Thursday, September 2

 Thursday, September 2

This festival normally officially begins on the Friday before Labor Day. This year they added today, an additional day, to spread out people going to the various venues. There are 10 venues but  my group has the festival pass that only allows us to go to one theater, so we see whatever comes to us. There are pros and cons of the various kinds of festival passes and we have found this works out easiest. And we are usually not too disappointed.

Well so far today we have seen two fantastic documentaries.( please forgive me when I don’t capitalize or italicize titles of films, and forgive typos as I often am writing this on the fly and dictating.)

1. “Nuclear family”— The filmmaker, Ry Russo -Young, reflects on her life growing up with two lesbian moms and suffering through a difficult landmark court battle in which the sperm donor claimed parental rights. It’s possible you remember the story from the press and some TV talk shows perhaps in the 90s. This was provocative, compelling, and will keep me reflecting on the layers and nuances of all of the relationships in the film. It’s the kind of film that probably would only show in art houses? But if you have a chance, I highly recommend it!

2. “Muhammad Ali”—Ken  Burns, Sarah Burns & David McMahon have done a thorough job, as usual, in researching all the facets of this man. If you think it is just a boxing movie, you are wrong! It’s really about recent American history. We saw part one today and they will show the second and third parts in the next couple of days. However I’ve already seen that PBS has it on their schedule in a couple of weeks. So I definitely intend to watch the rest of it at home. Absolutely fascinating! And now I really want to go back and watch “one night in Miami” again with this new perspective!

3. “C’mon C’mon”—-is directed by Mike Mills and stars Joaquin Phoenix has a radio journalist (a la NPR)  who is doing a project to interview children and ask them about how they see the world and their future. Unexpectedly he needs to take care of his nine-year-old nephew for an extended period of time.   This child is the most incredible actor! The story is very touching and moving and shows us the worldview of children and adults as they try to navigate and understand their lives.  I would highly recommend this film.

So between yesterday’s early film and the three today, I have seen four fantastic films. And I’m so happy that two of them were documentaries, because I am a big fan of documentaries.

So this is off to an outstanding beginning to the festival. And what is crazy is that normally it would just be starting tomorrow, Friday.  

—Jane