Maryland Film Festival -- Day One

I spent the whole day yesterday (friday, May 4th) at the Maryland Film Festival and I had a blast. Ran into many friends and watched some good films. Here are the highlights:

Orphans is a first-feature drama by a female director named Ry Russo-Young. It's about two orphaned sisters in their mid-twenties who attempt to spend a weekend together in celebration of one of the sister's birthdays. I thought it was good, dramatic, well-directed and acted. The director was very influenced by Ingmar Bergman. And she achieved what she was hoping to accomplish--To create a compelling film with just two characters in it. On a sad note, one of the young actresses in the film passed away very recently--although I didn't get to find out which one--which makes the film strange to watch (knowing that one of those two young woman is now dead is kinda strange to me). Good film!

I watched several shorts on the Epic CGI Shorts program. The first one was a trippy, 'spiritual' pieces named Beyond Invisible. I thought it was interesting, although the miniDV tape which was used to screen the film had issues (the sound kept popping, and the film kept skipping). Half the audience walked out because of these issues. I still watched the film. I thought it was fascinating, with its 'far out' images of cosmic travels and 'battles in heaven and hell'. Ultimately though, the film's a tad too long. And since it had no narration or plot for most of its half-hour running time, the film just feels like some weird epic moving painting instead of a coherent piece.

The other two shorts were also decent. Dirt Nap was a comic piece about a stoner who dies of an overdose and goes to heaven, only to be recruited by Death and a maniacal clown named Mobile to do some dirty deeds in the after-life. Funny shit, although the CGI animation was very crude. It looked like something circa 1995 in terms of its animation. It's script was much better and funnier. Last on that program, I watched something called Saul Goodman. Now this short tried to be a very labyrinthine thriller about an older guy describing a conspiracy to a younger stranger at a train station. For the most it was interesting, but it had to much information to follow, and the level of its animation was something on par with a compute game cutscene circa 2000, so those things made it a bit lacking. Still, good effort.

After lunch, I watched the John Waters-hosted screening, Sleeping Dogs Lie. This is a feature-length directed by none other than Bobcat Goldwaith. It premiered at the Sundance Film Fest back in 2005, but it was never released wide across the states. The reason why it was never widely-released is because it's an edgy comedy about a young, engaged woman who confesses to his fiance... that she once blew a dog! This confession causes all sorts of wreck on her life. Now, the movie is very, very, very funny, and not graphic in the least. So it's a shame it didn't do better on its release. Bobcat was supposed to have been there for the screening, but he couldn't make it because he pulled his back; he stayed back in L.A. The young lead actress of the film, though, was there. She read a 'thank you' email from Bobcat. The Q&A was outstanding (as it has always been with John Waters hosting). The audience loved this edgy comedy, and you should track it down and watch it on DVD.

To cap my first night, I watched something called Viva. This film is by an auteur named Anne Biller. She wrote, directed, produced, and did most of the art, set and costume design on this very unique film. Viva is a two-hour satire about the sensous lifestyle of a young housewife in the early 70's. The film's a throwback homage to pieces such as Beyond The Valley Of The Dolls (although the filmmaker fervently denied that wasn't her intent). Viva's a very racy film--It has a lot of nudity, most of it 'good' nudity (Anne Biller plays the lead character, and she's very easy on the eyes with her large breasts and curvy butt). Now, the film's *never* pornographic. Sure, it's very titillating, but all the erotic scenarios in the film stop before the film crosses the line into porn. Biller's intent was to do a feminist satire about the roles of women back in that time. What I think she has accomplished better is in making an unique, inspired sexy comedy (I think Biller was a bit annoyed last night that most people took her film as a 'parody comedy' instead of a the satirical piece she worked on for 4 years). The audience seemed to have largely enjoyed the film due to its sexy scenes and very-funny, campy situations, characters, and set design. I would reccomend you rent Viva if it's eventually released on DVD.

Gotta go... I got a second day of films to attend to.