Friday Recap
3:00PM | Year At Danger | Steve Metze & Don Swaynos @ Kerr Auditorium
I was kind of hesitant going into this one. I was half expecting for it to just be one of those “Let the Bodies Hit the Floor” military porn videos that pop up on YouTube. I was presently surprised. It was a nicely balanced look at what it is to be away from your family while dodging mortar rockets, and IEDs, and VBIEDs, and fraggers. It wasn’t making any sort of judgment on the war or the administration. It was just telling the story of a soldier–Steve Metze–who happens to also be a filmmaker, a father, a son, and a husband. In the Q&A that followed, I was surprised to hear co-director/editor Don Swaynos who was in attendance say that the filmmakers didn’t have to get the final film approved and/or reviewed by the US Army. For some reason, that sort of surprised me. At any rate, I’d really like to see/hear the stories of some other filmmaker soldiers over there. And I think these stories are something that the American public in general should be exposed to. So, hopefully this and similar documentaries make their way onto TV at some point.
5:00PM | Oklahoma Film & Music Reception @ XO Lounge
Our schedule took a turn towards the booze (and food) once again. (One of these days I’m going to see Rainbow Around the Sun, I promise.) This party was thrown by the Oklahoma Film & Music Commission. We hung out for a while–drank a couple of beers and ate a few snacks–while we discussed Year at Danger and planned out the rest of the evening. We talked to Eric Rasmussen who was there with his short film S & M Queen for a Day and also to promote his web series The Retributioners.
In the end, we decided to just go and grab a bite to eat and hold out for IAO. We ended up at Gaijin Sushi (at the Park Harvey). It was great. We ate our delicious roll and sashimi while fantasizing about ditching our suburban home and moving into an apartment downtown. It was the best meal I’ve had in some time. I cannot wait to recreate it sometime soon.
9:00PM | Friday Night Frolic @ IAO
Normally, I’m no so much into this event. Last year was cool because they had a whole tattoo fashion show going on. This year’s event was much tamer by comparison. They had some decent food from a variety of places–all of which beat the salsa poured over a block of cream cheese from a few years back. There was food from La Baguette, Hideaway, Rococo, Bin 73, and The Prohibition Room. Mostly we were there so we could score decent seats for the upcoming shorts programs.
A Beautiful Day | Adam Hampton
This was better than expected. Maybe just a bit too long. But, it had a Night of the Living Dead creepy vibe to it. Not bad.
For Annie | Andy Collen
A nice little animated short to go along with the Edgar Allen Poe poem.
Dusk | Krystian Lagowski & Ian McCain
Honestly, I don’t remember much of this one. I don’t think it excited me all that much.
Night of the Hell-Hamsters | Paul Campion
This one was pretty funny. My favorite of the night. Plenty of blood, plenty of camp. An all-around fun film.
Itsy Bitsy | David May
Spiders are creepy. Real or not. Just plain creepy.
Bark or Bite | Suzie Bohannon
A group of vegetarians have to decide whether or not to eat the dog. Nice.
The Vault | Justin Owensby
Kind of strange. In a poetically creepy sort of way.
11:55PM | Midnight Shorts @ IAO
The Return of Sergeant Pecker | Pierre Delarue
He may have returned. However, his return may have been a bit premature.
S&M Queen For a Day | Eric Rasmussen
This one was pretty good. The title alone says “watch me.” I’ll definitely have to check out The Retributioners.
The Stewardess | Marcin Glowacki
I don’t know if it’s because I still had disFIGURED in my head, but I didn’t like this film one bit. It was basically a “let’s make fun of fat people” film. And, of course, the audience ate it up. I don’t know. Maybe I was hyper-sensitive or something. But, I don’t think a film that put an actor in black face and then proceeded to both make fun of his color and try to change him would be all that funny either. I still don’t know why it’s okay to make fun of fat people.
Hombre Kabuki | Leo Age
Coming after The Stewardess, I was apprehensive about this one as well. I thought it was going to piss me off in a similar way…only in a mysognist pig way this time. But, this film–unlike the previous one–had a lot more nuance and a lot more balance. It was certainly a much better film.
Rebus Riot! | Robert Dohrmann
I really liked this one. I’m not sure how to describe it. You might just have to check it out yourself (at the link above).
Deus Ex Machina | Royce Sharp & Walker Robins
Again, this was better than expected. That gyrating body is going to haunt me for at least the rest of the weekend.
At any rate, we decided to skip out on the rest of the Midnight shorts and head on over to Rocktown. We were warned to get there early because the tickets would probably go pretty fast.
1:00AM | Christmas on Mars @ Rocktown Gym
After making our way through the mysterious maze and flooded roads to Rocktown, we slopped through the mud past Wayne Coyne and into the tent to find the movie just getting underway. I guess they started the first two screenings early…and canceled the third. At any rate, we got to see most of the movie. The movie, the tent, the popcorn boxes…it was all so Flaming Lips. Just plain fun.
