I've been going to the Atlanta Film Festival since the early 90's, and for the last 5 years or so I've been taking that whole week off work and going to every screening that appeals to me. This year was no different ... well, no, it was different this year, because I wasn't able to take the week off from work -- too much going on. I still got to see about the same number of screenings though.
So, since I'll forget if I don't externalize, here's the results, in order from best to worst:
Best of the festival
Rize ( AFF desc / website ) -- absolutely incredible; saw it twice
Unknown White Male ( AFF desc / website ) -- awesome; if you forgot your identity, after you'd restarted your life with a new identity would you still care about getting your old memories back?
Seoul Train ( AFF desc / website ) -- documentary about the underground railroad (think human smuggling) trying to get people out of North Korea; bracing, searing, fantastic insight into the horrors of those trying to escape and those who try to help them do it
La Sierra ( AFF desc / website ) -- about the teenagers and young men from the slums who make up part of the Colombian conflict; I have to say it was pretty great, because 3 months later it still sticks with me. I saw City of God on DVD recently (including the 1 hour documentary News From A Personal War)and it recalls the same sort of lawless chaos -- actually, not lawlessness, really, more like brutal ghetto law.
Interesting
Fall of Fujimori ( AFF desc / IMDB ) -- a very strange documentary, smacked of pro-Fujimori propaganda; I'd love to hear the back story.
Boys of Baraka ( AFF desc / website ) -- threatened to be feel good crap (hey, it won the audience award, whaddya expect) but was actually alllllright
Twist Of Faith ( AFF desc / website ) -- sexual abuse at the hands of pedophile priest; full grown men grapple with confronting the events of their youth; insightful view into how people try to stand up for what's right, and fail
Take it or leave it
Documentary shorts ( AFF desc ) -- not horrible
Education of Shelby Lynn (documentary) ( AFF desc / website )-- standard POV fare
Kill Your Idols ( AFF desc / IMDB ) -- yet another fawning treatment of the New York nowave/underground scene; surprisingly dull
Liberace of Baghdad ( AFF desc / website ) -- vaguely interesting insights into the life of average folks in post Freedom-On-The-March Baghdad; wanted to like it but it was weak and went nowhere; maybe that's the point.
Please kill me
Hooligans ( AFF desc / IMDB ) -- why? why do I keep going to these crappy narrative pics? They are always complete shit, especially the ones with some B-list actor in it (Paul Reiser, Elijah Wood, whatever). And of course it was preceded by some local huckster on stage hyping the shit out of it. So bad I left early. No wait, I actually forced myself to sit through the whole thing, waiting for it to redeem itself, and bolted as soon as the credits started. Elijah Wood fans will love it, I'm sure. Well, at last it wasn't as bad as the 2004 festival's The Last Goodbye, which taught me to never EVER attend screenings of locally produced films, and be gunshy about narratives in general. See, the problem is that occasionally there is a good narrative -- I loved 2004's Primer. You gotta play to win ...
"weird" narrative shorts collection ( AFF desc ) -- crap crap CRAP
Emmanuel's Gift ( AFF desc / website ) -- you know, I can't believe they actually let this drivel into the festival; I mean, I know that they tend to save the schmaltziest, most geriatric fundraising fluff for the Wednesday Carter Center screening, but this is ridiculous. I guess word got out though, because there were fewer people there than I've ever seen at an AFVF/AFF Carter Center screening. Alas, I went and suffered through the whooooole thing ("it's just a little saccharine, it's still good, it's still good!")
Honorable mention for movies I planned to see but couldn't; thanks IMAGE!
William Eggleston in the Real World ( AFF desc ) -- even if IMAGE could have projected it properly, I still suspect it would have been mindnumbingly dull; not all subjects work on the big screen, folks.
MANA: Beyond Belief ( AFF desc / website ) -- Damn it I wanted to see this, and damn it if IMAGE seems to have entirely forgotten how to run their own film festival!
The Beat That My Heart Skipped ( AFF desc / website ) -- ditto; sign on the door when I arrived to see it. At previous festivals, IMAGE knew how to get the word out about schedule changes; that's a skill that they no longer have.
In total, a noticeable step back from recent years. Hopefully IMAGE can recover.