost playwright/director, Dick Reichman, as he prepares his cast for the world premier of his play "The Big One" about the 1989 Exxon Valdez oil spill. Until 2010, the spill was the largest in history.

The Alaska Wild Berry Theater will show "The Movement: One Man Joins an Uprising"  at 2pm on Saturday Dec. 10.  The description for that movie is:

In 2004 Rick Finkelstein was paralyzed in a ski accident on Aspen Mountain. With a severed spine and severe internal injuries, he wasn't expected to live. Six years, nine surgeries and a lifetime of rehab later, cameras capture his dramatic return to Aspen.

7.  More Visiting Film Makers
And there's supposed to more film makers coming from around the world this year, partially due to an Academy of Motion Pictures grant to help pay for the airfare. Don't be shy about going up to them and welcoming them to Anchorage.  They mostly don't know many folks here and will appreciate it.



See you soon at the Bear Tooth tonight for the Greenland movie, Inuk, at 8pm.  For the last couple of years, the opening film has gone on to win the Best Feature.  If it happens again this year, we'll know there's a pattern.  This is the gala opening so it will be $20 ($10 with an all films pass) and includes a party.  The short A Day in Our Bay:  Views and Voices from Bristol Bay Alaska will be shown too tonight.

AIFF 2011: David Andrade on Nuts For Pizza and Making an Internet Collaboration Film

Nuts for Pizza is one of the animation films in competition for an award at the Anchorage International Film Festival that begins today, Friday, December 2.  David Andrade, the director, isn't going to make it to Anchorage - work deadlines - but we were able to connect via Skype Thursday evening.  And I got to try out Call Recorder, a software that allows you to record your Skype conversations.

In researching the animated films, I found out that Nuts for Peanuts was an internet collaboration.  32  people were involved in the film, many doing just one small part to move the film along, recruited via the internet on CG Chat.  You can see David's recruiting post from July 2010 here.

In the video David talks about the story for Nuts for Pizza, doing the film via collaboration,  and I asked him to talk a bit about the difference between hand-drawn video and computer generated video.  He also talks briefly about his current job working as video-game animator in San Diego.  Finally he tells us he wants to come to the Anchorage festival next year.



Using Skype to interview folks has lots of possibilities, but it also has its challenges. For one thing, you have more time and end up with a lot more video and thus need to do a lot more editing. Second, the audio and the video didn't come out synched and I had to extract the audio in iMovie and move it a bit. It's pretty close but not perfect.

Wednesday night I interviewed another animation film maker - Nayeem Mahbub. His film is in Bangla (the language of Bangladesh) but he was in Nairobi, Kenya for the wedding of a good friend. We had a fascinating chat about the meaning of this film in the Bangladeshi film world. But the video quality is terrible. Bad enough I don't have to worry about the audio/video synch. I can't take too much time to edit it because the festival begins tomorrow. So I'll try to get it up tomorrow.

Nuts for Pizza and Attack of the Killer Mutant Chickens both are part of the "Animation World-Wide" program (link goes to the schedule) which plays four times over the festival.

Day	Time	Venue
Sunday Dec 4	12 pm	Alaska Experience
Tuesday Dec. 6	7pm	Out North
Friday Dec. 9	7:20 pm	Alaska Experience
Saturday Dec 10	6pm	Out North

HTML Tables

Both these short animations come to the festival with previous festival awards (as do others) so this will be a highly competitive group.  For more, see my previous post on the animated films in competition.

AIFF 2011: UFAQs - Unasked Frequently Asked Questions about the Festival

[This is an updated version of similar posts from previous years.  If you only read one of my posts on the festival, this is the one to read.]

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?

Who won in each category?
2010 Winners -   No page of my picks last year  Official AIFF 2010 Winners Page 
2009 Winners -  My 2009 winners post -  Official AIFF 2009 Winners Page
2008 Winners - My 2008 winners post  -  Official AIFF 2008 Winners Page



What do all the categories mean? ("official selection;" "films in competition," etc. ) This is an updated post from 2008, but still gets the basic information across.  It also covers the process for how films get selected for the Festival and how the winners get chosen. 


What  films are the best films this year (2011)?
Films in Competition are the ones chosen  to compete for the Golden Oosiker awards.  Here are guides to each category - something about each film and when and where they will play. 

Films in Competition  - Features and Documentaries 2011 (My post)
      Link to Festival Genius Features Schedule
      Link to Festival Genius Documentaries Schedule

Films in Competition -  Animation 2011  (My post)
      Link to Festival Genius Animation Schedule
Films in Competition - Shorts  (coming soon I hope)
      Link to Festival Genius all Shorts Schedule
Films in Competition - Super Shorts   (coming soon I hope)
     Link to Festival Genius all Super Shorts Schedule
The films in competition for Snow Dance (Alaskan films) have not been announced yet as I post.  Short documentaries are included in documentaries, but none were picked to be in competition.  

What is Festival Genius?  
Festival Genius  is a national software program that AIFF began using last year.  It lets you sort films in many ways.  You can sort just to see all the films (each film is listed with a picture) in a category, for instance, or see the schedule for the films in a category.    My links sometimes do one, sometimes the other.  Also, the links only go to page 1, be sure to check for any additional pages linked at the bottom of the pages.
If you register on Festival Genius, you can use it to make your own schedule of films you want to see.  You can also make comments and reviews.
NOTE:  Once you're in Festival Genius, there doesn't seem to be a link back to the local AIFF website.  



Short films are grouped together into 'programs.'  How do I find which short films are playing together and the same of program?
Easiest place is the printed program. As of last year (2011) when they added Festival Genius software, things are easier to find.
Animation Programs - The link goes to all programs that have animation.  Some are programs that might have one animation in it.  Animation-Wrld Wide is the program with all the animated shorts. (There weren't that many this year, but the ones in competition appear to be pretty strong.)  There are also two feature animations - George the Hedgehog and Lady of Names.  George, I'm told, is definitely adults only, but Lady will be shown at the kids free showing at Loussac on Saturday, Dec. 10.

Snowdance Programs (films made in Alaska or by Alaskans)
Short Films - There's also a short documentary category.
Super Shorts
(The links only go to page one.  Check at the bottom for more pages.)

I'm not interested in the festival, but if there are any films on my favorite place, food, sport, etc.,  I'd go.  Are there any?

The Festival Genius software  allows you to look at a list of countries and then see what films are being shown from that country.  Click on the blue (where the red arrow points below) and it will open a list of countries.  Then pick a country, and wait until it loads the films from that country. (This screen shot is from 2010)

I counted 26 countries this year.

The film festival spans two calendar weeks and so you have to check for each week.  Just click on the week and it changes.  The Screenshot above is from last year, but here's a link to the same page this year:


http://anchorage.festivalgenius.com/2011/films

 Then click on the countries window to see the list of countries.  Choose the one you want and they will give you all the films from that country in the festival.

To find out about films of special topics, you need to look through the films themselves. 

How do I find your blog posts on specific films or film makers?  There's a tab below the page heading for Anchorage International Film Festival 2011.  I'll put links for specific films here as I post them  (check for the video posts there too)

Do you have videos of the Festival? - I'll add the video posts as they happen on my web with links at the Anchorage International Film Festival 2011 tab on the top of the page.



Where will the films be shown?
Locations:   Bear Tooth, was the main venue last year.  This year there are only eight showings there - all features, all at 8 pm. 

1230 West 27th Avenue (West of Spenard Road) - 907.276.4200

Out North has two rooms for screening. 
3800 DeBarr Road, (two blocks SW of Debarr and Bragraw)  907.279.8099



The Alaska Experience Theater has a large and small theater.
333 West 4th Avenue # 207  (4th and C St)  (907) 272-9076

Marston Theater (Loussac Library) will have the Family Programming on Saturday Dec. 10.

The Alaska Wild Berry Theater has one event - a ski movie - Saturday Dec. 10 at 2pm

5225 Juneau Street (Off Old Seward and International Airport Road) 907) 562-8858

Cyrano's has one film - A Director Prepares:  The Story of the Exxon Valdez.  

413 D Street (Downtown) (907) 274 2599

My understanding is the director pulled his film out of the festival last year because it wouldn't be shown in HD.  This is a special showing in HD.  

Two shows, Tuesday Dec. 6, 7pm and 9pm

There are special events at other venues.  You can check all the venues next to the window where you check the countries on Festival Genius (see screenshot above). 

What workshops are there?
There are  five workshops with film makers.  These are listed on the local site, but NOT on Festival Genius.  There's an $8 fee for most of the workshops, but they are free with Festival Passes.

What are your criteria for a good movie? When I made my picks for the 2008 best films, at the end of the post I outlined my criteria. The link takes you to that post, scroll down to second part.


Should I buy a pass or just buy tickets as I go?  

Tickets are $8 per film ($5 for kids, except at the Bear Tooth). All films passes are $100. (There's only one type of pass this year.) So, if you go to thirteen films, the pass is cheaper. But there are other benefits to the pass. You do have to get a ticket (free) for each film and only a certain number of seats are held for passholders, but you do get priority seating with your pass.
And if you have a pass, you'll go see more films because you'll think "I've paid for them. I should go and get my money's worth."
The pass gets you into Workshops free and a few extra events, though this year they give you a discount, and half price to the opening night film and the awards (which are $20 each, $10 less than last year.)

Another option is to volunteer and get a pass to a movie.

You can buy tickets at the venues.  You can also get advanced tickets at the venues.
You cannot buy tickets online this year.


What about family films? 
Saturday, December 10, 11:30am to 5pm  at Loussac Library - in the Marston Auditorium.  FREE
Here are the AIFF links for family events.
NOTE:  The link goes to page 2 of the schedule because it includes the all the movies in this category at the Loussac Library.  This event is free.  Check page 1 for week one showings of Lady of Names.

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:

Well I blogged the  2007 festival  and the AIFF people liked what I did and asked if I would be the official blogger in 2008. 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 had a link to the blog last year.  They also thrown in a free pass for me since 2008.

I probably won't say anything terrible about a film, but I did rant about one film two years 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.

I did a post last year for Film Festival Skeptics who might be sitting on the fence and need to be given reasons to go and strategies to make it work.  

How do I Keep Track of What's Happening at the Festival?
  I'll be blogging the film festival every day.  The link below will be my festival posts only, starting with the most recent.

Anchorage International Film Festival (AIFF 2011)


Are there other Alaskan Film Festivals? 
There are some events called 'festival' that I know of in Anchorage, but they aren't major film events like this one.  There is another organization,  that puts Alaska in it's name and rents a postal box in Alaska, but has no other connection that we can find to Alaska.  You can read about that at  Comparing the ANCHORAGE and ALASKA International Film Festivals - Real Festival? Scam?

Anyone who knows of other legitimate film festivals in Alaska, let me know.  I've heard stuff about Sitka in 2008.  And there's also an Indigenous Film Festival Feb. 2011. [Not updated since 2010]