Okay, first my favorites. I can't narrow it down to one, so I give out a few awards:
The one I simply liked the best: "Dante's Inferno"
The sexiest: "Viva"
The funniest: "Beach Party at the Threshold of Hell". Honorable mention, "Forgiving the Franklins" and "Stalking Santa" (which also wins for best use of Christmas carol music in an X-files style)
The "my sense of humor award" (the one I think is funny, but others might not agree): "Neighborhood Watch"
My reward for seeing everything (the movie which I might've skipped if I picked and chose what to see instead of seeing everything , but ended up loving. To me, this is my most important award): "Manhattan, Kansas". Seriously, how was such a wonderful, open, honest girl raised by a mom who was so full of shit?
Best Documentary that isn't "Manhattan, Kansas": "Your Mommy Kills Animals"
Best Short: "Moosecock", with honorable mention for "The One"
Movie whose title I like to repeat over and over again: "Moosecock"
Movie that makes me say "moosecock" over and over again: "Chickenfüt". Just kidding, it's "Moosecock".
The movie that did the best job of making me feel something I don't believe: "The Substance of Things Hoped For". Sorry, guys, I'm still an atheist.
The movie that expanded my understanding of how you can tell a story: "Ten Canoes". Honorable mention to "S&Man"
Okay, that's enough awards. Now how about the themes of this year at Indiefest:
Bunnies: That's the easy one. Too numerous to mention
Homosexuality: Okay, that's always prevalent at Indiefest or any SF film festival, so it almost doesn't count as a theme. But taking a 6 year view, this year has been a particularly gay Indiefest.
Torture: "Dante's Inferno", "Neighborhood Watch", "Beach Party at the Threshold of Hell", "The Third Eye" (okay, that one's kinda self-torture, but still), "Your Mommy Kills Animals" (animal torture), "Gobshite", etc.
Fractured reality: "Inland Empire", "The Third Eye", "Substance of Things Hoped For", "Bad Dreams", "The Third Eye", etc.
Blurring/confusing the line between documentary and fiction: "S&Man", "The One", "Rolling", "25 Cent Preview", "Stalking Santa" (okay, that one's just a straight up mockumentary, but still), etc.
And the theme that Bruce had to point out to me, and I feel like an idiot for not getting--Unreliable father figures: "Stalking Santa", "Fido", "Substance of Things Hoped For", "25 Cent Preview" (the "father" is actually a priest, but generalize it to authority figures), "Manhattan, Kansas" (the father figure is actually a mother, but there's also a father who left them when Tara was born), "The Shore", etc.
Okay, I feel like a doofus for missing that last theme, but it actually fits into a bigger meta-theme with the previous two. Fractured reality plus blurring the documentary/fiction distinction means one thing--reality just ain't that f---in' real anymore. And it's because our father figures have lied to us. I might even expand that theme to say it's tortured us and/or caused us to torture others. That's what the independent film community is trying to tell us this year. Turns out all those bunnies were just a red herring.
Okay, that's that. Unless I think of something else after the fact, this is all I'll write on Indiefest this year.
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