Fin de FFF ‘09

The Florida Film Festival’s final film has played, the popcorn has been dropped onto the carpet, the last ticket stub left in the jeans pocket to be washed a week later in the laundry and leaving a mess in your dryer.

There’s still the staff and volunteer party going on Tuesday, but now it’s time for me to hang up my volunteer badge and get back to the growing stack of DVDs I’ve been neglecting.

Awesome times.  Awesome films.  I saw at least one film every day of the festival except for Monday, ate more popcorn than I should have, and left work early to catch documentaries.  Fabulous.  The calibre of films I’d seen were great overall.  A handful of the animated and international animated shorts didn’t grab me, but these were ameliorated by the completely stellar ones I did see.  I got to shake hands with Bill Plympton, animation idol whose work on MTV’s Liquid Television has left an indelible mark on my psyche.  I felt I had grown up with his work, and said so.  I hope that didn’t make him feel old.  Whether I made Mr Plympton feel old or not, I did get to walk  away with his autograph to treasure for all my days.  H’rays!

Another marvelous FFF moment was getting to meet Lev Yilmaz, known for his Tales of Mere Existence.  Last year, the Florida Film Festival screened some of his animated shorts, which appeal to society’s cynics such as I.  The stories told were incredibly hilarious and relatable, and I had gotten back into his work recently online, looking at his websites (new and old) and watching his shorts on YouTube.  So, I was very pleased to not only see his work screened at the film festival again, but Mr Yilmaz was in attendance for the screening of these shorts.  I watched the Wednesday screening of Animated Shorts at Enzian, and had to ask Lev Yilmaz if he would be at the Regal screening on Friday to sell his new book, Sunny Side Down, and DVD.  

“You see, I don’t get paid until tomorrow!”

Lucky for me and my low funds, I was able to run into him prior to the Friday screening at Regal after initial hesitation, worried I might seem a bit crazy to confront this man with cash and demands for products.  But no, on the contrary, Mr Yilmaz was very kind, stopping to pick up a bookmark I had dropped while grabbing my wallet out of my cavernous bag of mischief, and imparting his own experience of being in London, warning me sternly that the British are not like what one sees on BBC America.  Lev smelled of pipe smoke, and I complimented his coat, which was a bit unseasonable in the Florida humidity, but nonetheless was a dashing fashion statement.

Oh, my brushes with fame.

Before I close my discussion of the animated shorts, I have to mention my joy and wonder upon seeing Don Hertzfeldt’s latest, “I Am So Proud of You.”  As a huge fan of Rejected and everything else I’ve seen of his work, this final short on Wednesday night was nothing short of sublime.  If you are unfamiliar with Don’s work, I strongly suggest you look into it.  Really, if you don’t, I’ll drive past your house and give you intimidating glances as I roll past in my car, very slowly.  At the moment, I own a DVD copy of Rejected, but I’m looking to buy the rest of his work, sans “Proud,” on DVD.  This is if I can keep Whole Foods from sucking all my money away.  ”I Am So Proud of You” received the Grand Jury Prize at the Florida Film Festival, just to give you an idea of how remarkable it was.  Per the website:  I am so proud of you will come to DVD later this summer. Or maybe autumn. We’re not quite sure.

I eagerly await its release, so that I may watch it unfettered by people walking in between me and the screen.

Aside from animated shorts, I did see incredible documentaries, such as The Garden, which I talked about in my last blog post.  Anvil: The Story of Anvil was a poignant documentary about Anvil, a band that could have been, should have been, but somehow didn’t quite get propelled into the fame bequeathed to other metal brethren.

Even with all the films I was lucky to have seen, there were still a few shows I am dismayed to have missed for whatever reason.  I didn’t get to see any of the short film screenings, for example, and I heard the CGI Battle for Terra was good.  Also wanted to see Em, but that didn’t happen.  Smile ‘Til It Hurts: The Up With People Story is probably the film I most regret not seeing at the Florida Film Festival, dealing with a motivational and performance group spawned in the ’60s.  I really wanted to see the film, but, alas, it just didn’t happen.  I can console myself with reading the blog.

Overall, I was glad to have the chance to see many films I wouldn’t have otherwise known about, and was happy to have spent time with friends seeing these screenings.  Yay for Hao, Clark, Mike, Marie, Joe, Andrew and Melanie for being my film buddies for some of the movies shown during the Florida Film Festival.  You made watching sexy French film stars, animated violence and advertising executives all the more enjoyable.

I will end this with a link to Lev Yilmaz’s animated short, How To Cope With Depression.  Enjoy.

How Does Your Garden Grow?

This afternoon I watched The Garden at Enzian, part of the movies showing at the Florida Film Festival.  It was an intense documentary about the 14-acre community garden in Los Angeles and the legal fight to keep the land for use as an urban garden between the local farmers and the city.  I won’t spoil the film for you if you haven’t seen it and want to, but if you would like to know what happens, you can go to The Garden or South Central Farmers.  I strongly recommend the film.  Unfortunately, today was its last showing at the Florida Film Festival, but the producer of the film, who spoke at a Q&A session after the screening, stated that The Garden will be showing at major film markets such as New York City, Chicago and so on, so if it does well there, perhaps it will be screened in smaller markets around the country.

Speaking of gardening, I’ve been engaged with my own attempts at creating an herb garden outside my front door.  I’ve talked about this wee garden in a previous posting, Get Your Garden On, so here is an update about what’s going on with it.  I managed to get a few big cans from Stardust and repotted some plants into these bigger vessels.  The area I had laid down some dirt on in the raised area (visible under the basket) has now begun sprouting little plants, though I’ve forgotten whether these sprouts are the cilantro or the chives.  One row hasn’t sprouted at all, which is a bit of a downer, so I may reseed the little patch after a few more days if there still doesn’t appear to be any more activity.  In the picture, you can also see the area I’ve created on the right-hand side facing the little spot, laying down some soil behind, yes, a wall of beer bottles.  It’s shabby-chic with a drinking problem, with bottles provided by the combined alcoholic efforts of Clark, Mike, Marie and myself, with a couple of bottles from the Stardust recycling bin thrown in for good measure.  I planted the lemon-scented thyme in the plot, and now that I’ve gotten paid today (yay!), I’d like tocontinue to add to this area with more mint and basil.  On Corrine Drive, there is a nursery I’d like to pay a visit to for some seeds, plants, soil, gardening tools and the like.  I’ve never been there, but I drive past it pretty much every day, reading the words on their sign.  A recent one said, “Grow your own.  Obama does.”  It references the vegetable garden on the White House lawn, which is very cool.  

I lack a White House Horticulturalist, but I did get a book from the library recently which will help me in developing this small area of plant development.  Written by RJ Ruppenthal, Fresh Food From Small Spaces challenges the thought that city-dwellers cannot grow their own food, and provides a plethora of tips and information for the urbanite who longs to have a green thumb.  With all the information, I wouldn’t be surprised if I wind up buying this book at some point to take with me if I live in a space in London with access to a private garden, like one place I had happened to see when poking around some rental search sites.  If you’d like to read an excerpt from the book, Homegrown.org has a snippet of it on their website.

Get inspired!  It takes something around ten minutes for me to water these plants I have outside, although I expect that time to rise if I continue to add to my little green empire.  Grow, my little minions, grow!

Florida Film Festival, less than a month away

This year I’m volunteering with the Florida Film Festival, and I went to my orientation meeting on Saturday at the Enzian, despite fighting a cold and having to periodically leave the room to expel from my nose.  Unpleasant, but I wanted to be involved in a film festival I’ve been enjoying on and off since 2001.  I say “on and off,” because some years I missed out on some films, either being too broke or being out of the country at the time, but oh well.

Due to a drawing of lots to sign up for volunteer spots, I am unfortunately not going to be a very active volunteer, having had most of the spots for volunteering taken by people who had numbers higher than mine (#187, which is rather ominous).  Oh well, I *am* going to be working on putting up posters in the Bumby/Crystal Lake area, so at least I’ll earn my badge in that manner.

The Florida Film Festival will be running from Friday, March 27th, through Sunday, April 5th, so that’s more than a week to catch some great films from all over the world.  This year is supposed to showcase a number of animated films, too, so I’m excited for that.  Film admission is $10, but if you plan on seeing many films this year, you may want to look at the prices for passes and ticket packages if you’re interested in saving five bucks or so.  The complete schedule of films and events should be up by the 9th, so keep an eye out for movies you may want to see.

If you’re really looking forward to the Florida Film Festival, and want to start your film geekery early, this month the Orlando Museum of Art’s 1st Thursday event is The Art of Film Making.  Since I’m an OMA member, I can get in for free (haha!), but for non-members, the event fee is $10 for admission.  It’s this Thursday, the 5th of March, and I hope to be able to make it.  I have a jury summons for the 5th, so I’m really hoping I won’t be called in.

If you are on Twitter, you can get information tweeted to you by following FloridaFilmFest.  Take a gander at the Florida Film Festival blog as well to see how far along the staff and volunteers are coming.  And if you’re on Facebook like all the other cool kids, there is a Facebook Group you can join as well.

Revolutionary Road… the film?

Hao and I watched Burn After Reading this evening (which was a rather “meh” film), and on our way into the theatre where the film was screened, we passed a poster for an upcoming film which caught my eye: one for the upcoming film, Revolutionary Road.

“Whaaat?!”

One of my all-time favourite novels is going to be put into film?  With the Titanic duo Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet?  Hmm…  Well, Leonardi DiCaprio can definitely play a 50s-era gent, as I thought he did well in Catch Me If You Can, and I like Kate Winslet as an actress, and her husband Sam Mendes is the director, popular for his American Beauty film.  But, when it comes to a representation of Richard Yates’ work, I have some concerns.  This is not a happy novel, and any attempts at sugar-coating the angst and inured emotions of the characters would be extremely disappointing.

If you have not yet read the book, please do so.  Revolutionary Road was my introduction to Richard Yates, an author whom I hold in high regard for his rather bleak, depressing, yet truthful stories.  I haven’t yet read all his work, only his collected short stories and Easter Parade in addition to Revolutionary Road.  Yates is a little bit pre-beat in his writing, perhaps “proto-beat,” for lack of a better term.  Initially published in 1961, Revolutionary Road was a look past the sunny facade of the American Dream, staring hard at the day-to-day despiration of what could be any suburban family.

For further reading, I dug up a Slate article from last year that deals with Richard Yates’ novel, and the Hollywood history behind it.  I found out a bit more about Yates, who had visits to psychiatric wards and died broke, which gives me all the more reason to laud him further.  I’ll have to read Blake Bailey’s biography on Yates at some point.  For now, though, here is his Wikipedia article.  

If you like to read, you’ve got until the day after Christmas to acquaint yourself with Yates’ novel before the film comes out.  You can see the trailer for it here.  My opinion is that the trailer seems a bit too dramatic, but all film trailers seem to play up on the drama and emotion.  I just hope the film isn’t like that.  There’s something to be said for nuance.

Hamburger America: the book AND dvd!

I pestered my local library to start carrying Hamburger America, the book, and they got a copy, which I have now checked out. When I took a look at the cover, there’s a sticker the library put on that says “1 disc included.” Do you know what that disc was?

That’s right, Hamburger America, the movie!

So, you realise I have to share the film with as many people as possible, yeah? I’ve already made my parents watch it, and I thought my father was going to have a heart attack merely watching Solly’s butterburgers being made. “Oh my God, that’s BUTTER?!” he freaks while watching a woman slab on a hefty dollop of butter onto a bun before mushing it down onto a burger.

Potential food rule: Butter makes everything better. This rule may have to be tested out on a butterburger of my own with a veggie patty. Yes, I’m game enough, but I don’t know if I’d want quite as much butter as Solly’s Grille tops theirs with. Seriously, the camera zooms in on these burgers, and you can see the golden liquid dripping on the sides! The film even shows a patron sopping up some of the butter with half of his burger. It should also be mentioned Solly’s Grille is right across the street from a medical center treating heart diseases. Surprisingly, though, the owner of Solly’s Grille mentions two men in their 90s who’d been coming to Solly’s Grill for decades, and seem to be doing just fine.

Potential food theory: Butter makes you live longer.

I can imagine cardiologists cringing at the thought of a butterburger, but I’ll bet a few of those people that work at the nearby heart care center make dashes across the street to get their butterburger fixes.

Eventually, I’ll have to break down and buy this book, so I can have the book and dvd on hand for future reference and edification, as well as to share it with people who aren’t yet my friends, but someday will be (aw!). Yesterday I began reading the book, and currently I’m in the Louisiana section, where Port of Call in New Orleans is listed. There is only one place listed in Florida, Le Tub of Hollywood. In America, it seems the best states for burgers, according to George Motz, are California (9 entries), Oklahoma (7 entries), Ohio (6 entries), Connecticut (5 entries) and Texas (8 entries).

If you want to know more about Hamburger America or George Motz, the brainchild behind the projects, go to the website: HamburgerAmerica.com. Motz has a blog where you can catch up on what’s current–at the moment, the most recent entry is on the book tour he’s doing. If you live in Orange County in Florida, you’ll be happy to know that the Orange County Library System has two copies of Hamburger America, both of which are currently checked out–one by yours truly. Don’t worry, I’ll be returning mine shortly once I’ve finished reading it and have made a few of my friends watch the dvd. If you can’t wait, though, you can buy it online through Shop OCLS, with Amazon.com, or get a used copy with Abebooks.