A St. Louis wag by the name of Eliot had some grim opinions about the month of April, many of which I share. But it also marks the stretch in which the cinetrix -- perhaps foolishly -- will attend at least part of four different film festivals.
First up is the Full Frame Documentary Film Festival in Durham. It'll be my sixth straight year there, so I know my way around. What I could use is guidance from those of you who were at Sundance [never been], True/False [ditto], or SXSW [skipped that and the annual meeting of the Society of Cinema and Media Studies in favor of lolling on a Mexican beach drinking Sol] about a few logjams.
Here's the thing: Full Frame screens each flick once. So, for certain time slots I need to know which doc is a must-see on the big screen and which can safely be seen on a screener. For example, Friday between 4 and 7 p.m.: ND/NF 2010 pic My Perestroika or South By special jury award winner War Don Don? And do I try to sneak into and out of the short Seltzer Works first?
Saturday gets uglier still. Between 1:10 and 3:35 I want to see Book of Miri and In the Matter of Cha Jung Hee. But that means missing the Vik Muniz-and-garbage doc Waste Land and Oprah-annointed Family Affair. And 7 to 9:35 is a disaster. Seriously: Ito - A Diary of an Urban Priest, 12th & Delaware, Soderbergh's one-for-me And Everything Is Going Fine, Sundance Grand Jury Prize winner Restrepo, and Regretters. ALL AT THE SAME TIME. Delaware boasts a Sheila Nevins exec producer credit, which means it'll land on HBO. Everything obvs has distribution, but do I want to wait for theatrical?
You begin to get the idea. After that clusterfuck, feeling somewhat torn between only two post-10 p.m. screenings about misanthropes -- Videocracy [Silvio!] and Strange Powers [Stephin!] -- comes off as a luxury. That is, if I'm not totally spent by then.
OK, smarties, speak up. What should I watch?
