So BendFilm was a huge success this year - and from my very own personal perspective - an ungodly amount of fun. Never mind that I have a red line on my neck from dragging my heavy camera (with the flash mounted) around for 12 hours every day. But hey.

And despite late-night parties and severe exhaustion, I still managed to post pics on my Emerald Bay Photo blog of all 3 days (duplicated mostly, but not entirely, on the BendFilm site as well):

Day 1
Day 2
Day 3 - Awards

Of course topic #1 amongst festival-goers was: "What did you see?" and "What did you think of it?" I didn't see much, but I saw some. So I will try and answer this one here (in chronological order):

Day 1:
Short: Estes Avenue: Brilliant. Paul Cotter's piece about a typical Sunday morning in a Chicago neighborhood is poignant and leaves a mental impression on everyone who sees it. And I'm not just saying that because Paul is a total babe (the British accent helps too) ...

Short: In the Morning: True. Raw. Unforgettable. Graphic. The 2nd best short I have seen during the festival. Rent it. See it. And don't ever forget about the injustice.

Short: 9: Insanely cool. Animation and storytelling at its very best. I wanna watch it again.

Feature: Duane Hopwood: Depressing. Sure, it's a well-crafted movie about the perils of alcoholism and how it can affect people's lives - but nonetheless - depressing. David Schwimmer was good, Jeanine Garafolo didn't have enough screen time to really make an impression. Next.

Day 2:
Short: A Higher Agency: Fucking brilliant. The best short I've ever seen. I *AM* going to see this one again. And again.

Documentary: The Eskimo and The Whale: I was really looking forward to this one because the female director is local, spent 3 years in the freezing cold to film this, and quite simply kicks ass. Yet as with every feature-length film I've seen at this festival, it was a bit disappointing. It was simply too long. And it lacked a certain dynamic. In short - it suffered from "documentary-syndrome", or the inability of the editor/director to distance himself enough from the project to objectively determine if this film is going to put the audience to sleep or not.

Short: City of Mermaids: Oddly entertaining. It confirms that Florida indeed is a strange, strange place ...

Mock Feature: CSA: Confederate States of America: Great idea. Well executed. Lots of effort and money thrown at it (no wonder - Spike Lee was its backer). And yet - too freakin' long. Too heavy on the whole history part. The mock commercials were hilarious though.

Day 3:
Documentary: Laundry & Tosca: Outstanding! I wanted this movie to be longer. Much longer. And I cried. Who didn't? Really. It spoke to the heart. And that voice! That mesmerizing, unearthly beautiful voice of Marcia Whitehead. This filmmaker was so close to the subject matter, that she suffered from the reverse of the "documentary-syndrome" - the ability of the editor/director to care for the project so deeply that we can feel her every emotion because she translates it right onto the screen.

So overall - the shorts ruled, the features were uhmmm... soso. At least I didn't see anything I could say I didn't like. They were all good in their own way. My only regret? Not having gotten my lazy ass out of bed on Saturday to see The Real Dirt on Farmer John at 9am. I hear the movie ruled - and Taggart, well, he is just an awesome guy.

But I shouldn't despair - after all, the BendFilm office harbors all of the movies on DVD so I'll be able to go check them out later. Or sooner.