NZ Film Festival (Part I)

I had a quiet weekend. August is dreary in Christchurch because it’s dark, cold, and damp. Plus, I purposely don’t ski or snowboard because I’d have to buy or rent equipment and pay for lift tickets, which are too expensive on my budget. I am saving for four big trips starting at the end of October.

The New Zealand Film Festival began last Thursday, August 3rd. It travels from city to city. I didn’t look at the other cities, but Christchurch has a very good line up. I settled on seeing six movies. The first three played on Saturday and Sunday. I saw Dave Chappelle’s Block Party, An Inconvenient Truth, and Shortbus. I haven’t been to a theater in a long time, and it was fun to go again. All three films were very good.

Block Party documents a concert that Chappelle hosts on a street in Brooklyn. It appeared to be close to where my friends Jon and Dara live. He spends a lot of money on the performers and keeps it secret from the media. Also, he invites many people from his hometown, Dayton, OH, to attend. I could tell the director wanted a dramatic arc from Daytonians. He interviewed many before the concert and only a couple afterward. Probably, most didn’t say anything interesting. Life doesn’t work as a dramatic arc which makes the good documentaries fascinating. The concert footage was great and Chappelle is a very nice person.

An Inconvenient Truth has Al Gore presenting the case for global warming. It centers on a slide show he gives while he tours. His presentation was straight out of an Edward Tufte textbook -- very convincing. I haven’t doubted global warming for a while, but his movie is a kick in the rear. One promising place to start is this article. Why couldn’t Al Gore be like he is in the movie during the 2000 presidential campaign? The answer is marketing. He would’ve been eaten alive by the Bush machine.

Finally, I saw Shortbus the same day I saw An Inconvenient Truth. I sent a list of all the films playing to my friend Chris who is the film critic at the Fort Worth Star-Telegram. Yes, I have my own personal hotline to Ebert and Roeper. His recommendation for this movie was the strongest even though he hasn’t seen it yet. It generated a lot of buzz at the Cannes Film Festival. I thank him for his recommendation, because it was a lot fun. A word of warning: It’s the most sexually explicit movie that I’ve seen. It portrayed sex and sexuality as fun whereas most other movies treat it as a downer. Granted some of the acts are questionable with the specter of HIV. What’s funny is this movie looked like it was shot in Jon and Dara’s neighborhood too. I’ll have to visit them when I return to the US.

To make the post unwieldy in length, here is the list of what’s playing during the festival. If you come closest to guessing which other three movies I’ll see, you’ll win a prize (something all black).

A Lion in the House
A Scanner Darkly
American Hardcore
An Inconvenient Truth
Animation for Kids
Animation Now! (2006)
Ans Westra: Private Journeys/Public Signposts
Ballets Russes
Black Gold
Black Sun
Brick
C.R.A.Z.Y.
China Blue
Dave Chappelle’s Block Party
Departure & Return
Drawing Restraint 9
Factotum
Fateless
Friends With Money
Heading South
His Big White Self
Homegrown: Love and Other Catastrophes
Homegrown: Works on Film
Homegrown: Works on Video
How Much Do You Love Me?
Into Great Silence
Jindabyne
Jonestown: The Life and Death of Peoples Temple
Keane
KZ
L'Enfer
Lonesome Jim
loudQUIETloud: A Film about the Pixies
Matthew Barney: No Restraint
Memory for Max, Claire, Ida and Company
Metal: A Headbanger's Journey
Mohammad Hossain's Intensive Care
Mrs Palfrey at the Claremont
No More Heroes
Offside
OilCrash - A Crude Awakening
Once in a Lifetime
Saratan
ScaredSacred
Shortbus
Sketches of Frank Gehry
Ten Canoes
Thank You For Smoking
The Aura
The Cave of the Yellow Dog
The Child
The Digital Space (2006)
The Heart of the Game
The Host
The Last Resort
The Method
The New World
The Passenger
The Road to Guantánamo
The Science of Sleep
The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada
The Valet
The Waimate Conspiracy
The White Masai
The White Planet
The Wind That Shakes the Barley
Time & Tide
Tristram Shandy: A Cock and Bull Story
Wah-Wah
Water
Waves
Who Killed the Electric Car?
Whole New Thing
49 Up
51 Birch Street