This week, I had the pleasure of spending four days attending my first ever film festival in downtown Orlando. Cheryl and I have been looking forward to this a lot and more went into it than you might think. Outfits had to be planned. New shoes/dresses/shirts/tights/whatever needed to be purchased (Good thing October is almost over, my bank account can't take much more). We put our schedules together with the film schedule and our list of films we wanted to see and set forth on making a time table. We also had to factor in in-between times, places to eat, you get the picture. All in all, this has more or less been consuming us for weeks now.
On Wednesday we got dressed and rushed off to the first and only film of the evening: Virgin Alexander (virginalexander.com). I highly recommend you look it up and watch the trailer. It was a delightful movie and I absolutely loved it. It was up for multiple awards and I'm still trying to find out if it won. After the movie, the filmmakers (husband and wife) came out and did a Q&A. I learned a lot about the film that really made me appreciate working on a budget. Your cheap film doesn't have to look cheap.
Thursday, we watched two groups of shorts: Animation Celebration which included Deep Blue Breath, Dissolving Destinies, The Birds Upstairs and the Jockstrap Raiders; and Artistic Impressions which included Dream Street Productions, Hallows' Eve and the Pumpkin Dream, Land of Blossom, NIQAB, The Fall of the Cutter's Mind, and Change. In the Animation Celebration I think my favorite was definitely The Jockstrap Raiders (thejockstrapraiders.com). It was a cute tale and was very well done. For Artistic Impressions I'd go with Dream Street Productions. It follows the style of a "Behind The Scenes" type of video only you realize it's the behind the scenes for the making of his dreams. Very cool concept, and again, well done.
Friday (my birthday), we saw 10 Years Later and Moleman of Belmont Ave. 10 Years Later (10yearslaterthemovie.com) was awesome. It followed a group of friends reuniting after 10 years (duh). Their reunion, however, is a bit rocky since one of them brings a tied up sheriff with them. It got really interesting and by the end you were rooting for the characters with unexpected veracity. Moleman of Belmont Ave (molemanmovie.com) was simply hilarious. The story centered around two brothers who owned their late mother's apartment building. After the mysterious disappearances of pets around the building, the brothers find out that none other than the Moleman is behind it. Their comedic timing was fantastic and I really enjoyed it. One of the brothers from the film was there (he was also the co-writer and co-director) and he did a Q&A. He was just as funny as his character and again made me realize what you can do with a tiny budget.
I'm cutting it off here since it's already kind of long as I have lots more to tell you. Pt. 2 coming soon.
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