Phil attends Cinequest 28: Day 8 - March 6, 2018

Welcome everybody to Day Eight of my trip to Cinequest 28! As I stated in a previous entry, I mentioned that I started a new job, which I am very happy to report that it's been going extremely well! Unfortunately, it's taking up a lot of my time, due to training and learning my route, which has be starting at 5am Monday thru Friday. As a result, I won't be seeing a lot of movies as I had originally planned on. So for today, I only attended on screening, so let me talk about that!

After work, I headed on over to the Cinequest Soiree, which was held at the awesome Scott's Seafood up on the 6th floor. There, I had plenty to drink and eat, but mostly drank like a fish! Afterwards, my old friend and fellow blogger Jason and I headed over to the 3 Below Theaters for our 6pm screening!

The screening I attended was the SHORTS FILM PROGRAM 6: DOCUNATION, which featured some extraordinary documentaries! I was very excited to watch this program, and had the pleasure of watching the following shorts:

6th Graders School Roy Moore's Attorney: Director Sam Frazier Jr. filmed his two 6th grade nephews correcting the grammar of the infamous letter from Roy Moore’s attorney, which was shot on Thanksgiving Day 2017. Yes, these kids rip the letter to shreds and is damn funny!

Describe What You Heard: A special effects expert gives advise on how to make gunshot sounds with your mouth. Informative, yet heartbreaking considering what just happened in Florida.

The Duel: A short about when a 16 year-old girl who saves her brother from their father's sudden and deadly mental breakdown that resulted with the father challenging his son to a knife fight. In the end, it was their mother who helped save them. Powerful and disturbing short film.

Free Fall: Adults and kids alike, there's one thing we all love the most: bouncy castles!

The Happiness Machine: Meet Carl, who gives up being an academic librarian to become a sharecropper on 22 acres in rural Iowa, which he now calls The Promised Land. Here, he shares his ideas, his philosophies, and what it means to pass on the gift of place. I wish Carl was my grandfather! My favorite short of the program!

The Lectora: The short takes a look at the long-standing tradition of having a reader in the factory in one of the most famous cigar factories in Cuba.

Mister Sunshine: An old black man, who used to be a millionare, jettisons his old life to take on the life of a shoeshine man in Auckland, New Zealand, teaching us that life's about the shine on your face and not on just your shoes. Really moving short film!

Nobody Dies in Longyearbyen: Yes, nobody dies there because the permafrost will push the body back out of the ground. Think NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD meets THE THING, but it's a documentary.

Phototaxis: An animated short about the legendary demon Mothman in West Virginia and set to Narcotics Anonymouss literature, the primary treatment program in West Virginia’s addiction epidemic. Are the two somehow related? Maybe...

Twilight Dancers: Due to a colonial history, Indigenous youth from a small remote reservation use square dancing to heal the trauma from the recent suicide epidemic.

Unspoken: A short focusing on spoken word poet Farah Chamma and how she expresses and censors herself with her poetry while keeping her work raw, authentic and real.

The Velvet Underground Played at My High School: An animated short film when The Velvet Underground perform at a New Jersey high school in 1967, narrated by one of the students who was there. I wonder if Lou Reed was wearing shiny boots of leather that night.

And folks, there you have Day Seven of Cinequest 28! To view the festival's film schedule and purchase tickets and passes, visit their website at www.cinequest.org.

Thanks for reading, and enjoy the show!