PSISF 2008: Day 2
A Palm Springs kind of day.
I spent Friday splitting my time between films at the Camelot Theaters, historic home of the festival, and cranking through films at the Film Market. Either I’m getting old and jaded or the majority of short films are still 10 to 20% too long. Even the good ones. There were only a handful that felt the correct length and that no constructive changes could be made to edit. Most of the programmed films were solid, but not spectacular. The exceptions would be “Chief,” an excellent tale of a Somoan in exile in Hawaii who struggles with his dark past, and “Struck,” a super-cute and well-made piece that follows a poor man who falls in love at first sight. There were a few stinkers in the “Idiot Proof” comedy block, especially the very foul “Head”; what made the selection commitee think that was worth anything more than a quick trip to a incinerator, I’ll never know.