Short Attention Span Environmental Film Festival

I went out to the Short Attention Span Environmental Film Festival last night at the David Brower Center in Berkeley.  When I heard about the festival, I was debating whether or not to go but after all the fun I had seeing films at Cinequest and SFIAAFF, I decided to make the 45 minute drive up to Berkeley, and I'm glad I did!

The very first short was a sort of documentary/infomercial for a nonprofit group, and at first I was afraid that the whole festival was gonna be like that, but thankfully it wasn't.

Pigeon: Impossible was the first film.  I'm usually a hard sell when it comes to CG movies, but I thought this was actually cute and really well done.  But hey! You can watch the whole thing online here:

Hairytale was the next short.  I can't find any pictures online, but it was a documentary about a guy in the UK who used to own a hair salon and realized how much hair gets thrown into landfills...so then he dedicated his life to finding alternative uses for discarded hair and made...a hair chair.  Had a funny final line.

Salt (2009) was next, not to be confused with the Angelina Jolie movie of the same name.  This film followed photographer Murray Fredericks (check out his photography on the website, it's amazing!) on his journeys to literally the middle of nowhere in Australia.  He explained the concept that the place where he was going, he could see NOTHING anywhere on the horizon for 360 degrees.   CRAZY.  I had no idea places like that still existed anywhere in the world (other than the ocean).  It raised a lot of questions for me...   This film has a lot of breathtaking shots. As I understood it, Fredericks shot all the footage himself over several years and then later it was edited down into the film.  He had a really great eye for the shots, but I guess that makes sense because he's a photographer.  In the end, though, the film was a bit long for my tastes...I'd rather go see an exhibition of the photography.

Scrapertown is a documentary short from a series about California called California is a Place (I will definitely be watching these later).  It follows a group of kids in East Oakland who are part of the 'scraper bike movement', where people fix up their bikes with interesting paint, decor and decorate the spokes.  The bikes are pretty cool.  The organizers of the festival told us that they were gonna try to get a kid from the film to come speak at the festival, but he didn't show.  Boo!

The Crab Revolution , was an awesome, adorable French animated short.  I loved it!  French just seemed to be the perfect language for this story.  Or maybe the voice actor was just really good?  Watch here:

I didn't see Fat Tire Fury on IMDB.  It's basically footage of a mountain...bike...unicycler.  The ultimate rush??

I couldn't find any suitable pictures of Living Lightly.....chronicles of a farming cult with a scythe (yes, scythe) fetish.  I don't mean player hate here but uh...yeah.

A few photos of the evening:

cool kinetic sculpture at the Brower Center. I wish this were video!

 DEEP FRIED PIZZA at Sumo Grub--not a bad spot to grab a bite after a late showing in Berkeley as they are open late.  They have tons of deep fried desserts...for the heart attack in you

our friend KJ wore awesome bright gold shoes.

Pink Floyd the Wall

Amidst all the excitement lately I made it to a midnight showing of Pink Floyd the Wall at Camera 3. I probably won't make it out to another midnight movie until Rock 'n' Roll High School in July.  I'd never seen The Wall, but I am familiar with Pink Floyd's music in a cursory way.  I actually think Dark Side of the Moon is a better album, but what can you do?

I thought the animated sequences were really great.  You can really tell that animation director Gerald Scarfe worked in political cartoons....the animation from the film had the same sort of drippy, evil looking feel that political cartoons get.

The whole concept is kind of overwrought, but I think that anyone who's ever felt really sad can get understand what Roger Waters is trying to get at... "The Wall" as a metaphor seems almost too easy, but at the same time you can't think of anything more apt.  It's something insurmountable, uniform, soulless...it is the problem, but we're all a part of it.  And blah, blah blah.

Little Baby Jesus of Flandr

This is what I get for trying to take an interest in culture and local happenings.

So, I saw my first Cinequest screening today and things were pretty disorganized.  They appeared to have a gaggle of volunteers running things.  They had--no joke--like seven people taking tickets.  One person to take the ticket.  One person to hand me a pencil for the survey (there was also a different person outside after the film to collect my pencil).  At least two of these people touched my shoulders.  UH, HELLO.  I LIKE MOVIES BECAUSE I DON'T LIKE INTERACTING WITH ACTUAL PEOPLE. DONT F(*^#^#$)$* TOUCH ME!

Prior to that, we got to the floor where our screening was.  After a bit of confusion we were told by a couple of volunteers that we needed to "get in the line for the screening."

"OK.  Where is the line?"
"There isn't a line yet.  You two will be the first in the line."

Well.  No wonder we didn't know where the line was!  There was no line.

Things like "festivals" (of any sort) are not really my scene, but I go to film festival screenings sometimes because I like movies.  STEP UP YER GAME, CINEQUEST.  I mean, alls I'm sayin' is that I like going to the movies, but I don't like having to interact with a dozen different people before I sit my ass down, you know?

Anyway, the first film in the festival that I saw was Little Baby Jesus of Flandr.  I kinda don't remember how I chose which films I wanted to see at the festival.  I remember kinda browsing the website and seeing ratings on IMDB and making a list/schedule.  This popped up because it has an interesting title.  I wanted to get into a Yelp Elite screening (I'm on the squad, weirdly enough), but it was full up! Boo.  So, I ended up here instead.

The film kinda asks the question What would happen if the nativity story took place in Belgium? and What if the three magi were three retarded dudes?    


Well, apparently not much goes down.  To be totally honest, I'm not sure if this movie was a joke or not.  Was it an attempt at serious religious commentary?  Was it supposed to be blasphemous?  I have no idea.

The film is black and white except for one short part where a person (a tranny?) is singing in a night club.  That part is in color.  Then it cuts back to black and white.  Yeah, I don't know.

Half of the cast of the film are people with (what I believe to be?) Down Syndrome.  OK...interesting.

You can play I Spy Ikea furniture.  The stuff is everywhere.  Even in arty movies from Belgium.

Before the feature, they showed an animated short called The Tannery which was a charming animal story with a vegetarian/animal rights slant.  I really liked the animation, it looked like it was done on watercolor paper.  They were working off a crappy scratched up DVD or something, though.  Boo!

In spite of the few hitches, I will likely be going to a couple of Cinequest screenings on the weekend, too. I ain't no player hater.

2011 Oscar Nominated Animated Shorts

Today I saw the 2011 Oscar Nominated Animated Shorts.  Camera 3 downtown was showing them, and I encourage anyone who has the opportunity to see them as well!

Madagascar, Carnet de Voyage is a sort of pastiche or scrapbook in film form of a man's trip to Madagascar. It utilizes many different styles of animation.....it's breathtaking in some parts, but in others it looks a bit less fleshed out.

Let's Pollute is a subversive environmentalist film done in the style of corny old educational videos.  I think corny=corny rather than corny=funny, but the old people in the theater seemed to think this was hilarious.  The animation is styled like a kid's cartoon.  There were a few good jokes.  My favorite think about this short was how the animators utilized lots of interesting patterns.

The Gruffalo was nearly half an hour and almost put me to sleep.  It's based on a children's book. I'd never heard of this book because I don't have anything to do with kids, but you can tell it's based on a children's book because:

1. the story is repetitive, and children's stories are repetitive
2. a name like "The Gruffalo."  Enough said.

I just really, really hate children's stories.  This was boring.  The music was cool.  Kids would like this. (I think?)  Helena Bonham Carter did one of the voices.

The Lost Thing was OK.  Full of washed out colors with a bit of angst.

Day & Night is my Oscar pick.  It was awesome!  Conceptually and visually the best film shown.  According to my sister, this was shown before Toy Story 3 (which I haven't seen).


This is the whole movie, although youtube quality really isn't ideal for watching this:

The next two were just bonus shorts, they weren't nominated for Oscars this year.

Urs.  What is an "Urs"?  Who knows.  Quiet little movie with a sort of impressionistic animation style.

The Cow who Wanted to be a Hamburger looks like it was drawn in MS paint.  And it is awesome.  This was really funny.  Reminiscent of Rocko's Modern Life.

clip:

L'illusionniste

Finally, some movies I actually want to see are playing in theaters!  While most people here in the states were watching the Superbowl, I was checking out The Illusionist.  My sister is a big animation fan so I saw this with her.  We caught it at Camera 3, the independent theater downtown around here.  They also have a donut shop inside called Psycho Donuts (their vegan donuts are tasty!).

Clocking in at 80 minutes, The Illusionist is somewhat short, but because it's the same sort of non dialog driven style as The Triplets of Belleville, 80 minutes is somewhat a blessing.


My interpretation of the story?  A sad tale about a world that can no longer believe in magic. 


I also can't wait to see Ip Man 2 and Hanyo! I also noticed that there's a showing of The Room this week.  I haven't seen it yet so I am totally there.