So the madness is finally over. I can stop planning my life around what films are showing when and go back to the calm that should come with the changing leaves…oh wait, Halloween is oh so near. But that’s ok, I’ve got the weeknights to recover.
Really 10 days of filmic festival-going is just about right. The 2 week TBA is energizing but I always find myself saying I can just go to things later. When you know you only have the week there’s more a sense of urgency, which can make you actually get out there and go. Although with weekend festivals I often feel if I’ve missed one night I’ve missed the fest. So ten days is just about the peak of festival freedom. My lackadaisical Portland attitude, the conflict between laying back and doing it up, is quite apparent. I think it could only work in this town.
‘Butch Jamie’That’s not to say there aren’t some flicks I’m disappointed I missed. Tuesdays pairing of humor Butch Jamie with the more serious international hipster drama The Bubble was sure to be a smorgasbord of wonderfully mixed emotions. (Plus a college dormmate of mine co-starred, which I didn’t discover until perusing my Alumnae Quarterly this weekend. The world continues to grow smaller I swear…) I also probably should have dragged myself out of Northeast for yesterday’s final day fare. Gay luchadores in prink and rainbow spandex…how can you miss that? Plus, the evening ended with an affair for the locals, shorts that included music videos and shorts for folks such as Ali Astro, Mike Justice, Nickolaus Typaldos and more.
What I did attend was a fairly positive experience. Even the misery that was opening night’s Curiosity of Chance was a fun audience at one of Portland’s most beautiful old theaters. As a quality film it may have left something to be desired but it was, at least intended to be a genial crowd please with the kind of diverse audience you want on opening night. And it did succeed, at least, in that respect.
‘Cowboy Forever’My weeknight movie, Itty Bitty, was much more demographically focused and I felt like Cinema 21 became more like a living room that night. The next night’s Dorian Gray kicked the intensity up a notch with a long Friday night line of gay men waiting to see beautiful boys. As Nina’s Heavenly delights had just gotten out before I watched the swarm of fairly traditional lesbians stream with mixed feelings. But then I got to see the pretty lads too. Worth it.
And while I also missed the closing night gala at Crush (this time not my fault, you can direct both blame and phone numbers to the adorable but chronically time challenged Alicia Crain) I think those two little words sum up this year’s festival quite nicely. Worth it. Oh so worth it.
