Jason goes to Indiefest--Day 14

Last Wednesday:

First up, the Shorts program Real Talk

CHILD: Edinburgh Castle, in San Francisco. That's a damn good pub, I know from personal experience. Also, something about an immigrant there.

FERGUSON DOCUMENTED: IN 36 HOURS: Voices of the people of Ferguson, Missouri shortly after the shooting of Michael Brown. If you were paying attention to the news back then, and have a memory, you know what it's like.

HEAR NO EVIL, SPEAK NO EVIL: A handwritten interview with director Jake Hager's grandfather, and how he's dealing with the loss of his voicebox.

HOME IS A HOTEL: The life of a family in a residential hotel in San Francisco's Chinatown.

LOCKDOWN: A look at how schools today practice for active shooter/lockdown scenarios.

ON BEAT: A charming look at a couple of deaf parents, their hearing children, and the music that unites them.

PHONE LIFE: A contrast between a man who refuses to own a cell phone and a teenage girl who refuses to live without one.

SCIENCE FOR THE MASSES: A pair of friends who are pioneers in the bio-hacking world. Funny and charismatic, but I want nothing to do with that.

LAPS: A look at runners in San Quentin Prison, and how running helps them out in life.

Then the wild feature, HARUKO'S PARANORMAL LABORATORY. Haruko's kind of odd. She wants to experience a true paranormal phenomenon. But instead she just sits around and watches TV (in an obvious nod, the model of her TV is Videodrome.) Not just watches, talks to it. And then her TV starts talking back. As in, it turns into a guy with a TV for a head. And wacky hijinx ensue. He's a friend, a lover, a star. And she's along for the ride, until he's stolen by people with shifty motives. Hilarious and fun, and I suppose a statement about TV-obsessed culture, if you care about that.

Total Running Time: 160 minutes
My Total Minutes: 420,102