Caitlin in Carolina: Film Festival

So, as the title of this post suggests, Steven and I wound up attending the River Run Film Festival as we planned. Not only did we go to the two films that we had pre-ordered tickets for, we also saw two additional films on Sunday. And we're seeing one tonight! And on Saturday! Can you tell that I've enjoyed having the film festival in town?

Saturday began in a nearly disastrous fashion. We had planned to see the Animated Shorts in the morning and Meek's Cutoff at night. I stuck the tickets on the refrigerator so that we wouldn't forget them. Animated Shorts at 12:00pm and Meek's Cutoff at 8:30pm. Except that my brain reversed the times a bit. Before we went to bed on Friday, Steven asked what time the Animated Shorts were playing. I said 12:30. We proceeded to sleep late and take our sweet time getting ready. As I leisurely walked to the refrigerator to get the tickets - can't forget those, what a disaster THAT would be! - I realized the mistake I had made. Poor Steven had to rush to get dressed and leave the house with wet hair. When we got to the venue we realized that we couldn't park there and were redirected to the nearby YWCA lot. At this point, I was feeling extremely guilty and was fairly certain that we wouldn't make it to the show on time. And then the magical school bus of hope and wonder appeared, chartered specifically to take patrons directly to the theater. We were saved!

The Animated Shorts were in a tiny, tiny theater and we unfortunately had to sit pretty close to the front. Overall, the shorts were enjoyable and a good mix of funny, sweet, irreverent and melancholy. Here are two of my favorites:

And then there was Esterhazy. Long, depressing, terrible sound, and the only film that has been able to make animated bunnies ugly. Did I mention long? In comparison with the other shorts which ranged from 1 minute to 12 minutes, Esterhazy was 25 unbearable minutes of an unappealing clay bunny's search to find a fat wife set to the backdrop of the Berlin Wall in 1989 Germany. Terrible. Later that night we were able to arrive to see Meek's Cutoff in much less of a hurry. One of the actors from the film was in the audience and did a question and answer session afterward. I would say more about the film, but you didn't really come here to read me review movies that you probably won't see, right? Right.

So Saturday was our day with concrete plans. Although I almost always enjoy them, weekends packed full of plans mentally exhaust me. I am especially bad about locking into plans far in advance. I usually wind up spending the days or weeks leading up to the event in a state of dread. Even if it's something I want to do! What is wrong with me? Anyway, the fates aligned and Steven and I found ourselves at the film festival again on Sunday. I had been trying to win tickets to see a film -any film- through the Facebook pages of various sponsors. Not surprisingly, I didn't win. You see, the only thing I have ever won in my 24 years is a jelly bean counting competition at my local library when I was about 7. I won a frisbee and a box of crayons, in case you were wondering. Long story short, I won 2 tickets to see The Wonder Year through Twitter, doubling my life win tally.

The weather was much better on Sunday, and I was able to appreciate the cool movie area of the UNCSA campus where the films were being shown.

The Wonder Year was a pleasant surprise. Steven and I probably never would have seen it on our own, but I'm really glad we got the tickets. The film's director and 9th Wonder were in attendance and answered a lot of questions afterward. I really love the fact that so many people involved with the films have been to the screenings. Gives audience members that warm "I'm somewhere special" feeling.

After having an absurdly early dinner, we headed back downtown to the free, outdoor screening of Best in Show. We expected it to be much more crowded, seeing as it was free and the weather was nice, but we were able to pick a nice spot on the grass.