I always enjoy going back down south, enjoying the friendly people, the laid-back atmosphere and the weather after cold, busy and stressed out New York. This was my experience as soon as I got in the cab at the airport in Charleston.
I felt a bit unprepared as we didn't get much information about what was going on apart from the schedule that is available on the film festival website. I'm not sure if this is normal for most festivals and later on I realized that it was simply a taste of my time yet to come in Charleston.
I arrived for the mixer on Thursday at 5pm advertised as the event to kick off the festival. I was the first person to pick up my pass from the theatre which made it hard to differenciate between who at the festival was a filmmaker and who was a member of the general public. I was given a small sample of food from the restaurant in the hopes that I would then buy dinner. However, having already eaten I only bought a beer and read through the schedule booklet to keep myself busy. The booklet was really well done and had a very interesting selection of films, a lot of which were from North and South Carolina and made by students at the local film and media colleges.
I did ended up meeting a really nice lady who sat next to me, but unfortunately she had just come into the restaurant for dinner. I was able to pitch my screenplay to her which was great practice so I was glad I had introduced myself proving that I wasn't as scared of or as bad at networking as I thought! Just a shame it wasn't someone part of the festival.
I headed into the first block of films opened by a local filmmaker. His film called Search is about a local hotel worker who feels an affinity to a young autistic boy who has gone missing. She starts researching into his disappearance as she struggles with her own medical problems. We learn that the boy has died of exposure in the woods but continues to visit the woman as her medical problems get worse. In the end she dies and joins the boy in the after life.
The film did have some interesting shots in it and the story line was worthy of a short film, but tended to lean toward the sentimental and the relationship between the boy and the woman could have been more fully explored in order to connect the audience with these characters better.
The feature that followed was an Australian film called The Black Balloon by Elissa Down. The theatre was in no way sold out but the reaction from the people in the audience around me was powerful. This is a beautiful character story based on some really challenging issues. I really connected with the main characters all of whom gave stellar performances full of emotion. While some reviewers have found the film too sentimental and glossy I think that the writer and director did a great job of balancing the emotional highs with great humor that gives so much insight into the Australian culture. Definitely my favorite film of the year so far! A must see!
Seeing that my hopes of meeting lots of people in the industry were so far not yet met I decided to make the most of my pass and watch as many movies as possible so I headed into block number 4. This block consisted of two animations and a road movie called Fix.
In the theatre most people were locals or festival goers without passes again giving me no clue who anyone was (passes are great openers if you can read them so people don't become nameless bodies in the crowd). I did unknowingly meet one of the co-founders of the festival who introduced themselves using only their name. They told me where to get tickets once I told them my name and showed them my pass, but that was it in terms of a greeting and it wasn't until they were later introduced before one of the movies that I made the connection to who they were. No disrespect because they were very friendly and nice, but I just thought that a co-founder would have done more to connect with someone who submitted to the festival and was selected. Was it because I was only a screenwriter and wasn't showing a film? I have no idea. Maybe it was because I wasn't local, but I have a feeling that the biggest connections made by the creators of the festival were with those that they already knew locally or out-of-state (if their were any...I have a feeling I may have been the only crazy one to spend money going down there during a recession!)
The first animation called Toumai was stylized in a way I had never before seen and beautiful to look at. I have no idea how you would describe the style as animation is definitely not an art I know much about. The story is about a man who struggles to defy nature by creating the ultimate man-made flying machine. I really liked the animation although I didn't really understand what was going on in the story until it was over. Definitely worth a watch though.
The next animation called High Hopes was created around comedian Steve Hofstetter's stand-up comedy. I had never heard of this comedian before, but I enjoyed his humor and felt that the animation did a great job of representing the tone and ideas behind the jokes. Interesting watch!
The road movie Fix was reviewed as a mix between Go and Arrested Development which had me a little worried as that kind of comedy takes me time to get into. However I loved Go so decided to give it a shot. The idea was interesting - Milo getting his brother to rehab in the 15 hours he has after he leaves jail to get to the rehab center. I really enjoyed the beginning of the film, but ultimately what kept me from really getting behind the film was the performances. For how antagonistic the characters were towards each other there was too much grinning going on to really believe this was how the characters felt. I thought the main actress was the weakest link and unfortunately for me she was on the screen for most of the film. The filming style reminded me of Cloverfield but with less shakiness. Some of the shots felt really forced and unnatural just to get the action that was taking place when the camera was supposed to be off. However, the audience seemed to enjoy it so I think that this film just wasn't my thing. Ultimately the writing ruined the film right in the opening for me. The main characters spoke about how they didn't want to make a film about a dysfunctional, rich-kid, drug addict who had no real reason to make such a mess of his life making audiences not feel bad for him - by the end of the film this is exactly how I felt. That was dangerous ground to walk so early on and I may not really have focused on that idea if it hadn't been stated by the actors so early on. It was like a filmmaker disclaimer for what we were about to watch.
Some technical errors in the projection booth during the screeners, nothing huge but they didn't end up being the only errors this weekend, unfortunately.
Having sat through two blocks of films and one mixer a theme started to occur to me. Most of the people around me seemed to be local movie-goers or friends and family of the filmmakers all of whom were local. While it's great that the local film community has a film festival to bring them together to make connections and learn how to improve the industry in the area, as an out-of-stater who's a foreigner in the country for the most part I felt very far removed from the festival social scene. I had no idea how to assimilate myself with any of the filmmakers at the festival because they were constantly surrounded by the people in their movies or family. For an international festival it all seemed very local to me.
Spent about $20 on taxis today. The email correspondence I received prior to my arrival had said that those from New York could walk to the theatre from the hotels suggested although it might take a while. I was hoping this might be true, but I would have had to walk along a two-lane highway and over a bridge (some of which had no real sidewalk). While it wouldn't have been impossible to walk to the theatre there's a reason why everyone in southern cities have cars - it's not very realistic to walk. Note to self: next time rent a car!
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