Turn down the lights. Turn off your cell phones. Don’t forget the popcorn. The Sarasota Film Festival is here!
Created in 1998 and expanding each year, the Sarasota Film Festival exhibits a variety of films, panels, and events for movie lovers of all kinds. My post is a little late, as the event began on April 7th, but don’t worry! It doesn’t end until the 17th. You can still catch a few films and events this weekend.
I’m pretty excited about a few films in particular, and one very special guest. I bet you’d never guess who he is…
Movies
Another Earth
Starring newcomer Brit Marling, Another Earth details a young scientist’s life-altering discovery of a second habitable planet in our solar system. Unfortunately on the same night of her discovery the scientist is involved in a tragic accident that turns her world inside out. The film follows her subsequent search for redemption, promising a scifi twist that we will never see coming.
If you’re interested in this one, the last showing is tonight!
Falling Up and The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Norris Lessmore
Both of these films are around ten to fifteen minutes long, included in a feature simply titled Animated Shorts. They’re both fantasy pieces that deal with real-world issues and constructs, and I think they look pretty fantastic. You can still catch them this Sunday evening, the last day of the festival.
Falling Up explores that awful adolescent time when you are no longer a child but not quite an adult yet. A boy caught in this phase, presumably in his search for answers, discovers a Never Land-like realm where all the inhabitants are children.
The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Norris Lessmores ounds like my kind of film. The festival website describes it as “a story of the people who devote their lives to books and books who return the favor.” Neat, right?
The Oregonian
I don’t usually go in for horror movies, just because lots of slashing and screaming really don’t entertain me. If you want to scare someone, get into their head. That’s exactly what The Oregonian promises. Modeled after the Alice in Wonderland format, the film explores the plight of a young woman who wakes up beaten and bloody on the side of a road. As she struggles to survive in the surrounding wilderness, the world around her begins to deteriorate, becoming less lucid and more nightmarish.
Just look at the picture. It reminds me a bit of Donny Darko already.
Codependent Lesbian Space Alien Seeks Same
This film sheds a humorous perspective on our own environmental and social concerns. The citizens of another planet are suffering from the deterioration of their ozone layer. However their crisis is not the result of pollution. The ozone is disintegrating from the overwhelming amount of love being exuded by the planet’s inhabitants. To save their planet the people flee to Earth, where heartache is an easy state to achieve. Constructed on the science fiction concepts of the 1950s, this movie promises a hilarious journey into problems we face every day.
Codependent Lesbian Space Alien Seeks Same will be showing tonight and Saturday.
Guests
This year’s festival will feature two very special guests:
Geena Davis
Remember her? Although she is more widely known for her roles in Thelma and Louise, A League of Their Own, and Commander in Chief, I can think of at least one fantasy film in which she gave a terrific performance: Beetlejuice! I loved her as the ghostly Barbara Maitland. Like her other roles, this one displays both her humor and passion for acting.
Davis will be speaking about her experiences in the film world this Saturday at Sarasota High School.
And now, the guest star whose presence has me so excited…
Christopher Plummer
Yay! This man is so cool. His acting career began in 1953, and he has only gotten better since. My favorite performance of his is not in a science fiction film (Must Love Dogs), but I still love watching him as General Chang in Star Trek: The Undiscovered Country and Van Helsing in Dracula 2000. Perhaps his oddest role of late has been his title performance in The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus, which really is like diving down a rabbit-hole into someone’s subconscious.
Plummer will be speaking this Sunday at Sarasota High about his long and successful acting career.
Festival Information
Want to attend?
You can find event and ticketing information at:
http://www.sarasotafilmfestival.com/
Let me know what you think of the festival!