SIFF 2013: Week Two, Part One

Sunday, May 26

I started Week Two with some Harold Lloyd action: a 4K digital restoration of Safety Last!, preceded by an unrestored Harold Lloyd short.  While I enjoyed the feature-length film (and it looks gorgeous, with just a few frames missing here and there), I prefer Chaplin and Keaton, even if this film does feature the famous hanging-from-the-clock scene, and some other charming gags.

Still, hearing kids laughing in the audience and talking about the film excitedly afterwards warmed my heart.  I also got a “thank you” for moving my seat so that I wouldn’t be sitting in front of any kids and blocking their view.

The next movie I almost didn’t get into, as it was on standby and my badge only guarantees me a seat if there’s room.  But then, a half hour before the film began, my friend and fellow blogger Marianne called me to say that she had an extra ticket.  I hurriedly checked the bus schedule and ran to the bus stop, then ran off the bus into the theater, getting there at the stroke of four, which is when the movie started.  Luckily, they were still seating, and I was able to find a seat in the balcony.

The film was the world premiere of Her Aim is True, a documentary about legendary rock photographer Jini Dellaccio.  Never heard of her?  Maybe it’s because she worked out of Seattle, not San Francisco.  Still, her album covers for groups such as The Wailers and the Sonics, often taken outside and in a variety of poses, infused the photos with the essence of the bands much more than the lineup photos taken in studios did.  Plus, she was active in the decade before Annie Lebovitz revolutionized rock photography at Rolling Stone.  The movie itself is enjoyable and is great in capturing Jini’s essence and life story, in addition to showing off many of the photos that made her famous.  Now 96, she is still taking photos.  In fact, once the movie ended, I almost ran into the band members featured in the latter part of the film (the Moondoggies) when I went downstairs to get a better seat for photo taking.

A musician herself (she played saxophone in an all-girls jazz band), Jini started taking photos when her husband Carl became worried about her returning home late for gigs.  One of Carl’s friends helped her pick out her first camera: a Leica M3 (she now uses a Hasselblad).  The store manager gave her the greatest advice I’ve ever heard given to a photographer: in order to learn how to use the camera, he gave her the instruction manual and then told her to sit in front of her house with the camera everyday, waiting until a great shot came along.  Once she had used the camera enough that it felt like it was an extension of her arm, then it was time to load it with film.

Jini Dellaccio was in the back of the auditorium herself and received flowers from Karen Whitehead (the director) before the Q & A officially began.  Since I was only halfway to the stage, I got some decent photos of her:

Beth Barrett, director of programming, conducted the Q & A with Whitehead and editor Kelli Boyd.  Whitehead decided on the subject when, in 2009, there was a collection of Jini’s work being exhibited.  Also, a viral video of rockers thanking Jini caught the director’s eye. They had much help from John Jeffcoat at the EMP, who said he would help out with the cinematography for one day and ended up doing the whole film.

Perhaps the most significant part of the Q & A was in seeing three women onstage talking about a film whose subject is another woman.  In fact, one of the questions asked was whether having a female director and editor made a difference.  For Boyd, she kept Whitehead focused on Jini, often asking, “What about Jini?” when Whitehead would focus too much on the era in which the documentary takes place.  In addition, Whitehead said that, as a woman, she was more sensitive to having a balance between men and women in the documentary.

I have now seen two films about photographers: Bill Cunningham New York and Her Aim is True.  While Bill Cunningham is the better film (and one of the best I saw that year), both films are worth seeing.  And in case you think that a documentary about a woman in her 40s taking pictures of rock bands is not interesting, the editor did a private screening with young interns, who not only were enthralled with the film, but also wanted to know why they didn’t know about Jini Dellaccio before.  After seeing this film, you will, too.

(One final note: I met up with Marianne after the Q & A in order to thank her for the ticket.  She told me that she had met Jini, and Jini was just as interested in her photos as Marianne was of Jini’s.  So, if you are reading this, Jini Dellaccio, you made my friend’s day.)

I closed the night with Animation 4 Adults, which is a selection of shorts (10 this time) geared for older audiences.  Only two of the films were great, another one was pretty good (and ended up winning the Grand Jury Prize for Best Short), and the rest were average at best.  The two great films (which both won Special Jury Prizes) were “Malaria” and “The Hunter.”  “Malaria” tells its story through inventive interactivity between paper pictures and the hands of the creator.  For example, when a gun is lowered by one of the characters, this is visualized by one of the hands picking up a picture of a gun, which starts to shaken, and then is lowered barrel-end down.  “The Hunter” is ingenious in a different way, as the whole story (which is actually a story — the one thing that combined my three favorite shorts of the night) is told via charcoal drawings, and narrated by the main character.

After all 10 shorts played, the director of “Machinehead,” Micah Gallagher, did a Q & A with Programmer Stan Shields.

“Machinehead” is done with stop-motion animation, something that Gallagher had to learn how to do over the course of the 2 years it took to make the short.  The film reflects a period in his life where he felt like he was in a box.  In the film, the red ball that Machinehead finds represents a spiritual entity that is trying to communicate with him.  Gallagher’s favorite scene, however, is when the bugs go in the hole in the bed.  His influences for the film include the Quay Brothers and Tool.  His next film will be live action with lots of stop-motion in it.

Monday, May 27

No press screenings today, since it was Memorial Day, but I still worked in the morning (though with a later start time and a slightly earlier end time).  After work, I had a chance to peek in and see part of Kampala, a restored Indian film from 1948.  From the little I saw, it has great dance scenes mixed in with horrible overacting and a silly plot.  Then again, I hear that’s normal for Bollywood films.

My bus to the Harvard Exit was late, and there was already a standby line for The Human Scale, a film about how to make our cities places of human interaction, instead of human isolation–based on the architectural ideas of Danish architect Jan Gehl.  And it was raining.  Luckily, I waited with someone who knew me, and so she was able to hunt down the venue coordinator before the film began to see if any seats were left.  There were, but they were in the front row.  I’m amazed I didn’t suffer neck pain once the movie was over.  Maybe if it had been longer than 83 minutes, I would have.  Unfortunately, the movie is one of those documentaries that is centered around an idea that might fill up an excellent short, or a magazine article, but can’t really sustain the run of a whole movie.  The irony is that it could have, had its makers invested the film with more of a human interest than an architectural one.  I felt as little connected to the talking heads in this film as Gehl claims modern cities perpetuate among its citizens.

Tuesday, May 28

Press screenings returned today, with Teddy Bears, Mutual Friends, and SOMM.  I didn’t see any of them, but I had a choice that night: get to Pacific Place early and get into the recently on-standby Blackfish, or watch Thérèse and The Last Sentence at the Egyptian.  I went with Blackfish and was surprised at how short the passholder line was.  Then I was surprised at how short the ticket line was.  Apparently, this was one that people came in late to, but while it was pretty packed, I don’t think all the seats were taken.

Blackfish is about Tilikum, a male orca whale who killed three people, including Dawn Brancheau, an experienced SeaWorld trainer.  The movie starts with that death and then goes back to where Tilicum and other orcas were rounded up for theme parks. Tilicum originally was kept at Sealand of the Pacific near Vancouver, where he was bullied by the female orcas and shared a small enclosure with them at night.  He killed a trainer there before being relocated to SeaWorld in Orlando.  The film keeps its focus on Tilicum, while also casting the net wider in detailing other attacks on trainers and the difference between orcas that live in the wild (where no attacks on humans have ever been recorded) and in captivity.  By the end of the film, one feels bad for the orcas and angry at any institution that seeks to entertain crowds via captured animals.

A Q & A followed the film, with not just the director, but also with several of the subjects present.  They were: Jeff Ventra, Samantha Berg, Carol Ray, and Howard Garrett.  Garrett is the director of the ORCA Network, while Ventra, Berg, and Ray are ex-SeaWorld trainers.

(l-r) Jeff Ventra, director Gabriela Cowperthwaite, Howard Garrett, Carol Ray, and Samantha Berg

Cowperthwaite said that while current trainers at SeaWorld can’t openly embrace Blackfish, many of them are rooting for it behind-the-scenes.  In fact, the trainers are just as much victims as the orcas are.  Berg added that SeaWorld is “like a cult”: you want to be there, but the more you see, the less you can say.   To give proof to that statement, Cowperthwaite wasn’t able to contact many of the trainers who were attacked by orcas, as if some settlement prevented them from talking.  Much of the footage of the attacks, in fact, were only recovered under a Freedom of Information Act filing, though Cowperthwaite did not include a video of Brancheau’s death, and wouldn’t even if one existed, as it would contain no educational value.  Also, the cast recommended the audience check out Voice of the Orcas to hear other stories from ex-trainers.

Someone asked if the captured orcas could be released back into the wild.  Unfortunately, Garrett said it’s not that easy, as they would have to be gradually rehabilitated before they can be released.

Because of Brancheau’s death and the subsequent suit brought against SeaWorld by OSHA, SeaWorld must place a barrier between its trainers and the whales, but right now the company is arguing what constitutes a barrier.  They are trying to argue that being onstage or on a slideout count as barriers, even though Tilicum attacked Brancheau on a slideout.  SeaWorld’s lawyers are also “very much aware” of the film, as they showed up at Sundance.  Not that there’s much they can do.  Magnolia Pictures will be releasing it nationwide in theaters and on cable in July, and both Ventra and Berg are on Twitter.

After the Q & A, I got better pictures of the guests in the lobby.

Wednesday, May 29

Wednesday brought a surprise.  My boss said earlier this week that she’d be okay if we came in a little later than usual, since the box office hasn’t been busy in the morning, so I chose the always dangerous route of picking a different bus to come in on, before realizing that it was the same bus that a student told me sometimes doesn’t come.  So it was in this case, except that it had a good reason: a truck flipped over on I-5 near the Convention Center and shut down all traffic north of that location.    Therefore, instead of arriving 15-30 minutes later, I arrived an hour late.  Needless to say, passholders were pissed when we still held to our “no-late-seating” policy and locked the doors promptly at 10 am for The Trials of Muhammed Ali.  That was followed by Yesterday Never Ends (which is how it felt for some people) and then Full Circle.

That night, I was off to the Harvard Exit to see Two Weddings and a Funeral from South Korea, the first feature film by director Kimjho Gwan-soo (by himself: IMDB lists him as a co-director on another film).  Surprisingly, Kimjho Gwan-soo is gay.  I say surprisingly because while I applaud Two Weddings and a Funeral for centering its story on gay men and women (a rare thing in Korea), it does so with mostly stereotypical character types.  Only the main characters are given any depth, and even they aren’t given that much.  Still, my main problem with the film concerns the death that leads to the funeral.  It follows such a clichéd and predictable plotline that my suspension of disbelief became disbelief and threatened to permanently detach me from the rest of the film.  Only with reluctance was I able to re-enter the world, and by then, any sort of surface enjoyment I had received from the film was gone.  Up until that point, it’s a harmless, bubbly, formulaic film that will hopefully lead the way to more complex, human portrayals of homosexuals in South Korean cinema.

Next up: the conclusion to Week Two!

SIFF 2013: Week One

Monday, May 20

Press screenings this morning were Yellow, My Dog Killer, and The Punk Singer.  It was also the press screening manager’s birthday, who received the gift of thievery, as her car was stolen that morning, which meant I had to call her and ask her how to turn off the alarm in the morning, as I arrived before she did.  Luckily, she got her car back by the end of the day.  Also, we are now selling t-shirts.  The design reminds me of cake frosting.

I went immediately from work to watching What Maisie Knew, as this is the first day where the press screening crew overlaps with one regular staff member in working the first three shows of the day.  Luckily, one of my friends was going to the same screening and saved me a seat.  The film is a modern retelling of the novel by Henry James about parents going through a divorce, as seen through the point-of-view of their child, Maisie (Onata Aprile).  The parents, played by Julianne Moore and Steve Coogan, are fairly reprehensible: Susanna (Moore) for her need to be loved and her rock singer lifestyle, Beale (Coogan) for his inability to prioritize the people in his life above his work.  Two other important people figure into Maisie’s life: Margo (Joanna Vanderham), Maisie’s caretaker and Beale’s new wife; and Lincoln (Alexander Skarsgård), Susanna’ s new husband.  As Maisie, Aprile is incredible, as she must carry the whole movie.  Moore is also a standout, with the rest of the actors and actresses doing equally fine acting jobs.  The best two scenes in the movie are when Beale realizes that what he wants for Maisie is not good for her, and when Susanna realizes the same.  A great film.

 Afterwards, directors Scott McGehee and David Siegel did a Q & A with Artistic Director Carl Spence.  The directors hadn’t read the book before they saw the script, which was written after James heard of a split custody case and thought it the most ridiculous thing he had ever heard.  Though both directors thought the film sounded like a difficult shoot, they were attracted to the lightness and innocence in the script, as well as the child’s point-of-view.  Julianne Moore attached herself to the project because she had never played a rock singer before.  As for Onata Aprile, the directors only found her three weeks before shooting was to begin (which they recommended not doing).  They cut it so close that the clothing designer had already made clothing for Maisie before Aprile was cast.  Aprile herself is the child of a single mother, and despite the fact that the only other role she had played was a small one in Yellow (yep, the same one that played at the press screening), she impressed the directors with how prepared she was on set, with her lines for the day always memorized ahead of time.  This, despite the fact that she was only six years old.

Tuesday, May 21

Press screenings today were Geography Club, Inequality for All, and Redemption Street.  I saw Inequality for All with one of my coworkers (who had the morning off), which is a documentary on the sad state of the economy, as explained by Robert Reich, with some biographical information thrown in.  Besides having a good sense of humor, Reich has the gift of clearly explaining economic processes without playing the blame game.  While Inside Job made me fume at fat cats and academia, Inequality for All made me hopeful that we can turn this mess around.

That film was the best one I saw today.  It was followed by the worst.  A Teacher is director Hannah Fidell’s first film, and lest I dissuade her from directing any more movies, I have to say that the problems stem as much from the script as the directing.  The main problem is that the teacher in this film, Diana Watts (Lindsay Burdge), becomes such a shrill, horrible, mess of a person that there’s nothing for the audience to cling to in the way of empathy.  We know there’s some issue between her and her mother, but it’s mentioned and then never brought up again.  The slow pacing of the film doesn’t help, especially when the plot leads not so much to a resolution as to an end — an end to the boredom that this 75 minute film makes feel like five hours.  And then there are those weird fades-to-black.  Plus, the song used for the final scene — which apparently glorifies the affair that this teacher has had (or at least makes the audience believe that she believes it was worth it) — is in poor taste at best, and jolted me out of the film much as did the last song in Wuthering Heights during last year’s festival.  When I went to the IMDB page to find out who wrote the script, I couldn’t find a screenwriter.  That might explain a lot.

The last film fell in-between the two films I saw earlier.  Imagine is about a blind man named Ian (Edward Hogg) who starts teaching blind students at a clinic using unorthodox methods.  Without a written curriculum, he takes them out into the courtyard and asks them what they can hear.  He then has them search for the things they hear to see if they are right in imagining what is there.  He also befriends Eva (Alexandra Maria Laura), a student who only interacts with the birds outside her window.  Ian eventually draws her out of her shell, as he does with a young male student named Serrano (Melchior Derouet).  Unlike A Teacher, this film had developed characters, and even if the situation is a bit clichéd, and the story a bit underwhelming, the dialog and acting is sharp.  More importantly, one can empathize with the characters.

Also, the press screenings were in 2 today, which means that the 3:30 show had to wait until the press screening got out at 3:37, since no one had told the projectionist until 90 minutes before the start of the 3:30 show that this would be an issue.  But, everything worked out.

Wednesday, May 22

Three nights in a row of less-and-less sleep caught up with me today, as I felt pretty crappy.  Press screenings of Shortsfest Opening Night, Terms and Conditions May Apply, and Together.  Together is the least well-received press screening to date.  People starting coming out of the theater an hour into it.  More came out twenty minutes later.  Some of the people who remained took the opportunity to catch up on sleep.  Others waited, in vain, for something to happen.  Apparently, the film is highly confusing.  Hopefully when the film shows later in Week Three, people stay for the Q & A with the director.  If it’s that confusing, they may need to in order to understand what they just watched.

Originally I was going to stick around for the Wagner Sing-Along happening in the Armory (Happy 200th Birthday, Richard Wagner!), but I got a ride home and promptly forgot about staying for the sing-along.  Then I decided not to come back for A Shape of Error, described as a 16 mm home movie of Percy and Mary Shelley.  Instead, I bought groceries and went to bed early.  No need to get sick the first week of festival, after all.

Thursday, May 23

Felt much better today, though I still had a scratchy throat, either caused by sickness or allergies (though that went away midway through Week Two).  Press screenings today were A Band Called Death, Fatal, and Out in the Dark.  Grabbed dinner with a friend (actually, I grabbed dinner and she grabbed a beer), and then we went to separate movies.  My movie was actually several movies, as tonight was Shortsfest Opening Night.  After I sat down in the theater, I heard someone call my name.  I turned around and saw one of the volunteers who had worked the door last year, so I got to sit with her for the shorts, though she had to leave right after they finished.  The shorts were “Premature,” “Kiruna-Kigali,” “Boneshaker,” “HowardCantour.com,” “Ouverture,” and “Walking the Dogs.”  “Premature” takes place entirely in a car ride from the airport, as the parents of a young man breach inappropriate subjects with his wife, such as talk of pregnancy and miscarriages.  “Kiruna-Kigali” dealt with two related stories of a doctor who helped deliver a baby in Africa that was turned the wrong way in the uterus, and her own delivery emergency.  “Boneshaker” stars Quvenzhané Wallis (from Beasts of the Southern Wild) as a child brought by her mother to a tent revival to cure her of her demons.  “HowardCantour.com” is a film by Shia LeBoeuf (yes, THAT Shia LeBoeuf) about an alt movie critic who takes his job very seriously, while “Ouverture” is an inventive animated short about a girl with music pouring out of her heart who eventually becomes a professional pianist.  There is no dialog in that film, only the music of Bach’s Cantata No. 29, as arranged by Camille Saint-Saëns.  Finally, “Walking the Dogs” is based on the true 1982 incident in which a man jumped the walls leading to Buckingham Palace and had a conversation with Queen Elizabeth II in her bedchamber.  My favorite was “Walking the Dogs,” followed by “Ouverture,” then “Premature.”

After all of the shorts ended, Neil Dvorak, the Art and Animation Director for “Ouverture,” stayed for a Q & A with Dan Doody.  Nadejda Vlaeva, a very talented pianist, provided the music for the short, while director Bracey Smith got the idea for the story from one of his friends, as well as from discovering that he would soon be a father.  For the look of the film, Dvorak  looked at the sketchbooks of Leonardo Da Vinci and The Triplets of Belleville.  More information on the short can be found here.

Because I had no press screenings to work the following day, I decided to stay for In the Fog, a moody Eastern European film about a man spared from hanging by the Nazis, only to be accused of being a traitor by his friends, family, and fellow citizens.  The mix of colors, lighting, and scenery are gorgeous, as are the ambient sounds.  Only Honey uses ambient sounds better than this film.  The look of the film offsets its deliberateness, the sparseness of ideas in its dialog, and the simplicity of its plot to make this a more enjoyable film for me than it might otherwise have been.

Friday, May 24

I forgot that Onata Aprile is in Yellow.  Nick Cassavetes forgot to be entertaining.  What starts out as a trippy film about a teacher addicted to prescription drugs (whose hallucinations are quite amusing) becomes bogged down when it decides to become more serious near the middle of the film.  The guy in front of me said that it was his favorite film so far at the festival.  If his opinion is widespread, I weep for humanity.  If not for A Teacher, this would be the worst film I’ve seen so far.

I had to grab some dinner after Yellow, but I knew that the same person I had seen yesterday at Shortsfest Opening Night was coming back for The Spectacular Now, so after I asked her to save me a seat as I dashed into Pagliacci’s for some much-needed pizza goodness.  The weather has turned somewhat shitty these past few days, with warm early afternoons followed by chilly, windy, rainy late afternoons and evenings.  And it gets cold so fast!  But I digress.

For the first half of The Spectacular Now, I had it marked as the sweetest film I’ve seen at festival.  Then, it starts to get serious, and dark, and that’s when this already really good teenage drama becomes great.  The only film to affect me more at this year’s festival was The Act of Killing.  The fact that a movie that starts off as a teenage romantic comedy in the style of Say Anything (another film that wasn’t afraid to deal with tough issues) can also deal with absentee fathers, teenage drinking, and destructive relationships, all without preaching a moral or a message, AND stay true to the characters and their situations, is astonishing.  I laughed through much of the film, and was in tears by the end.

Director James Ponsoldt and producer Tom McNulty introduced the film, went to the Space Needle during the film, and then stayed for a Q & A after the film ended.  McNulty was the one who read the book and found the screenwriters to turn it into a movie (who also happened to be the screenwriters who worked on (500) Days of Summer).  When the screenplay was finished, they knew they had to go the indie route.  Hearing that Shailene Woodley wanted to do it (she played George Clooney’s eldest daughter in The Descendents, which is when I first discovered her, and where she gave a star-making performance), McNulty set about to find a director.  At the time James Ponsoldt had won much acclaim at Sundance for his film Smashed, which is about one alcoholic in a relationship with another alcoholic who has decided to go to rehab.  Since Ponsoldt’s first film is also about an alcoholic, McNulty wasn’t sure if he could get Ponsoldt to do another film that featured alcoholism “unless he wanted to have a boxed set,” but they did.

Some other highlights of the Q&A:

1.) Ponsoldt doesn’t see the film as a teenage romantic drama, but as “an adult romantic drama that just happens to have kids.”  Likewise, he doesn’t see Sutter (Miles Teller), the main character, as an alcoholic, and hates message movies.

2.) Many of the early questions asked of Ponsoldt were redirected to the people asking the questions.  I don’t think he was trying to be difficult; rather his film is open to many different interpretations and he didn’t want to pigeon-hole our view of it with his narrow interpretation.

3.) Someone asked about Sutter’s character having scars.  Ponsoldt said that Miles Teller was in a serious car crash and got the scars from that.  Since Sutter is reckless, Ponsoldt thought having scars was in keeping with his character.  Also, in an attempt to show how real American teenagers look, the actors and actresses used very little makeup.

4.) Much discussion went into the final shot in the film, and who it would show, since it deviates a bit from the book’s ending, which is much grimmer (even though the author feels his ending is hopeful).  All I will say is, they made the right choice.

Once the Q & A was over, I hung around outside and talked to the person responsible for driving Ponsoldt back to his hotel (tip for aspiring festival goers: always be friendly with the drivers).  While McNulty was busy doing something else, I was able to get a picture with Ponsoldt on SIFF’s red carpet, taken by his driver.

I then shook his hand and told him, “Great film.”  I’m sure he thought I was done, but then I asked him how Ebertfest was.  He didn’t hear me, so I had to repeat the question.  A look of surprise passed his face, then he asked if I had been there.  I explained that I had gone two years ago, at which point he said how wonderful the experience had been, but also how sad it had been due to Roger’s passing.  He then spent several minutes gushing over how well Chaz ran the festival, mentioned that he even got to lead one of the panels, and ended by saying he hoped he would be invited back.

Saturday, May 25

Today I had to work at my other job in the afternoon, but was planning to go to the party scheduled that night with a friend.  Unfortunately, The Way, Way Back sold out, and as the party venue can only fit as many people as were in the theater, staff were not invited to it.  So, you’ll have to read about last year’s party at Kaspar’s, instead.  On a positive note, that also left me time to work on this entry, and yet it still took me almost until the end of Week Two to finish it.  Oh well.

Next up: Week Two!

SIFF 2013: Opening Night and Weekend

This year’s posts on the Seattle International Film Festival are dedicated to the late Roger Ebert, without whose reports from Cannes and encouragement of my writing I wouldn’t have started reporting about SIFF four years ago.

Thursday, May 16

Opening Night began for me after I left work in a Hawaiian shirt and came back in a button-down.  Despite fears that we would have an overflow of 500 patrons that we’d have to siphon off from McCaw Hall to the Uptown, volunteers and staff were able to squeeze everyone into McCaw, meaning that the staff got a private screening of Much Ado About Nothing on Uptown Screen 1.  Sadly, we didn’t have Joss Whedon, but we did have Beth Barrett, Director of Programming,  introduce the film for us.

And what a film it is!  The trick with any Shakespeare adaptation is to honor the language and spirit of the original play, which this black-and-white, modern dress adaptation does.  Standouts include Amy Acker as Beatrice and Nathan Fillion as Dogberry.  Alex Denisorf also does a good job with Benedick.   Even better for me, one of my friends is in it, and while I’m not sure if I saw her or not ( a blink-and-you-miss-it type role), she is listed in the credits for the film.

Then it was time to party.  I had received my tickets earlier in the day, and while I had two tickets, I only used one of them.  Actually, I didn’t even use that one, as people at the door were more concerned with checking my ID than they were in checking my tickets.  I received a wristband with two drink tickets on it, and used both of them for perhaps the first time in history at a SIFF party.

Since I missed the Gala last year (due to an unfortunate incident where my email address wasn’t added to the staff list that everyone during festival was emailing to), I was very excited to attend it this year, work the next day be damned!  I even went out with my coworkers to a bar after the gala was over.  My drinking ended when the gala did (after all, no need to be tired AND hung over for work), but I’m glad I was able to hang out with my fellow SIFF staffers for those extra two hours.

Friday, May 17

I worked down the street from where I was to watch my first SIFF film during the festival proper, and my work had extra food that I was able to pack for dinner and eat across from the Egyptian Theatre.  The only film I saw today was Goltzius and the Pelican Company, but Peter Greenaway was there to introduce the film and to give a Q & A afterwards.  In line, I stood in front of a board member charged with discovering why Much Ado About Nothing had sold out quicker than any other opening night film in SIFF’s history.  His theory was that all of the actors were from TV, and so the audience was familiar with them.  I wanted to turn around and say that he was half right, that the fact that Whedon has a cult following for shows like Buffy, the Vampire Slayer and Firefly is the main reason people came out, especially as he uses some of the same actors for all of his projects, but I didn’t.  No use talking sense to people who are unfamiliar with the pop culture landscape of the young.

Goltzius and the Pelican Company is the first Greenaway film I’ve seen (his most famous film is The Cook, the Thief, His Wife & Her Lover, starring Helen Mirren).  Beth Barnett introduced Greenaway to us, who then introduced his film.  Like Herzog, he has the rare gift of making everything sound interesting, but while Herzog does it due to his enthusiasm and awesome accent, Greenaway does it due to his theatricality and awesome accent.  A Greenaway introduction is a performance in itself, one that I cannot accurately capture here, though I did take some notes during the Q & A, which consisted mostly of A.

As for the film itself, it takes place in the 16th century and involves Goltzius (Ramsey Nasr) and the Pelican Company re-enacting scenes from the Old Testament (and one from the New) for Margrave of Alsace (F. Murray Abraham), a wealthy benefactor, in order that he may finance Goltzius’s printing press in the hopes of printing copies of the Old Testament and the works of Ovid.  Each of the scenes depicts one of the six sexual taboos (original sin, incest, adultery, rape, prostitution, and necrophilia) in order to titillate the Margrave.  After each scene is depicted, the court argues over the interpretations of these stories.  As the movie continues, the line between the play and real life is erased.

During the Q & A, Greenaway explained that the film is all about interpretation (and, I would argue, censorship).  After detrimental remarks made about religion, he said, “If God wants to throw stones at me, now would be the time.”  He believes religion should be about creativity and life, but it’s really about death.  According to him, all art is only about two subjects: sex and death.

Because he went on at length about his film, religion, sex, and death, there was only time for two questions from the audience, followed by one from Beth.  One person asked him why he dealt only with the Judeo-Christian framework in this film.  He said that while all religions treat women despicably, he is most familiar with what he grew up with.  The second asked why homosexuality was not depicted as one of the sins, to which Greenaway replied that it was depicted throughout.  Beth asked him what he is working on now.  At the moment, he is working on a film about Eisenstein’s visit to Mexico, to which he added that the Russians have long known that their greatest composer, Tchaikovsky, was gay, but now they would discover that their greatest director was, too.

Saturday, May 18

Only one film today, as well, as not much was playing that I wanted to see.  Plus, I had a birthday party to go to in the evening.  In retrospect, it’s a good thing I only saw one film today, as The Act of Killing is one of the most intense films I’ve ever seen, yet it only reaches that point right at the end.  The rest of the documentary is a slow-build to a realization that makes the last shots of the film so harrowing.

While Joshua Oppenheimer, the director, could not be at the screening, nor do a Q & A via Skype (due to time differences being so great), he did give Beth something to read by way of introducing the film.  After apologizing for not being there, he wrote:

The entire tradition of cinema is dominated by movies about good versus evil, good guys versus bad guys.  But good guys and bad guys only exist in stories.  In reality, all acts of evil are perpetrated by human beings, and we have very few films about how we commit evil, why we commit evil, and the effects of evil on ourselves, and on our societies.  The Act of Killing is such a film, but it’s also a film about what it means to be human, about what it means to have a past, about how we come to create ourselves and our world through storytelling, and how, as a crucial part of this, we use storytelling to escape from our most bitter and indigestible truths. I won’t say enjoy the film – it’s not that kind of movie, although you are allowed to laugh, of course.  Instead, I wish you a powerful, even magical experience.

He then told us to stay through the end credits “because they contain the final piece of this story.”

The film begins with the following quote by Voltaire:  “It is forbidden to kill; therefore all murderers are punished unless they kill in large numbers and to the sound of trumpets.”  The film allows a bunch of gangsters, responsible for the huge purge of communists that took place in Indonesia from 1965-66, to tell their story of what happened by making a movie about it, using any movie genres they wish.  In particular, it follows Anwar Congo, who personally killed hundreds of people, and Pancasila Youth, a paramilitary group and one of the worst perpetrators of the killings.  As these gangsters make the film, they discuss what they did and how to show what they did onscreen.

What is so fascinating about this documentary is that they come to realize that the truth they want to portray in the film is much different from the truth that the film portrays.  What they thought of as heroic comes off as sadistic and cruel.  The most powerful moments of the film come right near the end, when Anwar Congo begins to feel remorse for acts that still give him nightmares.  In fact, the final scene is so powerful that Oppenheimer allows the camera to linger for several seconds on a door before fading out, so that the audience can be given time for reflection before the credits roll, where many of the people who helped with the film are labeled as  “anonymous,” for fear of reprisals in Indonesia.

Speaking of which, here is a fascinating article I came across about screenings of the film in Indonesia.

Sunday, May 19

A farmer finds an ancient tool in his fields.  It reminds him that people have lived there for 20,000-30,000 years and cultivated the land for 1,000-3,000 years.  So opens After Winter, Spring, one of the cutest movies I’ve ever seen (and I saw Rent-A-Cat at last year’s festival).  The documentary follows farmers in the Périgord region of France as they deal with changing times, adverse weather conditions, and the joys of farming, such as when calves are born.  As we discovered during the Q & A which followed the film, the director, Judith Lit, grew up on a farm in Pennsylvania and lived with the inhabitants of this farming community for 10 years before asking them if she could film them, even though some of them don’t even have photos of themselves.  She found it most difficult to find a woman who would take a main role in the film (until she found an older woman named Nanou).  The first official screening in France will take place on June 6th, with the cast and crew  present.  All except Alfred, a farmer in his late 80s who died in February 2012 and to whom the film is dedicated.

Because two of the three composers who wrote music used in the film were in the audience, Clinton McClung allowed the credits to finish before introducing Judith Lit to us.  Embarrassingly, I had forgotten to turn off my flash after taking photos at the party I went to the following night, and so the flash went off.  Considering that the resulting photo is the best one I’ve taken at the Harvard Exit Theatre, I’m glad for that happy accident.

Next up: Week One!

Press Screenings-Week Three

Note: This will be the last post dealing exclusively with press screenings.  The following posts will include information on press screenings with that of the festival itself.

Monday (Day Nine): I found out that a well-loved theater will be closing its doors at the end of August.  At night, I saw my last pre-festival film: the gorgeous-looking and mellow Renoir.  Even better, I bought a book that won the National Book Award…for 50 cents.  Films: Papadopoulos & Sons, Youth, Ain’t Them Bodies Saints

Tuesday (Day Ten): One of my friends came to see the first two films.  I joined her for the first one.  While the framing was gorgeous (foregrounds and backgrounds covered in fog), I wasn’t hysterical about it, even though it’s about…hysteria.  I heard The Spectacular Now was great, though I’ll watch it during festival, when the director is here.  Anita also received high praise, except by one of our staff, who found nothing new in it.  In addition, our freezer came today.  Ice cream soon followed.  We found room for it in concessions, but if we need any more room, the next thing we’ll have to remove is the concessionaires. Films: Augustine, The Spectacular Now, Anita

Wednesday (Day Eleven): Were given instructions today to start popping popcorn until we couldn’t pop anymore–or until we reached 110 bags.  Expecting a huge crowd for opening night on Thursday.  Starting to get a little busy at box office, but nothing like the insanity that would ensue the following day. Also, all the press screenings today were tear-jerkers, though Furever rubbed one patron the wrong way.  On the positive side, the same patron said that The Wall is the type of movie you go to festivals for.  Films: The Wall, Furever, The Summit

Thursday (Day Twelve): Opening night is tonight, so of course someone broke the popcorn machine last night.  Or it broke itself.  Before it broke, however, 50 bags were popped, plus our 20 from the morning.  I wish I had a picture of all that ‘corn to share, but I don’t.  The manager on duty was able to fix the machine with a part filched from the Film Center popcorn machine (which won’t see use this festival, unless popcorn is being sold during panels).  Also, no one brought down oil, so we had to wait for it to melt before we could continue our mad popping.  We didn’t reach 110 bags, but it was enough.  For press screenings, I heard that Ernest & Celestine was a charmer.  And the phone kept ringing.  And ringing.  And ringing.  Films: After Tiller, Ernest & Celestine, The African Cypher

Next up: A report on Opening Night.  Till then!

Press Screenings-Week Two

Monday (Day Five): Scheduled to work a half hour later this week, then rescinded when the powers-that-be realized that the box office opens a half hour earlier than the doors for the press screening do.  So, this is the only day I started work at 9.  Received some retraining on how to process and print out festival passes.  Also, I found out that I could pick up my festival badge starting tomorrow. Films: Short Term 12; After Winter, Spring; What Maisie Knew

Tuesday (Day Six): Saw Dirty Wars, but had to stand in the back of the auditorium, since everyone sat near the aisles and I didn’t feel like crawling over people.  Apparently, I should have stood in back for the second feature: I would have had the opportunity to tell people to turn off their cell phones.  As for the film itself, it was decent, but nothing special.  Perhaps it plays differently sitting down.  Picked up my festival badge and raided the complimentary Pop Chips stash at the Film Center.  Since I didn’t get my customized job title on my badge, I added it.   Films: Dirty Wars, Pit Stop, Una Noche

Wednesday (Day Seven): WiFi went out at work; we received a new router.  Luckily, half the computers are directly connected to the server.  A few walkouts, including four within the first twenty minutes of the first film (which also happens to feature some SIFF staff members).  Second film randomly shut off with ten minutes to go, but was able to be started up again from where it left off.  Films: Mistaken for Strangers, Lasting, Camion

Thursday (Day Eight): Wore my Hawaiian shirt to work for Aloha Thursday, but forgot to take a picture of my wearing it next to the SIFF poster.  Hopefully next week won’t be as crazy as I fear it will be and I can get one taken then.  I also received a Fool Serious Ballot, which I didn’t receive last year.  Internet acting weird at the end of the shift, but apparently came back on soon after the night crew took over.  As the last feature was over two hours long (most of them are around 90 minutes in length), there was a lull once the screening went in, followed by busy-ness as the Katy Perry Pop Chips people arrived to set up for that night’s Katy Perry Pop Up screening of Clueless…except they had to wait until the press screening was finished, since we had moved the final screening from screen 1 to screen 2, which is where they needed to set up.  Also, the final film came with English subtitles, even though it’s in English.  Films: Five Dances, Concussion, Goltzius and the Pelican Company

Friday: Pre-Festival Staff Party at Von Trapp’s.  Super hot upstairs, a bit cooler downstairs.  If I hadn’t had heartburn from something I had eaten earlier in the day, I probably would have enjoyed the free pizza and beer more.  Regardless, playing bocce indoors and in lanes is just wrong.

Press Screenings-Week One

The official start of the 39th Seattle International Film Festival isn’t until May 16, but the unofficial start began on Monday, with the first day of press screenings.  In addition to people with Press passes, Full Series passholders and higher can attend the screenings.  Unlike last year, where I left my schedule open to the whim of the scheduling gods, I asked to work press screenings this year, as did two of my coworkers.  While working them constitutes an early start time (the first of three films starts at 10 am, with doors opening at 9:30), they also only run Monday through Thursday, allowing people who work them to have evenings and weekends off  during the festival, which is when the festival films play.

Since the first two weeks of press screenings aren’t followed by any festival films, what follows are short descriptions of what each day of the press screenings were like, along with the films that were played:

Monday (Day One): My bus dropped me off at one end of Seattle Center; I walked to the other.  First day of selling sandwiches.  We sold four.  Spent my downtime attaching stickers to parking passes and looking at photos of animals hugging each other.  Films: The Deep, Frances Ha, Our Nixon

Tuesday (Day Two): Same bus; same trek across Seattle Center.  Moved concession machinery to attach posters to windows, but first had to remove signage already there, which involved paper towels, a razor, and a bottle of Goo Gone.  We sold more sandwiches today.  Downtime spent in intensive Sporcle battles.  Films: Celestial Wives of Meadow Mari, Crystal Fairy, Jump

Wednesday (Day Three): Took a different bus to work.  Found out that we need to put up more posters, and that the tape has to be flush with the poster edges, rather than diagonally across them.  Involved kneeling and standing on counters.  Short turnaround between the first and second films, which meant that everyone who wanted food had to buy it at concessions, instead of at a restaurant or a fast food joint.  Sold a lot of sandwiches and wraps.  Tomorrow is Aloha Friday Thursday.  I don’t own a Hawaiian shirt, but I was too tired to buy one before 8 pm, and the stores that sell them close at that time.  Films: The Daughter (Doch), We Steal Secrets: The Story of WikiLeaks, C.O.G.

Thursday (Day Four): Got a ride to work.  Wore “Myrtle Beach” t-shirt as closest thing to beachwear that I own.  Will buy a Hawaiian shirt over the weekend.    Given beads to wear, which support a hanging plastic chicken.  Films today dealt with such heavy subjects as sex tourism, religious fanaticism, and fat camp.  After second film ended, one patron came out and said, “Now I can go home and slit my throat.”  Films: Paradise: Love, Paradise: Faith, Paradise: Hope

Evangelion: 2.22 You Can (Not) Advance.

Holy fuck.

Those are the two words that come most readily to mind when describing the second of four Evangelion movies, call Evangelion: 2.22 You Can (Not) Advance.  This movie seems to have more new material in it than Evangelion: 1.11 You Are (Not) Alone did, but it is more selective about which episodes it expands upon, and it adds another Eva pilot, Mari, to the mix.

The movie opens with Mari in a Provisional Unit-05 Eva, battling the Third Angel in Europe.   Well, its skeleton, since Shinji already killed the Angel in the first movie.  At the end of the battle, the creature is destroyed when Mari self-destructs her Eva after ejecting to safety.  Kaji Ryoji also appears (initially speaking English!),  declaring after the battle, “I feel bad about involving kids to carry out adult agendas.”  Then we cut back to Mari, who says, “I feel awkward involving adults for the sake of my own goals.”  Kaji soon appears at NERV, where he delivers the Key of Nebuchadnezzer to Gendo and reports that the destruction of Unit-05 went as planned.

Shikinami Langely Asuka is introduced after she destroys the Seventh Angel (in a shorter and less dramatic battle than the one in the TV series, which involved her Eva jumping from ship to ship to stay dry).  Like the TV series, Asuka and Shinji are roomed together, but the film infuses Rei with more personality and Asuka with more jealousy.  As in the TV series, the three of them must battle the Eighth Angel together, since it’s so huge that all three of them must catch it with their AT Field.  Also, the storyline with one of the Eva units becoming an Angel is followed, but the pilot is not Suzuhara Toji (one of Shinji’s friends from school), but someone else that Shinji knows (though, as in the TV show,  a dummy plug is used when Shinji refuses to fight it, even when it’s about to kill him).  The battle is much bloodier here, with the pilot plug being crushed between the teeth of the Eva.  Also, to show what a sick puppy Anno Hideaki is, a happy pop song accompanies the bloodshed (Hayashibara Megumi’s “Farewell for Today”).  Another pop song by Hayashibara-san accompanies Shinji’s battle with the Tenth Angel, which knocks Eva-02 out of commission (even after the pilot removes the safeguards on its humanity and attacks the Angel as “The Beast”) and then consumes Rei, along with Eva-00.  This battle is more thought-out in its implications than it was in the TV series, so I’m not going to spoil it here.  All I’m going to say is not to leave until the credits are finished, as a sequence after the credits features Kaworu, who says that this time, he will make Shinji happy — making me wonder if this commentator is correct in thinking that these movies are a continuation of the original series, rather than a reboot.

Besides some of the changes listed above, there are other departures.  All the kids (Rei, Asuka, Shinji, Toji, and Kensuke) get to go to an aquarium, where they see what the oceans and wildlife looked like before Second Impact (following a funny scene in which they go through a multi-part decontamination process).  In another sequence, Gendo and Kozo are observing the construction of the Mark.06 series on the moon, but are denied permission to land by Seele.  They see Kaworu sitting on the Eva’s hand, and Kaworu says (turning to them), “Nice to meet you, father” (for my reaction, please return to the first two words of this review).  There are also more references to the Dead Sea Scrolls (including “undisclosed Apocrypha”), and a more worldly view of the Eva projects, since we not only see Evas which have been put together in Europe and the U.S., but hear about the Vatican Treaty, which stipulates that each country can only have three Evas at one time.  And, while Asuka sleepwalks into Shinji’s bed in the series, in the movie she purposely gets into bed with him, which further shows that even though she wants to do things on her own and get all the glory, in reality, she’s lonely (and when I say go to bed, I mean to sleep — she even tells Shinji to turn away from her).

This time, most of the music used is from the series (minus the two pop songs by Hayashibara Megumi, and Utada Hikaru’s end credits song “Beautiful World,” which is from the first movie), except when it’s incidental piano music from Kareshi Kanojo no Jijyo, since Sagisu Shiro did the music for both animes.  Like the first movie, however, the Angels are more complexly constructed than they were on TV, often with the help of CGI.

I found myself bewildered when I started watching Evangelion: 2.22, since there is much new information involving Evangelion‘s very complex mythology that is introduced near the beginning of the film.  As I continued watching, however, I was able to enjoy the greater attention to character development among all the main characters (there’s actually a character arc to Rei, and even Gendo appears more human here), including more one-on-one time between Shinji and Kaji, who asks Shinji to take care of Misato for him.  Plus, the added clarity of Anno actually knowing where he wants these movies to go, rather than the meandering path that the TV series took, helps make the battles more than just exercises in coolness — though I still feel that Shinji not knowing who is in the Eva that he is told to attack as an Angel, and then finding out that it’s his best friend from school (as happens in the series), is much more powerful than what occurs in this movie, both because now Shinji knows ahead of time who’s in the Eva, and because we haven’t gotten to know how important this person is to Shinji as we did with Toji.

Unlike the first film, which is a more or less straightforward retelling of the first six episodes with some new information and elongated battle scenes thrown in, this movie roughly covers episodes 8, 12,  (some of) 15, 17-19 while adding much new material, juggling around the order of the some of the events (Shinji and Gendo visit Yui’s grave near the beginning of the movie, before Asuka appears; in the TV show, Asuka appears in episode 8, and they visit the grave in episode 15), and changing certain details in the Evas’ battles with the Angels.  Replace the two pop songs (especially the first one) with more dramatic music, and I would feel less ambivalent about the results.  Still, I am curious to see where this is going.  The third film on DVD and Blu-ray, Evangelion: 3.33 You Can (Not) Redo, is already available on Amazon.  Now I just have to wait until it’s available at the library or at Scarecrow Video.

Like its predecessor, 2.22 comes with a second disc of extras (hence the .22; in theaters, the movie was known as Evangelion: 2.0).  The extras include “Rebuild of Evangelion 2.02″ (which shows the designs from pencil sketches to finished product of some of the sequences in the move), several trailers, DVD and Blu-ray spots, omitted scenes, a remixed scene (the Noguchi version of the end sequence, complete with Hayashibara Megumi’s song “I would give you anything”), and a commentary track (on the first disc) by the U.S. cast.  It may also come with a booklet like the first one did; mine didn’t, but I got it from the library.  Like the first film, this review is based on seeing the subtitled version, which brings up two points: if people are speaking in English (as they do at a few points in the movie), is there any need to subtitle what they’re saying?  And do we really need every background conversation subtitled?

To my Readers

If you are a long-time reader of my other blog, you know that Roger Ebert was an early supporter of it, back when Dreams of Literary Grandeur was on Blogger and Murmurs from the Balcony didn’t exist, yet while Dreams of Literary Grandeur would have existed without Roger Ebert, Murmurs from the Balcony would not have.  Of course I’ve read other criticism besides Ebert’s, especially when it comes to non-movie reviews, but none as loyally, or for as long.  His reviews were syndicated in my local newspaper, and I discovered his show soon after the passing of Gene Siskel (and then hunted down old episodes with Siskel in it).  Without Roger Ebert, I would have stopped writing reviews once I graduated from college, and my love for film would have developed more slowly than it did.  In addition, the whole reason that I started writing about the Seattle International Film Festival  is because neither Ebert nor the FFCs were here to cover it, like he did the Cannes, Toronto, SXSW, and Sundance film festivals.  And if Ebert hadn’t covered those other festivals, it’s doubtful I would have written about the one here.

Since Dreams of Literary Grandeur was the blog he initially supported, I’ve written my tribute to him on there.  Tomorrow is his funeral, and while I will be many miles away from Chicago on that day, I’ll be there in spirit, as I’m sure will be the case for thousands, if not millions, of others.

I would like to close this post with an observance made about the great cellist Pablo Casals, which I think will also hold true for Roger Ebert:

“Even more than he loved great music, Casals loved people, and he delighted in leading the masses to a higher spiritual, cultural and moral level. This is truly why we still remember Casals today. Not because he was such a great cellist, but because he was a great human being with a heart of love.” (highlights mine)

Rest in peace, Rog.  And thank you.

Sakura-Con: Episode One

Before this year, I had never been to Sakura-Con, either due to lack of money, lack of time, or sheer forgetfulness at when it was occurring.  While the lack of money is still a concern, this year I had time to go on the first day of the convention.

The only anime convention I’d ever been to (also for the first day) was in Boston in 2005.  Now, eight years later, I found myself on the other coast, at another convention.  A few things were different, though.  For one, I went with a friend to the anime convention in Boston; I went solo to Sakura-Con.  For another, the lines were longer in Boston; because of pre-registration the day before, there were no lines to register at Sakura-Con.  In fact, there was only one person in front of me (though I suppose Friday isn’t the most popular day in which to attend an event that starts when most people are still working, which might also explain why the median age at Sakura-Con on Friday appeared to be 18 or 19).  Finally, the goodie bag included two manga samplers in Boston, with one sampler dedicated to Korean manga; in Seattle, the contents of my goodie bag looked like this:

Because I arrived at the Convention Center at 7:30 am and doors didn’t open until 9:30, I had a lot of time to take photos (though I didn’t) and to plan my day (which I did), which also involved wandering around the Center and figuring out where everything was located (with my badge attached to my shirt at all times–yes, they checked!).  By 8:30, a sizable crowd had formed.

Before lining up for the Opening Ceremonies, I lined up to get my wrist stamped for any 18+ events that I planned on attending that day (which ended up being zero).  There was also a line next to me for people staying at Sakura-Con affiliated hotels.  In that line, they could get wristbands that would allow them to be seated for Main Events 15 minutes before everyone else.  Besides seeing some awesome costumes (including a Steampunk-influenced one), the coolest thing about waiting in line was that the person in front of me could whistle like a bird.  I told her she should whistle during the panels and see everyone try to spot the imaginary bird, but I don’t know if she took me up on my suggestion.

Once I got my stamp (which looked like cherry blossoms), I lined up for the Opening Ceremonies.  This is what the line looked like in front of me:

And behind me:

(Note: the people closest to the wall had wristbands.)

The Opening Ceremonies weren’t that exciting.  It began with a montage of cherry blossoms and cherry trees that went on too long.   Afterwards, Christopher Louck, A.N.C.E.A. (Asia-Northwest Cultural Education Association) President and Sakura-Con Convention Chairman asked us if we wanted to see the official opening video for Sakura-Con.  My thought was, “You mean, that wasn’t what we just saw?”  but it wasn’t.  The official video included an animated female singing in Japanese with an English translation provided in supertitles.  Then, the Acting Consul General of Japan, Tomoko Dodo, spoke for a bit and Louck got to show off the official plaque that the Consulate General gave to A.N.C.E.A. for its work in deepening relationships between the U.S. and Japan.  Other events included a kabuki dance (before which Louck shared some stories when the sound system experienced technical difficulties), a shamisen concert that started with traditional music and then transitioned into a few songs from one of the Legend of Zelda games (and included an appearance by a female Link), guest introductions, and a super cute sakura (cherry blossom) dance performed by elementary school students.

I went from there to my first panel, at which Atsuko Ishizuka spoke.  In Boston, I didn’t go to any of the panels, so this was my first experience at one.  Ishizuka-san had two translators to help her answer questions, though her introduction (“I am Atsuko Ishizuka.  Nice to meet you!”) had impeccable pronunciation.  Once some technical issues were resolved, she showed us part of the dubbed version of the series she is currently working on as a director: an adaptation of the CW show Supernatural.

While she is now an animator and director at Madhouse, she actually was in amateur bands for 10 years before realizing that she could combine her three loves — music, stories, and drawing — into a career in anime.  One thing she especially enjoys about Madhouse is that they approach animation from many different angles, including animation as art and animation as conversation.

Of all the questions asked during the Q&A, the one that seemed to touch her the most was about Sakura Sō.  Unlike other series she has worked on, which has been geared towards guys, Sakura Sō is “more moe, more shojo.”  In fact, when the series was over, they had a graduation, and she gave a speech.  After the speech she cried.  It has been her best experience so far on a show, proved by the fact that she kept taking out Sakura Sō souvenirs and placing them on the table.

From this action and from comments she made, I noticed that she also has a great sense of humor.  She mentioned how all the staff gathered in the office for a Buddhist exorcism before making Supernatural, to cleanse the production of any evil spirits that might be lingering.  She ended up injuring herself afterwards, but no one else was affected, so she assumed it just didn’t work on her.  Also, the microphones kept dying on her during the Q&A, so she joked that they must be possessed by evil spirits.

After that panel was over, I went to the Artist Alley in the Exhibitor’s Hall, where I browsed many of the tables before being drawn to the Spinnerette table, where I broke down and bought an ashcan comic of the web comic series, which the writer signed for me.  I have since checked out other issues online.  The blending of humor and action is well-done; it remains to be seen whether further issues will delve deeper into the characters’ psyche (then again, I’m only three issues in).

Next came lunch at Subway, which involved dealing with an employee who was a bit rude in her method in keeping the line going.  This isn’t New York, lady.  Still, I could understand how people dallying with their order could hold up the line and annoy her.  Even though I had a fo0t-long sub, it wasn’t enough food for me, though it might have been more a lack of water than a lack of food that was the problem.  Because it was such a beautiful day outside (and because the few tables inside were packed with people), I went out to eat among the cosplayers, some of whom were taking cigarette breaks.  It’s where I found this guy…

…and got to hug Totoro.

I then tried combining panels, though I discovered that most of the best costumes went by as I was standing in line, and since the halls had to be kept clear, taking photos proved problematic.  Still, I enjoyed the next panel I went to, called Dark Horse: Celebrating 25 Years of Manga.  Dark Horse Comics, for the uninitiated (including me) were the first comic book company to bring manga titles to the U.S., with the first title being Godzilla (1988), based on the 1984 film.  Fun fact: the manga was put together by two guys who enjoyed the film, but couldn’t read or speak Japanese.  So, instead of being translated, the dialogue in the issue was made up, based on the movie and what the two guys thought the pictures were showing.  Another fun fact: this year is the 50th anniversary of anime on TV in Japan, with the appearance of Mighty Atom (Astro Boy).

The two Dark Horse representatives who ran the panel went through the history of Dark Horse Comics as it relates to manga before delving into new titles being released (including a sequel series to Lone Wolf and Cub, an older anime series that is still Dark Horse’s biggest seller).  Amazing, too, that the original translator and inker for Oh My Goddess!  are still working on that series, which premiered in 1994 and was one of the first manga series that Dark Horse published, originally starting in comic book form, while Outlanders was the first manga paperback to be sold.  I did feel old, though, when the two Dark Horse representatives had to explain what Wizard magazine was, and why it was such a big deal when Ghost in the Shell (another anime series published by Dark Horse in the U.S.) became the first and only manga to appear on the front cover of that magazine.

In fact, because it was so interesting, I didn’t sneak out until the Q&A began, meaning that I had to wait in the overflow line for Whose Line Is It Anyway?, which in Boston had taken place on the main stage, rather than as a panel.  I did get in, however, and even got some cosplay photos while waiting.  As for the panel, it’s the same as the show, except that everything has a manga/anime/video game tinge to it.

I then grabbed dinner back in the gallery, said “hi” to one of my friends at one of the booths, went back outside to take more photos of cosplayers, and then headed to the Anime Music Video Contest, which involved several categories of AMVs, including trailers, drama, romance, and comedy.  At the end of each category was a short recap of each of the videos.  I thought two of the best AMVs were in the romance category, where I had trouble deciding between one set to Taylor Swift’s “We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together” and another one set to Victoria Justice’s “B.F.B.”  I eventually went with the former.  For best overall, though, I choose my pick in the action category, which had lots of quick cutting and gunfire, in time to the music.

The end of the contest led to a mass exodus down the escalators, though minors could stay until 1 am, and some events lasted until the early morning hours.

While waiting for the Epic Glow Gala to start, I headed into the karaoke room.  As not much was happening in there, I went upstairs to the AMV room, which I had often popped in during my free time between panels.  That and the video game room.  I stayed for several of the AMV sing-along songs, though most of the sing-alongs did not have words to follow on the screen.  They included AMVs set to Disney songs and even one set to the “Time-Warp.”

I had to check in my bags before heading into the Epic Glow Gala Dance, which was DJed club music, much as you would find in a Japanese club, except that nearly everyone on the dance floor was younger than me by ten or fifteen years (and, true to its name, people had glow sticks, glow hula hoops, and those yo-yo like glow balls on strings, which I always noticed in the clubs I went to in Tokyo).  I took a break in-between dancing, and the second time I went back in, spontaneous conga lines were forming for each song.  So yes, dear reader, I joined one of them.  Apparently, the thing to do in a conga line is to then high-five the people you’re passing, which I did.  When the conga line ended and other ones formed up, I was one of the ones high-fiving everyone that streamed past.  Heck, earlier in the day, I high-fived someone heading down the escalator as I headed up it.

Once I retrieved my bags, I took some last-minute cosplay photos, took a peek at AMV parodies of TV openings, and then headed home.  I must say, the drabness of everyday clothes on the bus shocked me, considering that I had been surrounded by this all day:

As I snapped photos, attended the panels, and watched the AMVs, it occurred to me, as it often has, that anime and manga are not an accurate representation of what Japan is like, but rather what it aspires to be.  That is part of its power.  In a reality where cultural norms dictate behavior, dress, and decorum in all things, there exists an emotional brand of storytelling that reaches past that, to highlight the best and the worst in human nature, with the best winning out.  And yet, as a Dark Horse representative said, the greatest power of anime/manga is its ability to create empathy in the reader.  For once there is empathy, communication and understanding are possible — two things we could use more of in this world.

On Reading Sons and Lovers

My purpose in this entry is not to add to the already substantial criticism that exists on this novel from D.H. Lawrence, but rather to share with you my experience in reading it.  This post, then, should be read as a collection of emotions, senses, and feelings that occurred during the course of reading Sons and Lovers,  as opposed to a critical analysis based on its literary merit.

When Sons and Lovers begins with its slow burn of introducing the Morel family and then following them as they grow up (Part I), I was struck by how little story there is.  The whole first section of the book is all about the characters and the relationships between them.  When we get to Part II, where Paul and his relationship with Miriam, then Clara, and always his mother, take over, Lawrence almost drowns the reader in the emotional struggles that envelop the characters.  I felt as if I were in the center of the passion, hate, and indifference that characterizes these relationships.  Again, there is no story, other than the story of people falling into and out of love, consuming others in their passion, and pushing them away in their hate.  If I sometimes felt Part I lagged, Part II was so intense as to render my personal thoughts and emotions, as they existed in the real world, superfluous.  All that existed were the emotions Paul and Miriam, then Paul and Clara, felt for each other,  while in the background, always, lurked Paul’s mother.

Much of the turmoil created in me upon reading this book reflected the complexities and turmoil of the characters themselves.  Amazingly, while Lawrence gives a strong biographical outline of each character who falls into and out of love with Paul Morel, their characters become defined, as does Paul’s, through their interactions with him.  In this way, both the relationships and the people are three-dimensional in their complexities, including the relationship between Paul’s mother and father.  None of these emotions are subtle, and so the second half of the book burns with powerful feelings on the part of its protagonists.  This psychological depiction of people’s wants and desires, particularly their sexual ones, must have shocked the polite society that was the first to read this book (though not as much as his later books would).  Because Lawrence is so poetic and frank in his portrayals of the inner workings of the human heart, these portrayals still grip the reader in their emotional surgings.  No other book has worked on me as this book has.  I’ve felt elation, and the divine, in reading novels before, but never emotional exhaustion.  In fact, the impact was so strong that I’m not sure if I could survive another book by him, for this novel digs so deep that I found my emotions in a jumble every time I put the book down — a jumble which took a good night’s sleep to untangle again.  It felt as if I were in these relationships, myself, with all the pining and heartache that these relationships contained.

So, while Lawrence is not the greatest writer I have read, his first great novel (third overall) holds an undeniable, earthy power, one designed to leave the emotions of the reader frayed by its conclusion.  This is not a book you will soon forget about once you’ve read it.