Berlin and Beyond--day 2

Two movies today. I just saw "Tough Enough", a tough kids in Berlin movie. Michael and his slutty, slutty mom move from the burbs to the inner city, he's immediately the target of bullies and falls in with some bad kids--not violent, but just kids who skip school and get drunk instead. When he finally sticks up for himself his mix of courage and squeaky clean "honest" face catches the eye of the local drug lord, who signs him to a lucrative contract. And brutal hijinx ensue.

Next up was "Zeppelin", an ambitious mix of narrative and documentary footage casting the Hindenberg tragedy against a love triangle and the journey of a modern day man searching for answers about his grandfather, who was a technician in charge of the fuel cells on the Hindenburg. It was anambitious use of archival footage with new shot footage, and many different film styles to capture the many layered time periods of the story. The format reminded me of Werner Herzog's recent experiments blurring the documentary/narrative line. But this story was more engaging than "The Wild Blue Yonder".

And that's it for now. The festival continues through the weekend continues through the weekend. So more to come!

--Jason