Opening night of Cucalorus

The crowd at Jengo's was very excited and lots of background noise were included. rumblings and mumblings exuded as i walked into the darkened theater. i grabbed the first seat i could get as i came in as the intro shorts finished. The first film was "West Bank Story" and was a spoof comedy musical surrounding love, jihadism, racial tension, but most importantly: Love. Very funny at parts this film seemed overly produced for this genre, but amused the audience greatly. This film was too long and could have been edited shorter and included too many unnecessary shots. the next film was the feature doc:The Film Class. this film was very appealing in its Cinema Verite style. The subject matter was intense and interesting and time passed quickly. i felt this film, although assembled by amateurs, included way too many shaky shots. i saw tripods in this film i think they should have used them more. the important theme in the film was the message and i do think that that was clear in its presentation. if the subject matter was not as serious and if the filmmakers did not have so many obstacles to conquer to get this film shown, i feel it would not have been festival worthy just by production value alone, they get a pass living in a third world country and other obvious hardships befalling them. i decided to stay for the shorts that mrs. silva programmed and found 2 of them to be inspiring, the first film (which i cannot remember the title) and the film "elephant music" "elephant music" was dark and somber and gave off feelings of despair and solace. Quite extraordinary actually. The session wrapped with one of the filmmakers Q&A (Penny Lane) and was quite a good time. I learned that without the help of film cooperatives and foundations experimentals would not be as good and possibly non existent. it seemed the better experimental shorts had quite a deal of backing indicated by the lengthy credits. this could be a pro for someone with that kind of access and a con for those without. i really enjoyed "film class" and "elephant music" but could do without west bank story (seemed like a waste of resources, i cant believe it was shot on panavision!) i learned that i need to be there earlier (traffic was kind of bad) and advice i would give would be to research the films you go to see, because you could be stuck paying for a bum film. Not necessarily at this screening, but feedback with other students indicated there were a couple of real stinkers in this years lineup. i'm glad i missed them.

jm