Well, it's nigh that time again. No, lady who does the bare minimum - not waxing season, but you…read morereally should do something about that tribble in your pants. I don't mean the annual McRib Farewell Tour, either. No official word yet on when to expect that molded meatloaf of melancholy to return.
It's time for the 2014 Atlanta Film Festival.
The 2013 Festival ran for 10 days or so in March. Various ticket options were offered, and as I was still "technically" in grad school, if not actively enrolled, and I was still carrying my student ID in my wallet, I went for the $75 student pass (not that I was ever asked to verify my status as a student when I purchased or fetched my pass). This pass granted me access to all films and other assorted shindigs associated with the Festival - EXCEPT for the opening and closing features, for which I'd need to purchase separate passes either in advance for a high-but-not-too-unreasonable price, or during the festival, at the ludicrous cost of $30 each. I skipped both of those features (the Matthew McConaughey film, "Mud", and the teen-romance drama, "The Spectacular Now").
The Festival was split between The Plaza Theatre (http://www.yelp.com/biz/plaza-theatre-atlanta-2#hrid:wZ_JAtW55KEt41051Rg11w) on Ponce and 7 Stages (http://www.yelp.com/biz/7-stages-atlanta) at L5P, and I split my time roughly equally between the two to see most of what I'd wanted to see. I viewed more than a dozen feature-length films and many more shorts, ranging from abysmal to awesome, dull to hilarious, hackneyed to cutting-edge, family-friendly to explicit, moronic to profound.
A sponsor, Stella Artois was free everywhere I turned. As for the other events presented to Festival-goers, there was an AYCE Buffalo wing night at the Highland Inn, a short walking distance from the Plaza, in honor of the documentary "The Great Chicken Wing Hunt", whose filmmakers were in attendance for much of the Festival. The wings, catered by JR Cricket's and others, certainly won't be appearing in any future docs about great wings, but it was a fun event that gave me the chance to devour a couple dozen wings with some of the folks from Doobious, a non-profit group of local riffraff who were ubiquitous during the Festival, snapping photos and shooting video. Another event was a Drivin' 'N' Cryin' performance, celebrating the screening of a documentary about the band. I didn't get to attend, but it was a cool addition, despite the fact that you can't walk a couple of blocks in Atlanta without tripping over a thirty-something redneck hippie and stumbling into a DNC or Kevn Kinney show. My favorite event was a blend of food trucks, visual arts and music at The Goat Farm, where several local bands such as Tikka and PLS PLS played.
I noticed that many of attendees were most excited to meet the C- and D-list celebrities who attended, as well as to discuss the art with the up-and-coming filmmakers who were there to present their works, and yeah, that was pretty cool. I spoke for a while with the director of "A River Changes Course" - a terrific documentary about environmental and cultural change triggered by industrialization in Cambodia - and also with Luis Mandoki, whose American movies have always dredged the bottom of the barrel, but whose festival entry, "La vida precoz y breve de Sabina Rivas", was a fine film, and who would surely have won the festival's Robert Plant lookalike contest, if there were one.
Thanks to the confounding nature of transportation between the Plaza and 7 Stages, I found myself in a minivan with a couple of sci-fi filmmakers working out of my home state and a middle-aged driver hoping for his big break into the industry as an actor. As it turns out, no, I should not have been permitted to take the shuttle between venues. Perhaps the organizers will do better in 2014 to make such details more clear. I told the others in the van that I was John Mayer, which earned a fist-bump from the guys and a hard-yet-lustful face-slap from the girl.
Something I wish had been different in 2013 was that none of the educational workshops were offered at times I could have attended without taking off from my 8-5 job. Some of these workshops looked quite intriguing.
So far, it seems the organizers are doing a better job with planning and communication. The ticket-buying process was certainly less obfuscating (http://atlantafilmfestival.com/2014-tickets-passes/). My All-Access pass gets me 10 additional passes to bring friends. Or enemies. Depends on my mood that day.
If you want only to see a movie here or there, tickets are $10 each. Something I like about the pass is that it also buys membership into the ATLFF organization, which hosts screenings and other opportunities throughout the year. I think the group needs work and perhaps better leadership, because it feels like a struggling new festival and not one that is in its fourth decade, but this event is certainly not one to be missed by any film lover.