There's one question that we're asking ourselves on this final day of Cinequest: What the hell happened here?
Twelve days ago, though it feels like hours, we were standing in the lobby of the California Theatre before the opening night film WAKE. There was familiar faces all around us. Faces of people who have probably attended Cinequest much longer than we have. People who spend their entire year assembling this brazen display of independent cinema from around the world.
Outnumbering those familiar faces, though, were those that belonged to people we've never seen before. We spoke to a few of in the lobby that night, and every night since then. Some are attending for a first time, others were back after an absence. One even described it as a "homecoming of sorts."
We kind of agree. It feels good to be home.
It's Sunday morning, the final day of Cinequest 19. As you straggle into the final screenings of movies it's worth looking back on what made this past week and half special.
LONG FORM ART This year's festival brought a few films with running times over four hours. The behemoth films of BIRTH OF A NATION and HISTORIAS EXTRAORDINARIAS told stories on an entirely different timescale. They
transformed the relatively passive act of movie watching into an accomplishment.
GONE SOCIAL The tsunamic wave that is Twitter crested and broke onto at Cinequest. We used it to share our thoughts on film, sure. But we used it more to keep in touch with attendees, film makers, fellow blogger and friends. It's fundamentally altered the seemingly solitary act of watching a movie.
MADNESS AS ART Maybe you've noticed that everyday the world flirts closer to, how should we put this, total economic collapse? One film at Cinequest seemed to harness this moment, turn up the gain and blast it back in a "
blaze across your cornea." That film is JOHNNY MAD DOG.
Our editor is telling us it's time to wrap this up. According to them most people don't really read blogs, they just scan them.
So we'll be as direct as possible:
We had an amazing time at the festival, thanks to the great films and fantastic people we met. Thanks for Cinequesting with us. See more movies and talk about them. See you next year.
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