About a week ago we watched our last film at the 10th annual Maryland Film Festival, and it took me about a week to write down some of my impressions. If you read any of my last blog entries: I hope you enjoyed reading them and could discover something you might enjoy as much as I did.
This year’s line-up was fantastic. Not only the feature length movies turned out to be great, we also saw a lot of excellent short films. As in all the previous years we didn’t manage to watch everything we were interested in, but I plan to keep an eye on these films and rent them as soon as they become available on video. I was very interested in
- Beautiful Losers
- Gonzo: The Life and Work of Dr. Hunter S. Thompson
- I Think We’re Alone Now
- My Effortless Brilliance
- Polis Is This: Charles Olson and the Persistence of Place
- Row Hard No Excuses
- Strictly Background
- Woodpecker
Hopefully they will be available on video one day. Unfortunately, we also could not make it to the closing night screening & party, which has been another tradition next to the screening in 3-D, John Waters’ selection, the silent movie with live music and the opening night. The tent village schedule again included several interesting presentations, including topics like how to get your movie into film festivals, distribution tips, how to budget a film, documentaries and proximity to subjects, copyrights, how to get started with your first film, and much more. This year there also were two free outdoor screenings of Yellow Submarine and William Castle’s Strait-Jacket.
So many great things to see, learn and choose from, so many opportunities… this is what makes the Maryland Film Festival such a wonderful and exciting one. But this also is what makes it so challenging and difficult for us when we try to compile our weekend schedule every year. I should have gotten used to the impossibility of seeing everything that sparked my interest–but I haven’t; and sometimes I wonder if a duration of a full week could make it any easier. Hm, probably not…because a full festival week would include even more greatness and just make it even more challenging in the end.
As far as I am concerned, the Maryland Film Festival was a milestone of the year and a great success again, even without doing something special for its 10th anniversary. It was especially nice to offer the all-access passes at a reduced price, which was close to what we normally would have paid for single tickets. The all-access passes made it so much easier for film-junkies like us, because we didn’t have to print a whole stack of tickets ourselves anymore, had more freedom to make last-minute decisions about films we were going to see or not, and we didn’t have to wait in lines (most of the time) which was a plus, too. It felt as pleasant, casual and relaxed as in our first years of joining the festival.
Not only the festival weekend, but also the Friends of the Festival program throughout the year was very attractive again. It kept us in the loop of things and featured a number of very interesting screenings at the MICA, including Helvetica, Off The Grid and Everything is Cool, which we both enjoyed a lot. Many thanks and hats off to everybody who made this film festival and the program throughout the year possible!
My Top-5 festival favorites and films I definitely want to watch again sometime:
- Yeast
- Goliath
- Momma’s Man
- Baghead
- and the latest version of I.O.U.S.A.
My Top-5 short films:
- Salim Baba
- Doxology
- Karaoke Show
- The Animals all are Gathering
- Fantaisie in Bubblewrap
Our next film festival will take place in Arlington, Virginia on Saturday, June 14, 2008. The 6.5 hour Rosebud Nominee Showcase will present 20 films beginning at 12:30PM at the Spectrum Theater, 1611 North Kent Street, Arlington, VA. It is a showcase of the best work made in Virginia, Maryland, and D.C. and will also include Quick Feet, Soft Hands by Paul Harrill. I’m already looking forward to this. I will probably attempt to write more about this event and the films later in June.
Again, thanks to the Maryland Film Festival, the Friends of the Festival, everybody who made it possible, and thank you for enduring my writings!!
