SKFF Session 4

The organisers of SKFF should be shot.

I have just watched over 70 of the 150 films that were shown this week and the last session was an absolute let-down! A film festival to me should be arranged in the same a film does. In a feature, the director holds back until the very last 30 minutes of the film where he or she has a very small amount of time to make their mark on you before you get up out of your chair. They want you to go around telling everyone about the fabulous experience you had watching that film and recommend it to all your friends. What you don't want or need is people leaving early or halfway through your film because they are bored/disgusted/incredulous/all of the above. The same goes for film festivals. That last session is a blueprint for next year's success for the festival and if you have an entire audience all agreeing that the final session wasn't worth the wait, well then SKFF have got a big problem on their hands for 2011.

I'll give them credit; they tried. But what I just couldn't understand was why out of all the films shown for the festival, including the 4 I've mentioned so far, would they put the worst ones on the end? Instead of discussing my favorite film of the night, I'm going to abuse the worst of the entire festival just because I feel like it. No Mr. Nice Guy over here.

One More Tonight is the story of Abdo, a Somalian refugee who makes his living driving cabs during Melbourne's harsh nights. Supporting his two sons and a wife, he must make the ultimate sacrifice in providing for the ones he loves by working or missing work to spend time with them. His annoyingly irate wife gets pissy if he's even an hour late from a 5am shift (why in the hell she would want to wait up till 4am when the kids have to be at school by 8am the next morning is beyond me in the first place) and locks him out of the house everytime he does it. Which for some bizarre reason is every night. As a result, he goes to crash on his brother's couch until the next day when he has to do it all again. The film doesn't really go anywhere from here other than to cycle through this repetitive sequence three times before the dull climax. As predicted, Abdo gets assaulted (an all too obvious comment on the recent spate of taxi driver assaults in the city lately) and dies right at the end of the scene with the film closing around shots of his devastated wife being told the news and the blonde bimbo from the command centre listening to Abdo's dying words in shock.

I'll admit, it's a sad story. But come on! How many times have we heard it for a start and secondly, if you're going to do it, at least try and do it well?! The acting was crap, totally superficial and almost Soapie; the camera work was boring and repepetive; the editing was utterly lazy with some shots obviously being held too long so that we see a smile creep through or a hand accidentally get in the way of the actor. All together, it was just...crap! I'm still absolutely dumbfounded as to how the damn thing got into the festival at all, let alone became the last film of the last session! Kimiko and I still have no idea why they put it in but I suppose they must have their reasons. To get my revenge, though, I did write "not worth rating" on my Inside Film awards slip so felt a little better about myself.

Other than that, I'm done at SKFF! Kimiko invited me to the closing awards for which she only had 2 tickets so I will write about that tomorrow.

SKFF Closing Night!

So after 25 hours of volunteering, 70 short films and a thousand flyers later, I've finally finished my stint at SKFF. I actually had the best time and it was such a nice break from the hectic running around for the film which was slowly taking over my life. I also realised this week how much I missed going to the cinema. For a brief period about 2 weeks ago, I was watching a film almost every second day and then obviously, it all just became way too hard with our own film. I know now it's important to keep up to date with what's happening in cinema and to make sure I get to see what others are doing in film. Call it research if you like. Either way, the Closing Ceremony for SKFF was a really nice way to cap off an awesome week. For a start, one of my favorite films won Best Animation, the Craft Award, and Best Achievement in Screenplay which has really inspired me to produce a film worthy of recognition. I hope our film has the same potential to be entered into a competition - I'm getting a bit sick and tired of stuff which has a little bit too much wrong with it to be worthy of a prize.

Anyway, the night was basically set up like a mini-Oscars. Each category was introduced along with the presenter who would be announcing the award (usually the sponsor of the prize) and then the films nominated had little snippets played before the award was announced. The whole night was an absolute blast, from having Kenny (Shane Jacobson) as host to the bizarre 80s comeback of the music played when winners walked up to the podium. All in all, a fantastic night and I am definitely going to be right and ready to work hard for our little film when editing starts this week.

SKFF Shift 3

Ok, I was definitely a little ambitious with my volunteering.

After getting home last night at 12am, I was buggered this morning when I woke up to start my True Lies essay and then had to rush off to another session at 1:30pm followed by another session at 5:45pm. Heavy. But definitely worth it. Again, it was more forms handouts, friendly chats with customers and Kimiko and watching wonderful Australian films.

I have two favorites from the Top 100 screenings today. One was for this afternoon’s session featuring Primo Bacio, a beautifully crafted film about the first kiss of the producer’s grandparents. As the couple, mainly spoken by Mama, discuss their first kiss and how that has progressed for them within their relationship during the 50 years of marriage, we see images of young couples embracing, frolicking, caressing and kissing one another in various stages of passion, age and events. The cinematography is beautiful. Filmed in slow motion, pastels and creams are the main color palette the DOP has obviously chosen to work with using natural light sources and sometimes black and white. The images have a soft quality about them but are not unfocused. Rather, they appear angelic, serene, adding to the description Mama gives us of the feelings she gets when kissing her husband. I thought it was a great example of a film that doesn’t necessarily need to go anywhere or develop as such. It’s a re-telling, an information session for the audience about what has happened but done so poetically different to any other boring documentary. Thinking about this in relation to our short film, it’s common among shorts to feature snippets of the present interspersed with long sequences of the past so that what has been becomes the main focus of the film until the very end. Primo Bacio is different. The past is celebrated and admired as the old couple look back upon their intimates times with one another and the film ends with a nice fuzzy feeling for the audience who know there is a happy ending for them both after the credits have rolled.

My second favorite film of the evening was Tomorrow (GPS), a short that was featured in the opening night sequence but didn’t quite measure up to Road To Tel Aviv. Tomorrow lasts for exactly 60 seconds and in a mad rush, we are introduced to a nameless, young, white-collar wannabe driving along a Sydney freeway. Along the way, his GPS begins to give him random directions that don’t appear to be taking him to where he wants to go. The driver is upset but complies with the robotic female voice who eventually starts to tell him to do other things such as call his mother, take the day off work tomorrow and walk down to the beach. The film’s climax ends with the man rushing to the ocean’s edge to discover a beautiful sunset, a spectacle he obviously hasn’t seen in a while. Turning away, he then notices a young girl, about the same age as him, also carrying her portable GPS system. With a quirky tinge, the film ends as the GPS lady says, “You have arrived at your destination.” I loved the film for its ability to say so much in such a short space of time. We can all relate to those days where we feel so obliged to do the things that need doing that we forget about things we want to be doing like falling love. Shot on what looks like a mobile phone, the film’s quality is it’s only set-back but at the same time, I can appreciate their reasons for going down that path. Exploring the GPS system and our reliance on fast technology that can provide for us the immediate benefits that we need, like the GPS, the mobile phone is also that instant and I would make an educated guess that by using this technology, the filmmakers make the further comment about our high paced, technical world.

But after watching way too many films today, I have to admit I need to go to sleep. Tomorrow is my last shift and I’m really hoping it’ll be a good one.