I'm a little late getting around to this, but . . . The Mendocino Film Festival is a fun event that takes place each year around the first of June. "Take 5" refers to the fifth annual version of the event. Mendocino, California, is an unregenerate small town way (way) up the Pacific coast north of San Francisco with a few small venues for showing movies. It's a beautiful ocean-side setting shadowed by bluffs and tall trees. The festival is staffed by a dedicated volunteer force that wants to put this festival on the map.
Here are two highlights:
NO IMPACT MAN
Directors: Laura Gabbert and Justin Schein
90 min
"No Impact Man," based on the book by Colin Beavan, caught a lot of attention this year. Beavan is a New Yorker with two children, a magazine executive wife, and no car who decided to give up basic things (basic for us in the USA, at least), such as take-out food, toilet paper, and non-locally produced food. Somehow Beavan adds a sense of humor to his project and that comes through in the film.
The book's subtitle, "The Adventures of a Guilty Liberal Who Attempts to Save the Planet, and the Discoveries He Makes About Himself and Our Way of Life in the Process," pretty much sums up the movie's, and Beavan's, message.
PIE 'N BURGER
Director: Clare Sera
20 min
"Pie 'n Burger" is the charming story of a young woman trying to make it through life with a feckless boyfriend, a dying father, and a job as a waitress in a small-town diner.
A stranger, dressed in a suit but off-beat all the same, sits down at the counter and engages Holly in a strange conversation. Just exactly who is this guy? Whoever he is, he's nice to her, he likes to dance, and he tries to pass on to her a little wisdom.
The ending is, well . . . magical.
MORE INFO: www.mendocinofilmfestival.org
No comments:
Post a Comment