Day Five

Well, to paraphrase "Easy Rider," I blew it. I slept all damn day and only took in one screening. I was just so dog-ass tired this weekend what with work and stuff.  I guess I should have taken the weekend off. That's what I'll do next year. My brain is kinda numb too so I didn't go to the afterparty at Club DeVille like I had planned. I was just too tweaked out, I guess.

I got to UT at about 5 and caught the end of the Q&A after "The  McCollege Tour" which featured "University, Inc" by Kyle Henry and "The  Subtext of a Yale Education" by Laura Dunn. Now, I wish I had seen the films. I guess "University Inc." is sort of a Michael Moore-esque documentary about the disappearance of film screening at the UT campus. This was done by the UT hierarchy as a budget saving measure, it seems. I would like to see the films, so I hope they are shown again in Austin sometime.

What was most interesting about the Q&A was listening to how the film had inspired many of the students in attendance. This seems like the first time I have heard members of the younger generation speak and felt like I wasn't a part of them. It was weird. They were so hopeful. I think  college kids do not, for the most part, appreciate what a luxury a college education is. Not to  mention how a University life is something unique they will only experience once that others never get to experience. It still amazes me how some of the students have this "inner-strength" pushing them to strive for change in a situation that is hopeless. But there is a beauty in their  want for change and their naivety which cannot see it's hopelessness. 

The program of films by UT students that came next was called "Lovers," and indeed every short film fit that bill. There were some exceptional pieces in this series. 

The first film was the best film I saw all weekend. Jeannette Kassem's "Isabelle" is a beautiful film that perfectly uses the constrains of the short film to offer up a crystalline instant in time. It's perfect beauty, it's seemingly brutal honesty is perfectly enacted by it stars. I missed the female lead's name, but she was beautiful and stunning. Her performance controlling perfectly the sweet sorrow of a woman who has left her infant behind. The film, set in the past, on a train, pulls together two strangers, tells the history of the woman briefly, only as much as we need to know, and then pulls the man sharing her compartment to her, for one overwhelmingly beautiful and startling moment as they share something, a tiny moment of intimacy and caring, that is perfect and static and tense and troubling and sad and sweet all at once. Carlos Trevino plays the somewhat simple man in the piece with perfection as well. What these two bring forth, under Ms. Kassem's consummate direction, is nothing short of breathtaking. You will not see a more tender and beautiful film in your lifetime. It was magical. 

Geoff Marslett, who also had the animated "Monkey vs. Robot" in the festival (see Day four), made an interesting and slightly amusing piece called "Under the Sheets." He even plays a small role in it that is quite entertaining. While the film goes a bit over the top to achieve nothing, Marslett perfectly incorporates the utter banality of the story in the text making the piece a wry commentary on itself. A bit thin but nonetheless amusing. Too bad the title cards were often hard to read. 

Andrea Goodson's "Stardust" stuck out like a sore thumb after the more professional opening pieces. Using a Nick Cave song to tirelessly drive her dream film, Goodson has virtually nothing to say. It was dull.  

Then came Greg Gilpatrick's wonderful "Appetite for Construction." Several films in this series gave me cause for celebration and this is surely one of them. Using the backdrop of construction sights as his milieu, Gilpatrick fashions a story about the construction and deconstruction of modern relationships. His protagonist turns out to be a female wandering, searching for a man she can connect with, who understands her because he is just as confused and unsure as she is. The film relies on the idea that construction sites, like relationships, are often ambiguous when viewed analytically. It is difficult to tell whether something is being built or torn down when viewed from a distance. This is the theme of the film and one that makes a unique and interesting statement about modern urban life. Quite a nice short film with great direction, a great script and wonderful acting.  

Alethea Douglas' "Indigo Days" finally brought forth a film with a bisexual character that did not judge nor belittle her. But the film, where a woman in a relationship with a man sees her old girlfriend, is a bit sad. The lesbian girlfriend in the film is not treated as a nice person and the film ends on the idea that "homosexuality is not viable." Still, it was nice to see a character on screen, the female lead, whose former lesbian lifestyle was treated as nothing unusual and the film might have worked just as well if her girlfriend from the past were a male. But one day, I don't know when, we are going to see a film that truly embraces a bisexual character and traverses the rough terrain of this lifestyle with humor and pathos that will astound American. I am patiently waiting for that day.

The rest of the films were rather drab. "A Man and a Woman" was boring and pointless. "Girl from Jupiter" was experimental art crap again relying on soundtrack for interest. The soundtrack, a seeming outtake from Eno and Byrne's "My Life in the Bush of Ghosts" however, was too lame to be of any real interest and so the film failed. The final piece, "My Life is Pastry" was a somewhat sweet and jumbled film that had lots of promise but basically failed to go anywhere. A sort of treatise on alienation as seen through the eyes of an emigrant (an alien) was not solid enough to forge an impact on the viewer. It's story wavered a bit and it's message became a little obscured, which is too bad because it has the earmarks of an film that could be quite good. 

There were some beauties in last night's midnight shows  and today's UT screenings. I wish I could have seen more. Cinematexas is just too much. It's overload. But I learned some things and, ultimately, I cannot wait for my next opportunity to see local works and more films and videos from unknowns. There is so much vital and unique filmmaking going on out there that it gives one great hope. I want to see more, know more, become involved more. Cinematexas is an  inspiration.

And so, even though I did not see all that the competition had to offer, I will present my "Best of Show" awards like a good critic should... 

Best Mainstream Short: Isabelle (Director - Jeannette Kassem)

Best Avant-garde Short: I Was Possessed by God (Director - Caveh Zahedi)

Best Actress: The lead in Isabelle (I WILL find out her name)

Best Actor: Carlos Trevino (Isabelle)

Best Animated Short: Billy's Balloon (Director - Don Hertzfeldt)

Best Art Piece: "Film Projection Installation" (Director - Luke Savisky)

There were so many events I missed that I wish I could have taken in: Miranda July's performance piece, The Queer Show of gay shorts, The 60's Avant-garde retrospective, the Mike Leigh shorts, the Thurston Moore concert, The McCollege tour... ah well... there's always next time... isn't there?

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