Saturday, March 19, 2016

Jason goes to CAAMFest--Tuesday, Mar. 15th

Two shows last Tuesday, starting with a very special event:

The Super Story Behind SANJAY'S SUPER TEAM. I had already seen the Oscar-nominated short before THE GOOD DINOSAUR (although I could've sworn I had seen it at another festival, too...but checking my records I guess I didn't?) I freakin' love this movie.

So after playing the film, we got a special presentation from director Sanjay Patel and producer Nicole Paradis Grindle. And it was pretty great, going from the original idea, to the work behind the style, bringing in a traditional Indian dancer to inform the movement, etc. There are a lot of incredibly subtle ways this movie is influenced, and it was really cool to learn about it. Personally, my favorite moment was during the explanation of the sound design, when they showed how they made a fire sound by lighting a gas in a big jug. and they made a joke about this being evidence for an OSHA investigation. And (this will only register with a few of my friends) I thought...well, I know a great environmental healthy and safety person who you fired about a year ago...

Anyway, the second best moment was when they were talking about it not being played on the big screen again, someone asked if they could then play it again. And checking with the house managers, they had plenty of time so we watched it again. Awesome!

And then the second film of the night, the feature THE ROYAL TAILOR, and it was excellent. Starting with the conceit that a museum has discovered the most important tailor in the history of China, the audience is treated to the story of a local tailor named Kong-jin, who is renowned not just for making great clothes, but for getting ladies out of them. He becomes both a friend and a rival of the royal tailor, in a wildly exciting story of palace intrigue that both showcases his cleverness at clothes design and the deadly silliness of social climbing. A cool costume drama with a ton of anachronistic winks and solid belly laughs, building up to some serious social commentary. Plus, the hero gets to romance the queen, who among you can say that!?

Total Running Time: 141 minutes
My Total Minutes: 424,791

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