Cinequest post #1

I have just started going to Cinequest (the San Jose film festival). I went to the following:

Shorts Program 1: Hit the Ground Laughing
My faves:

• K-7: the ultimate tense job interview.
  
• The Racist Brick: short , funny, to the point.


• The Awesome Robots vs. Transformo: I do like a wacky comic book satire.


• Zombie-American does a neat take on those personal documentaries.


• Heck, I liked all of them.

Shorts Program: After Hours Mindbenders (and my mind did get kinda bent; this was from midnight to after 2am)
I liked:

• Chingaso the Clown, a bad-ass homage to clown vigilantes.


• Lucky, another short-and-to-the-point short, perfect length, perfect setup, perfect ending.


• Phone Sex Grandma: who would think that a grandma swearing a blue streak over the phone would be so funny?


• Home Delivery: pretty good, a tad long, good animation.

I did not like:

• A through M (there is a scene where a guy knows he is going to bite the big one, and he has a big rack of nasty surgical instruments within easy reach, and then the mope lets guards stomp up to him and beat him up as a prelude to killing him. Sabu from The Thief of Bagdad once said "If I am going to die, then I would dare anything!" Take a lesson, dude! You are SLOW.


• The Second Death: Night Gallery did this better, and did not use teddy bears as monsters, and did not put a guy in a dress for NO REASON AT ALL.


• Keep It Real, Dawg: Coulda been good if it was about 1/3 the length.


• The Marionette. I despise when the bad guys win. To slightly paraphrase Marvin the Paranoid Android (Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy): "There is enough misery in the universe already. Why make up more of it?"

And I don't remember the other mindbending shorts so well that I will document them, cuz it is after 4 in the morning now (arrived home after 3am, and had to blog).

The movies:
Chalk is a great take on teachers. I hope new teacher Nephew Eric sees this. Shown with Super Power Blues. With great power...

Looking forward to more of this. This stuff inspires me. I actually sent in a short I did, but it seems I am not up to their level yet. I will get there. (Helps my skill set also; I am learning video software, a booming market).