Sunday, July 17, 2011

Huge Like an Ocean

I haven't been able to see too many films while down here at the Revelation Festival...a combination of intense jet lag and distance to cinema is making it hard for me to imagine sitting in a darkened movie theater for hours without dozing off but, as previously mentioned, the program for the fest is pretty stellar! Jack Sargeant, the man behind the program here, is somewhat of a film programming legend, being the force behind tons of underground film festivals including The London Underground Film Festival and the Melbourne Underground Film Festival  Sydney Underground Film Festival to name a few.
Holli, Mike, Drew and John all made it to an event here called Revel8 that consisted of filmmakers shooting footage, the footage being scored unbeknownst to them and then screening the result sight unseen in front of a live audience- an effect that all of them said was amazing, a spooky exquisite corpse feel of strangeness! Other films, including the much applauded Of Dolls and Murder (which I am dieing to see and is about the evolution of criminal investigation focusing on the mini dioramas used to re-create crime scenes in the 40s, also documented in this beautiful book by Corinne May Botz), the found footage renegades/collagers Soda_Jerk and Secrets of the Tribe (a film about the questionable boom in anthropological studies in the Amazon in the 60s and 70s that may have done more harm than good, which sounds similar in scope to that of the recently released Project Nim) also seem like things I shouldn't have missed and am hoping to cram into our last day here somehow or at least keep on the radar for future renting/stalking! Now we prepare for our show, slowly testing out the ability of our travel worn gear that has not taken to kindly to equatorial flight....! More soon!