This day started out Cold! It was 15 degrees and I was reminded of "Siberia Monamour."
My street’s resident coyote trotted across the yard and up my neighbor’s driveway looking alert and wary.
Sallie and I went to the Rustic to see "Condor’s Shadow," a well done, thoughtful film documenting the resurgence of the California Condor. This film was so well done and compelling I went home and compared the costs of non-lead shotgun ammunition to the standard lead ammunition used by hunters that is the source of lead poisoning of condors.
This seems to be the only danger in the wild these magnificent birds face. As much as I liked this film, the length was an issue here as in many of the feature films. As a 90 minute film, it was 20 minutes too long. This was the first film of the day; I loved the content and was engrossed by the message, enthusiastic about the quality of the cinematography, but still felt my eyelids drooping toward the end.
We snapped out of our stupor and met Lou and Annamarie at the Caine for "The Box," "Lockwood" and "Beyond the Dead End."
"The Box" was a first attempt by a mother-son team. The acting was a little stiff but showed promise for these two very young actors. The location was well chosen and beautiful.
"Lockwood," filmed in Coloma, a historic California town showed lots of attention to historic detail. The venue was a problem with the ambient light. The last scenes were so dark that it was very difficult to make out details with the light pouring in from the door and windows. It was projected on a beige wall rather than a proper screen making it even more difficult to see. This did not affect the other films I saw there.
"Beyond the Dead End" was a wonderful film. Shot in Iran, it could have been from anywhere with its universal message. This was a first film and one of the best of the Festival.
We were scheduled to see "As High as The Sky," but it was at AstroCamp which was too physically painful so we saw "One Wall" — a fascinating documentary about an obscure sport, handball played in Coney Island. The film makers held a great Question and Answer session. Film students from New York helped provide the enormous amount of film necessary to document the two years of filming. Alas it too was too long.
I’m glad that Gary King had a good time making "What’s up Lovely." The color and photography were very good but when they got to the “we haven’t bothered to write a plot or script” part, I lost interest. The use of streaks of neon used to denote the passage of time was interesting until it became just filler instead. "To Live and Try in L.A." was ok, but we’ve already seen many versions of this film.
We went to have dinner at the Bella Montana, which is quite good when they have all the things on the menu available.
Annamarie and Sallie went back to the Rustic Theater and caught the last of "Things I Don’t Understand" and Lou and I went to the "Vertical Pre-party". Both of us have a five second background part right at the first part of the film and we just wanted to see what was going on.
There was a zoo effect getting into the Rustic to see "Vertical." The theater had to be emptied and then re-filled with ticket holders. Next year I presume there will be better organization. Steve Savage introduced Vertical as a work in progress and I could see where a little more work will be done; not much, but some.
I loved Veronica Alt as the dispatcher. She had few lines but the acting ability in her left eyebrow spoke volumes. Wonderful! It was also fun to see the locals such as Norm Dreeson.
I am looking forward to seeing the finished project since all the bones of a Steve Savage film were there. The final scene on the top of Lilly Rock was great. I haven’t seen this view for many, many years. The last time was in the 1960s when I was climbing with the Sierra Club.
This was a great day. I was so looking forward to seeing "Vertical" that I’m glad I did not wait to see it Sunday. The atmosphere in the Rustic was exciting. There were so many enthusiastic people.
