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Big Sky Documentary Film Festival

Hello my cheeky little monkies, how are we today? What I'm going to write about here has absolutely nothing to do with Girdwood and everything to do with advertising for this awesome film festival that's going on right now. Call me a sell out but they paid me many peanuts to post this and I like peanuts. Basically what I want to say I've already said but I'll say it again, this film fest is really cool. I have the wonderful opportunity to check out as many of these films and eat as much buttered popcorn as humanly possible because, some of you may already be aware of this, I have no job. Life is grand.

My Favorites (so far)

1. The Big Question - Hey, it's got Mel Gibson in it! The cinematography is amazing in this film. In fact, in my opinion it's so incredibly brilliant that it almost takes away from the main focus which is asking deep questions about faith, religion, and happiness. It was shot behind the scenes on the set of The Passion of the Christ and its interview-ees are the actors and extras.
2. The Venus Theory - Shot with profession and experience this film is like watching a very interesting Discovery Channel episode. The scenes were nice to look at, especially the earth from space views but the subject definitely grabbed a hold of my attention the most. The possibility of a runaway greenhouse effect in the near future (near being in relation to the age of the earth, meaning a couple hundred years away from now) is a scary realization. Some don't believe it's an important thing to worry about but after watching this film I bet their minds would be changed, if they're not the President.
3. Beethoven's Hair - A very interesting chronicle of the "life" and travels of a lock of the famous composer's hair. After about 170 years of being cut from the dead man's head it falls into the hands of Che Guevara (not the Cuban Revolution guy, obviously), a dude named Ira that founded a Beethoven research institute in Arizona, a guy that does hair tests (he'd probably scold me for not being scientific about his profession), and some cool dudes with a really cool huge gadget that uses little lasers to x-ray stuff. Ok, this is why I'm not getting paid to do this. Anyway, the journey this little lock of hair goes through, which includes a harrowing escape during WWII, is quite amazing. Enough said.
4. Game Over: Kasparov and the Machine - The title says it all. Gary K. vs. IBM's Deep Blue and the "maybe" conspiracy that surrounds it. Interesting camera angles all over the place and just interesting subject matter, to me anyway. I arrived a bit early to this one and caught the last few minutes of One Shot, an eerie look into the lives of Israeli snipers. Crazy shit man.
5. Two Museums - Kind of interesting and kind of boring too. This film is a first attempt by a couple from Saskatchewan that follows two people in a tiny farm town. It's possible to get deeper than that but I fear I'm taking up too much space so I'm covering these last two films with the mere basics. After the show I had a great conversation with the producer. He was nice enough to give me some good tips and suggestions.
6. Last Thoughts - Last but certainly not the least favorite. Quite the opposite really, it's my super favorite so far. A man jumps freight trains during the Great Depression, goes on to lead "normal" life, doesn't reveal his adventures until his last days when he records his stories. Grandson hears tapes, decides to live in van for one year while traveling across the states. Grandson's first film EVER and it's the best one I've seen yet. Cinematography is a visual orgasm throughout the whole 72 minutes and the way it's all put together is certain to win this guy some kind of award during this year's Big Sky Documentary Film Festival.

There you go John, my attempt at getting your naked body off the main screen!