Jason goes to Indiefest--Opening Night

Indiefest and Noir City overlap this year, causing me to make some difficult decisions over the weekend. But I had to be at opening night.

The opening night musical party started with STUCK, the film adaptation of a hit musical. Set inside a New York subway car, it starts with the train stopping, and everyone being stuck for a while. People from all walks of life have to just...sit there. But of course they don't. They talk, they fight, they sing, they get to know each other. Oh yeah, most importantly they sing, that's worth saying twice. The setup is pretty gimmicky, but the music is catchy enough and the characters are fully developed enough to transcend the gimmick and make you care about them. Each one starts as kind of a stereotype, but the point is to look beyond the stereotype and get to know each one of them as people. Who knows, maybe some of them might even stay in touch after the train starts moving again. That was fun.

Now I had been up since 5 a.m. for work, so I was a bit hesitant about staying for GIRL WALK//ALL DAY, a 71 minute dance party which I had seen before (mostly, I confess I dozed off a bit when it played back in 2012.) But I did want to see all my Indiefest friends and stuck around for at least the beginning. And ended up still there at the end, and even dancing along with the enthusiastic crowd. Great event for opening night. I don't think there's any way I can keep that energy up all festival.

Total Running Time: 161 minutes
My Total Minutes: 467,273