And how the fuck did he get that card in his mouth!?!
Okay let me back up a little bit here.
Tonight I popped my cherry for Newfoundland Film Festivals with the very entertaining Nickel Film Festival with my buddy/co-worker/future roommate Ryan Collins. I've heard of this before(probably from reading it in the back of The Herald while I number 2'ed living at my parents house) but this year I finally decided to attend. I wasn't really sure what to expect at all. I have never even been into the LSPU hall where it was being held and that became painfully clear when we got there to pick up our tickets and we weren't quiet sure if we were going to watch the films in the small room with the 80 inch screen that drinks were bring served in, or if there was another theatre hidden in this building somewhere.
Luckily there was a theatre.
So, no disappointments so far.
Outside the hall there was some pre-screening entertainment in the form of Wonderbolt Circus. While I can assure you it wasn't as fantastic as the name makes it sound, it did offer a guy on stilts juggling and he seemed to have a pretty good grasp of what he was doing. Then there was a guy(whom I can't remember his name, so I'm going to refer to him as simply Mr. Magician) who gladly treated us to some neat card tricks. Being pretty sceptical of magic tricks I was quite amazed with his skills, especially a neat trick that ended up with a card in his mouth. He didn't walk on water or light himself on fire like some of those more theatrical magicians, but he wasn't a giant douche bag either so it was an even trade-off.
Someone got pounded with a sledgehammer in there somewhere too but Mr. Magician made me miss that.
Then the show started. Of course there's your standard introductions to the ceremony with the filmmakers telling you who they are and what they did but that was pleasantly short and sweet. We came to see da movies!
First up, "Pop Flips Out", was a well humoured short animated film that got a decent amount of chuckles. It had a pretty relevant plot to it and even though the visuals were pretty plain, it did what it was supposed to do with 4 minutes of screen time.
Second we had "The Sweetest Hippopotamus". I was expecting a little better from the unique name and small picture that accompanied it in the festival guide but other then looking pretty and being well shot I was a little disappointed.
Thirdly we were treated to a trio of short films shot in the lovely 8mm format about socks, confessions, and something else. These were short, and considering the format, well done but nothing that really stood out. I would love to get my hands on one of those cameras some day and have some fun though. I love the look of the films they produce.
Next up was my favourite of the night, "Meters". Shot in downtown St. John's it was the tale of an old man, recently widowed, getting into shenanigans with some parking meters. I loved it. I thought it was well shot and was surprisingly funny and touching at the same time. The $10 ticket was worth it for me at this point. Some 2hr movies can't get the same point across that this did in 11min.
Finally we got to the main event of the night. The full length documentary "78 Days". This was an extremely well done film that I feel should be available among the excellent crop of documentaries available on Netflix. It followed a group of tree planters working for 78 days straight during the spring/summer months in northern Alberta. I didn't know before watching this what these guys have to go through to plant trees. And I bitch about mowing the lawn? I take it all back. This is backbreaking labour in pretty shitty conditions and the film does a good job of making sure you're aware of how shitty they can be(like any good documentary should). I'm never going to think of heat rash in the same way again. But it showed the payoff, as these guys and girls then get 9 months off out of the year and they seemed to be well versed in enjoying the many monies they get during those rough 3 months.
3 months on, 9 months off. The Albertan dream.
Having it all said and done I can say it was a great night. There was some definite talent showcased tonight and I found it incredibly interesting to see what people do when they're limited to only a few minutes of screen time.
I do have one issue though. I had a conversation with a friend earlier today about how everything I know about Newfoundland entertainment has a common theme. Peacefully humorous. There's no action, no excitement, no thrills, it's all just relaxing and something to laugh at. Which is fine to some degree but I honestly feel it shows us as a pretty boring group of people at times if you're looking in from the outside. I was really hoping this festival was going to help me think otherwise towards this.
So far it hasn't. The only film that had any real violence in it came out of Ontario and the documentary that made planting trees a little bit exciting was done out of Alberta. Everything else was what I would expect of something filmed in good ol' Newfoundland.
Hopefully when I go back Friday night on the "Rated R Night" something will change my mind.
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