Special (Creepy) Talents

This was the shorts program I saw at the San Francisco Independent Film Festival here are some details about the 4 different movies:

Bad Dreams:
This Swedish short was about a man who loves scary movies but lives in his nightmares. "Your nightmares are like film sequences" the doctor says at one point. You never know when he is dreaming and when he is not. The film does a great job of making you scared and it was relatively unpredictable. Very well done, but confusing, I will have to watch it again sometime

4U:
This super short film (4mins) was unexpectedly funny. It is about a lonely man in a cabin with a hit list. The movie is pretty much a continuous POV shot of the man beginning with him dragging a body to his cabin and chopping it up and putting it in a grave. You later find out that the body was his mom's, the seemingly last person on his list. It ends revealing that YOU are actually the last person on the list, and that DVD the director handed out before the movie was actually meant to kill you. It was really well done!

Chickenfut:
The short film my brother was in. This is my second time to see it and I still loved it! Its about a boy who loves his chicken Giselé and when some bullies at his school kill her, the chickens soul takes over the boy (Gunter) who ends up getting his revenge. My brother is the "next" Chickenfut, the boy that the woman telling the story about Gunter to. It is an absurd horror, that everyone played serious very well and it turned out to be awesome!

Cherry Bloom:
A story of a little girl who has psychic ablities to see the future, her mom ends up using her to get money and in the end the girl sees her death with her mother's continued abuse of her powers. The cinematography was excellent. The girl's charater needed to be developed a little more to really make us sympathize with her, but overall it was a good film.

Afterwards there was a Q&A with the directors of all except Bad Dreams. The most interesting thing was that the director of 4U did 2 months of preproduction on it and went so far as to film it all himself and then hire a crew and shoot it again.

More than anything, going to this festival reaffirmed my love for shorts programs. There are so many great stories you can tell in 15 minutes that make better movies than full length features. When you put a few together with a common theme, you get a really unique and enjoyable experience. I recommend that everyone attend a film festival and go to a short film program at some point in their life. It's quite fun!

San Francisco Day 2

The morning began with a nice walk to church. A goregous cathedral with paintings, ornate walls, and elegant statues everywhere. Very gothic. After we went to a little breakfast place and headed to the trollies again. While waiting in line a street entertainer played music and told jokes, trying to get everyone to pay attention to him and send some cash his way. One joke was:
Man: Kids be nice to your parents. I was here on vacation with my parents and I ticked them off. My dad told me to wait right here. I've been here ever since.

We boarded the trolly and rode it all the way to union square. It was fun, extremely loud as it groaned up and down the steep roads, and an interesting experience. From there we walked to chinatown, where the sidewalks and streets were litered with firecracker paper from that night's festivities for Chinese New Year. We did a little shopping where I got some of those firework popper things you throw on the ground, and I ate yummy sechwan (sp?) chicken and egg rolls. My fortune cookie was actually a fortune: A chance meeting with a stranger may change your life. Hmm... I wonder when and who that will be!

After Chinatown we had to catch the subway to The Victoria for the SF Indie Fest screening of Special (Creepy) Talents, the shorts program Chickenfut was playing in. The set we watch also included 4U (unexpectedly funny), Bad Dreams (good idea, but was very hard to follow and left you confused), and Cherry Bloom (interesting, but acting was sub par). Chickenfut, inspite of the fact I'm a little biased, was probably the best out of them all.

Driving back in the cable car was interesting... I sat in front of a man who kept talking to no one, probably reciting a movie he saw. It was strange. The end of the day included going back to the Wharf and eating some Chocolate Heaven chocolates and fudge! Amazingly delicious! A quick walk back to the hotel, grabbed our bags, grabbed a taxi, sat in the airport until 12am, and flew home, arriving here at 5:30am. I'm exhausted. San Francisco was amazing; I could picture myself there... Anywhere in California.

Have a five page essay to write. Hope I finish!