It’s my penultimate day at the film festival, which makes me nervous because there are still many films that need to be checked off on my list. However, I purposely pace myself and take it easy, otherwise I would lose all objectivity. So today I walked to the venue, made sure to have lunch off site, snacked on health food, and added some feature length films to my list.
Today included some tears, well as laughs, 3 feature films, 12 live-action shorts, and 3 animated shorts.
The Norwegian Film Twigson was filled with creative new uses for pantyhose. See if you can spot them all in the trailer.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BmYjyZ4Q1_Q[/youtube]
There are always a good number of films about racial tension, and this year is not an exception. The Road Home was about a boy who wanted to reject his ethnic heritage, while The Indian was about another young boy desperately trying to connect with his. 11 weeks was a more subtle story of reconciliation that caused me to pull out the tissues.
[vimeo]http://vimeo.com/3405046[/vimeo]
El Tux was nice pick me up.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nt9QcaWzzeo[/youtube]
Every year I have attended the festival I am surprised by the number of Latvian animated shorts. On the rare occasion when I leave my screening room and pop down to the actual theater, the kids go nuts for these films.
[vimeo]http://vimeo.com/1138176[/vimeo]
Also, I have been asking around for opinions about what to watch, but I aways have to remind myself that every program has an individuals flavor and style. I had a conversation with another programmer about a film this year that reminded us of film from last year. We were of very different opinions. I am curious about your thoughts. Leave me a comment.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-aM0vTPQXt8[/youtube]
Just a few hours left tomorrow. I have to carefully study my program book tonight too see which will be the last few I squeeze in before heading to the airport.