Filmlocked! Iowa City

It was a shame that the Landlocked Film Festival, the brand new international film festival hosted by Iowa city, began on a Thursday. A shame, that is, unless of course you're a jobless film fan with about 8 hours to blow. For those of us who fit that description, it was fantastic. Plenty of room to spread out and enjoy some fine movie making.

I was a little surprised, after exiting the Englert, at seeing all of the seemingly shiftless ped-mallers reading, talking, relaxing, that there weren't more people taking advantage of this event. Was it lack of publicity? Lack of interest? Didn't they know?

The lowdown? Around 100 films, screening at six different venues, and some cash prizes given out to the winners.

I watched five films on Thursday: Suffer the Children, the Clinton 12, 20 Q, Carny, and American Meth.

And on Saturday I took in nine more (all shorts totaling about 3 1/2 hours): The Coffee Shop, Genesis Antipode, Father, Unblinking, Pillow Girl, 41 Sekunden, Willow Garden, The Scientist, Samsara, and A Driving Lesson.

Though I don't have time to go into all of them, here's an executive summary of my awards for the weekend (keep in mind these awards do no correspond to the actual categories in which the films are entered) :


Best Comedy-- The Coffee Shop
This 7 minute short filmed at a coffee shop in Des Moines is like watching an incredibly funny SNL sketch wherein the actors and cinematographers have been give an infinite amount of time to perfect their deliveries and angles. A pitch-perfect, homegrown comedy.

Best drama--The Father Unblinking
The Father Unblinking is a 24 minute poem of a movie about a couple who can't bring themselves to communicate about their daughter's recent death.
I have never seen an audience react as viscerally or as quickly as it did to this narrative short. Maybe that's because I don't watch too many short films in movie theaters. Or maybe it's because director Ziggy Attias took a great short story and made a great film out of it.
Who knew you could care so much about a family you've only known for 24 minutes?


Best Documentary-- Suffer the Children
This film is about the entrepreneurs/preachers/con men who, like Robin Hoods operating in bizarro world, rob from the poor and give to themselves. Oh, and then they mock their congregations for being poor and disabled. The basic message of these "prosperity preachers," as they are known, is this: If God really loved you, wouldn't He have made you rich? Good question. Any response. . . God?

My full review of the film Suffer the Children can be found above in a different post.