My Cucalorus Experience

Overall I was very pleased with my experience at the Cucalorus Film Festival. Unlike past years I actually got to participate and view more films than ever before. Over the festival weekend I viewed: The Film Class, West Bank Story, Baggage, Princess, The Lonely Bliss of Cannonball Luke, Weirdsville, Shuteye Hotel, Wrong Time Capsule, and Kurt Cobain, About a Son. While I viewed Baggage, I also got to party with other festival goers and filmmakers. From a filmmaker’s perspective I really appreciated most of the films I viewed, and in particular Weirdsville directed by Allan Moyle. This film was one of the best I’ve seen in years. I have enjoyed other films by Moyle and anticipated the experience of viewing this film in the festival setting. I was pleasantly surprised by the film both enjoying and respecting the dialogue and editing of the film. These factors wittingly created comedy from typically downbeat topics such as heroin addiction and satanic rituals. This film was smart and was the best crowd pleaser out of every film I saw over the festival (based on reactions and applause). My next favorite film was Kurt Cobain, About a Son directed by AJ Schnack. I believe a big part of why I enjoyed this documentary film so much was because it did not commercialize the star that Kurt Cobain was. It left you with the feeling that you had just sat down and talked with Kurt, a normal person just like yourself, for an hour and a half. The film contained all audio from interviews over a year and a half. Visually the filmmaker juxtaposed images while Kurt was talking. From a filmmakers perspective I respect the images chosen to represent the dialogue. The director did not show images of Kurt Cobain until the very ending of the film. I was very impressed with the images chosen because they kept the viewer interested in a simplistic kind of way. Overall this film was just impressive because it was long and left me wondering how the filmmaker put everything together in the end. Although I enjoyed most of the experience, there were a few let downs and in particular the animated film Princess. This film had a lot of hype and was actually compared with the works of Quentin Tarantino. I believe it was a mistake to compare this film with Tarantino because it set the audience up for something that just wasn’t there. I see what they were going for, but heading into a film with such anticipation and not delivering just brings on a bigger let down then needed. From my time spent at the festival I learned that a lot of information and experience can be taken in with just a short amount of time. I feel that this is my closest experience with a large participation in a festival and I must say I enjoyed it very much and am looking forward to many more throughout my lifetime as a filmmaker.