Party afterward on 9th ave. One row of food, one row of drinks. Recorded music, 4 static SIFF projections turning on the wall. Lots of people, many dressed up. The best food (out of maybe 10 providers) was by Hyatt (especially the soup). The paella was impressive (huge pan, colorful food). A couple of stalls ran out of food by the time I squeezed to the front. 2 drinks per person, one kind of rum cocktail, one kind of beer, some wines. Nothing interesting. It gets pretty chilly, and with all the alcohol and grease, I went home feeling sick, wondering why people paying $50 for this.2009.5.22-6.16. I've never seen so many movies in such a short period of time. Total 27 screenings/movies during the festival (+ my rating):
- The Cove (5/5) is the only must see. USA. A well made documentary, expertly shot and edited, a badly needed exposure of brutally killing of dolphins in Japan. The director Louie Psihoyos answered quite a few questions after the screening. Other movies I saw:
- Tengri, Blue Heaven (4/5). Kyrgyzstan. is extremely scenic, a simple and well shot love story shows life on the central Asian steppes. However, nothing profound.
- Wild Field (4/5). Russia. A nice sketch of a doctor's life on the Russian steppe without enough medicine, not much story and focus is a bit off.
- Fear Me Not (3.5/5). Denmark. An off beat story well told. A (not really depressed) man signing up the clinical trial of an anti-depressant pill leads to some unpleasant consequences.
- Beast Stalker 证人(3.5/5). Hong Kong. Police action. Good plot and scene arrangement. Hand held camera. Slight social commentary. Too much melodrama. Too much coincident.
- ShortsFest Opening Night (rearranged):
- 2081 (4/5): a Kurt Vonnegut story. USA. 28 min. A runaway prisoner gets on to national ballet broadcast, challenges the handicap general. Well shot, good music, powerful images.
- The Baker Shop Ghost (3/5): USA. 17 min. A dead baker haunts the new owners until the right one. Warm, well shot.
- The Herd (2/5): Ireland. 4 min. 2 farmers talking about the new addition to their cow herd: a deer. Shaky camera.
- Love (2/5): UK. 15 min. A couple reminiscent their happy past, while the husband kills the wife on her request. Too long.
- Photograph of Jesus (3.5/5): UK. 7 min. An archivist recounts some of the strange inquiries for photographic images from his agency. Mostly editing.
- Short Term 12 (2/5): USA. 22 min. A caregiver begins to wonder if he’s no better off than the kids he's trying to help. Shaky camera. Banal.
- Post-it Love (5/5): UK. 4 min. Office romance played out with post-it notes. Charming.
- Next Floor (5/5): Canada. 12 min. A dinner party poses challenges to the service as it keeps moving to the next floor. Ironic, fun, original, well shot.
- Garbage Dream (4/5): USA. It's about Cairo's garbage collecting community, their school, their youngsters, their challenge from foreign competition. Almost no English.
- The Market, a Tale of Trade (4/5): Turkey. A cable seller promises the local doctor to buy medicine in Azerbaijan. Hurdles and trades before and during the trip.
- El General (3.5/5): Mexico. A mosaic of old newsreel, audio recording of Calles' daughter, and random interviews of people in Mexico City during the 2006 presidential race. Not much history. Well organized with limited material.
- Machan (5/5): Sri Lanka. Entertaining, dotted with social commentary. A mismatched group of poor people forms a handball team to participate the international tournament in Germany, in order to escape the current life. Based on a real story.
- North Face (3.5/5): Austria. A good story, climbing and reporting climbing. Faithful to the real attempt in 1936 of Toni Kurz and Andy Hinterstroisser. The scenery is short of expectation. Hand held camera.
- Forever Enthralled (4/5): China. Biography of Mei, LanFang. Expertly made. Well portrayed characters. Even though well into the 3rd hour, many events are sketchy, and doesn't cover how he learned and trained to sing and perform.
- Marcello Marcello (4/5): Switzerland. A charming, feel-good, love story in a small Italian town. Wide screen, nicely fit for Cinerama. Nice scenery and music. Still too much hand held camera shots.
- The Other Bank (3/5). Georgia. A refugee kid in Tbilisi couldn't take his mother's profession (prostitution), travels to his war torn home in Abkhazia region, encounters bullies and also kind people along the way.
- Rain (2/5). Bahamas. a school girl newly arrived in Nassau from a sheltered life, has to deal with her mother's drug addiction and poverty.
- Tulpan (3/5). Kazakhstan. A returned sailor tries to build a life in the steppe as a sheep herder, only if he can find a wife first. Shaky camera, nothing special.
- Beket (1/5): Italian version of Waiting for Godot. Black & white. Surreal, broken, incomprehensible.
- California Company Town (1/5): documentary of a list of small towns abandoned by a company (lumber or oil). Last on the list is Silicon Valley, with no comment. Very slow, and no theme, dull. Cheaply made.
- Mamma Moo and Crow (2/5): friendship between an odd cow and a grumpy crow. Very childish. Swedish cartoon is way behind Disney and Japanese. A nice touch by the film organizer: a guy was reading all the subtitles.
- Treeless Mountain (3/5): two sisters were sent away in the Korean countryside, waiting for their mother. Well shot, many of cloud scenes, slow. Nothing special.
- Fig Trees (3/5). Canada. Too verbose, an opera + documentary of AIDs activists. More editing than new footage.
- Back to the Garden, Flower Power Comes Full Circle (3/5): documentary. 20 years after the hippy gathering in eastern Washington. Most of the interviewees and their children kept their old beliefs, and lived with nature. Some went back to the mainstream. Sold out. Director, his wife, and many interviewees were present.
- Cliente (3/5). France. a young construction worker works as gigolos for old ladies on the side. Problems arised when his wife found out.Funny dialog at times.
- Laila's Birthday (3/5): banal (but almost sold out). A taxi-driver's day. Okay for foreigners like us to see the daily lives of Palestinians.
- Manhole Children (2/5): Japan. Too lengthy and shaky camera. Documentary of 3 children who lived in manholes in 1998's Ulaanbaatar. 6 years later when most of these holes were sealed, and capitalism flourished, and again in 2008, their lives were not getting any better.
- A woman in Berlin (3/5): Germany. Very well made. But nothing unexpected. Based on a true diary of a 34 year old woman.
