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Filmmaking on the Edge

Just got back yesterday from the 13th Provincetown International Film Festival. I will write more extensively on the festival soon (I hope), but for now I thought I’d post a list of the films I saw and the rating I gave them (based on a 1 – 5 scale; 5 being the best). They are listed alphabetically, and categorized by Narratives and Documentaries.

Narratives

  • Another Earth (5 cats)
  • Happy Happy (4 cats)
  • Higher Ground (5 cats)
  • Janie Jones (4 cats)
  • Mangus! (2 cats)
  • Maria My Love (5 cats)
  • The Perfect Family (3 cats)
  • Varla Jean and the Mushroom Heads (3 cats
  • Weekend (4 cats)

Documentaries

  • Buck (5 cats)
  • Hit So Hard (4 cats)
  • Hot Coffee (5 cats)
  • Page One (3 cats)
  • Tabloid (3 cats)

14 films and a bucketload of parties. Really nice filmmakers and good friends. Festival experienc? 5 cats.

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30 Day Song Challenge Day 30 – Your Favorite Song at This Time Last Year

This is a silly challenge to end the meme with. In reality, my favorite song is my favorite song, and while it does change over time, it certainly doesn’t change in a year’s time. So last year, my favorite song was Kate Bush’s Hounds of Love, just like it is this year. That said, I did have a “favorite new song” last year… a discovery that made me really excited. An amazing song with an incredible video by an artist I had never heard of that just blew me away. So that’s the song I’ve selected for this Day 30 challenge. (And come back tomorrow, because I’ve got a little added extra in store for this meme).

The artist is billed as Fever Ray, which is actually the solo project for Swedish singer/songwriter Karin Dreijer Andersson. Karin first gained acclaim as one half of the electronic duo, The Knife, for which she sang lead vocals. I can’t remember how I discovered the video for Fever Ray’s second single off her debut album. The song is called When I Grow Up, and the video exemplifies the theatrical nature of Karin’s performances. It’s creepy, it’s primal, it mystical, it’s clever and I do hope you’ll take a look. I still enjoy watching this video every time I think about it.

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30 Day Song Challenge Day 29 – A Song From Your Childhood

Two slip-ups in a months. Not bad. So, I should have posted this yesterday, but somehow the time got away from me. There are lots of songs from my childhood, but I’ve included two of my earliest memories of music. Having a sibling 15 years older than me meant that when I was still in shortpants, I had a sister who was listening to the Beatles. Beatles VI was released in 1965, when I was three years old. I don’t know when Mary got the album, but perhaps my earliest memory of a “rock ‘n roll” song was track two, Eight Days a Week. Boppy melody, gorgeous harmonies, this song would remain one of my favorite Beatles songs to this day, largely because of this early childhood memory.

But before even that song, I have a very vivid memory of the song Marianne. I had it on this strange album that was filled with Calypso-themed songs… songs from the islands or something. Harry Belafonte doing Lime in da Coconut and other nonsense. I don’t remember who performed this particular version of Marianne; reviewing tracks on YouTube I think it may have been Terry Gilkyson, but I’m including here a version by the Lennon Sisters and Dick Dale from the Lawrence Welk Show.

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30 Day Song Challenge Day 28 – A Song That Makes You Feel Guilty

Emm GrynerI had my own rule for this meme, that I would only include songs for which I could post videos from YouTube. I am now breaking this rule for day 28, a song that makes me feel guilty. There’s really only one song that makes me feel guilty, and by guilty, I don’t mean guilty pleasures, because those don’t really make me feel guilty. During the break-up of my previous serious relationship, I felt plenty guilty, and I have a distinct memory of driving in my car, listening to Emm Gryner’s Science Fair album, and this song in particular, and bawling my eyes out. The song as a whole isn’t applicable to that situation, but in general it is, and some of the lines just pierced my heart. The song is called Revenge, and it’s not available on YouTube so click the link below which will bring you to Yahoo Music where you can listen to this heartbreakingly lovely song. I said Tori Amos’ Tear in Your Hand was lyrically spot on about what you feel when you’re going through a breakup, and so it this one.

http://new.music.yahoo.com/emm-gryner/tracks/revenge–8743615

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30 Day Song Challenge Day 27 – A Song You Wish You Could Play

Come on, there are tons of songs I wish I could play. For day 27 of this meme I am choosing a song I really like, that I wish I could play, and wish I had written. Tori Amos floored me when her Little Earthquakes album came out, and while she’s done some amazing stuff since, that album really set a tone that has never truly been reached again. Her song, Tear In Your Hand is lyrically spot on about the feelings you go through after a breakup, and yet it’s done so poetically and hauntingly. And it’s another song that has got a great driving piano line. It doesn’t seem so difficult, and perhaps I could learn it if I took the time or found the music. But since I haven’t yet, and it’s probably my favorite song by Tori, it gets a spot in this meme.

Enjoy this awesome live performance with a full band from the Glastonbury Festival. Plus, this video has the lyrics too.