We took a friend to see Hank and Asha because it's so good. We were going to see two docs and then get her home and then to the Bear Tooth. We had to make some adjustments. We saw the first film, The Guide which was a feel good film about a young man whose ambition is to be a tour guide at the Gorongosa National Park. He's clearly very bright and a favorite of the foreigners working to develop the park. We get to see him guide E.O. Wilson, the great biologist and ant expert. The exchange between the 82 year old scientist and the young man is wonderful to watch.
Our friend had gone in with us and the film ended just in time for Hank and Asha and we skipped out and watched Hank and Anna for the second time. I was surprise to see James and Julia, the film makers there since they'd told me they were flying out before this showing. (I put up video of the film makers in an earlier post.) It turned out their flight was delayed due to weather in Chicago, so they got to answer questions after the film. It's really a feel good film. You can put it on your Netflix list, it's due out in April.
Then to the Bear Tooth for the Taiwan and Gay-la movie Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow? A fine movie about a guy who's been married nine years but it turns out he was actively gay before he got married and thought he could leave it behind. But someone comes into his life. It was very nicely done. Unfortunately, it doesn't play again.
And then back for the 9:45 by-popular-demand Alaska Sessions: Surfing The Last Frontier. This is an unexpected little jewel as they go by boat from Sitka to Homer for a month in the winter finding places to surf. It breaks all the ice-box stereotypes of Alaska and the old body surfer in me could sit and watch them ride the waves all night. A little less hyping Alaska would have made it a better film. There's no need to tell people that Alaska is actually livable.
Note: The iPhone app apparently gave some people the wrong time for Hank and Asha and there's a chance - since the little theater was totally full - that another showing will be arranged, maybe Saturday. Stay posted. This is definitely worth seeing.
Excuse the typos please. These late night showings are killing me.
Wednesday, December 11, 2013
Tuesday, December 10, 2013
Today's Apartheids
Intro
The Boycott
The Boycott of South Africa is getting lots of attention this week in the wake of all the memorials for Nelson Mandela. But at the time a boycott was considered completely radical, anti-business, anti-American, harmful to the US economy, and it wouldn't have the desired effect anyway.
People knew that Aparteid was fundamentally wrong and they persisted - mainly younger folks who got their universities to divest from companies doing business in South Africa. Legislation was passed and the conservatives' hero Ronald Reagan vetoed it. But the Boycott movement had worked hard and effectively and Reagan's veto was overridden.
Why Divest?
The basic point is that companies should not be making money by supporting oppression or other things that cause serious harm to humans or to the planet they live on. We have laws against prostitution and drugs basically for the same reason - some moral values trumps the capitalist goal of making as much money as possible. Even conservatives in the US have pushed hard to get a boycott against doing business with Iran and in Alaska very conservative legislators wanted to divest the state's funds - like the Permanent Fund - of companies doing business with Iran.
The underlying principle is that we value certain things above money. Slavery was abolished even though it hurt slave owners economically (not to mention morally and spiritually.)
Corporations' appropriate goals, according to an old Michigan Supreme Court decision and supported by Milton Friedman, and quite probably today's US Supreme Court, but challenged by others, is to maximize shareholder profit.
They do this by taking resources and creating products or services they can sell. Degradation of the environment - so long as it doesn't hurt their bottom line - is acceptable. Exploitation of workers is not an issue as long as it doesn't hurt their bottom line. The same with exploiting customers. (Think banking late fees and punishing interest rates or airline fees for changing reservations. Think of 'pre-existing conditions' clauses in health insurance policies. Think the housing crisis.)
When companies make big profits while violating more important human values, they have to pay their employees well to keep them doing their damaging work. 'Well' is a relative term. They don't have to pay much to get very poor people to work, even in jobs that put the employees at risk. Much higher salaries and benefits than the prevailing salaries get professionals to sell their souls for morally questionable business.
We know that people are able to believe any stories that justify their right to get what they want, even when it is morally reprehensible. German soldiers justified their work at concentration camps with stories of Jews undermining pure German culture. Slaveowners used the bible and their beliefs that Africans werea lesser form of human. Roosevelt allowed internment camps for Japanese-Americans because American prejudices saw them as threats to our security. Communists tolerated, at first, Stalin's purges because they were necessary for the revolution. Civil Rights leaders discriminated against women in their movement. Often short term benefits and costs are cited as trumping long term and uncertain benefits.
Today's Apartheids
In hindsight, it's relatively easy to see who was right and who was wrong (though there are still Nazis in Germany and white supremacists in the US.) To figure out where action needs to be taken today, we should look at situations where important values are being compromised to make money.
1. Future human survival as global climate change causes more severe weather events, shifts in geographic ranges of flora and fauna leading to diseases to spread to new areas and crop destabilization and drought. Those are just a few of the impacts we are already starting to see.
Fighting this with the same sort of arguments used to fight the Aparteid boycotts are the biggest traditional energy corporations - mainly oil, gas, and coal. Alternative energy sources can't fill our energy needs, they tell us. Business would be crippled. If we don't produce these fuels, others will. And, by the way, there is no such thing as global warming, and if there were, it wouldn't be caused by humans, just natural climate cycles. In Alaska, their well paid employees, somehow justify their contribution to the future degradation of the planet, by buying into those specious arguments When we have public hearings on oil taxes in Alaska, nearly all the people testifying for the oil companies are people working for the industry, claiming their livelihoods and standard of living would be gone if the oil companies were taxed at current levels. The standard of living of the next generation must take care of itself is the implication.
2. Privatization and Chemicalization of Our Food. Large corporations destroy our long term food growing environments through factory agriculture - high fertilizer and pesticide use - in the name of shareholder profit. They systematically destroy small local farmers, introduce GMO food, and fight against labeling because GMO's are perfectly safe and labeling them would harm their business. And patent seeds to gain a monopoly on food.
3 Continued Manufacture and Profiting From Weapons. Why are we responsible to bring peace around the world? As humans, we have an obligation to help those who can't help themselves. We help babies and children, we help victims of storms and earthquakes, it's a basic value of every religion. But there's yet another reason - much of the death around the world is caused by weapons manufactured by the US and other nations, for war and acquired by anyone with money and connections. If Second Amendment extremists feel they need protection, then we need to raise a society where people have fulfilling lives and don't need to steal from others to live decently. And then if people persist with personal arsenals, we can give them the mental health care they obviously need.
4. Corporatized media, used not as watchdogs, but as attack dogs. Our ability to know about and understand how well or poorly governments, corporations, and other institutions of great power operate, is dependent on getting accurate information about their performance. It also requires an ability to understand what they report. So education that raises free and thinking citizens needs to replace education that produces obedient consumers and employees. Instead our media and corporate culture distract us from the real problems with sports, celebrities, and other trivia. Even movies, some, but not all. Not film festival movies.:)
Everything is Related
American consumerism fuels our need for oil that is destroying our environment and making the pursuit of money or credit our paramount reason for living. Our failures to earn enough to feed this insatiable consumption leads to crime, addictions (besides consumption), family break ups, and the justification to work for companies and industries we should all be boycotting. It's all related.
And the film festival gives us a different way to see how these things interact. Films take us into the lives of people we otherwise would never know. Here is a list of just a few films at the festival that raise the issues to greater or lesser degrees. All give us one more piece of the puzzle to understand the interconnections among us all. OK, I realize that each of us will see these movies with our own filters and many will come away with far different conclusions than do I.
We will never have perfect, problem-free societies. But I believe we can do significantly better than what we have now. Go see a movie at the film festival - not to be distracted from the world's problems - but to be energized into taking them on.
- The Anchorage International Film Festival is getting all my attention this week, at least here on the blog, and I haven't commented on other important issues or events. I think good art (even bad art) tells us about everything that's important, so covering the festival isn't trivial, but still I feel pulled in different directions.
- This blog covers a wide array of topics, because, as I told someone this week, "everything is related." And I hope that's clear below
The Boycott
The Boycott of South Africa is getting lots of attention this week in the wake of all the memorials for Nelson Mandela. But at the time a boycott was considered completely radical, anti-business, anti-American, harmful to the US economy, and it wouldn't have the desired effect anyway.
People knew that Aparteid was fundamentally wrong and they persisted - mainly younger folks who got their universities to divest from companies doing business in South Africa. Legislation was passed and the conservatives' hero Ronald Reagan vetoed it. But the Boycott movement had worked hard and effectively and Reagan's veto was overridden.
Why Divest?
The basic point is that companies should not be making money by supporting oppression or other things that cause serious harm to humans or to the planet they live on. We have laws against prostitution and drugs basically for the same reason - some moral values trumps the capitalist goal of making as much money as possible. Even conservatives in the US have pushed hard to get a boycott against doing business with Iran and in Alaska very conservative legislators wanted to divest the state's funds - like the Permanent Fund - of companies doing business with Iran.
The underlying principle is that we value certain things above money. Slavery was abolished even though it hurt slave owners economically (not to mention morally and spiritually.)
Corporations' appropriate goals, according to an old Michigan Supreme Court decision and supported by Milton Friedman, and quite probably today's US Supreme Court, but challenged by others, is to maximize shareholder profit.
They do this by taking resources and creating products or services they can sell. Degradation of the environment - so long as it doesn't hurt their bottom line - is acceptable. Exploitation of workers is not an issue as long as it doesn't hurt their bottom line. The same with exploiting customers. (Think banking late fees and punishing interest rates or airline fees for changing reservations. Think of 'pre-existing conditions' clauses in health insurance policies. Think the housing crisis.)
When companies make big profits while violating more important human values, they have to pay their employees well to keep them doing their damaging work. 'Well' is a relative term. They don't have to pay much to get very poor people to work, even in jobs that put the employees at risk. Much higher salaries and benefits than the prevailing salaries get professionals to sell their souls for morally questionable business.
We know that people are able to believe any stories that justify their right to get what they want, even when it is morally reprehensible. German soldiers justified their work at concentration camps with stories of Jews undermining pure German culture. Slaveowners used the bible and their beliefs that Africans werea lesser form of human. Roosevelt allowed internment camps for Japanese-Americans because American prejudices saw them as threats to our security. Communists tolerated, at first, Stalin's purges because they were necessary for the revolution. Civil Rights leaders discriminated against women in their movement. Often short term benefits and costs are cited as trumping long term and uncertain benefits.
Today's Apartheids
In hindsight, it's relatively easy to see who was right and who was wrong (though there are still Nazis in Germany and white supremacists in the US.) To figure out where action needs to be taken today, we should look at situations where important values are being compromised to make money.
1. Future human survival as global climate change causes more severe weather events, shifts in geographic ranges of flora and fauna leading to diseases to spread to new areas and crop destabilization and drought. Those are just a few of the impacts we are already starting to see.
Fighting this with the same sort of arguments used to fight the Aparteid boycotts are the biggest traditional energy corporations - mainly oil, gas, and coal. Alternative energy sources can't fill our energy needs, they tell us. Business would be crippled. If we don't produce these fuels, others will. And, by the way, there is no such thing as global warming, and if there were, it wouldn't be caused by humans, just natural climate cycles. In Alaska, their well paid employees, somehow justify their contribution to the future degradation of the planet, by buying into those specious arguments When we have public hearings on oil taxes in Alaska, nearly all the people testifying for the oil companies are people working for the industry, claiming their livelihoods and standard of living would be gone if the oil companies were taxed at current levels. The standard of living of the next generation must take care of itself is the implication.
2. Privatization and Chemicalization of Our Food. Large corporations destroy our long term food growing environments through factory agriculture - high fertilizer and pesticide use - in the name of shareholder profit. They systematically destroy small local farmers, introduce GMO food, and fight against labeling because GMO's are perfectly safe and labeling them would harm their business. And patent seeds to gain a monopoly on food.
3 Continued Manufacture and Profiting From Weapons. Why are we responsible to bring peace around the world? As humans, we have an obligation to help those who can't help themselves. We help babies and children, we help victims of storms and earthquakes, it's a basic value of every religion. But there's yet another reason - much of the death around the world is caused by weapons manufactured by the US and other nations, for war and acquired by anyone with money and connections. If Second Amendment extremists feel they need protection, then we need to raise a society where people have fulfilling lives and don't need to steal from others to live decently. And then if people persist with personal arsenals, we can give them the mental health care they obviously need.
4. Corporatized media, used not as watchdogs, but as attack dogs. Our ability to know about and understand how well or poorly governments, corporations, and other institutions of great power operate, is dependent on getting accurate information about their performance. It also requires an ability to understand what they report. So education that raises free and thinking citizens needs to replace education that produces obedient consumers and employees. Instead our media and corporate culture distract us from the real problems with sports, celebrities, and other trivia. Even movies, some, but not all. Not film festival movies.:)
Everything is Related
American consumerism fuels our need for oil that is destroying our environment and making the pursuit of money or credit our paramount reason for living. Our failures to earn enough to feed this insatiable consumption leads to crime, addictions (besides consumption), family break ups, and the justification to work for companies and industries we should all be boycotting. It's all related.
And the film festival gives us a different way to see how these things interact. Films take us into the lives of people we otherwise would never know. Here is a list of just a few films at the festival that raise the issues to greater or lesser degrees. All give us one more piece of the puzzle to understand the interconnections among us all. OK, I realize that each of us will see these movies with our own filters and many will come away with far different conclusions than do I.
- Tales of the Organ Trade looks at the illegal buying and selling of human kidneys.
- Fatigued was filmed by soldiers in Afghanistan who told us they were there for different reasons, but mostly to get things like health insurance or to escape unemployment and poverty. All they could think about, they tell us, is 'getting out of this shithole and back home." (I'm not sure what message they intended to send, but I was closer in reaction to a contractor quoted in the movie, "They are a bunch of whiners." But the movie didn't mention the huge disparity in pay between the soldiers and the contract employees which allowed this contractor to pay off her house, car, and all other debts.)
- Gold Star Children talked about the tens of thousands of US children who have lost a parent in the Vietnam, Iraq, and Afghanistan wars, and how little attention is given to their huge losses.
- Lion Ark looks at the mistreatment of animals in illegal Bolivian circuses and the rescue of 27 lions.
- We Can't Eat Gold - looks at the tradeoff between the Pebble Mine and the great salmon runs.
- Not By Sight - looks at how one woman's group takes offshore oil to task.
- Backyard - looks at how the world view of a conservative couple was changed when their neighborhood was fracked.
- De Nieuwe Wereld (The New World) looks at one tiny part of the human disruption caused by economic exploitation and the arms industry, by looking at asylum seekers in a detention center in Amsterdam.
- Detroit Unleaded shows us the deadening life running a gas station/store in a high crime neighborhood in Detroit.
- Everything Is Fine Here - shows us the impact of rape on a young Iranian woman.
We will never have perfect, problem-free societies. But I believe we can do significantly better than what we have now. Go see a movie at the film festival - not to be distracted from the world's problems - but to be energized into taking them on.
AIFF 2013: What To See On Tuesday, Dec. 10
This is almost like a weekend day. [detailed schedule with links below]
My recommendations: Hank and Asha at 6:30 is wonderful. See post on it here.
Alaska Experience Theater - Large Theater
And to complicate matters, Dan Ankers will be at a showing of his 2004 film Imaginary Witness about Hollywood's depiction of WW II before, during, and the the Holocasut after, at the Alaska Jewish Museum on 35th near La Touche.
My recommendations: Hank and Asha at 6:30 is wonderful. See post on it here.
- Alaska Sessions: Surfing the Last Frontier sold out the large AK Exp theater on Saturday and they've added a 9:30 showing back at AK Exp. you can see my video with the director Frederick Dickerson here.
- Another I haven't seen but heard is good is the Taiwan feature Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow? which is the Gay-la film at the Bear Tooth at 8pm.
- Also two docs in competition at 5:45 and
- Another workshop at 6:30
Alaska Experience Theater - Large Theater
Tuesday, December 10th
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Workshop | 120 min.
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Z. J. Loussac Public Library | ||||
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Documentary Program | 88 min.
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Alaska Experience Theater - Large Theater | ||||
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James E. Duff 2012 | Feature | 73 min.
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Alaska Experience Theater - Small Theater | ||||
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Event | 90 min.
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Inlet Tower Hotel & Suites Alaska Experience Theater - Large Theater |
\ | |||
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Amy Finkel 2013 | Documentary | 81 min.
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Gay-La | 101 min.
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Bear Tooth Theatre |
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Frederick Dickerson, Matthew McNeill 2012 | Documentary | 87 min.
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And to complicate matters, Dan Ankers will be at a showing of his 2004 film Imaginary Witness about Hollywood's depiction of WW II before, during, and the the Holocasut after, at the Alaska Jewish Museum on 35th near La Touche.
AIFF 2013: Why You Should See Hank And Asha Tonight at 6:30pm
I've seen three strong features so far. De Nieuwe Wereld (The New World), Detroit Unleaded, and Hank and Asha. The first two I've discussed already at the links. Both are solid films, well made, on 'relevant' topics (asylum seekers in Holland and Arab Americans as normal people.)
But Hank and Asha pulled me right in and kept me there the whole movie. Maybe I liked it more than the other two because it has more sugar in it, but I think it's more than a comfort film. The two key actors are wonderful. These are people I couldn't help but like reaching out into the world. We need a new word for the format. It's epistolary, but instead of letters, we see the selfie videos traded by two strangers (at first), a young man in New York and a young Indian woman studying film in Prague.
This online relationship unfolds as we see the progression of videos in which they share their cities, their apartments, dinners and picnics, fears, and hopes. There's nothing even PG 13 in the whole film. It's sweet. The actors - Mahira Kakkar and Andrew Pastides - are perfect in their parts. I didn't see actors, I saw two people video taping messages to a stranger who might possibly become more - someone they each could talk to about their dreams and fears.
It plays again tonight (Tuesday, Dec. 10) at the Alaska Experience Theater at 6:30.
You can see a trailer on their website.
This is an original film on an idea that I'm guessing is playing out all around the world: Using the internet to meet new people you would never meet otherwise. And yes, there is a serious obstacle to this budding relationship.
I talked to James Duff and Julia Morrison, who together wrote, produced, and directed the film, after the showing. We talked about the film in general, the Bollywood dance scene, music rights, and the pros and cons of micro-budget films.
And then we talked a little more and I had to turn the video back on when James told me the timeline for shooting the movie. It makes the actors' performances, and the script writing and editing all the more remarkable. It isn't uncommon for movies to shoot scenes out of sequence. But it's less common for the two lead actors who carry most of the movie to not ever meet until after the movie was finished.
My sound card ran out of memory and so we stopped.
But Hank and Asha pulled me right in and kept me there the whole movie. Maybe I liked it more than the other two because it has more sugar in it, but I think it's more than a comfort film. The two key actors are wonderful. These are people I couldn't help but like reaching out into the world. We need a new word for the format. It's epistolary, but instead of letters, we see the selfie videos traded by two strangers (at first), a young man in New York and a young Indian woman studying film in Prague.
This online relationship unfolds as we see the progression of videos in which they share their cities, their apartments, dinners and picnics, fears, and hopes. There's nothing even PG 13 in the whole film. It's sweet. The actors - Mahira Kakkar and Andrew Pastides - are perfect in their parts. I didn't see actors, I saw two people video taping messages to a stranger who might possibly become more - someone they each could talk to about their dreams and fears.
It plays again tonight (Tuesday, Dec. 10) at the Alaska Experience Theater at 6:30.
You can see a trailer on their website.
This is an original film on an idea that I'm guessing is playing out all around the world: Using the internet to meet new people you would never meet otherwise. And yes, there is a serious obstacle to this budding relationship.
I talked to James Duff and Julia Morrison, who together wrote, produced, and directed the film, after the showing. We talked about the film in general, the Bollywood dance scene, music rights, and the pros and cons of micro-budget films.
And then we talked a little more and I had to turn the video back on when James told me the timeline for shooting the movie. It makes the actors' performances, and the script writing and editing all the more remarkable. It isn't uncommon for movies to shoot scenes out of sequence. But it's less common for the two lead actors who carry most of the movie to not ever meet until after the movie was finished.
My sound card ran out of memory and so we stopped.
Monday, December 09, 2013
AIFF13: Detroit Unleaded - Loving, But Honest Look At Arab-Americans
How can I say it's an honest look? What do I know about Arab-American families? Got me there, not much. But it feels true from what I know about a lot of other immigrant cultures in the US.
This plays again tonight - Monday, Dec. 9, 2013 at 8pm at the Bear Tooth - The film maker will be there.
There's much to like in this film. Second generation Arab Americans are the main characters. A host of different people. Here are some themes that got explored so nicely in this first film by Rola Nashef.
Nothing momentous happens (well, it does, but it's the context, not the focus). It's the focus on every day details of life working at this fading gas station struggling to stay open - the 'o' in the neon sign no longer works -
There's a very poignant developing relationship between a girl/woman whose brother forbids her to attract any attention from any guy and the gas station guy.
While the facade is of Arab-Americans, this is just a story about human beings, told with love and care.
Here's part of the Q and A with the film maker, Rola Nashef, after the Sunday showing.
And here's the trailer:
This plays again tonight - Monday, Dec. 9, 2013 at 8pm at the Bear Tooth - The film maker will be there.
There's much to like in this film. Second generation Arab Americans are the main characters. A host of different people. Here are some themes that got explored so nicely in this first film by Rola Nashef.
- Loving, but always working, husband and wife.
- Mother and son relationship when the father is gone.
- Young man and young woman relationship.
- Struggles of a small business to survive.
- Working in a bullet proof cage in a gas station/store in a high crime neighborhood.
- Second generation immigrant and mostly American, but still strongly influenced by the old world culture.
Nothing momentous happens (well, it does, but it's the context, not the focus). It's the focus on every day details of life working at this fading gas station struggling to stay open - the 'o' in the neon sign no longer works -
There's a very poignant developing relationship between a girl/woman whose brother forbids her to attract any attention from any guy and the gas station guy.
While the facade is of Arab-Americans, this is just a story about human beings, told with love and care.
Here's part of the Q and A with the film maker, Rola Nashef, after the Sunday showing.
And here's the trailer:
AIFF 2013: Monday Festival Planning, So Much Easier
First, there are a lot fewer films to see.
Second, I've seen some of them already so I can speak more knowledgeably about them.
Both the films in the War Docs program should be good at 6. Fatigued is billed as a US/Afghanistan film about being deployed to Afghanistan. Gold Star Children is about US kids who have parents away in war or who have died in war. Fatigued is in competition but Gold Star was highly recommended too.
There's a workshop with local Cinematographers Sprocketheads at the Inlet Towers at 6:30. The advantage there is interacting with film makers, and since a lot of the visiting film makers are staying there, you should be able to meet them too.
Furever starts at 7 at AK Exp - a feature length doc on people who freeze dry or otherwise preserve their pets. Also in compeititon.
8pm AK Exp - Quirky Short Docs Program has two shorts in competition Slomo and The Words I Love. I just like the concept of The Words I love - a Thai film maker living in New York asks strangers what unknown English words mean. I've done that in reverse in Thailand. The film maker will be there as well. I'm looking forward to that one particularly.
Then there's Detroit Unleaded at 8pm at the Bear Tooth. This is an example of films taking us into other worlds we normally wouldn't ever enter. In this case, the Arab-American world in Detroit. A young man's college career ends before it begins when his Dad is killed in a robbery at the family gas station and he has to take over running it. This was a solid movie with great acting. The director, Rola Nashef, was at the screening Sunday and will be there Monday at the Bear Tooth 8pm. I'll put up some video of her Q&A and link it here when it's ready.
A heads-up for Tuesday night: Hank and Asha is a delightful film that everyone should go see. It's delightful, uplifting, holds your attention, and has some real substance too. The acting is superb.
Second, I've seen some of them already so I can speak more knowledgeably about them.
Both the films in the War Docs program should be good at 6. Fatigued is billed as a US/Afghanistan film about being deployed to Afghanistan. Gold Star Children is about US kids who have parents away in war or who have died in war. Fatigued is in competition but Gold Star was highly recommended too.
There's a workshop with local Cinematographers Sprocketheads at the Inlet Towers at 6:30. The advantage there is interacting with film makers, and since a lot of the visiting film makers are staying there, you should be able to meet them too.
Furever starts at 7 at AK Exp - a feature length doc on people who freeze dry or otherwise preserve their pets. Also in compeititon.
8pm AK Exp - Quirky Short Docs Program has two shorts in competition Slomo and The Words I Love. I just like the concept of The Words I love - a Thai film maker living in New York asks strangers what unknown English words mean. I've done that in reverse in Thailand. The film maker will be there as well. I'm looking forward to that one particularly.
Then there's Detroit Unleaded at 8pm at the Bear Tooth. This is an example of films taking us into other worlds we normally wouldn't ever enter. In this case, the Arab-American world in Detroit. A young man's college career ends before it begins when his Dad is killed in a robbery at the family gas station and he has to take over running it. This was a solid movie with great acting. The director, Rola Nashef, was at the screening Sunday and will be there Monday at the Bear Tooth 8pm. I'll put up some video of her Q&A and link it here when it's ready.
A heads-up for Tuesday night: Hank and Asha is a delightful film that everyone should go see. It's delightful, uplifting, holds your attention, and has some real substance too. The acting is superb.
Monday, December 9th
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Documentary Program | 98 min.
screens with...
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Alaska Experience Theater - Large Theater |
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Event | 90 min.
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Inlet Tower Hotel & Suites |
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Amy Finkel 2013 | Documentary | 81 min.
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Alaska Experience Theater - Small Theater |
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Documentary Program | 68 min.
screens with...
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Alaska Experience Theater - Large Theater |
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Rola Nashef 2012 | Feature
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Sunday, December 08, 2013
AIFF 2013: Mt. Rescue And 1st US Everest Climb
 |
| Post film talk |
High and Hallowed: Everest 1963 - had film from the original climb and a repeat climb 50 years later. It included extensive interviews with some of the original climbers and put the climb into the context of history and the changes the mountain has seen since then. It showed the almost Disneyland line of climbers on the ropes today, going to the top.
Mt. Rescue was similar in structure (as was Icebound opening night) in recreating the original rescue and interviews with the rescuers today.
But what made this special was what you get a film festival. The daughter of one of the rescuers and another of the rescuers were both there to talk and answer questions afterward.
The surfing film looked pretty full, I'm waiting for the start of Detroit Unleaded.
AIFF2013: Surfing From Sitka To Homer - Video Intro with Fred Dickerson on Alaska Sessions
A month long winter surf trip from Sitka to Homer. Why haven't I seen the Alaska Visitors' Bureau hyping this vacation package instead of cruises?
The director of Alaska Sessions: Surfing The Last Frontier gives a brief intro in the video below.
The movie plays Sunday, Dec. 8 at 1pm at the Alaska Experience Theater.
The director of Alaska Sessions: Surfing The Last Frontier gives a brief intro in the video below.
The movie plays Sunday, Dec. 8 at 1pm at the Alaska Experience Theater.
AIFF2013: Sunday Planning - Surfing, Mountain Climbing, Iran, Mexico, Internet Dating, And More
Tonight (well, it's already Sunday morning) I'm getting 8 hours sleep, so I need to do this quick.
NOTE 1: Everything except Everything Is Fine Here (6pm at Museum) and Hank and Asha (8pm at Bear Tooth) is at Alaska Experience Theaters.
NOTE 2: The full schedule with times, locations, and links is below the text.
Sunday starts with an easy choice
11am Mountain Climbing docs. It's the only thing on and Grand Rescue is one of the Docs in competition.
1pm is an Alaskan Surfing movie Alaska Sessions: Surfing The Last Frontier. I have a brief video with the director Fred Dickerson here. Fred will, I'm sure, be at the showing. But
1:30pm is Detroit Unleaded, one of the Features in Competition. And one of the film makers is scheduled to be there. About an Arab-American working in a gas station. (Like that tells you the whole movie. But I haven't seen it so can't tell you more.)
Problems after that.
3pm Reel/Real Life Shorts - starts with Anatomy of an Injury and Fucking Tøs (Damn Girl) both of which are in competition. Second from the end is Reel Life - a ten minute British short that I got to see already. This is like punning in the language of film. It's a lot of fun and raises good questions about film making. Definitely worth seeing. Don't read anything about it. Anything about the movie is a spoiler. Just see it. The director Laurence Relten is scheduled to be at the festival, but for the 3pm showing next Saturday (Dec. 14).
The problem is that 9 Full Moons is at 3:30. This is a feature that I'm told is good plus it has an extra bonus for Anchorage folks - Cindy and Malcolm Roberts' son Bret is the male lead.
A second showing of Mine Games has been added to the schedule, replacing The New World, which had had three showings. After seeing Mine Games and The New World yesterday, I think the original programers got it right. But tonight I need to sleep. If you like eight young adults for a fun weekend in an isolated house in the woods that begins with a car accident, one guy who is repeatedly asked if he's taken his meds, an abandoned mine with dead bodies, young men acting out, consumption of magic mushrooms, plus a gratuitous sex scene, then don't let me stop you from going to Mine Games. It's just not my taste. See my video with Director Richard Gray who will be there Sunday too.
Then to the museum:
6pm - Everything is Fine Here - an Iranian feature and the director is scheduled to be there with a local translator.
The Mexican Shorts at 7:45pm should be very good and they are only showing once. I could end up there. And Harlem Street Singer at 8:15 is one of the docs in competition and should also be dynamite. It at least shows again next Sunday at 1pm.
I'm planning on Hank and Asha at 8 at the Bear Tooth. This is one of the features in competition and the director is scheduled to be there. This promises to be a feel good movie about a couple who meet and date online.
So, no, I'm not going to give you a must see list. You have to make your own choices, but there are lots of good ones.
NOTE 1: Everything except Everything Is Fine Here (6pm at Museum) and Hank and Asha (8pm at Bear Tooth) is at Alaska Experience Theaters.
NOTE 2: The full schedule with times, locations, and links is below the text.
Sunday starts with an easy choice
11am Mountain Climbing docs. It's the only thing on and Grand Rescue is one of the Docs in competition.
1pm is an Alaskan Surfing movie Alaska Sessions: Surfing The Last Frontier. I have a brief video with the director Fred Dickerson here. Fred will, I'm sure, be at the showing. But
1:30pm is Detroit Unleaded, one of the Features in Competition. And one of the film makers is scheduled to be there. About an Arab-American working in a gas station. (Like that tells you the whole movie. But I haven't seen it so can't tell you more.)
Problems after that.
3pm Reel/Real Life Shorts - starts with Anatomy of an Injury and Fucking Tøs (Damn Girl) both of which are in competition. Second from the end is Reel Life - a ten minute British short that I got to see already. This is like punning in the language of film. It's a lot of fun and raises good questions about film making. Definitely worth seeing. Don't read anything about it. Anything about the movie is a spoiler. Just see it. The director Laurence Relten is scheduled to be at the festival, but for the 3pm showing next Saturday (Dec. 14).
The problem is that 9 Full Moons is at 3:30. This is a feature that I'm told is good plus it has an extra bonus for Anchorage folks - Cindy and Malcolm Roberts' son Bret is the male lead.
A second showing of Mine Games has been added to the schedule, replacing The New World, which had had three showings. After seeing Mine Games and The New World yesterday, I think the original programers got it right. But tonight I need to sleep. If you like eight young adults for a fun weekend in an isolated house in the woods that begins with a car accident, one guy who is repeatedly asked if he's taken his meds, an abandoned mine with dead bodies, young men acting out, consumption of magic mushrooms, plus a gratuitous sex scene, then don't let me stop you from going to Mine Games. It's just not my taste. See my video with Director Richard Gray who will be there Sunday too.
Then to the museum:
6pm - Everything is Fine Here - an Iranian feature and the director is scheduled to be there with a local translator.
The Mexican Shorts at 7:45pm should be very good and they are only showing once. I could end up there. And Harlem Street Singer at 8:15 is one of the docs in competition and should also be dynamite. It at least shows again next Sunday at 1pm.
I'm planning on Hank and Asha at 8 at the Bear Tooth. This is one of the features in competition and the director is scheduled to be there. This promises to be a feel good movie about a couple who meet and date online.
So, no, I'm not going to give you a must see list. You have to make your own choices, but there are lots of good ones.
Sunday, December 8th
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Documentary Program | 96 min.
|
Alaska Experience Theater - Large Theater | ||||
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Frederick Dickerson, Matthew McNeill 2012 | Documentary | 87 min.
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Alaska Experience Theater - Large Theater | ||||
|
Rola Nashef 2012 | Feature | 90 min.
** Note: Filmmaker attending
|
Alaska Experience Theater - Small Theater | ||||
|
Shorts Program | 98 min.
screens with...
|
Alaska Experience Theater - Large Theater | ||||
|
Tomer Almagor | Feature | 103 min.
** Note: Filmmaker attending
|
Alaska Experience Theater - Small Theater | ||||
|
Richard Gray 2012 | Feature | 96 min.
|
Alaska Experience Theater - Large Theater | ||||
|
pourya azarbayjani 2012 | Feature | 75 min.
** Note: Filmmaker attending
|
Anchorage Museum at Rasmuson Center | ||||
|
samit kakkad 2012 | Feature | 94 min.
|
Alaska Experience Theater - Small Theater | ||||
|
Mexican Film Program | 87 min.
screens with...
|
Alaska Experience Theater - Large Theater | ||||
|
James E. Duff 2012 | Feature | 73 min.
** Note: Filmmaker attending
|
Bear Tooth Theatre | ||||
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Trevor Laurence, Simeon Hutner 2013 | Documentary | 77 min.
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Saturday, December 07, 2013
AIFF2013: De Nieuwe Wereld (The New World) Very Satisfying
This was the first feature I saw and it was satisfying on all levels - good story, nice film making, sensitive human relationships.
The highlight for me was when the main character Mirte, a cleaning woman at a Dutch immigration detention center at the airport - not quite in Dutch territory - is cleaning a
glass wall. On the other side, an African detainee that she has found a connection to through their common loss of a spouse, mimics her cleaning motions with his head and body in a beautiful playful dance. [Dec 8: found it on the trailer, added screenshot]
But there were many other parts that were so well done. The slow and painful opening of Mirte, whose son is living with his aunt and uncle and we someone have to figure out that Mirte has recently lost her husband.
There is the inside view of the detention center. Another review called it a "reception centre for asylum seekers," but it looked more prison - even if clean and modern - where people wait for the Dutch to decide if they meet the guidelines for getting asylum. We see the difficult job of questioning the asylum seekers, interactions among the staff, and the pain of sending people back.
But we also see Mirte's struggle to take her son back in and their easing of tension.
And there's her motorbike which probably has some symbolism, but I haven't had time to think that through.
Very satisfying film. It will show again Wednesday 7pm at Alaska Exp Theater.
It turns out it was scheduled three times at the festival - two showings is normal - so Mine Games, which was only scheduled once, will take The New World's spot Sunday, Dec. 9[8], at 5:30pm at Alaska Experience Small Theater.
The highlight for me was when the main character Mirte, a cleaning woman at a Dutch immigration detention center at the airport - not quite in Dutch territory - is cleaning a
 |
| Window Cleaning scene from De Nieuwe Wereld trailer |
But there were many other parts that were so well done. The slow and painful opening of Mirte, whose son is living with his aunt and uncle and we someone have to figure out that Mirte has recently lost her husband.
There is the inside view of the detention center. Another review called it a "reception centre for asylum seekers," but it looked more prison - even if clean and modern - where people wait for the Dutch to decide if they meet the guidelines for getting asylum. We see the difficult job of questioning the asylum seekers, interactions among the staff, and the pain of sending people back.
But we also see Mirte's struggle to take her son back in and their easing of tension.
And there's her motorbike which probably has some symbolism, but I haven't had time to think that through.
Very satisfying film. It will show again Wednesday 7pm at Alaska Exp Theater.
It turns out it was scheduled three times at the festival - two showings is normal - so Mine Games, which was only scheduled once, will take The New World's spot Sunday, Dec.
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