Cucalorus Response

I thought Cucalorus this year was amazing! I was extremely impressed not only with the variety of attendees, and with the film selection, but also with the pure sense of community that has developed around the event. The first thing that I noticed about this year was how normal the area has seems to view a film festival. It is a wonderful thing to know that my school town supports Cucalorus so much. I mean, I never thought I was going to see ‘regular’ people at a festival like that. There were older women with their grandchildren at one showing, and business executive looking men at another. I guess it is easy to assume that the only people who go are the ones that are film buffs.

That said, I will get on to the screenings I attended. I first went to a documentary called Viva la Coopertiva! It was about the start of the Hispanic Credit Union in North Carolina. I learned about the struggles of a minority group to start an organization owned within the peoples’ community. The second film I saw was called 24 Days. It was a narrative based on actual events in which a son is kidnapped and put up for ransom. Eventually he is tortured to death. The shots were beautiful and the story was moving. I thought it was a wonderful combination of complex character development, and a solid, fast-paced story style. Next I attended a series of dance shorts. Some were certainly better than others. I saw quite a few problems in the production line of some of them. I realized that they were experimental in some aspects, but I was still disappointed in the lack of commitment to fully incorporating a theme or motif into the final message of the film; some of the styles or effects just didn’t come across very well in the final products. My fourth screening was VERY different as far as tone because it was a kid’s movie called Labarynthus. It was a German fiction narrative based on a story about a boy who finds a strange video game. The effects were AMAZING!!! I was captivated by the amount of time it must have taken to make the effects look as good as they did. Beyond that, the film was just mediocre. The story reminded me a little of others I have seen, and some of the humor was a little foreign to the audience, although that could literally be a foreign issue if the jokes were encountering cultural barriers. Finally, I went to the Love Shorts at Level 5. I loved almost all of them. They were simple concepts for the most part, but were sold well in their design, visuals, and portrayal. I would say that this was a great programming decision on the festivals part because it was a nice block on which to end the festival experience.

In the end all I can say is that I loved the experience of this festival! I learned things that I never expected or meant. I left every screening wishing my schedule would have allowed me to just stay there all day and hop from place to place. Maybe next year that is exactly what I will do. I would love to have a Pegasaurus Pass next year and get into all the extra events, and meet all the film makers… who knows… maybe next year I will even BE a filmmaker there to enjoy the festival into which my film was accepted.