Friday 4 February 2011

Film Fest Wonders

Please note: The Victoria Film Festival runs February 4-13, 2011.


You won’t discover it unless you go.
Sometimes I pick the movie for the country that it came from. Other times the topic. Outside the box. In a realm unknown. An opportunity to explore.
Not usually a click click click of sights and sounds. Like the art of film. The movies breathe. There is time.
No big box office guidelines. Stars unborn.
Our society is synced on kismet tales of darkness. Or action action action. Three to five second frames. Like your kid playing a video game. Micro attention spans.
It’s the depth I enjoy. Openings into the vast unknowns.
There’s always a surprise. Something good or at times so incredibly bad. Glaring production flaws. Sound checks unheard. It all ravels into one.
Greatness can come out of a no budget flick. It’s all in the topic, the faces and the music.
Tonight I went to the Congo. To hear the “African rhythms in Beethoven.”
A multi-stored doc the description said. Kinshasa Symphony it was named. It was real. So were the people.
You never know from a picture and a description what the movie is really going to be like. Till you go.
A chance to feel the dynamics of outside the big box offices of filmmaking. The genuine craft of film. Love and art. Through a whole lot of heart.
I’ve been to the Congo. Never expected to hear a stringed instrument in the street.
It was captivating. At times moving. But mostly real.
I saw, I heard, I felt, I smiled and I laughed. When the film faded to credits we clapped.
A Film Fest wonder.

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