PASS HOLDER NEWS

18 MAY 2012

Dear Steve,

Did you partake in the party last night?!

What an amazing evening. The support from all of you was tremendous and the feedback from everyone was filled with excitement.

Festival mode has officially commenced and you are about to go into your fourth week of press screenings! Please see below for some important information regarding your festival experience, and as always your list of press screenings for next week is listed below.

Thank you,
Renee C. O'Donnell
Director of Individual Giving

P.S. Queue Card instructional information coming your way very soon!

[ . . . ]

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MONDAY, MAY 21

Coteau Rouge
Pathway: Make Me Laugh
US PREMIERE

Canada (Quebec), 2011 (86 minutes)
Director: Andre Forcier
Cast: Roy Dupuis, Celine Bonnier, Paolo No'l, Mario Saint-Amand, Gaston Lepage, Maxime Desjardins-Tremblay

Andre Forcier's hilariously heartbreaking and fairy-tale like story of four generations of the Blanchard family shows that eccentricity is genetic. A corpse disposer-turned-gas-station-owner, a condo developer and an ex-boxer are a few branches of this twisted family tree.

Director André Forcier scheduled to attend June 2 and June 3 screenings.

Festival Screenings:
June 2, Pacific Place Cinemas, 6:30pm
June 3, Pacific Place Cinemas, 4:00pm
June 6, SIFF Cinema Uptown, 8:30pm

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Brooklyn Brothers Beat the Best
Pathway: Face the Music
 

U.S. Distributor: Oscilloscope Laboratories
USA, 2011 (97 minutes)
Director: Ryan O'Nan
Cast: Michael Weston, Arielle Kebbel, Melissa Leo, Andrew McCarthy, Christopher McDonald, Jason Ritter, Wilmer Valderrama

A failed indie rocker negotiates his quarter-life crisis by embarking on a spontaneous road trip with a self-proclaimed musical revolutionary determined to help him find new avenues of expression.

Director/actor Ryan O'Nan scheduled to attend June 1 screening.

Festival Screenings:
June 1, Harvard Exit, 9:30pm
June 6, Pacific Place Cinemas, 4:00pm

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Welcome To Doe Bay
Pathway: Face the Music
WORLD PREMIERE

USA, 2012 (75 minutes)
Directors: Nesib Shamah, Dan Thornton
Featuring: Kevin Sur, Larry Mizell Jr., Abbey Simmons, Heather Browne, Chad Clibborn, JoeBrotherton, Hannah Levin, Jonathan Cunningham, Damien Jurado, John Vanderslice, Joshua Lovseth, Adra Boo,Kendra Cox, Megan Grandall, Jason Dodson

In its brief, four-year existence, this small-scale, thoughtfully curated music festival held on idyllic Orcas Island has had a huge spiritual impact on both attendees and performers. Featuring a who's who of Seattle performers.

Directors Nesib Shamah and Dan Thornton scheduled to attend.

Festival Screenings:
June 3, Egyptian Theatre, 9:15pm
June 5, SIFF Cinema Uptown, 9:30pm

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TUESDAY, MAY 22

Keep the Lights On
Pathway: Love Me, Do!

U.S. Distributor: Music Box Films
USA, 2012 (101 minutes)
Director: Ira Sachs
Cast: Thure Lindhardt, Zachary Booth, Julianne Nicholson

Breaking new ground in contemporary American gay cinema, Ira Sachs' deeply personal and romantic drama charts the volatile and complex decade-long relationship between two gay men with tenderness and sensuality.

Director Ira Sachs scheduled to attend.

Festival Screenings:
June 1, Harvard Exit, 6:30pm
June 2, Harvard Exit, 12:00pm

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Countdown
Pathway: Thrill Me

South Korea, 2011 (120 minutes)
Director: Huh Jong-ho
Cast: Jeong Jae-young, Jeon Do-youn

A pulse-pounding thriller driven by a plot of twisting allegiances, Countdown is the story of a debt collector with 10 days to live fighting to keep his liver-donor savior safe.

Director Huh Jung-ho scheduled to attend June 2 and June 4 screenings.

Festival Screenings:
May 19, Renton IKEA Performing Arts Center, 4:30pm
June 2, SIFF Cinema Uptown, 6:00pm
June 4, SIFF Cinema Uptown, 3:00pm

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Free Throw
Pathway: I Didn't Know That!
WORLD PREMIERE

USA, 2012 (78 minutes)
Director: Court Crandall

The inspiring journey of eight California students from Compton High competing in a high-stakes free-throw basketball match. The prize? A $40,000 college scholarship.
Director Court Crandall scheduled to attend.

Festival Screenings:
June 1, SIFF Cinema Uptown, 7:00pm
June 2, SIFF Cinema Uptown, 2:30 pm

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WEDNESDAY, MAY 23

The Standbys
Pathway: Creative Streak
WORLD PREMIERE

USA, 2012 (75 minutes)
Director: Stephanie Riggs

Peek backstage in this emotional documentary of three Broadway understudies - the quintessential underdogs - waiting for their big break. Industry insiders and standbys-turned-stars weigh in on the unique struggles of those in the wings.

Director Stephanie Riggs scheduled to attend.

Festival Screenings:
June 2, SIFF Cinema Uptown, 5:30pm
June 4, Harvard Exit, 4:00pm

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Golden Slumbers
Pathway: Creative Streak

Cambodia/France, 2011 (96 minutes)
Director: Davy Chou

Cambodia produced 400 films between 1960 and 1975, but only a handful of these artistic works survived the Khmer Rouge's devastating reign. Filmmaker Davy Chou awakens the once-magnificent industry through archival material and deep insight.

Festival Screenings:
May 30, SIFF Cinema Uptown, 6:00pm
May 31, SIFF Cinema Uptown, 3:30pm

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Hello I Must Be Going
Pathway: Love Me, Do!
U.S. Distributor: Oscilloscope Laboratories

USA, 2012 (95 minutes)
Director: Todd Louiso
Cast: Melanie Lynskey, Blythe Danner, Christopher Abbott, John Rubinstein, Julie White

Jobless and facing a divorce in her 30s, Amy (Melanie Lynskey) suffers the humiliation of moving in with her high-achieving parents. Her downward spiral takes an unexpected turn, however, when a hot 19-year-old houseguest arrives.

Actors Melanie Lynskey and Christopher Abbott scheduled to attend.

Festival Screenings:
June 8, Pacific Place Cinemas, 6:00pm
June 9, Harvard Exit, 3:00pm

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THURSDAY, MAY 24

Winter Nomads
Pathway: Show Me the World

Switzerland, 2012 (90 minutes)
Director: Manuel von Stürler

Shepherds Carole and Pascal move through French-speaking Switzerland with 800 sheep, encountering modern lifestyles along the way. Exceptional photography and sound design transports you to this caravan's trek.

Director Manuel von Stürler scheduled to attend.

Festival Screenings:
June 6, SIFF Cinema Uptown, 6:00pm
June 7, SIFF Cinema Uptown, 4:00pm

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Earthbound
Pathway: Sci-Fi and Beyond
WORLD PREMIERE

Ireland, 2012 (90 minutes)
Director: Alan Brennan
Cast: Rafe Spall, Jenn Murray, David Morrissey, Stephen Hogan, Rory Keenan

In this sci-fi romantic comedy, Joe Norman wants an ordinary life, but it's not easy when you believe you're an intergalactic alien. Instead, Joe must find a human girl with whom he can propagate his dying species.

Director Alan Brennan scheduled to attend June 2 and June 3 screenings.

Festival Screenings:
June 2, Pacific Place Cinemas, 9:30pm
June 3, SIFF Cinema Uptown 2:00pm
June 7, Pacific Place Cinemas, 6:30pm

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170 Hz Pathway: Love Me, Do!

Netherlands, 2011 (86 minutes)
Director: Joost van Ginkel
Cast: Gaite Jansen, Michael Muller, Eva van Heijningen

In this unusual love story with dark overtones two deaf adolescents disconnected from the world find each other, fall hopelessly in love and rebel against their parents' attempts to keep them apart.

Festival Screenings:
May 31, Pacific Place Cinemas, 9:00pm
June 7, SIFF Cinema Uptown, 7:00pm
June 9, Pacific Place Cinemas, 2:00pm

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[ . . . ]

After changing from our regular clothes to formal-wear at the Uptown, "J" and I proceeded to McCaw Hall, along with our friend "N", We were there well before show-time, loitered for a while, then headed in.

The event is huge, and requires a mass of volunteers, and a lot were still in training when we got there. In spite of that – or maybe thanks to it – we got in nice and early and picked out our favorite spots, then went to mingle.

Eventually, the formal festivities began, and everyone settled into their seats and the lights dimmed.

First to take the stage were SIFF's artistic director and managing director, Carl Spence and Deborah Persson. They introduced an assortment of other guests:

• Mayor McGinn of Seattle took the stage to announce the Mayor's Award, to Benjamin Kasulke, the Seattle-based cinematographer of Your Sister's Sister and a lot of other films.
• Benjamin Kasulke gave his Mayor's Award speech. He started by commenting on his three-minute limit, then ran way over the limit. The most memorable thing about his speech was his hair.
• A woman from Volterra restaurant spoke. She's a board member, and Volterra is a long-time SIFF sponsor.
• Someone named Eliza Kirk (if I heard her name correctly) said that SIFF frequently asks people for donations, but this time they were giving something back: free SIFF tickets for everyone in attendance. After she announced that, volunteers circulated through the place handing out envelopes containing two tickets each. (I don't have them in front of me, and I don't recall whether they were for the festival, for SIFF Cinema in the rest of the year, or either – but it's nice either way.)
• Carl Spence returned to the stage to introduce the film-makers. He commented that the director's previous film, Humpday is getting a French remake. He said (roughly), "Hollywood is always stealing films from France for remakes, but the French never do that."
• Steve Schardt and Lynn Shelton, producer and director of Your Sister's Sister, respectively, spoke next. I don't recall what they said, except that they introduced the film's crew and invited them all onto the stage. I thought that was nice.

Your Sister's Sister

The male lead is down in the dumps, and his best friend presses him to take some time away on his own, in her parents' cabin. But instead of finding it vacant, a woman is there – and turns out to be his best friend's sister. She's down in the dumps too, after breaking up with her girlfriend of seven years. They share their misery.

The film was well-acted, and the director has come a long way since her first feature. I rate it good.

After the film, we went to the opening night party. There was a rather sparse amount of delicious food, and generous amounts of alcoholic beverages. There was dancing. I had a waffle, one Cupcake Royale mini-cupcake, and a tiny cup of Ivar's chowder, all yummy. I saw a fairly generous amount of appetizers from 10 Mercer – which I know from previous tastes are delicious – but the line was really long. J and I danced. We mingled. We had a lot of fun.

Update (Friday): As it turned out, J's ankle was kind of sore from the dancing, and we were both pretty sleepy from the late night. We had a few things to do at home too, and a couple of errands, so we didn't get going on Friday films until fairly late in the day.

My ratings:

Tags: siff 2012

Mixed in with all of that, we made it to the dry cleaner – and they did a great job of getting the work done on time.

That ate up a lot of our day, and we ended up missing the first two press screenings. We only made it to the third because we got lucky with traffic and parking.

The first of today's screenings, Unforgivable, was a crime movie with mixed reactions from people who saw it. The second, Hail, was an Australian crime docu-drama that lost half the audience to walk-outs; it seems we didn't so much miss it as saved ourselves the trouble.

Our only press screening for the day was How to Steal 2 Million, a South African crime drama. It's a good crime film, in the style of 1960s neo-noir. It's mostly according to formula, but the change of setting makes it somewhat fresh.

Tonight we're going to SIFF's opening night. Party time!

Next stop, we went to one of the locations on our list of SIFF catalog booklet distribution places. We had tried it a couple of times before and always found it closed; it's an early morning place and was always closed by the time we were done with press screenings. We got it this time though. Only one place remains.

After that, we had an appointment. It seems like it was a waste of time. The usual person was there, but mostly to supervise a trainee, who didn't really seem cut out for the task.

Finally, it was on to SIFF Cinema at the Uptown for press screenings. We missed the first film, Moonlight Kingdom, because of the frustrating appointment. It sounded good in the capsule description, and at least a few people said good things about it. We'll plan on seeing it in a regular screening instead.

Today's second press screening – but our first film ‐ was Any Day Now. It's about a gay couple (one flamboyant, the other closeted) in 1970s West Hollywood who take over care of a boy with Down syndrome after his mother disappears, later ending up in prison. Based on that summary, it sounds like a double-trouble issue film, but the film goes where the characters and plot take it, rather than trying to make a statement.

The story is a good drama with excellent comic relief, an excellent performance by Alan Cumming as the more flamboyant lead, and good directing. A lawyer (with an Afro) who appears late in the film does great stuff with his small part. The film's fashions and hair are hideous, and they look authentic. The film is very good.

I think the main reason the film works so well is the fact that the political issues are mostly settled, at least in enough of the US that the film-makers didn't feel tempted to preach. There was quite a bit of talk in the waiting line between films about how much things have changed.

Today's final film was Step Up to the Plate, a documentary about a multi-generational family chain of restaurants. To me it felt like a cross between an infomercial for the restaurant's brand and home movies for the family that owns it. The photography was beautiful and the music was nice, but that didn't make it any less boring. I rate it lackluster.

Tonight J and I been fighting with Microsoft Word a lot. Both of us have done mail-merges with several older versions, but neither of us could make sense out of the process with the recent version we're using now. I'm puzzled by the fact that Microsoft took a wonderfully functional product like Word 97 and mucked up the user interface to the point that a once-routine task pushed us to frustration. I can trick Excel into doing the job, but I'm sleepy and out of time, so it will have to wait.

While waiting in line for the first film, we met a new pass-holder, "C", who is here all the way from south Texas, for SIFF.

Today's first film was Eye of the Storm, a family drama about a dying matriarch. Her adult son and daughter come to visit her. It's based on a Nobel prize winning-novel. The acting is all great, the directing is good, and the film as a whole is good.

The second film was Liberal Arts, a comedy set mostly on a university campus. The main character is a 35-year-old admissions officer who goes back to his old school to speak at a retirement party for one of his professors. Along the way, he meets a number of current students. He stumbles into a romance with a young woman, and befriends a young man who seems very short of friends his own age.

The acting, directing, comedy, and plot are good. What really stands out is the quality of the dialog, and the natural feel of the interactions between the male and female leads. I enjoyed it a lot, and I rate it good.

The third film was Year of Grace, a Spanish comedy. A young man from out in the sticks moves to Barcelona to go to university, exchanging a room in an old widow's apartment for odd jobs she needs around the house. He also befriends the owner of a bar on the same block.

There are quite a few plot holes, and the pacing is clunky at first, but the cast – particularly the widow – manage to sell the scenes anyway. I enjoyed the film, but I rate it only almost-good.

After the films we spent some time hanging out with N, including an appetizer plate and some ice cream. Afterwards, J and I went to distribute a few more SIFF items; Starbucks locations were particularly receptive to posters, since Starbucks is a SIFF sponsor.

Tonight, I worked on my delegate "homework". I'll be sending out a mailer and making a small poster for the convention. It's an interesting project.

Today's first film was Gimme the Loot, a comedy set on the streets of New York City. The plot was to find money to pay a bribe to a Mets guard so the two main characters could tag the Mets home run apple, but that was just a McGuffin to drive the main characters wanderings in search of the money. The two main characters were both appealing people, in spite of being very inept small-time criminals with foul vocabulary. (One could argue that they were implausibly inept as criminals.) The acting was mostly good; the two leads were very good. The directing, use of locations, and photography were very good.

Just before the second movie was about to start, our volunteer presenter "R" had an announcement: the previously-scheduled film Hail had been replaced by Hemel. R didn't mention a reason for the change, probably because he hadn't heard, but usually that means that a film had been delayed in transit. I see that Hail is an Australian film, so maybe it got caught up in some sort of international delivery problem.

Anyway, Hemel was about a very promiscuous woman, named "Hemel", which means "Heavan" in Dutch. She was so thin that she looked like she had some sort of eating disorder, and her relationship with her father looked pretty messed up. The lead actress delivered a very good performance, but it went to waste in service of a pointless story. The directing didn't seem very good, but with a story that bad it's hard to tell. The score was mostly annoying, though there were a few moments of good music played on-screen. I rate it poor, and True Wolf is no longer my least-favorite film of the festival.

J suggested that the film's best moment was when a rock was thrown through a window. (That's not a spoiler unless one knows when it happens.) I agreed, and added that the rock should have gone through the screenwriter's window instead.

The third film made up for the second. It was The Imposter, which will probably be the weirdest documentary of the year. A brown-eyed French adult is found by police in Spain, and manages to pass himself off as a blue-eyed blond boy from Texas who had disappeared three years earlier. It's even weirder than it sounds. Good.

After the films, we took N to a donut shop for a snack, then home. We did some more time on volunteer work, distributing posters and trying to distribute booklets. It went smoothly, and I used up all but one of my posters.

This evening, my main project was to work on my candidate's statement for my campaign as a national Democratic delegate. Now it's time to get some sleep.

We had another volunteer project today too. This time I went to Factoria to distribute SIFF posters and booklets. It's been a long time since I had been inside that mall, and I was surprised at how much of it was vacant. (I had been to the mall area recently, but not inside the mall proper.) One place I visited earlier had already used up all the catalog booklets I had brought before, so I gave them more, but they declined the poster, because of company policy. A few other places accepted posters, including some that didn't look like they even had places for them.

In the evening, J and I visited my parents at their place, since they had invited us for cookies, since we had skipped dessert at the restaurant, and because she likes to share the cookies she makes. They were yummy.

We hung around and talked about various things, including SIFF, recent news events, and my plans to run as a delegate to the national Democratic convention. While we were there, I got an e-mail from a caucus and convention organizer, telling me that a delegate wouldn't be able to make it to the congressional district caucus, so I could be seated as a delegate there if I wished. When I got home later I replied, accepting and thanking her for the advance notice.

Also today, J did a lot of gardening. Lots of plants needed water, because it's been warm and sunny today.

Inside, we completed renovation of the downstairs bathroom, unless we thing of something else we want to do with it.

My annoying project has been to try to set up a home network. The complication is that we have four computers that I'm trying to link, with three different versions of Windows: my little red laptop (with XP), my desktop "Mordor" (with Vista), my full-sized laptop (also Vista), and J's full-sized laptop (with Windows 7). Setting up networking on the XP laptop was simple; if I wanted to use it as a server all I'd have to do is plug in the big external drive, switch off its power-saving mode, and make sure not to run programs that slow it down as a server. The problem is that I want to use Mordor as the server, since it's the one that stays where it is. It isn't nearly as cooperative. I've managed to get my large laptop to view one shared directory on Mordor, but it's more complicated than I'd like, and the big external drive doesn't show yet. J's laptop doesn't talk to anything, and I haven't played with Windows 7 enough to understand its quirks. One would think that things should get easier with newer versions, not more difficult, but that's not how it is so far.

Now we need to get to bed, since press screenings continue in the morning.

Although the posters are easy to carry around, the job itself is a lot more work than I had expected. I spent about five hours walking around, looking for places that were open on Saturday (parts of Bellevue seem to shut down on on weekends), looked suitable (lots of foot traffic, and a place for posters), and were willing. I talked to a lot of nice people, and hung a full bundle of posters. One place even gave me some delicious chocolates, on the house.

J caught a ride home with another volunteer, and had a surprise for me: a book titled Wildlife of Lake Washington: Discover our region's most fascinating creatures. The photographs are wonderful, and J had the author sign it for me.

While waiting, I discovered that SIFF has another volunteer job we could do, now that I'm almost done with the previous one: picking up posters to hang at various places around the city. So, before heading home, we went to the SIFF office, at the Film Center, for the posters.

In the evening, we did some gardening. I planted some tomato plants and checked on the condition of others. J did a lot of weeding and planted some flowers. I also dragged the cold frame I built outside, even though we haven't decided where it should end up permanently.

Tonight we had a nice, simple dinner of pasta and baked asparagus. It was good, and we enjoyed having a nice, unhurried meal together.

PASS HOLDER NEWS

11 MAY 2012

Dear Steve,

Time sure does fly when you are having fun!

With so many changes this year, we are definitely starting to get in a grove, and what better timing since everything officially kicks off on Thursday, May 17 at Opening Night. I hope to see you there!

See below for list of this week's press screenings.

Thank you,
Renee C. O'Donnell
Director of Individual Giving

P.S. As always, please contact me directly with any questions you might have!

[ . . . ]

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MONDAY, MAY 14

Gimme the Loot
 Press Screening: 10:00am
 Pathway: Thrill Me

U.S. Distributor: Sundance Selects
USA, 2012 (81 minutes)
Director: Adam Leon
Cast: Tashiana Washington, Ty Hickson, Meeko, Zoe Lescaze, Sam Soghor

In this infectious, charming crowd pleaser, two graffiti-writing teens try to execute a complicated revenge plan in New York City when one of their works is defaced by a rival gang.

 Festival Screenings:
 May 26, Pacific Place Cinemas, 9:15pm
 May 28, Pacific Place Cinemas, 4:00pm

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Update (Monday): The scheduled press screening, Hail, was cancelled for some reason, and replaced by Hemel. Even without having seen Hail, I'm fairly certain it would have been better than Hemel.

Hail
 Press Screening: noon
 Pathway: To the Extreme

Australia, 2011 (104 minutes)
Director: Amiel Courtin-Wilson
Cast: Daniel P. Jones, Leanne Letch, Dario Ettia

A gripping, semi-fictional narrative chronicling a middle-aged ex-con's attempt to return to society (and his longtime girlfriend) while somehow steering clear of the violent demons lurking in his past.

Director Amiel Courtin-Wilson scheduled to attend.

 Festival Screenings:
 May 21, SIFF Cinema Uptown, 9:00pm
 June 6, SIFF Cinema Uptown, 4:00pm
 June 9, Pacific Place Cinemas, 9:15pm

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The Imposter
 Press Screening: 2:00pm
 Pathway: I Didn't Know That!

U.S. Distributor: Indomina Media, Inc.
United Kingdom, 2012 (99 minutes)
Director: Bart Layton

A dark-haired, dark-eyed French Algerian man from Spain miraculously passes himself off as a blond-haired, blue-eyed boy from Texas, fooling international officials and, most incredibly, the boy's family as well in this true, unbelievable story.

Director Bart Layton scheduled to attend.

 Festival Screenings:
 May 23, SIFF Cinema Uptown, 8:30pm
 May 29, Harvard Exit, 9:00pm

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TUESDAY, MAY 15

The Eye of the Storm
 Press Screening: 10:00am
 Pathway: Give Me Drama!

Australia, 2011 (114 minutes)
Director: Fred Schepisi
Cast: Charlotte Rampling, Geoffrey Rush, Judy Davis, Helen Morse, Alexandra Schepisi

Based on the novel by Nobel laureate Patrick White, this mordantly witty drama features Charlotte Rampling as dying matriarch Elizabeth Hunter, who holds a manipulative grip on her estranged would-be heirs (Geoffrey Rush and Judy Davis).

Director Fred Schepisi scheduled to attend.

 Festival Screenings:
 May 25, Everett Performing Arts Center, 6:30pm
 May 26, Egyptian Theatre, 4:00pm
 May 27, Egyptian Theatre, 6:30pm

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Liberal Arts
 Press Screening: noon
 Pathway: Creative Streak

U.S. Distributor: IFC Films
USA, 2012 (98 minutes)
Director: Josh Radnor
Cast: Josh Radnor, Elizabeth Olsen, Richard Jenkins, Allison Janney, John Magaro, Elizabeth Reaser, Zac Efron

In this charming romance of intellects with a star-studded cast, a 35-year-old college grad returns to his alma mater and finds his life reinvigorated by a spirited sophomore.

 Festival Screenings:
 May 22, Pacific Place Cinemas, 7:00pm
 May 27, SIFF Cinema Uptown, 6:00pm

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Year of Grace
 Press Screening: 2:00pm
 Pathway: Make Me Laugh

Spain, 2012 (90 minutes)
Director: Ventura Pons
Cast: Rosa María Sardá, Oriol Pla, Santi Millan, Amparo Moreno, Diana Gomez

When young David moves to Barcelona, he finds free room and board with a lonely woman in her 60s. After an explosive beginning, the two develop an unlikely friendship in this sharply observed comedy by one of Spain's best-loved auteurs.

Director Ventura Pons scheduled to attend.

 Festival Screenings:
 May 25, Pacific Place Cinemas, 6:30pm
 May 26, Pacific Place Cinemas, 4:00pm
 May 27, Everett Performing Arts Center, 3:30pm

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WEDNESDAY, MAY 16

Moonrise Kingdom
 Press Screening: 10:00am
 Pathway: Love Me, Do!

U.S. Distributor: Focus Features
USA, 2012 (94 minutes)
Director: Wes Anderson
Cast: Frances McDormand, Bill Murray, Edward Norton, Bruce Willis, Tilda Swinton, Kara Hayward, Jared Gilman

Wes Anderson delivers yet another wonderfully droll yet touching comedy about Suzy and Sam, two 12-year-olds who run away together, turning a New England island community upside down in more ways than anyone can handle.

 Festival Screenings:
 June 5, Egyptian Theatre, 7:00pm

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Any Day Now
 Press Screening: noon
 Pathway: Give Me Drama!

USA, 2012 (97 minutes)
Director: Travis Fine
Cast: Alan Cumming, Garret Dillahunt, Frances Fisher, Isaac Leyva

Set in the 1970s, this poignant and incendiary drama inspired by a true story, follows a closeted gay couple who embrace an unwanted teenager with Down Syndrome. They become the family he's never had until authorities discover their secret.

Director Travis Fine scheduled to attend.

 Festival Screenings:
 May 26, Harvard Exit, 6:00pm
 May 27, Harvard Exit, 2:30pm

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Step Up to the Plate
 Press Screening: 2:00pm
 Pathway: Creative Streak

U.S. Ditributor: Cinema Guild
France, 2011 (90 minutes)
Director: Paul Lacoste
Cast: Michel Bras, Sebastien Bras

This gorgeously shot, mouth-watering documentary is as much a sumptuous celebration of creative cuisine as it is an insightful meditation on family ties, as restaurateur Michel Bras prepares to hand over the reins of his three-star eatery to his son.

 Festival Screenings:
 May 26, Egyptian Theatre, 1:30pm
 May 29, Egyptian Theatre, 6:45pm
 June 1, Kirkland Performance Center, 6:30pm

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THURSDAY, MAY 17

Unforgivable
 Press Screening: 10:00am
 Pathway: Give Me Drama!

U.S. Distributor: Strand Releasing
France/Italy, 2011 (113 minutes)
Director: André Téchiné
Cast: André Dussollier, Carole Bouquet, Mélanie Thierry, Adriana Asti, Mauro Conte, Andrea Pergolesi

Seductively unspooling in a fluid, fast-moving style, and brimming with love, betrayal, jealousy, and suspicion, Unforgivable follows the journey of a floundering novelist who unsuccessfully comes to Venice to unlock his writer's block.

 Festival Screenings:
 May 23, Harvard Exit, 6:30pm
 May 24, Harvard Exit, 3:30pm

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Update (Wednesday): The scheduled press screening, The Beautiful Game, was cancelled for some reason, and replaced by Hail, which had been cancelled on Tuesday.

The Beautiful Game
 Press Screening: noon
 Pathway: Show Me the World

USA/United Kingdom/Ghana/South Africa, 2012 (88 minutes)
Director: Victor Buhler

"Soccer has a following larger than any one religion," says Archbishop Desmond Tutu in this dynamic portrait of six Africans whose lives are impacted by the sport. Soccer's unifying cultural power is illustrated with infectious verve.

Producer Julian Cautherley scheduled to attend.

 Festival Screenings:
 May 31, SIFF Cinema Uptown, 7:00pm
 June 2, SIFF Cinema Uptown, 12:30pm

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How to Steal 2 Million
 Press Screening: 2:00pm
 Pathway: Thrill Me

South Africa, 2011 (89 minutes)
Director: Charlie Vundla
Cast: John Kani, Hlubi Mboya, Menzi Ngubane, Rapulana Seiphemo, Terry Pheto

After five years in prison, Jack is released to discover that his loyalty to his ex-partner-in-crime has been rewarded with betrayal, a jarring blow that leads him down criminal paths in pursuit of one last lucrative heist.

Director Charlie Vundla scheduled to attend.

 Festival Screenings:
 May 27, SIFF Cinema Uptown, 8:30pm
 May 29, SIFF Cinema Uptown, 3:30pm
 May 31, Harvard Exit, 8:30pm

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[ . . . ]

The first film of the morning was LUV, a drama about a boy in Baltimore who accompanies his uncle Vincent on his quest to raise money to open a crab restaurant. Vincent is just out of prison after eight years, but people he knew before going away are surprised to see him back so soon.

The film's score sometimes obscured the dialog; it's also the most annoying, pretentious score of the film festival so far this year, and may well be the most annoying and pretentious score of the entire festival.

The acting is good, and the boy is very charming. The main fault of the story is that it is rather episodic. All of the scenes are linked together by the quest for Vincent's restaurant money, but there isn't a lot of connection between most of them. I rate the film good overall.

In the line between films, there was a lot of discussion about Eden, which screened yesterday. Although there's a lot of variation between people about the quality of the film, it seems likely to be one of the most talked-about films of the festival.

The second film of the day was Tey, a French-made film set in Senegal. It starts with a man addressing some people offering to tell a story. They want to hear it. The film is about an ordinary, healthy young man who is fated to die at the end of the day, and shows an assortment of scenes scattered through his final day.

I slept through part of this film. I wouldn't have minded much if I had slept through all of it. The music and scenes of Senegal are picturesque, but the events of the day are so ordinary that one would never guess that the man is fated to die, and that everyone in town knows it. I rate the film lackluster.

This week's final press screening was Wetlands, about a family dairy farm in Quebec that is struggling financially, and having problems with their well, which isn't supplying nearly as much water as it used to. Additionally, the son and his parents face typical teen alienation issues.

The very brief description in this week's press screening schedule mentions struggles with sexual identity, but the son's efforts to find gay companionship are so inconsequential to the rest of the film that they feel like an afterthought.

The film's mood is mostly grim; lighter moments are rare enough that I can list most of them:

If one can deal with almost two hours of misfortune, the film has its good points. The lands are beautiful. The mother's and son's acting performances are very good. On the other hand, some of the writing seems unfocused some of the time, and a farm-hand's performance doesn't quite convince me. I rate the film almost good.

One moment of humor came in a discussion after the film. Someone asked whether the credits included the usual disclaimer about the film being made with no harm to animals.

Afterthought: As I wrote above, the second film was so boring that I dozed through parts of it. We might have slipped out if we had been in aisle seats, but we were right near the middle of a mostly-full row. The seats are comfortable and I was fairly sleepy, so I didn't mind a nap anyway. Even if we had slipped out, I'm not sure what we might have done between then and the next film.

J thought the third film sounded like it might be boring too, so we took aisle seats for it, in case we wanted to escape. The film wasn't great, but it held our interest enough that we stuck around.

The first film was Eden, a drama based on a young woman's soon-to-be-published memoir of her experience as a sex slave. It's impossible to make a film about such a topic without presenting the audience with some very unpleasant imagery (unless one sanitizes the horror to the point of trivializing it). That makes the film difficult to watch.

In places, the main character seemed almost implausibly resourceful in the actions she took to survive her captivity, including feigning collaboration with her captors. The title card crediting her as a co-writer (for the story) mostly resolves that question. However, although her survival story is remarkable, and her recent career as an activist against sex trafficking is admirable, the film's depiction of her story elevates her from a hero to a superhero.

The acting is solid, particularly Beau Bridges as a thoroughly corrupt federal marshal. The directing was decent (and the film was a huge step up from the director's tedious previous feature, The Off Hours, which showed at SIFF last year). The film, shot in eastern Washington, shows solid production values. It's not as good as either of the sex trafficking films I saw at last year's SIFF – The Whistleblower and As If I Am Not There – but it is good.

I noticed an anachronism in the film: it includes a scene where a cell phone signal is located by GPS, at a time when it could only have been located by tower triangulation, including raddio signal delay between phones and towers. I submitted the error to the film's IMDB "goofs" page.
Update: My anachronism was approved by IMDB editors for the film's "goofs" page.

Today's second film was the The Mexican Suitcase, a documentary about a suitcase full of photographic negatives, found in Mexico, shot by three noted photojournalists during the Spanish civil war. For viewers who already know quite a bit about that war, or with a strong interest in the history of photojournalism, the film is very good. For others, the film is less accessible.

The film features numerous interviews by people connected to the photographs, but spends too much time with them speaking into the camera; it would have been better to show interviewees briefly, then let them speak off-screen while showing more of the actual photographs. An archaeological dig through a war-era mass grave adds some emotional context to the war, but the film spends more time than necessary on that site.

I rate the film good.

Today's third film was Sleepwalk with Me, a comedy about a stand-up comedian in the early stage of his comedy career. He finds himself very short on funny material until he taps into his struggles with the future of his relationship with his long-term girlfriend. The title refers to his rare sleep disorder: he sleepwalks in a way that reflects his dreams and nightmares.

A lot of films about comedians are less funny than the comedian's comic act. Although I don't know this comedian's routine, that appears to be somewhat true in this case too, but the film is funny. The relationship struggles are realistic, but not as interesting as they should be.

I laughed quite a bit during the film, which is enough for me to rate it good, although I regard it as a guilt pleasure, and I got the impression that I enjoyed it more than most people in the press screening audience.

After the press screenings, J and I and N went to Capitol Hill and hung out at a donut shop, then took N home. By that point in the day, it was almost time for our evening plan, to attend a STIFF (Seattle True Independent Film Festival) screening of four short films at Central Cinema.

(More details later; I need sleep.)

I'm not sure about the titles, but this is a summary of the four shorts:

• A documentary about late-stage cancer survivors. Although it's nice that the people featured survived, the documentary doesn't give any real insight about how they survived or much else except that they're happy to be alive. Poor.
• A documentary about a King County program named "Moms Plus", which provides social workers to mothers with poverty and drug addition problems, to make sure their children grow up in a more healthy environment. It was very good – and included the unfortunate news that funding for the program had been drastically cut due to a state budget crisis. (I'd say the crisis is largely manufactured by Republicans, but the short didn't point fingers.) Very good.
• A documentary about people's reactions to the attacks on the World Trade Center. I didn't find any of the interviews particularly enlightening. Poor.
• A documentary about Seattle Anesthesia Outreach, a medical organization that offers anesthesia care to people in poor countries. The short focused mainly on Ethiopia, which has one hospital that serves four million people. At the beginning of the film, the hospital had a lot of donated equipment in its store rooms – but almost all of it was useless junk donated by hospitals to get tax breaks, rather than to benefit the recipients. SAO volunteers went through the store rooms, reconditioned anything that was actually useful, and discarded things that weren't. The brought in a lot of donated equipment, some of it used but still functional, some of it new. They set up a post-anesthesia recovery ward at the hospital, and trained the hospital's staff on how to maintain the ward and the equipment. The documentary was interesting and inspiring. Very good.
After the screenings, they had appearances by people from the two best shorts. I don't recall what the Moms Plus director said, but J had a nice conversation with her as the crowds were breaking up.

I took notes on the question-and-answer session with some people from SAO and the documentary about it. I mostly didn't include the questions in my notes, but they should be obvious from the answers. I didn't catch the names of the people on stage, so I just labeled them "Doctor 1", "Doctor 2", and "Director".

Doctor: Now they have five anesthesiologist students. [During the film their students were finishing, and it wasn't clear that they'd have a new class.]

Doctor 1: One problem I had with the film was that we couldn't show the poverty without making a spectacle out of the poor people. The wedding scene was pretty but not representative of the poverty.

Director: I didn't want to show too much poverty but we shot a lot. The wedding was to show another side of the country, and to inspire supporters.

Doctor 1: During the film, I was gawking at the film-making process, the film-makers were gawking at the medicine.

Doctor: I started to learn the rhythm of the procedures so I could anticipate how to shoot the scenes. I did some of the PACU [post-anesthesia care unit] construction, to better understand the process.

Doctor 2: We've had another team there since, and [Doctor 1] is going next week, and another later this year.

Host: Go ahead and talk with these guys at the restaurant after-party.

Audience comment: I'm from Ethiopia and was treated there for epilepsy, and they had trouble reading the machines.

After the film, many of us went to Kokeb Ethiopian restaurant (816 12th Avenue), which donated its food and space for the after-party. The food was delicious and the party was nice. I took some pictures, and while I sent them to the organizer of the event I haven't prepared them for sharing here.

The first film today was The Sex of the Angels, a Spanish and Brazilian relationship comedy. Bruno and Carla are a couple, but when Bruno meets Rai he discovers that he's bi. Carla isn't pleased, but things get more complicated.

I get the impression that the film tries to have a serious side about bisexuality and relationships, but I'm not convinced. The comedy is pretty good, however, particularly when the supporting cast are on screen. The acting is generally good, but the guy who played Rai is a better dancer than an actor.

Another point of interest about the film is that it has several sex scenes. The straight sex scenes were very sexy, and included full nudity for Carla, but the gay sex scenes were fairly restrained. All of the main actors look good.

Very early in the film there was a great scene of Rai dancing to live music. That scene's music was excellent. It started with a flutist, added a drummer and a hip hop scratching DJ, and finally a saxophone player – performing an admirable cover of Herbie Hancock's Rockit.

Anyone who saw last year's SIFF selection 3 noticed similarities with this one. This one had much younger, better-looking cast, and quite a bit more story outside of the relationship issues. 3 was better directed (it was Tom Tykwer, after all), better acted, and told a more convincing relationship story. This one was in Spanish and 3 was in German.

The subtitles were loaded with typos.

The second film was Las Acacias, an Argentine film that had very little to do with acacias. Ruben is a truck driver with a load of acacia logs he's transporting from Paraguay to Buenos Aires. He agrees to take Jacinta on as a passenger, but isn't so pleased about her five-month-old daughter Anahi.

On the plus side, the film is very well performed, has a convincing transition from a driver-passenger relationship to friendship, and looks great on screen. On the minus side, some of the shots seemed to move so slowly it felt like we the audience were stuck in the logging truck with Ruben, Jacinta, and the baby for the entire 1300 km ride, not just for the film's 82 minute duration. I dozed a little. I rate it almost good, but others at the screening seemed to rate it lower than that.

Today's third film was Valley of Saints, another three-character film. This one is set on Dal Lake in Srinagar, the summer capital of Kashmir in India.

Friends Gulzar and Afzal live on a lake, working the tourist trade, but they plan to move to Delhi as soon as they can afford it. A military lock-down traps student-scientist Asifa at an uncle's houseboat hotel, and they have to see to her care. Both find her attractive – though unattainable – but while helping her with her ecological science work a friendship develops.

The pacing of the film was deliberate, but the acting was very good, and a big part of the film is the scenery: the beauty of the lake and the pollution and poverty. I rate it good, but I would only recommend it to patient people.

Mostly off-topic: Looking up that Wikipedia page, I see that the lake actually would be interesting to a lake scientist, due to seasonal thermal stratification.

The first film was Starbuck, a comedy that the SIFF capsule summary pitches as a "guaranteed crowd-pleaser", centered on a man who had been a sperm donor in his youth, and fathered hundreds of children, some of whom wanted to know his identity. It also has sub-plots about his apparent loan-shark debts, a very strained romance, and his family.

On the positive side, the comedy aspect of the film is very good, the emotional side is good, and some of the supporting acting is quite strong. On the negative side, the plot is full of holes, some of the dialog is sloppy (though supporting actors pull it off), some of the supporting characters don't seem credible, and several of the lead roles are not so well acted. I'd rate the film almost good, but a guilty pleasure.

The second film was Elena, an action-packed Russian thriller. No, not really. It was a very slow-moving drama with no sympathetic characters over age ten. The title character is married to a wealthy Russian – presumably wealthy from war profiteering or some similarly unsavory source of riches; they live in a beautiful luxury apartment. She helps support her slacker son's family with his money, and hopes to help get her slacker grandson into university in spite of his lousy grades. He has an ungrateful young daughter. Discussing his will, he reveals that he'd rather give the bulk of his wealth to his daughter than cut her family in on some of the money – and she's not pleased.

The events that matter in the film might have made a decent 44-minute television "hour" of drama, but stretching the story to 109 minutes slows the pace and introduces some pointless scenes. The acting is good. The set design is very good. The Philip Glass score would have been intrusive if it had been used more, but it only played when nothing else was happening; it was very good in that context. Overall, it was fair.

The third film was How to Survive a Plague, a documentary about ACT-UP and the early years of the AIDS crisis, during which ACT-UP was a strong force in pushing for more research for HIV and civil rights protections for AIDS victim and LGBT people. It's a very good documentary, but mostly of interest to people who are already curious about the subject matter.

I had an interest because J was in ACT-UP way back when, so I could see some of the history of the political activism she was involved in.

In conversation after the press screening films, we heard good buzz about the film The Island President, which isn't a SIFF 2012 film, but was showing in the largest screening room at SIFF Cinema at the Uptown. On a whim, we decided to give it a try.

First, however, I walked over to the SIFF Film Center, which also houses SIFF's offices. There I picked up another box of SIFF fliers so I can continue my volunteer flier delivery work without running out. I carried it back to the Uptown and asked an employee to set it aside until after the film.

J and I then watched The Island President, a documentary about Maldives President Mohamed Nasheed, whose country will disappear under the waters of the Indian Ocean unless the problem of climate change is solved and the atmospheric carbon dioxide level is frozen at recent levels.

The film includes a section about events that have little to do with the climate change issue. That elevated the film from a simple issue movie to something more interesting and surprising. The core topic was interesting too. The production values were very high, and the film was backed by a lot of major charitable and science organizations. I rate it excellent.

I arrived at the training just as it was starting, and sat down next to J. The group was about two-thirds women. We took notes during the volunteer coordinators' description of the jobs, then the question-and-answer. Finally, we had individual interviews with the coordinators, to make sure we were good fits for the jobs. It ran about an hour and a quarter.

After a break of about 45 minutes, we went to another training session for a different part of the same volunteer group. The training session was pretty much the same procedure, except that the group was about two-thirds men, and the Q-and-A ran a bit longer.

The two training sessions kept us busy until time for Sunday brunch. However, along the way, J stopped at the Capitol Hill farmers' market and bought some asparagus and fresh eggs.

Two of the brunch regulars were absent, and we had one occasional group member present, for a total of five. This was a special brunch: the planning meeting for our social group to discuss the SIFF catalog, and make plans for seeing films as a group when the timing works out, and make plans for some of the parties. One great thing about the group planning – aside from making sure that we all actually get around to looking through the catalog in some detail – is that in discussing it we may notice worthwhile films we'd overlook if we were looking over the schedule in ones and twos rather than a party of five.

After the main brunch gathering, we talked for a little while with "W" (the occasional brunch group member) about politics. He gave me some advice about my political campaign, and also some suggestions that we can pass on about some other local activism. He knows his stuff in that field.

This evening, J made a delicious dinner for us: salmon, asparagus, pasta salad, and wine. We ate it by candle light. J noticed how pretty the dinner table looked by candle light, and suggested that we set up the camera for a set of high dynamic range (HDR) photos of the dinner and candle. We set it up together, and I walked her through the process.

I told J that I had done an HDR set of perigee full Moon pictures last night when she wasn't looking, and she suggested that we take some more as the Moon rose over water. I liked the idea, so we went to a park and spent over an hour walking through the park and taking pictures. It was quite nice.

As usual, the pictures are still in the camera, and we're both too sleepy to do much with them.

Later in the day, we caught J's dog with a couple of the waffles on the rug near her dog-bed, chewing on them, and a few more of them on kitchen floor. The dog isn't supposed to go in the kitchen at all, so she was violating the rules – particularly knocking human food down from a counter. A lot of people would write that off as normal dog behavior, but J has her dog trained so well that it was out of the ordinary for her to try to get away with that, even though we were out of the house.

Later in the day, we went out on errands. First stop was at a grocery store. On our way out, we encountered a couple of volunteers selling tree seedlings to raise funds for a political group. J and I were already familiar with the group – and we're acquainted with one of the group's organizers. We mentioned the group leader to the volunteers, and they knew her too. Rather than a "six degrees of separation" moment, it was two degrees. I bought a seedling.

Another errand was a trip to a plant sale, run by some of J's friends. I think we bought nine plants in gallon pots – quite a haul.

We returned home, and I planted the seedling. J started gardening, and continued for quite a few hours. One other thing I did outside was to measure the tree I had cut down a while back. Adding the cut portion to the height of the remaining trunk, the tree had been 21½ feet tall.

I went back out, to get to work on my film festival volunteer work, distributing the SIFF fliers I had picked up yesterday. Since I know the Eastside quite well, I had volunteered to do the work there. I dropped off about 150 fliers at a bunch of locations in Bellevue, in Factoria, downtown, and Crossroads. Most of the downtown locations were closed, however, so I'll have to visit them again next time I'm on the Eastside during those places' hours.

Along with the two boxes of fliers, I had received a spreadsheet with a list of locations, and how many fliers I should leave at each. I took that to mean that the people at the locations would be expecting the fliers, but at most of them no one knew about them. However, all of them were quite helpful, tracking down a manager, finding a place for the fliers themselves, telling me they'd leave a note for an absent manager, and so forth. It went pretty smoothly, other than the places that were closed.

Nerd humor:

When I had picked up the SIFF fliers yesterday, I mentioned to J that, to find the best route for distributing the fliers, I would have to solve the "traveling salesman problem. She laughed, or at least smiled. I was quite pleased that she got the joke, or even recognized that I had attempted to make a joke.

A small bonus during the driving around was the music. The radio station I most often listen to, KPLU, has a weekend treat in their programming: a blues show titled "All Blues". It's nice to have good music while out working.

Tonight I did a little catching up on my journal, filling in holes where I had been too sleepy to write much but promised to fill in later, mostly by expanding mini-reviews a little bit, from little more than title lists up to full paragraphs, or maybe a little more.

PASS HOLDER NEWS

4 MAY 2012

Dear Steve,

Here it is, the second week's press screening schedule of films!

The first week went very well, and everyone got in the grove of the a new venue within one day. The feedback from all of you has been extremely helpful and very appreciated.

Looking forward to seeing all of you next week!

Thank you,
Renee C. O'Donnell
Director of Individual Giving

P.S. As always, please contact me directly with any questions you might have!

[ . . . ]

---

MONDAY, MAY 7

Starbuck
 Press Screening: 10:00am
 Pathway: Make Me Laugh

U.S. Distributor: eOne Films US
Canada (Quebec), 2011 (109 minutes)
Director: Ken Scott
Cast: Patrick Huard, Antoine Bertrand, Julie le Breton, David Michael, Patrick Martin

The audience favorite focuses on a lovable underachiever who finds his visits to the local sperm bank have made him the father of several hundred children, who now want to meet him in this light-hearted, guaranteed crowd-pleaser.

 Festival Screenings:
 May 31, Kirkland Performance Center, 8:00pm
 June 1, Egyptian Theatre, 6:30pm
 June 7, Egyptian Theatre, 9:00pm

---

Elena
 Press Screening: noon
 Pathway: Give Me Drama!

U.S. Distributor: Zeitgeist Films
Russia, 2011 (109 minutes)
Director: Andrei Zvyagintsev
Cast: Andrey Smirnov, Nadezhda Markina, Elena Lyadova, Alexey Rozin

A gripping, modern twist on the classic noir thriller, a housewife in Moscow hatches a desperate plan to keep her inheritance after her husband alters his will in this stylish exploration of crime, punishment and human nature.

 Festival Screenings:
 May 18, Pacific Place Cinemas, 11:00am
 May 24, Pacific Place Cinemas, 7:00pm

---

How to Survive a Plague
 Press Screening: 2:00pm
 Pathway: Give Me Drama!

U.S. Distributor: Sundance Selects
USA, 2012 (110 minutes)
Director: David France

Unavoidably elegiac yet also defiantly joyous, this stirring history of AIDS activism revisits the controversial tactics of ACT UP and TAG, whose street-savvy members challenged governmental indifference and Big Pharma to achieve remarkable breakthroughs in HIV treatment.

Director David France scheduled to attend.

 Festival Screenings:
 May 20, Harvard Exit, noon
 May 21, Pacific Place Cinemas, 9:00pm

---

TUESDAY, MAY 8

The Sex of the Angels
 Press Screening: 10:00am
 Pathway: Love Me, Do!

Spain/Brazil, 2012 (105 minutes)
Director: Xavier Villaverde
Cast: Astrid Berges-Frisbey, lvaro Cervantes, Lloren Gonzalez

Bruno loves Carla, but when he meets handsome dancer Rai, serious bisexual sparks fly. A new generation navigates sexual fluidity and open relationships in this steamy love triangle.

Director Xavier Villaverde scheduled to attend.

 Festival Screenings:
 May 18, Egyptian Theatre, 9:15pm
 May 20, SIFF Cinema Uptown, 2:30pm
 June 5, Kirkland Performance Center, 8:30pm

---

Las Acacias
 Press Screening: noon
 Pathway: Show Me the World

U.S. Distributor: Outsider Pictures
Argentina/Spain, 2011 (85 minutes)
Director: Pablo Giorgelli
Cast: German de Silva, Hebe Duarte, Nayra Calle Mamani

A gruff Argentine truck driver is displeased when the woman he agreed to drive 900 miles to Buenos Aires shows up with a baby, but during the journey they develop a touching, hesitant connection.

 Festival Screenings:
 May 19, Egyptian Theatre, 4:30pm
 May 26, Harvard Exit, 4:00pm
 May 28, SIFF Cinema Uptown, 5:30pm

---

Valley of Saints
 Press Screening: 2:00pm
 Pathway: Show Me the World

India/USA, 2012 (82 minutes)
Director: Musa Syeed
Cast: Gulzar Ahmad Bhat, Mohammed Afzal Sofi, Neelofar Hamid

Gulzar plans to leave his poor Kashmir Valley village until he meets a young woman who's researching the local lake. Musa Syeed's luminous intertwining of personal and environmental conflicts won Sundance's World Cinema Audience Award.

Director Musa Syeed scheduled to attend.

 Festival Screenings:
 May 18, Harvard Exit, 9:00pm
 May 19, Harvard Exit, noon
 June 3, Kirkland Performance Center, 6:00pm

---

WEDNESDAY, MAY 9

Eden
 Press Screening: 10:00am
 Pathway: Give Me Drama!

USA, 2012 (98 minutes)
Director: Megan Griffiths
Cast: Jamie Chung, Matt O'Leary, Beau Bridges

Local director Megan Griffiths shines a light on a sinister corner of the American experience with this highly emotional and harrowing true-life story of Chong Kim, a teenager who was abducted and forced into sexual slavery.

Director Megan Griffiths scheduled to attend.

 Festival Screenings:
 May 19, Egyptian Theatre, 9:15pm
 May 21, SIFF Cinema Uptown, 4:30pm
 May 29, Everett Performing Arts Center, 8:30pm

---

The Mexican Suitcase
 Press Screening: noon
 Pathway: Creative Streak

Mexico/Spain, 2011 (86 minutes)
Director: Trisha Ziff

More than 4,500 negatives taken by photographers Robert Capa, Gerda Taro, and David Seymour during the Spanish Civil War were found in a Mexico City closet, and their discovery illuminates the present as much as the past.

Director Trisha Ziff scheduled to attend.

 Festival Screenings:
 May 18, SIFF Cinema Uptown, 3:30pm
 May 19, SIFF Cinema Uptown, 8:30pm
 June 3, Pacific Place Cinemas, 9:00pm

---

Sleepwalk With Me
 Press Screening: 2:00pm
 Pathway: Make Me Laugh

U.S. Distributor: IFC Films
USA, 2012 (90 minutes)
Director: Mike Birbiglia
Cast: Mike Birbiglia, Lauren Ambrose, Carol Kane, James Rebhorn, Cristin Milioti

Frequent "This American Life" contributor Mike Birbiglia uses impressive visual and verbal wit to bring his hilarious and heartbreaking one-man-show to the screen.

 Festival Screenings:
 May 23, SIFF Cinema Uptown, 9:00pm
 May 19, Harvard Exit, 9:00pm

---

THURSDAY, MAY 10

LUV
 Press Screening: 10:00am
 Pathway: Give Me Drama!

U.S. Distributor: Indomina Media, Inc.
USA, 2012 (94 minutes)
Director: Sheldon Candis
Cast: Common, Michael Rainey Jr., Dennis Haysbert, Danny Glover, Charles S. Dutton, Lonette McKee, Michael Kenneth Williams

A shy, 11-year-old boy is captivated by the sudden appearance of his charming ex-con uncle, Vincent (Common), but discovers, over the course of a single day, that growing up involves some harsh lessons.

Director Sheldon Candis scheduled to attend.

 Festival Screenings:
 May 18, SIFF Cinema Uptown, 8:30pm
 May 19, Renton IKEA Performing Arts Center, 7:15pm

---

Tey
 Press Screening: noon
 Pathway: Give Me Drama!

Senegal/France, 2012 (86 minutes)
Director: Alain Gomis
Cast: Saul Williams, Djolof M'Bengue, Anisa Uzeyman, Mariko Arame, Aîssa Maiga

Although Satche is strong and healthy, he must accept that today is the last day of his life in this extraordinarily poetic portrait of a man's final day with the people and places of his life.

Director Alain Gomis and actor Saul Williams scheduled to attend.

 Festival Screenings:
 May 18, SIFF Cinema Uptown, 6:00pm
 May 19, SIFF Cinema Uptown, 2:30pm

---

Wetlands
 Press Screening: 2:00pm
 Pathway: Give Me Drama!

Canada (Quebec), 2011 (111 minutes)
Director: Guy Édoin
Cast: Pascale Bussières, Gabriel Maillé, Luc Picard, François Papineau, Angèle Coutu, Denise Dubois

A family struggling together to save their ecologically imperiled dairy farm must also deal with mourning, forgiveness, and sexual identity through the prism of a rocky mother-son relationship.

Director Guy Édoin scheduled to attend.

 Festival Screenings:
 May 18, SIFF Cinema Uptown, 3:00pm
 May 19, Harvard Exit, 6:00pm
 May 22, Harvard Exit, 9:30pm

---

[ . . . ]

This afternoon, we went to Bellevue to visit my parents. We had some pleasant conversation and social time together. We also took care of a paperwork item that had been languishing for a while because we've been so busy with SIFF screenings lately. (One of my paperwork items was the "political homework" I wrote about on Thursday: filing as a candidate to the national Democratic convention in North Carolina.)

My visit was interrupted when I got e-mail from Shiftboard announcing that SIFF needed volunteers for an assortment of jobs. I signed up as a "Street Team distribution" volunteer, which involves picking up a bunch of film catalog booklets and distributing them at various locations that had agreed to distribute them. The timing wasn't very good for traffic, so I paid the 520 bridge toll on the way to Seattle to get there during office hours. They only had two boxes of booklets for me, but they said they'd have more on Monday; I can pick them up after press screenings. Timing was more flexible for the trip back to the Eastside, so I took the I-90 bridge; traffic was surprisingly light.

Back at my parents' place, we were all joined by my brother and his girlfriend, and we decided to go out for dinner. My parents weren't all that hungry, but J and I went with my brother and his girlfriend to dinner at a restaurant within walking distance. The restaurant had some neat art on the walls. The food was good, but the dinner menu is a lot pricier than the lunch menu.

After dinner, J and I headed home. Traffic wasn't bad at all. We had been invited to the Northwest Film Forum's annual fund-raiser, which had a black-and-white theme. We dressed up in our interpretation of the theme, mostly black for "J" and my film noir suit, which is what most guys in black-and-white films. There was a live band and lots of dancing.

I have more details, but I need sleep.

Continuing (Saturday): J noted that we did a lot of dancing too. I can't claim that I danced well, but I enjoyed it, mostly because I could see how much fun J was having at the dancing. I took a number of pictures with my phone-camera. Naturally, most of them were crappy. But I got at least one nice one of J and some other nice ones of the place. Unfortunately, I can't find the cable I use to connect the phone to the computer. I could probably upload them directly from the phone somehow, but that would require too much RTFM for now.

It was a neat place. Out in the back there was a large enclosed patio area, shared with some other businesses, including one with an antique car visible through the gate. There were some couches upstairs too, where we relaxed together for a while.

Besides the dancing, we happened to drive right past a SIFF friend's business on the way to and from the ballroom where the party was held. I'll have to tell her that next time we see her. The friend started the business right after buying a life pass to SIFF – and due to the rigors of running a business she hardly got to go to any SIFF films. This year it looks like she has the place established well enough that she can spare more time off, which is nice.

Along the way to the theater, we heard an interesting story about on Morning Edition – "Watching The Avengers in India, with a twist" – and decided that it would be a subject worth discussion between films at SIFF. (Brief summary: the story said that film companies have started releasing big US-made films outside the US first, to head off piracy, then released in the US.) As it turned out, however, we forgot about the story until we had already returned home.

Today's first film was Do-Deca-Pentathlon, a comedy about a pair of brothers who created their own 25-event competition as kids in 1990, then decided to repeat the competition as adults. One brother is a professional poker player bachelor, the other is married with a son, and they all meet at their mother's house. The contest generates a lot of tension among the family members.

The film is mostly funny, but near the end the story loses focus somewhat. The film had a choice between a more realistic non-conclusive end and a more dramatically satisfying conclusion; the choice of the more realistic ending was unconventional. The acting is uneven, but adequate for a comedy. The camera work was odd; I was puzzled by the frequent use of jump-zooms, and others found the hand-held camera too shaky (though it didn't bother me). Overall, I found it almost good.

The second film was High Ground, a documentary about a group of wounded soldiers taken on a Himalayan mountain climbing expedition. The wounds include amputations, blindness, brain injuries, and post-traumatic stress disorder. The film alternates between scenic shots of the mountains, the story of the mountain climbing, and the personal stories of the wounded soldiers. The soldier stories are very interesting, as was a non-soldier: a mother with three sons in the military.

Unfortunately, I was over-stretched on sleep by that point, and struggled to stay awake during the latter part, even though the film was interesting, so I missed a few brief sections.

The film was well photographed, found good stories to tell, and assembled them effectively. I rate it good.

The final film was Trishna, a drama based on Tess of the d'Urbervilles, translated into modern India by an English director. The translation to film necessarily abbreviated the story, and moving it from Long Depression era England to modern India required various adjustments too. (I haven't read the book, so I compare the film with the Wikipedia summary of the book rather than the book itself.) Given the changes in era, setting, and medium, the translation is pretty faithful – and sometimes following the book forces the lead character into directions that seem out of character with the way she had been presented earlier in the film.

The directing, acting, and technical aspects are great; the success of the film depends mostly on the viewer's impression of the story. A lobby discussion after the film gave me the impression that fans of the book are likely to be generally pleased. As someone who hasn't read the book, and hadn't read a summary until after seeing it, I was less pleased with the film's story. Overall, I rate it almost good, but I'd still recommend it to fans of the book.

After all the films, we went to our usual hairdresser, where I got a haircut. It's pretty much the same as recent cuts, or maybe a bit shorter.

I have some more political homework to complete soon, but that will have to wait until morning.

Update: I finished the political homework on Friday, and finished my mini-review of Trishna on Saturday.

An incremental path to universal health care: Medicare for Babies

Whereas Medicare grants patients access to inexpensive preventive care and early treatment at much lower cost than expensive emergency room care; and

Whereas babies' average medical expenses (though more costly than those of older children and young adults) are much lower than the expenses of current Medicare recipients, adding babies to Medicare would be relatively inexpensive; and

Whereas babies in their first year of life number roughly 1.4% of the population (and a similar number for the second each additional year of age); and

Whereas adopting universal health care all at once would risk harmful and politically damaging "growing pains" as Medicare administrators struggle to keep up with a huge, sudden increase in covered population (currently about 15% of the population), but adding babies only would be a manageable addition to Medicare roles; and

Whereas Medicare's overhead of 2% to 3% is many times more efficient than private insurance overhead of 25% to 35%, and phasing out that overhead waste would reduce total health care expenditures; and

Whereas transferring funding from federal-state health programs to Medicare would cover much of the cost of Medicare for babies, possibly all of it; and

Whereas almost everyone loves babies; and

Whereas members of Congress may hesitate to vote against babies' needs; and

Whereas Republicans have effectively targeted scare tactics at the Affordable Care Act that would not work against Medicare because of Medicare's familiarity and popularity; and

Whereas Republicans in some state governments sometimes reject federal matching funds to avoid paying the cost of the state's share of programs they oppose; and

Whereas after parents experience Medicare for their babies, they will support an increase in the age limit so their children don't lose benefits; and

Whereas incrementally expanding Medicare to universal coverage might take many years, it could be faster than an endless sequence of universal plans that are killed before they ever begin; and

Whereas the King County Democratic Platform (adopted at the convention of April 29, 2012) declares that "We believe a single-payer system, enacted statewide and ultimately nationally, would provide the most affordable comprehensive, coordinated, and effective health care;

Therefore, be it resolved that we call on our representatives in the US Congress to expand Medicare coverage to all babies in their first two years of life; and

Be it further resolved that we support efforts to incrementally raise the age limit for child Medicare, so that no child who gains Medicare benefits ever loses them; and

Be it further resolved that we query our members of the House and Senate about their intentions to support "Medicare for Babies".

Submitted by [my full name, phone, and e-mail].
Passed (in less formal language) by Precinct [my home precinct] and approved by [my home legislative district] District Democrats, April 15, 2012.