Starting last Thursday and running to this Thursday, I am participating in the Nashville Film Festival. I have a film that was selected for screening called A Cheaper Way to Go, a short documentary about a wholesale casket salesman. Over the past 38 years this little festival has grown to become one of the top 20 festivals in the United States. When a festival grows this large it becomes important that it finds a way to set itself apart from others that are of similar size. NaFF being in Nashville made the obvious decision to focus on music. There are all kinds of films at the festival but the creators of the festival strive to bring in at least a few major music related films and films submitted cold that have something to do with music get special attention. You’d think it would be all country music right? Happily I can say no it’s not. In fact, the only country music film at the festival this year is a documentary called Dirty Country that focuses on comedians that write and perform raunchy country songs. The festival opened with a documentary called My Secret Record or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Enjoy the Biz a documentary about the making and release of Rob Thomas’ most recent hit record.
Along with all the art films and documentaries, I’ve been able to see so far I was also able to check out Exiled, a new Hong Kong shoot em’ up and End of the Line, a Canadian horror film. Reviews for both of these films are forthcoming. Both of those films will be in theaters or on DVD for you to check out soon enough so the really great things to see at film festivals are the shorts programs. Short films are an under appreciated art form that seldom find their way to any kind of distribution. Most often these films were made to tell a story that’s important, but doesn’t merit a feature length film, or they are demo reels or pitches for funding to tell the stories in feature form. I don’t just say this because my current film is a short; I say this because some of the best films I’ve seen so far were sorts. Some stand outs for me were The Morning After, Ng, and Noir Total. In The Morning After, a woman awakes after a night of partying and discovers blood running down her legs. The film is short and features a surprisingly gory twist. Ng is a short based on the real serial killer Charles Ng who was convicted of killing 11 women. Along with his accomplice Leonard Lake, they videotaped themselves with women they held captive in their survival bunker built in the foothills of the Sierra Nevada. This is some of the grittiest and most disturbing 11 minutes you’re likely to see this year. The film is shot on video and the quality is deteriorated so it looks as if you are watching one of the duo’s actual tapes. In Noir Total, a man wakes in his apartment with a massive hangover and a dead girl in his bathtub. Not remembering what happened, he calls a friend for help. This French short film is filled with twists and turns and having the word Noir in the title is fitting. If you like French mystery and horror, then you’re sure to enjoy this one.
Some of the biggest innovations in animation also tend to appear at film festivals first and this year has been no exception. In The Wraith of Cobble Hill a young boy is asked to watch the corner store owner’s dog while he is away. The film is a pretty basic morality tale but when mixed with purposeful slow pacing and simple but fitting animation the film becomes much more than just another after school special. I expected Don Hertzfeldt's new film Everything Will Be Ok to be great before I saw it based on Don’s previous work and I wasn’t disappointed. If you’re unfamiliar with Don’s work I highly recommend checking out Billy’s Balloon and Lilly and Jim. He also has some excellent shorts in The Animation Show, a series of animated films that toured art house theaters and are now on DVD in box sets. In Everything Will Be Ok a series of dark and troubling events leads Bill to consider the meaning, or lack thereof, of his life. The film features Don’s classic approach to animation and his standout artistic style. Bill Plympton’s new short is also a treat. Plympton is perhaps best known for his series of animated station ID’s done for MTV. His new film, Guide Dog, features a dog trying to help the blind with expected hilarious and disastrous results.
So, the point is most film festivals feature more than just somber documentaries (although there are actually plenty of those) and artsy elitist films (well there are a few of those too). All of the above short films made for fantastic viewing and I’ll get into the features soon with full fledged reviews. Meanwhile, if there’s a film festival in your town I highly recommend checking out the schedule, you never know what you’ll find.
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