meanwhile, i saw simon and ashley, another pair of friends from drinking liberally, in the ticket holder line. two years ago our situation was reversed, i was in the ticket line for eagle vs. shark and they were on the wait list. the ticketed people are seated first, the wait listers get whatever (usually crappy) seats are left. i saved four non-crappy seats for simon, ashley and two of their friends for "eagle" in 2007. so tonight, through a series of hand signals, simon promised to hold a seat for me in case i could get off the waiting list.
unfortunately, after they let the ticketed people go in, one of the film fest people came out and told us wait listers that there were no seats for us in the theater. everyone in the wait list left. except me, i went inside to the box office.
"i thought i had an in!" i joked to B. "i'm sorry," she said, "but maybe you can still get in." "what?" i asked. "just sit down with me," she replied. so i sat with the other volunteers in the film fest box office. a minute later the location managed came out and said they had a few seats in the very front that the festival volunteers could use. B asked the manager if i could have one of the volunteer seats and so i got in after all. meanwhile simon and ashley were also saving me a (probably much better) seat, a seat i never got around to using. it really helps to have connections.
anyway...
"sita" ended up being well worth the trouble. it's an extremely entertaining animated break-up musical. the film combines a 3,000 year old hindu myth, modern sensibility, a bit of autobiography, at least five different animation styles and jazz vocalist annette hanshaw to make a funny irreverent film that was just a pleasure to watch. it's hard to believe that the entire feature length film was created on writer/director nina paley's PC.
because of song copyright issues, the film may never come out. if you get a chance to see "sita" in a theater, jump at it. nina paley has made the film available online (look for the "watch it" link at the top or bottom), but the film is gorgeous on the big screen. really hope more people get the chance to see it big.
"sita" was the last film i'll see at this year's film festival. it's nice to end on a high note. 13 films (14 if you count the talk cinema film) in 9 days isn't bad. i would have seen a couple more, if a pair of friends didn't insist on getting older and having parties about it. but i'm satisfied with this year's run and i'm ready for the end. blogging about other subjects will resume relatively soon.
UPDATE: glomarization's much more negative review of the film (and a screed about the copyright issue) is here. she seems to be one of the few who didn't love the film.
