adventures of a tired coder

Sheep movie aside, I’m on a roll for depressing movies this week. I pretty much lived at the Uptown, either volunteering or watching films. Film Count: 6. Volunteer Vouchers: 13.

Jin
(also: Jîn)
Turkey, 2012
Genre: Social Issues, Drama
Watched: SIFF 2013, Uptown
Rating: **** (out of 5)

I was worried that I wasn’t going to get to watch any films during my volunteer shifts this year! But I finally did, and it was one that was on my tentative list, so that was great. I must not have watched the trailer beforehand, and from the description, the parts that stood out to me were “vivid and visually stunning,” “forges relationships with animals,” and “evokes… beautifully illustrated fairy tales.” Yeah, that was shattered pretty quickly. Not to say that those descriptions aren’t accurate, but it’s hard to get too settled in the beauty when loud gunshots and bombings interrupt the serenity constantly. The film did probably too good of a job of putting me in this freedom fighter’s shoes. I was so affected by it that it took me awhile to calm down enough to go to sleep afterwards. I did really love the beauty of the scenery, the magic that was found in the woods and in interactions with animals. However, the violence was so jarring and constant that it was hard to describe the whole thing as an enjoyable experience. Watching this brought me back to memories of Future Lasts Forever at last year’s SIFF, which also was about the Kurdish conflicts in Turkey, but it focused on the survivors and their grief. This time, I experienced it from the perspective of the fighter.

Paradise: Love
(also: Paradies: Liebe)
Austria, 2012
Genre: Drama, Black Comedy
Watched: SIFF 2013, Uptown
Rating: **** (out of 5)

Ulrich Seidl’s trilogy is not for everyone. Though I didn’t expect it going in, Love ended up being my favorite of the three. It’s challenging subject matter, Austrian women who go to Kenya and become sex tourists, sleeping with young locals who are eager to milk as much cash out of them as possible. So much nudity in this film, and it’s the squirmy, discomforting kind where the camera stays still on images that you don’t necessarily want to see. I liked the ambiguity about who was exploiting and who was being exploited. Margarethe Tiesel does an amazing job as the main character, and the film is a beautiful feast for the eyes (in the shots when it’s not trying to make you uncomfortable).

The Last Shepherd
(also: L’Ultimo Pastore)
Italy, 2012
Genre: Documentary
Watched: SIFF 2013, Uptown
Rating: ***1/2 (out of 5)

I was so bummed about missing Winter Nomads last year that when I saw that there was a sheep moving on the SIFF schedule this year, I was determined to make it happen. Sadly, my expectations may have been a little too high for this one. The main problem was that the characters and plot were too thin to carry the movie, and that’s a pretty significant statement when the film is only 76 minutes long! Still, it’s a charming film. The mountain scenes are beautiful, and it’s pretty funny to see all the sheep surrounding cars on the roads of Milan. Really, it’s the sheep that make the film, not the shepherd. This stood out as the one non-depressing film of the week.

Act of Killing
Denmark, 2012
Genre: Documentary, Social Issues
Watched: SIFF 2013, Uptown
Rating: **** (out of 5)

The person introducing the film read a lovely letter from the director that talked about how good and evil only exist in movies, that evil deeds were carried out by human beings, and that this documentary sought to show why they do them. That sets a pretty high bar for what to expect, and sadly, I don’t think it reached it. We don’t see why humans do horrible things, but we do get a glimpse at how they live afterwards. Though in the beginning of the film, all of them seem cheerful and boisterous about their acts, it’s soon clear that they are coping in different ways. One convinces himself that he did no wrong. One turns to drugs to clear his head. One seems genuinely fine with his actions. But as these men perform their reenactments of the violence for the camera, some of the defenses start to break down. For certain, this is film is unique, shocking, and disturbing. There’s a lot to talk about afterwards. But what’s the point? If it were simply to raise awareness of the historical events themselves, the documentary would have been made completely differently. There doesn’t seem to be a lesson – I think all of the viewers already understand that we shouldn’t commit genocide. Instead, we just get a glimpse at how twisted people’s minds can be, people who are still unpunished for their actions and free to redo them at anytime. Pretty horrifying.

Here we go again! Unlike SIFFs in the past, I don’t have any out of town weekends this year! However, I have enough non-SIFF plans already on the calendar that I’m not sure I’ll be hitting as high of a film/voucher count as previous years. I did more of the specific position training pre-SIFF so that’s padding my voucher count for now. Film Count: 2. Volunteer Vouchers: 9.

Opening Night Gala this year was a big deal, Joss Whedon’s Much Ado About Nothing, with Mr. Whedon and some actors in attendance. It sold out a few hours after the announcement was made. I considered picking up tickets because I was interested in the film, but I decided against it because I knew I could catch it another time without all of the crowds. I also chose not to work the movie portion of the night because the shifts started so early. Instead, I signed up for a later shift bussing tables at the party. I tell people that these types of shifts are my “genuine volunteering,” where I feel like I’m putting in way more effort than the volunteer vouchers justify. The first part of the shift was really uneventful, and then a ton of people came in and it got crowded and busy. This is the first opening night party I’ve worked, and it seemed like people had a lot of fun, staying even once all the lights went on at midnight. Ten minutes before our shift was scheduled to end, they took us out to the back and had us unload cases of alcohol from a truck. They wanted us to load them back into another truck, but it was past midnight at this point and I needed to go to sleep.

I volunteered Friday night instead of seeing films. To satiate the Whedonverse members who weren’t able to get tickets for Opening Night, SIFF posted a secret screening for Friday night with Alyson Hannigan and Alexis Denisof in attendance. It made everything that evening a little crazier because the line was really long (and started forming hours before the screening) and were let into the theater late due to timing of the screening before. We got some excitement right before the screening started when a crazy fan trying to get Alyson’s autograph ended up starting a fight with a passholder right in front of the theater. Haven’t seen that before!

Closure of two lanes on Mercer and full closure of a segment of 99 around Queen Anne caused disastrous traffic the whole weekend. I had a full hour between my Saturday morning volunteer shift and when I wanted to be at my next film in Capitol Hill, and it took more than that to get up there. Part of it was because the bus arrived 20 minutes late due to traffic, then the rest was sitting in that traffic. Delightful.

Five Dances
USA, 2013
Genre: Drama
Watched: SIFF 2013, Harvard Exit
Rating: ***1/2 (out of 5)

This one appealed to me right away because of the subject matter, but I’d put it on my tentative list because I was afraid that the acting wasn’t going to be that great. After a few press screening reviews went favorably, I decided to go. In the end, I think my original expectations were correct. The dancing was lovely. For some people, this was enough to form an emotional connection and carry the movie – in fact, this was the director’s intent. I do like the idea of having less dialogue and more communicated in the dances, but the actual execution didn’t fully resonate with me. However, there were some really beautiful emotional moments that did click, and Ryan Steele was wonderful as the lead. I was only able to catch a few minutes of the Q&A because I had to rush down the hill for my next film.

Frances Ha
USA, 2012
Genre: Comedy, Drama
Watched: SIFF 2013, Pacific Place
Rating: ****1/2 (out of 5)

Maybe it was a little silly to see Frances Ha at SIFF, given that it’s releasing in mainstream theaters in the Seattle area tomorrow. But I don’t regret it. I thought this was a delightful gem of a film. Greta Gerwig was really fun to watch, and I felt like it was right on target emotionally. Fresh, fun, and non-clichéd. Perfect for a group of girlfriends to watch together. It speaks well to my age group, where we’re searching for intimacy, feeling a little lost sometimes, but still trying to achieve our dreams.