Festivals Reviews SIFF

SIFF 2021: Together, Together, Too Far Away, and This Town

My love for comedies has no bounds. Typically I watch films to escape, and I realize that seems pretty limiting considering all the documentaries, dramas and thrillers out there but comedies will forever be my first love. Over the last year as I binge watched like I’ve never binged before, I started to realize Netflix originals, new releases and even HBO are all full of dramas and downers, murders and destruction, depression and angst. I welcome any and all stories, but during a pandemic I don’t find comfort in reality or looking down the barrel of our dismal ecological future. Can a girl just laugh? Damn. The three movies I’m going to talk about below may have had a little strife here and there but they were just fun and heartfelt, exactly what I needed right now.

Festivals Reviews SIFF

SIFF 2021: Short Film Roundup

I find creating a complete and beautiful short film (whether it’s 4 minutes or 14), is a more difficult task than a well-crafted feature. With such little time you have to fit a fully fleshed-out concept from beginning to end that leaves the viewer satisfied. In many ways a short film director has the ability to get stuck in your brain for days or weeks after, because they have to hit you like a freight train with the story line or it just falls flat. It more often feels like a poem in motion rather than a story. I had the great pleasure of experiencing several beautiful poems at this year’s SIFF so I’m going to tell you about a few (in no particular order).

Festivals Reviews SIFF

SIFF 2021: My Missing Valentine, Final Exam, and Get The Hell Out

I mentioned in our mid-week catch-up that I was really impressed with the focus on diversity, and I don’t mean the surface type of diversity where you talk a good game but present your audience with little-to-no viewpoints outside of one or two token POC directed and/or acted films. SIFF has always done a decent job with this, but in 2021 they’ve exploded with a great lineup including a few “packages” that put a spotlight on regions and cultures that rarely see a single spot in a festival like this, much less a cluster of films. I’m so excited to talk to you about this set of films created by artists specifically in Taiwan. Even in just these three features there’s a diversity in emotion, experience and expression and you’ll love them all.

Festivals Reviews

SXSW 2021: The Hunt for Planet B

If you have plans for Halloween cancel them… or at least make sure to leave time to watch the launch of the James Webb telescope. If that sentence doesn’t excite or even interest you, it will after you watch The Hunt for Planet B.