saturday

[ironymaiden]

i slept in and then hit folklife with C. he wasn't feeling great, so it was mostly food and browsing. (we knew we would be back with mimerki.) in classic fashion, we heard bagpipes and followed the sound to find a bagpiper playing with an excellent hip-hop drumbeat. the drummer was playing a full kit plus glass bottles, five gallon buckets, and djembe. the piper spotted a girl in a highland dancers sweatshirt and invited her to dance with them. kinda brilliant to see her jamming with them, highstepping in jeans and sneakers. CD, $5 donation. yay folklife! (their myspace page, and a video of them playing downtown with impromptu breakdancing.) the big find of the day was the story cloth mentioned in the previous post. we split up at the bus stop and i headed up to the Egyptian.
the first one was Expiration Date, a romantic comedy filmed in Seattle. lots of local actors and other talent present; too bad i don't pay enough attention to pick them out. through some generosity i ended up seated in the reserved section between the grandparents of one of the extras and a member of the film crew. it's absolutely adorable. the film was locally made and financed and is a sweet little black comedy. our hero is cursed: his father and grandfather were both killed by milk trucks on their 25th birthday. we see the days leading up to his demise, as he works through "things to do before i die" list. the reason to see the film is that it's a fucking Seattle valentine. his mom's shop is on Ballard Ave, just a few blocks from my house. his apartment is on the east slope of Queen Anne. (a few blocks from the old place...hmm.) i'm curious if seeing the city means something to other people - the director commented that festival audiences elsewhere are impressed with the scenery. it's coming to the Egyptian after the festival and i want to take C to see it. it's a bit twee perhaps, but so charming that i want these people to succeed. if they can make some money, their backers are ready to do ten more like it here in the city. Smith Brothers Dairy (the trucks that appear in the film) sent a truck to the opening and handed out free chocolate milk as we left.
while i waited for the next film, there were people in mexican wrestler costumes across the street who then went into Bill's. alas, i was without my cameraphone.
i had one of the best seats in the house for This Film is Not Yet Rated. on house right in the Egyptian the back row extends across the end of the aisle so there are two seats with perfect legroom. there is also secret storage space behind them if you're carrying a backpack. getting one is competitive, and i've never snagged it without a passholder to save it for me. score. i found myself fascinated with the long dark stripes of coke stains down the carpet of the aisle, layer after layer.
great flick, great q&a afterwards. (i've been lucky enough to have the director present for all but one of my regular festival films so far.) it's a smart, funny exploration of how ratings are assigned. it's muckraking, but it doesn't smell as much as Michael Moore's work. the system exposed here is definitely corrupt. the raters' identities are secret. their deliberations are secret. well, except for the part where the "senior raters" routinely meet with reps from the studios. so much for being free from influence. i thought Matt Stone's discussion of getting Orgazmo rated versus South Park: Bigger, Longer, and Uncut was the most damning. both films were initially rated NC-17. when Stone asked for specific changes that could be made to the indie Orgazmo, the board told him that it was against their policy to dictate specific changes. for South Park, he received a specific list of MPAA-requested changes through the studio. the filmmakers show trends that penalize independent films and those that depict homosexual activity or women taking pleasure in sex by using clips comparing similar scenes that were considered R in one film and NC-17 in another. it is outrageous and funny all at once.
This Film is Not Yet Rated was my first five of the festival. as long as you can sit through wall-to-wall sex clips and a smattering of violence, i think anyone who cares about movies should see it.

Comments

[steve98052.livejournal.com]

I enjoyed Expiration Date also, particularly the local scenery. (That's obviously not enough, however; I remember seeing another film heavy on local scenery that was tedious.) I agree with your summary that it was clever but bordered on too-cute.

This Film Is Not Yet Rated was brilliant, but the gumshoe business bordered on too-silly. It's amusing to see how the MPAA changed its procedures slightly, not long after the film's release, then denied that there was any connection.