Finishing strong!

Again, I have been inspired to consider film school. Marrying God, an 18 minute film about young girl name Lola (played by the little girl in Crash) was fantastic...and created by students from the American Film Institute Conservancy who also happened to be the recipients of the 2006 SLOIFF scholarship. It's good to know that the festival is taking an active role in the creation of new films in addition to showcasing those that have already been made.

I also enjoyed Ladylike, though less than I had anticipated. It was a brief six minutes, completely without dialogue and the loud music tended to be a little over-bearing, but I'm glad that I saw it.

Then there were the Desert Dreamers, who the audience seemed to love...first laughing at them and later sympathizing with-exactly as Director Frank Suffert had predicted. It was interesting seeing him in person, after interviewing him over the phone. I wanted the opportunity to thank him in person for the interview, but there was a bit of a crush as people left the theater and I kind of got swept along with the tide. Given that the films began screening at 2:30 during a weekday and the theater was almost completely full, I was pretty excited to see how many people were interested in the films.

Tomorrow brings many brilliant films and I'm undecided regarding which I will be attending. On the one hand, Esperando, Gordo, and Beyond the Call at 1 is an intriguing timeframe. I particularly want to see Gordo, about a Mexican immigrant who sets up a taco stand in Watsonville. As a native of Prunedale, I'm a big fan of the taco stands of Watsonville and the movie looks hilarious. Also at 5:30 is the documentary A League of Their Own, which is inspired by the Hollywood flick which Geena Davis starred in. In fact Geena Davis' character is based on the mother of Kelly and Casey Candaele, who created the film. I'm a big fan of women's sports, and I have always loved that movie. However, sharing the 5:30 slot with A League of Their Own is First and Ten, a nine minute film that I hated. I leapt at the opportunity to watch it because it's about a young female athlete who fights for the opportunity to play football with the boys. I played football in high school and imagined that this film might movingly express the challenges of being a female athlete in a male-dominated world. Intead, I found it trite and simplistic. But nine minutes do pass quickly, so maybe I'll bite the bullet and sit through it again. We'll see.