Thursday, March 10, 2016

Jason goes to Cinequest--Day 8

Two programs and a bonus short yesterday (Tuesday.) By the way, I've only now noticed that because the festival started on March 1, I can easily tell how many days into the festival it is just by checking the date. I am a freakin' genius.

First I caught the short NORA: THROUGH THE YEARS. A nice little documentary about Nora Axbey, an out and proud woman who recounts her life adventures.

NORA: THROUGH THE YEARS plays again with THE MODERN PROJECT Friday at 2:00

And then I did not stick around for the feature, because I had only drunk with Ryan Bruce Levey, the director of NORA, and I had drunk with the director of the film playing just next door.

First, the short TICK TOCK is a cute animated story of an old man just passing his latter years, but sees a neighbor renting out his spare room, so decides he wants to do the same.

Then the feature documentary, DAN AND MARGOT. Margot is a vivacious, fun young woman. She had a stalker back in college. He tormented her for three years. His name was Dan. And he was her first schizophrenic manifestation. She has a serious mental illness, but that doesn't stop her from enjoying life, traveling the world, looking for love, etc. Her friend Chloe wrote, produced, and directed this film, and it's a portrait of Margot in all her...uniqueness. And she does come across as a very enjoyable woman (although I'm not a fan of the constant smoking, but that's none of my business.) Ultimately, I was less repelled by her mental illness than by her cheesy online dating profile name. I think it was cutiebooty69? Something that made me cringe like that. Anyway, I was assured afterwards that was a joke, so cool!

Barring Encore Day, that was the last screening for TICK TOCK and DAN AND MARGOT

Then the next program started with the long-ish short, STALKING SISTER. A long lost brother returns every few years to threaten his sister in creepy, incestuous ways. That was...weird. Possibly the most unsettling movie in the festival.

And then I ended the night with the feature ZANJAS, a story from Patagonia about a ditch digger who travels into the mountains for...well, here's the thing. It's a movie where not a lot is said. Bodies of women are found in the creek, but there's no frantic search for the killers. He's escaping something, but we don't find out what until the end (unless, of course, I was struggling to stay awake and missed something. That's entirely possible.) Nearly the only sign of progress is his task of slowly repairing a dilapidated rope and wood bridge that was damaged in last year's storms. There are some beautiful scenes, and it's a very contemplative movie. But I'm afraid it was too late at night and I was too exhausted/drunk to give it a full viewing. So this might be one for me to revisit later.

STALKING SISTER and ZANJAS plays again today (Thursday) at 5:00.

Total Running Time: 203 minutes
My Total Minutes: 422,907

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