Movies Galore!

Finally, I've compiled a list of movies I've seen recently. Enjoy my list, and go see them if you get a chance!

A few weeks ago when I went up to Hunter to stay with Susan, part of the festival was that they showed mountainfilm fest. If you follow my link to the film fest and click on the titles I've listed you can read about the different films. I've also provided individual links for the films when I could find them. They didn't play all of the films, just a sampling. The ones I saw were:

*A life among whales This one was quite disturbing. I found out that there are still whale poachers, just under a different name. They say it's for scientific research, therefore it's legal.

*Native Wind Powering America -Very short but very interesting. Here's a link to their website.

*Trout Grass This was the first one they played on the day that I went (it was held over two days), and I was so bored I was actually falling asleep. I was thinking about getting up and leaving, but one of the producers for the whole mountainfilm festival was in the audience so I decided against it, and I'm glad I did because I enjoyed everything else. It's safe to say that fly fishing is not my thing.

Hmm, this is weird. Some of the movies I saw aren't on the list. Oh well. The other ones I saw were:

*Ancient Marks The link I gave is for the book of the same name. The film was just photos from the book put to music. Not just any music, but music by Ravi Shankar's other daughter (not Norah Jones), Anoushka Shankar.

*The Lost People of Mountain Village-The producer dude who was in the audience was involved in making this film (I can't remember what he did) It was about a town in Colorado that had been deserted, and they were trying to figure out why. (Actually, it was a joke. The town was deserted because the super wealthy people who had second homes in the town were away during the off season.)

*Tears Of Wood-This was chilling. It started off with someone walking up fancy steps made of some kind of hardwood, then there was a good 10 or 15 minutes of footage from an Indonesian jungle, following a male orangutan. Then it showed natives cutting down a tree in the jungle; the tree the orangutan happened to be in. It ended with a shot of the hardwood steps.

*Bigger Than Rodeo-This was unbelievable. It basically teenage kids doing kayaking tricks. Totally unbelievable.

* Home Game-This was funny. It was about a guy trying to get to work. I couldn't find anything about it. :(

*Mini Cine Tupy-This was about a man and his quest to make a movie theater in Sao Paulo, Brazil.

*The Yunnan Great Rivers Expedition-Edward Norton was actually the narrator for this film because his brother was involved in the film (I forget if he was the director or something else). This film was really cool because it showed whitewater rafters exploring waters in southwest China, in an effort to boost tourism to the area and help the chinese government protect the area.

Other movies I've seen:

*An Inconvenient Truth-I don't really know what to say about this. It was a really good movie, and I appreciate what Al Gore is doing, but it was a bit melodramatic at times (the scenes with his family and him at his childhood home). I still think everyone should go see it if they haven't already.

*Grizzly Man This was a really good movie.

*Mountain Patrol: Kekexili This movie was based on a true story. It was disturbing at times but I felt it was something that needed to be seen, and I'm incredibly glad I saw it.

*A Sidewalk Astronomer Follow the link! This movie is so amazing. It's about John Dobson (my new hero), creator of the Dobsonian telescope. He's brilliant as well as funny! In the movie, someone asked him about his accent, and he said "I'm half English and half Irish; I'm warring with myself". So funny. :) The filmmaker was there in person, and after the movie he set up a Dobsonian telescope across the street and everyone got a chance to look through it. Another cool thing is that the movie theater we went to is probably going to bring it back and they're going to try to get John Dobson to come! Awesome, no?

*Brothers Another thought provoking movie.

Ah yes, I see only the happiest movies. I'm just kidding, I love seeing all the movies I do. I can't even sit through mainstream movies anymore, they just make me antsy and leave me feeling like I've wasted my time. For instance, take The Pirates of The Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest. I saw it today, and while I'm not sorry I went, I can't say I liked it.

I love independent movies. Cheers!