Coney Island, Venice Beach, Santa Monica Airport, And LA Rain

We flew down to LA right after the film festival ended and slept most of Monday. But I did get in a bike ride down to Venice beach. There was some sun, but mostly clouds.


There were some, but not too many, boardwalk vendors.  I'd been thinking about the Venice Boardwalk after seeing the film Coney Island:  Dreams for Sale at the festival.  It was about a developer who bought up a huge chunk of Coney Island real estate and was planning to build some big hotels and a mall.  Local folks rose up in protest, but were only modestly successful in their efforts to scale the development back.  The area wasn't zoned for large scale residential, but people in the film speculated that a hotel could and would be converted to condos eventually and the development would destroy the quirky kinds of shops and the unique community at Coney Island.

Venice Beach has, at least superficially, the same kind of quirky shops and community, and it's also right at a beach.  It doesn't have an amusement park, but there is a small one on the Santa Monica pier about a mile north.

The movie, which, by the way, was the runner up in the documentary category, got me thinking about whether the Venice Boardwalk was a likely target for developers like Coney Island and what protection there was for this strip along the beach.  I guess the people in the area need to be alert for people buying up property - making sure they aren't fronts for some giant developer.  This is one part of the southern California beach that is still wide open to anyone.

It also got me to thinking about what happened in the November election in Santa Monica where there were two ballot initiatives.  One, from the jet owners and airport interests to require a vote of the people of Santa Monica before the airport could be curtailed or closed down.  The other, in response, was to require a vote only if there were plans to develop the airport, but not to put in park or recreational activities.

It turns out the private jet and airplane folks' initiative (D) lost (58.8% to 42.8% and the park initiative (LC) won (60.2% to 39.8%.)  There were only 24,053 people who voted for Measure D and 500 more who voted for LC.  I'm not sure how many registered voters Santa Monica has, but in 2005 there were 60,000.








Over night it rained somewhat.  California still needs lots more rain to make up for the long period of drought and more is scheduled tonight.  Here's one of my mom's epidendrums after the rain - the red flower, not the leaf.  This is two pictures photoshopped together, with some playing around with the leaf.  But not too radically.

The epidendrums are tiny (about the size of a quarter) orchids that bloom in a bunch of ten or fifteen.

"My job description is to enlighten minds, open hearts and create world peace."

". . .  his actual title is "Jolly Good Fellow."
Chade-Meng Tan: Which nobody can deny.
Anderson Cooper: So, what does a Jolly Good Fellow do?
Chade-Meng Tan: My job description is to enlighten minds, open hearts and create world peace."

(Chade-Mend Tan works at Google.)

This is from an Anderson Cooper segment on 60 Minutes on Mindfulness.  There are several points in this report where Cooper asks someone things like

"I can imagine some people rolling their eyes and saying, "Oh, come on  , , "    

or

"To some people though this may sound like kind of New Age gobbledygook?"

When he does, the person he's talking to cites research that documents the positive benefits of meditation and mindfulness.

"Judson Brewer: This is just the next generation of exercise. We've got the physical, you know, exercise components down. And now it's about working out how can we actually train our minds."

The Western world has mastered a way of knowing the world called science, which enables humans to manipulate the natural world in many powerful ways, that often have negative side effects for human beings.  Such as the stress that causes people and, according to this report, many corporations, to turn to mindfulness.   Meanwhile the Eastern world has worked on mastering oneself, focusing on one's own body and learning to control it.

To me, there is something wrong when humans work to find technologies to create more efficient and effective ways to literally kill other human beings as well as technology that slowly kills what it means to be human.  

You can see the whole video (and text) here.
At the film festival, I had to remind myself to enjoy the movie I was watching and not worry about the ones I was missing.

AIFF 2014: Awards Update - Alaska Films, Features

I'm at the Organic Oasis.  People are eating.  I'll just add to this post rather than a bunch of posts.  So keep checking.  [I've changed my mind, I'll just be putting up new posts, and add to them.  The did the docs first because one of the winners was heading to the airport.  See doc winners below.]

Starting 6:48pm

Features
#3  I Believe in Unicorns
#2  Come To My Voice
#1  Ambassador To Bern

Made in Alaska
#3  Empty Chair
#2  Tracing Roots
#1  Detective, Detective, Detective


Added starting 6:33pm

Special Award - Founders Award - Film and Film Makers in the Spirit of the Festival

Universal Language

Shorts
#3   How Hipólito Vázquez Found Magic Where He Didn’t Expect It
#2  What Cheer?
#1  Bis Gleich


Super Shorts
#3  Enfilade   (see wikipedia)
#2  Full Windsor
#1  Four Brothers, or Three, Wait . . .


Animation Awards
#3  Ronald Gottlieb
#2  Wire Cutters
#1  365


Reading a poem about the oosik, which are the awards for the festival.  I have a picture of the oosik awards in an earlier post tonight.

6:32pm Thanking all the sponsors now.

She's thanking lots and lots of people who were involved in various activities like the library discussion on homelessness, the QuikFreeze people, Frost and the drive in movie,

I'm missing people.  I should have gotten her list before hand.  I'll try to update this later.

This is in reverse order - most recent first.
Charlie  - who did the trailer (which was really good - probably the best ever, because it included clips from some of the films and had great music (that could be listened to over and over again.)

Animation - Jonathan, Rachel

Docs - Will and Jim Parker

Shorts Programmers - Rich Curtner and George

Features Programmers Kelly Walters, Gita, Natalie Eleftheriadis

Volunteer Coordinator - Rebecca.  Has been volunteer at Sundance for many years.

Tony Sheppard - Founder of the festival and hospitality left this morning.

Christie - applied for several grants for us and got one from the Atwood foundation for film maker travel.  Liaison at the library too.

Rich Curtner - the board president, and shorts programmer along with George
all the technical stuff on the website, and all the media, finances.  We owe him a lot.

Thanking key people - Jim Parker first - who's leaving for North Carolina.

Best Docs:

#3:  Seeds of Time
#2:  Coney Island
#1: White Earth

AIFF 2014: Pictures from Award Gala

I was going to add names, but this is going way too fast.  These are pictures of folks eating and now they are giving out the awards.  They are recognizing Jim  Parker, the director of film programming who is moving to North Carolina after this festival.  

AIFF 2014: Sean McCarthy On 'Moving Out' And The Kurdish Film 'Come To My Voice'

We saw the animation program last night and it was probably the overall strongest program.  Every film was good and a number were better than that.  I also knew nothing about what I was going to see - except for Ronald Gottlieb - which meant everything was a total surprise.

One of the film makers there was Sean McCarthy with a 6 minute video that he and many, many friends have been working on for several years.  It was quite elaborate with the key character going into different picture frames in a gallery and interacting with the pictures.   Here's Sean briefly talking about it after the showing last night.  But this is the kind of thing you can't talk about very helpfully, you have to just see it.  I tried to link it in the video, but I couldn't figure out how to link it to something outside of YouTube.





Here's a link to the video on his website. I had trouble getting it to work. I'm crediting that to my slow internet connection.

And for the record, we saw Come To My Voice this morning.  A strong feature about a Kurdish village where an informer has said they had guns.  But the Turkish soldiers can't find any.  So they take the men and tell the women and the mayor that when they turn in the guns, they'll release the men.  The film focuses on the mother of one of the men and her granddaughter as they go about trying to free their son/father.  This is the kind of pictures we should see more of, to give a sense of words we hear on the news all the time, like 'Kurds.'  By the way, the mountain scenery was beautiful.  

[For people interested in the technical stuff - there are black borders on this video because the new iMovie has a wider screen for the videos and since I'm pretty close to my subjects, it cuts too much out.  So I need to see if I can adjust my camera to to use a different aspect ratio.]

AIFF 2014: Sunday. The Last Day. Turkey, China, Florida, Then Awards

This is the last day of the festival.  Sort of.  Tuesday and Wednesday will have Best of the Fest, where they will show some of the winning films again for those who missed them or want to see them again.

So here's Sunday:

I've heard good things about Come To My Voice from different folks, so that's where I'm headed first.  It's a film that focuses on a Kurdish family in Turkey.  I suspect I'll then go see the Chinese films.  Husband, Wife, and the Other Man, then the shorts.  They are sponsored by the Confucius Institute at UAA and should be good.  Though, they will have been approved by the Chinese government.    I saw Last Stop, Flamingo.  It's a quirky little film that had lots of nice touches about the director's road trip to Florida.  (Quirky isn't a put down.  I mean here that it creates its own conventions and doesn't worry about how a film is supposed to be.)

The Awards Galas I've attended in past years have been very casual events with good food and a chance to talk with the different film makers.

AIFF 2014: Barefoot Artist and Coney Island

Barefoot Artist turned out to be a really good documentary.  Maybe.  I have some second thoughts, but I can't deny I was pulled right into the story from the beginning and the movie traveled far - geographically and emotionally, and raised lots of questions about art, fulfilling one's own destiny, and duty to others.  More on this later after I've thought it through.

Alessandra Giordano after Coney Island

Coney Island, Dreams For Sale was yet another film that shows the how hope and dreams can inspire a community  and how a film maker can be entangled into a long terms commitment to a story.  Like Divide In Concord,  Coney Island followed community organizing over a public decision,  The film showed a wide variety of interesting characters and pulled a lot of loose ends together well.





I also saw Last Stop, Flamingo.  There were a lot of interesting parts here - I liked the animation between parts.  I didn't get a sense of it all fitting totally together, though there was a theme of the present and the past and change as he looked at different people and places that reflected unfulfilled dreams, and change over the centuries.  The film reflects a lot of talent.

I also realized that I could use the back of the Museum's auditorium to walk back and forth while watching Flamingo.  I really needed to be doing something other than sitting.  I think for just one movie, sitting is fine.  Especially if you can walk or bike to and from the movie.  But for a festival where you're watching two or three or more movies a day, there's a need to move around while watching.  

AIFF 2014: Who Is Ronald Gottlieb And Does Engin Karabagli Have Hairy Legs?

In Engin Karabagli's short animated film, which plays in the Animation program tonight at 7pm, the main character is named Ronald Gottlieb.  And that is also the name of the film.  Where did that name come from?

Ronald Gottlieb has a problem in the film.  He has no hair on his skinny legs.

At the festival, I keep running into Engin.  We made a short video of him describing his film last week.  It was the regular canned statement that all filmmakers have practiced just in case someone asks.  I prefer something more spontaneous.  So I asked for more on Thursday.  And I put the two clips together and posted them Friday here.

But then I thought I really should have asked him why he named the movie Ronald Gottlieb and was there some personal issue about leg hair?  And so when I saw him again Friday night at the short docs program, I got the chance to ask those questions.  And you can see and hear the answers below.



You can see Ronald Gottlieb and the other short animated films at 7pm today (Saturday) at the Alaska Experience Theater.

AIFF 2014: Saturday Schedule - Lots of Movies, No Bear Tooth

The second weekend, lots of movies, lots of hard choices.  But no Bear Tooth this weekend.  That's new this year.

Here's the grid for Saturday.  You can get it with live links here.

The only thing I'm absolutely sure of, is that I want to see the Animation program at 7pm.  And I've heard good things about The Barefoot Artist showing at 11am.  Appropriate Behavior is a figuring out who I am film about an Iranian-American lesbian.  It's funny and well done.  I've posted about 6 Bullets to Hell here.  A friend has challenged my problem with a gang rape and murder in the movie.  I'm not saying it doesn't fit in the movie, but I am saying that in general, movies that have violence against women as entertainment, aren't movies I want to see.  There are times when such events are part of the context of the movie that makes an important point.  My friend pointed out that a 14 year old is molested in WildLike too.  My response is that

• what we saw on screen was from the point of view of the victim
• it was suitably uncomfortable and creepy
• the film showed the long term negative consequences
• the situation was integral to the whole story which was about sexual abuse and its terrible consequences

Is a movie like 6 Bullets To Hell merely reflecting society?  Or do such movies model behavior for viewers as well as desensitize them to the fact that such actions are despicable?  Even if the movie then proceeds to portray the perps as the bad guys?   I don't know the answer to that.  I'm not for banning such scenes.  But I don't have to watch them and I hope others object to them as well.  This is NOT entertainment - and 6 Bullets To Hell, if not meant to be entertainment, is nothing at all.  

Sorry, didn't mean to go there, but I do think violence against women is a major problem in the world and in Alaska and it should be challenged when it's used as entertainment in films.

All The Time In The World is about a family of five that spends a year in the Yukon wilderness.  That's all I know about it.

A non-film event Saturday is the SAG-AFTRA seminar.  That stands for Screen Actors Guild - American Federation of Television and Radio Actors.  It's intended to educate both actors and film makers on the role of the union is film making.  It's being put on by Ron Holmstrom.  Below is a video where he explains more:

I mistyped the date - as you can see above - but that led me to learning about using annotations in YouTube as you'll see if you watch the video.

AIFF 2014: Engin Karabagli, Ronald Gottlieb, And Saturday Night's Animation Program

The only animation I've seen so far this year has been the feature length Rocks In My Pocket which I thought was great, though I understand the folks who say it was too long and needed some editing.  I forgive the film maker for such little issues given the amazing visual story she told.

There was also a bit of animation in some other films - in the short narrative film about  communicating with plants, Life and Perception by Andre Stamatakakos.

I first ran into Engin Karabagli, last Saturday afternoon and got a bit of video about his film.  I missed the animation program that evening, but I've seen Engin here and there and yesterday I decided to get something a little more candid than the first shot.  His film, Ronald Gottlieb, plays again Saturday night at 7pm, when I'm planning to see it.  Here's an invitation to see Ronald Gottlieb by the film maker - who was born in Istanbul, grew up in Holland, went to NYU, and now is based in Istanbul.



If you see him around the festival, be sure to say hi.


Here's the whole animation program from Anchorage Festival Genuis:

7:00 PM     Sat, Dec 13

screens with... I Need My Monster | Stephen Baker, Howard Cook 2014 The Gulf | Carl Beauchemin 2014 Indian Ate The Woodchuck | Brad Pattullo 2014 Ronald Gottlieb | Engin Karabagli 2014 Something Important | NaiWei Liu 2014 Waterproofing | Brad Leyden 2014 365 | Greg McLeod, Myles McLeod 2013 Speed Dating | Meghann Artes 2014 Wire Cutters | Jack Anderson 2014 Sebastian | Vlad Marsavin 2013 Moving Out | Sean McCarthy 2013

And if you really can't go tomorrow night and really want to see Ronald Gottlieb, it's on Engin's vimeo page.