Press Preview 1

[ironymaiden]

first of May, first of May, SIFF press previews start today...

all full series passholders are admitted to press previews (unless there's a serious security concern). this means that i can start watching movies almost a month before the festival begins and have extra opportunities to see films while the festival is running. assuming that i keep producing, work is cool with me bending my schedule around to get to them. my goal is to see three or so a week.

like last year, i'm carrying a notebook and my pen, writing my impressions as i go and transcribing. it makes for odd tense structure sometimes:

i am so happy to be here. i've met the membership folks from SIFF and several other passholders. lots of retired folk here today (surprise) and there are three ladies near me discussing linguistics. (about the relationship between Turkish and Japanese. awesome.)
it's like old home week around me. it's sweet. best quote so far: "Bella Bottega is showing films occasionally."

today's film is In the Shadow of the Moon. the blurb says it's a documentary about the 12 astronauts who have been to the moon. it was the most exciting thing for me on the film list for the week. here comes the intro...

the film is lovely. it intercuts interviews with the living astronauts with period footage, both from NASA and various news outlets. i'm a big space goob, so some of the exposition felt like it was talking down to me, but it's a great introduction for students studying this material, and i'm pretty sure it's intended to be broadcast on television. what it offers for the space goob is the very personal and sweet anecdotes and observations of the astronauts. it also uses longer cuts and unfamiliar angles of NASA footage, if you've been watching clips of this stuff all your life. apparently it's won audience awards at other festivals, and i completely understand. even now, the Apollo program fills us with wonder. i scribbled down a few quotes as i watched.

in a discussion about Vietnam, and guilt over being a soldier who was kept safe from the war, one of the men says his friends in southeast asia said the space program was "...the only thing we had to hold our head high and be proud of."

about the speed of the program, and decisions made to change mission objectives: "it was a time when we made bold moves."

there are several images that still linger. (like the backwash from Eagle as it left the moon surface causing the flag to flutter, probably for the only time.) i'm not sure that this is uncovered ground, that there's an important new statement being made about this chunk of history. i do think that it was very important to talk to these men, who were in their late thirties and early forties more than thirty years ago, and create a record before they start dying. i carried away a sadness at the thought that it could be so long until the next moon flight that there may be no one left alive from the Apollo program to see it.

it's beautifully made, and it offers a little dose of pride for jaded Americans. (it's not flag wave - y. there's not even much discussion of the space race.) but as Michael Collins said about touring after they got home, it was the first time that people around the world said "we did it" as in, humanity did it. the world aspired together, the world watched together, and the world shared in the achievement.

five out of five, recommended, pretty much for all ages.

(i think this is worth buying a ticket for in the main festival, but it's digital and includes a lot of sixties television footage, so it will also play well on a television.)

Comments

[dreamline.livejournal.com]

I plan to get a full pass next year. My brother's visit later in the summer makes taking off work during SIFF a no-go. Still, I do only work four days a week, so I should still be able to see a lot. Maybe we can meet up for a few.

[buhrger]

ItSotM sounds kewl. i'll watch for it.

[varina8.livejournal.com]

Thanks for the post on this. I have it on my "to-see" list. Might mention it at work too.