An Act of Courage...

Watching Monster Camp and The Recordist at the film festival on Saturday reminded me of my first time screening these films, at my apartment in the weeks leading up to the festival. With a box of brand new films and a weekend with nothing to do but enjoy them, I was beyond excited. But as I put each new film into the DVD player, I realized that I felt a sliver of apprehension. Theatergoers these days tend to know an awful lot about a movie before they see it. They at least know the genre, the stars, and a good percentage of the plot. Odds are, they have also seen at least one trailer. Watching a brand new movie without any background knowledge was a huge leap of faith for me. I didn't know if I was about to be scared, sad, happy. I had to blindly trust the filmmaker, assuming that they would guide me on a journey that would be worthwhile and enjoyable. And for the most part it was. While I wouldn't make a habit of watching movies that I know nothing about (I am a huge coward when it comes to needles, sharks, violence and blood), I have come to believe that every once in awhile it's good to take an act of faith-in this case, faith in a filmmaker and in the San Luis Obispo International Film Festival. You may not know what you're getting into, but that makes the adventure all the greater. And, more importantly, the film festival affords unique viewing adventures. Three hundred and fifty-one days out of the year we all watch the same movies produced by the same studios, maybe diverging from the path a little if The Palm is your theater of choice, but this is our opportunity to see something rare, something friends and family from other cities and states probably won't have the opportunity to experience. So, here's to the courage of the film festival audience who purchase tickets to see movies that don't feature familiar faces and weren't created with million dollar budgets.
On another note, if you hurry you can still make the 4:00 showing of Spine Tingler and This is My Cheesesteak, both excellent films, both comic, both sweet. (They're screening at Downtown Cinemas by the way, and I didn't have work to do, I'd be there myself, enjoying them yet again). Also, jumping ahead a little bit, I would like to encourage everyone to watch Bending Space and Simulacra on Thursday at 4:30 at the Palm. Bending Space is a documentary about the community of Durham in North Carolina; they decide to invite a famous French installation artist to create wild feats of geometric, architectural genius in abandoned downtown buildings. The result is successful enough to maybe get local artsy folks around SLO to consider some of the same. And Simulacra is a beautiful short animated film about a robot. (Believe me, robots are not my cup of tea, but I really liked this one)
-Ashley Schwellenbach
PS Feel like taking a leap of faith? www.youtube.com/watch?v=fYSsfdUWp84

Day One-Greedy Anticipation

Saturday marks my Day One of the film festival. Sure, I've been thinking about it for months. But tomorrow I actually attend my first screening. At 1 p.m. the Palm is screening Oberschule and The Little Red Truck. I have to say that, as I was screening film after film, Oberschule easily captured my attention. It's a black and white, silent film set in a 50's high school where stereotypes rule and a school election quickly transforms into a dark, propoganda-based drama. Styled after German expressioist silent films, this is definitely something you won't quickly forget. And it's utterly unlike anything else you'll see at the festival--which is pretty rare when you're talking about nearly 100 films.

Then, at 2 p.m. at the Downtown Centre, The Street Cleaner will play. Another early office favorite--in part because the movie reviewers from our sister paper, the Sun in Santa Maria made it--The Street Cleaner is a classic tale of prostitutes dissapearing from Savannah, Georgia. Or is it? The heroine, Jamie, is a young prostitute, addicted to heroine, and very clearly marked as the next victim. What happens next, and how the clever tale unfolds is up to you to learn for yourself but you can be sure that it is a story you have not seen or heard before, even if you think you have at the beginning.
At 4:15 the screening I am most looking forward to begins at the Downtown Center-The Recordist and Monster Camp. The one (recordist) is a beautiful, moving film about a seemingly normal girl placed on earth to record a single important event. What that event is, she has no idea, and the audience doesn't learn until the end. But that single second when everything clicks is more poignant than a dozen in-your-face Hollywood films packed back to back. And then there is Monster Camp. Ah, my beloved Monster Camp. Now, I consider myself something of a geek. But even I could not resist the opportunity to laugh at a movie about other, bigger geeks. This is a documentary about a live action role playing group based in Seattle (meaning: people of all ages, many of whom abandon their education for the opportunity to play World of Warcraft 24 hours a day). Through the film we meet a dozen or so hardcore geeks. They spend all their money and time creating costumes and elaborate identities for themselves. They chase each other with boffers, screaming codes and throwing spells at each other. And yes, maybe it's a guilty laugh. But I'd like to think that somewhere these LARPers know that their antics have brought joy to the world. You may be asking why I plan to attend these screenings having already watched these films. Fair question. There are some things that are so hysterically funny that you just want to look over at someone and share the hilarity, if only for a brief second. And, in terms of the Recordist, I may already know the ending, but I'd like to watch as others people suddenly understand as well. There seems to be two important aspects of the film equation: the actual film and the audience. And there's something lacking when you take the audience out of the equation. The satisfaction diminishes when it is no longer a shared experience. So bring a buddy.
Pictured above: The Recordist, Monster Camp, and Oberschule
-Ashley Schwellenbach

Let the good times (and film) roll....

In this week's New Times I have an interview with Josh Brolin of recent Best Picture-winner No Country For Old Men. Josh is debuting a film titled X, which he both wrote and directed and stars his daughter. It's a great film, which everyone can see on March 14 at 4 p.m. at Downtown Cinema. I talked to Josh the day after his film won Best Picture at the Oscars, which he seemed really happy about, but what was most impressive is that he came across as such a down to earth person. As a complete movie geek, I often wonder what it's like to work with people like the Coen brothers, Robert Rodriguez, and Tarantino. I can't help but imagine it as being a part of a very quirky, exclusive club. And, while Brolin described his colleagues as creative, he debunked my "exclusive club" myth a little bit. I think sometimes we don't want to see filmmakers and actors as real people. We want to preserve them as heroes who strut across a huge screen and make us laugh and cry and believe that we are, for a liminal period of time, elsewhere. And we need these heroes, of course. But the film festival has taught me that there is also something to be gained by drawing back the curtain and exposing more of the inner workings of the industry to us common movie lovers, if only because it inspires us to step behind our own cameras, meagerly purchased at Best Buy, and do what we can with them. Movies were unidsputably made for the screen, but the opportunity to come into greater contact with their creators and stars can only enrich our experiences of them in theaters.
That said, New Times' editorial staff boldly, though perhaps not wisely, decided to take on our own film project in honor of the San Luis Obispo International Film Festival. The result, a mockumentary about the making of a New Times Movie, can be viewed here: www.youtube.com/watch?v=fYSsfdUWp84 I did most of the filming for this on my personal video camera and Steve, our photographer, did the rest on his camera. Then, I took it home and edited it with software I have never used before. I think the New Times staff is proud of the result, but doubt that we will be giving the Coen brothers a run for their money any time soon.
Tomorrow, the festival kicks off with a train ride at Santa Margarita Ranch and a showing of Emperor of the North at 6 p.m. It sounds like a great event, unique among the many screenings that the festival affords, and a guaranteed unique evening. I'll have more to say tomorrow. 'Till then, see you at the movies!
-Ashley Schwellenbach

Just a kid in a candy store...

So, the San Luis Obispo International Film Festival is just around the corner and many of us at New Times are eagerly awaiting the opportunity to interact with the creative, industrious minds that bring these beautiful works of art to life. In fact, we're so excited that those of us in the editorial department were inspired to create a movie of our own, a quirky, eclectic film that (hopefully) conveys just how much we love movies. We'll be posting a link to the video in the next couple of days, and until then we'll be providing updates about the films we're most excited about, snippets of information about the filmmakers we meet (not who they're dating or whether they were spotted at Starbucks sipping a grande caramel frappucino, but the real stuff: how they feel about the film industry, what inspires them to accept the roles they choose, etc.) and any other bits of information we find ourselves incapable of keeping to ourselves. Just before the festivals actually begin, we'll let you know which screenings we'll be attending (we had the good fortune to receive a box of screening films a week or so ago, so we're in the know: stick with us, and you're film festival experience will be fantastic) and give you a quick profile of what's happening each day. It may not be possible to attend EVERYTHING, so think of us as a user-friendly festival guide. And feel free to post your own opinions and observations of the festival.
-Ashley Schwellenbach
PS Want to put a face to your friendly New Times movie guide? Check out the back page of your film festival program. We're the Life Aquatic Geeks: a hodgepodge group struggling to fling ourselves into the future while paying homage to our past, at times as derided as Steve Zissou, but also beloved. We are on a daily quest for a mythical leopard shark.