Community Run Forums for Starship SF - Official FESTIVAL films discussion thread 2013

Reply #30 - Feb 14^th, 2013 at 6:53pm

Jay Seaver Offline
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After Sunday, attendance has been OK, and the schedule non-random. We would have been crowded if placed in the screening room again.

The films have been decent enough:

When Time Becomes a Woman: Pretty for a movie made by a skeleton crew for not much money in Jordan (they've got a great location), but it feels more like a one-act play than a movie. All talk.

Juan in a Million: Seen worse takes on the mysteriously empty world concept, but few so frustratingly without payoff: It takes until very late in the game for the main character to do or discover anything, so the movie ends roughly where it seems things should get started.

El Xendra: Nicely ambitious story, decent cast, capable-enough execution. Wouldn't mind seeing the sequel they're planning to film this summer later on, especially if it gives them the chance to go a little bigger.

S.I.N. Theory: Someone needs to read Foundation to learn the practical limits of "math that can predict human behavior" both logically and as a story-telling device. Likable cast, though.

We're getting a lot less unwatchable dreck than in previous years, for certain; I think Garen has finally figured out that nobody is impressed with attending the premiere of a terrible movie.

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Reply #31 - Feb 15^th, 2013 at 4:19pm

Jon Offline
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Well, you have to work with what you get. I understand that, certainly. And this year we got better, I think -- at least that's what seems to be the case. (For what it's worth,) I'm liking it!

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Reply #32 - Feb 16^th, 2013 at 9:28am

L.A. Connection Offline
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How has parking been?

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Reply #33 - Feb 16^th, 2013 at 10:40am

da_Bunnyman Offline
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L.A. Connection wrote on Feb 16^th, 2013 at 9:28am:

How has parking been?

Can't speak for week days but on marathon day there is lots of parking down the street from the theater just past the building next to the T stop.

I can't complain but sometimes I still do. Life's been good to me so far.

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Reply #34 - Feb 16^th, 2013 at 10:59am

Dinsdale Offline
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L.A. Connection wrote on Feb 16^th, 2013 at 9:28am:

How has parking been?

Managed to get a spot in the lot last night for "War of the Worlds: The True Story". Sevveral of spots snowed in, bring a shovel!

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Reply #35 - Feb 16^th, 2013 at 11:18am

R_F_Fineman Offline
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Quote:

LA:
what has been the ATTENDENCE been like?

Garen presented Friday's night's "Space Milkshake" and "Motivational Growth" to a pretty big crowd. Theater 2 downstairs was just under half full and featured an intro and doorprizes from two members of team- "Growth".

21st Century Man

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Reply #36 - Feb 23^rd, 2013 at 12:55pm

Jay Seaver Offline
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Almost done recapping the festival on my blog & eFilmCritic, with just Saturday night's stuff left to go. For one-liners...

Love & Teleportation - Heart undeniably in the right place, but kind of a bland grind, and I really don't think the filmmakers get how science is practiced at all.

95ers: Echoes - Surprisingly good for how often the same names appeared in the credits (indicating a really small crew & budget), although I think a side-effect of that tight-knit group was not realizing that the audience doesn't already know what's going on. Also, cut the group rehearsing A Christmas Carol please.

Space Milkshake: I think it's indicative of something that Garen & company were pushing this as "George Takei plays a rubber duck!" when the on-screen cast is actually made up of folks who should be very familiar to people who have been watching sci-fi/fantasy TV/movies in the past ten years. At any rate, better than I expected, thanks to the cast being pretty funny and the director balancing plot & jokes pretty well.

Motivational Growth - First time through, a little shaky but the bits that were good were pretty visible. I found the flaws more prominent the second time through in 72 hours, but, uh, moving on...

History of Future Folk - Until a day or two before the screening, I thought this was going to be a filk documentary and wanted no part of it. Turned out to be a fairly enjoyable little comedy.

War of the Worlds: Goliath - Kind of a huge mess that only briefly recognizes what the fun part is, when Teddy Roosevelt starts killing Martians personally. Let's be honest - Erik Wells and his crew were boring, and this movie could have used a lot more T.R., Tesla, Red Baron, etc. And while the action had a lot of stuff blowing up, it was a pretty mundane presentation.

Also, presenting WOTW:G on a screener DVD should not be acceptable, and I have to say that the story about Chinese New Year and the guy flying from Berlin to L.A. to Boston to get us that didn't impress me (if you're going to do that, at least have an un-watermarked Blu-ray to show for it!).

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Reply #37 - Feb 26^th, 2013 at 12:40am

Jay Seaver Offline
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Well, the awards are in, and they are ridiculous.

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Reply #38 - Feb 26^th, 2013 at 11:56am

L.A. Connection Offline
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Jay Seaver wrote on Feb 26^th, 2013 at 12:40am:

Well, the awards are in, and they are ridiculous.

Elaboration on your thoughts since you probably saw most of the films?

For the record, here are the official results:

FEATURES Films

Best Animated Film
War of the Worlds: Goliath, director Joe Pearson

Best Feature
Motivational Growth, director Don Thacker

Audience Appreciation Award
Space Milkshake, director Armen Evrensel

Jury Prize For Excellence
El Xendra, director Juan Carlos Fanconi

Honorable Mentions (in alphabetical order)

Earthbound, director Alan Brennan
Eternity
Ghastly Love of Johnny X, director Paul Bunnell
Mars et Avril, director Martin Villneuve
War of the Worlds: The True Story, director Timothy Hines

SHORT FILMS

Best of Fest
Death of a Shadow, dir. by Tom Van Avermaet

Audience Appreciation Award
Side Effects, dir. by Traven Rice

Jury Prize for Excellence
Asternauts, director Marta Masferrer
Rose, Mary & Time, dir. by Hardeep Giani
113 Degrees, director Sabrina Doyle

Best Steampunk Short
Doktor Fang, dir. by Owen Coughlan

Honorable Mentions (in alphabetical order)

8 Minute Deadline, dir. by Zina Papadopoulou, Petros Papadopoulos
21 Questions, dir. by Micah Troublefield
A Short Film on Conformity, dir. by Matt Willis-Jones
Europa, dir. by Bruce Hutchinson
Life and Death in the Valley, dir. by Alexander Graham
Life in a Glass House, dir. by Austin McKinley
Masters of the Seas, dir. by max resto
Perfect Match, dir. by Lior Hadar
Red Summer, dir. by Vanessa McMeekin
Temma, dir. by Anya Meksin
The Decelerators, dir. by Mark Slutsky
The Last 8, dir. by Keith Apland
The Phoenix, dir. by Carmelo Zucco
The Secret Keeper, dir. by Bears Fonte
Tunnel, dir. by Alex Dandino

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Reply #39 - Feb 26^th, 2013 at 9:56pm

Jay Seaver Offline
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Well, I can't speak to the shorts (other than thinking something had to be better than "Death of a Shadow"), but the (supposedly) juried feature awards corresponding so exactly to the movies where someone shows up in person tends to set off my B.S. detector; it's one of a number of reasons I no longer pay the Boston Film Festival any heed.

Then you've got War of the Worlds: Goliath being given a "Best Animated Film" award, and even if you like it more than I did, well, that's best out of a field of one. Even if it's a genuinely excellent film, that just looks patronizing.

As to Motivational Growth, I was kinder to it than most, and it has problems. Does it really belong ahead of Mars et Avril, Earthbound, 95ers, Space Milkshake and The History of Future Folk? Some of those movies aren't exactly great, but Garen up and said during the marathon that it was getting a Gort more or less because he thought this would encourage people to come.

And I think that's wrong-headed. Maybe Garen & company are like the Boston Film Festival people who clearly want to hang around with filmmakers and celebrities more than they want to bring great, potentially-unseen movies to Boston.

I look at it the same way I do premieres: Being able to slap "World/[North] American/New England Premiere" on the website is nice, but nobody cares if the crappy movie they just saw was a premiere or not, and they're certainly not going to recommend the festival on the basis of "the movies are terrible, but you see them before anyone else!"

Awards, meanwhile... Well, what good does giving out an award more or less for showing up do? The folks making great movies don't need to come for that sort of award (they will get awards at Fantastic Fest, Fantasia, Sitges, etc.), and if the award doesn't have any integrity, what good does playing at the festival do for them?

I said it last year, and I think it still holds true: The most valuable commodity a festival has is its good reputation, and giving awards for anything but making a great film hurts that reputation. If Garen wants this to be a festival that gains a reputation beyond Boston, where studios sneak their spring movies and which independent filmmakers weigh against playing SXSW's midnight program, he's got to have standards, both in what the festival books and what it awards.

If the idea is just to provide a thin rationale for a more expensive pass (last year he mentioned that they sold more than would fit in the screening room to people who wanted to be let in early on Sunday), well, that's disappointing.

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Reply #40 - Feb 27^th, 2013 at 12:20am

L.A. Connection Offline
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Thanks for your input. I really don't think that the jury has made a conscious decision to just want to "hang out" with the filmmakers (they are unknowns, mostly). Still, I take your point that you don't want to turn this into a "participation" merit badge kind of thing. Too bad we don't have an Audience choice award at the Marathon. Somehow, I don't think MOTIVATIONAL GROWTH woulda won that...........

As I noted earlier, I second Joe Neff's idea that inclusion of a recent film in the Marathon should be more dependant on a film's quality than whether it is a local "premiere".

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Reply #41 - Feb 27^th, 2013 at 12:55am

Jay Seaver Offline
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I just really question the priorities. I'm pretty sure that the current iteration of the Boston Film Festival gives awards as a quid quo pro for appearing with the film and going to the festival's party, and Garen pretty much said that Motivational Growth got an award because he wanted to encourage filmmakers to come.

That just seems like putting the cart before the horse to me - you get good filmmakers to come by building a good festival, but it doesn't work the other way around.

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Reply #42 - Mar 2^nd, 2013 at 1:21pm

L.A. Connection Offline
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Interesting debate going down on IndieWire - should Festivals pay filmmakers to show their films at a Festival?

Our Fest is still too small for the idea to be viable, but, it's an interesting debate as Festivals are often the ONLY place many of these films ever see the light of a screen.

Here is the original filmmakers plea for 35% of the revenue:

http://www.indiewire.com/article/fair-trade-for-filmmakers-is-it-time-for-festiv...

And, a Festival organizer's rebuttal:

http://www.indiewire.com/article/where-would-the-money-come-from-on-film-festiva...

Here's one quote that I think jives with much of the discussion here. Namely, is it more important that a film "Premieres" at a Festival, rather than it just being a good movie:

"Just look at the situation with premiere status.

When I started programming the Nantucket Film Festival in 2002, we would fight battles to ensure an East Coast Premiere or some other meaningless status, not because it mattered to the film, per se, but because it mattered in the perception of press and sponsors that the festival was seen as a place to premiere work. Today, that argument is pretty much dead; aside from the largest festivals, premiere status is irrelevant for most if not all festivals. 99% of festivals must concentrate on delivering value in a hyper-local world while establishing and maintaining a national presence in other ways."

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