January 28th 2012 was a good way to spend an afternoon and evening at the Diva sponsored Open Lens film festival. It celebrated independent short films with a wide selection of selections including drama, comedy, documentary, thrillers, experimental film and animation.
The crowd pleaser was a comedy and rightly so. "Sudden Death" was a spoof of a famous masterpiece from 1957 called "The Seventh Seal". Al Kline turns that film's famous scene where a knight of the Middle Ages plays chess with death............Kline uses a henpecked husband, Sherman who plays basketball with a be-robed death.....one who calls Sherman piggy and the one on one hoop moves were very entertaining. Impossible not to laugh at this one and the broom and sweeper wielding wife were very effective in the film.
The documentary was called "Fight: Arena of Gamers" which depicted the Portland gaming community. Showing clips from actual games and competitions it was easy to understand the attraction of this activity in a digital age.
Other films were very entertaining and thought provoking. One 7 minute presentation was called "Will". A man facing a death sentence adds a clause in his will that his best friend, a bbq master prepare his body for cremation by first adding his famous bbq rub.............Folks just let their imagination run wild on this one. This was droll rather than amusing.
There was opportunity to meet the film makers and Davis catered the after film fest activities.
Earlier in the afternoon Doug Hennessy gave a seminar "how to watch a movie like a film critic" It was very entertaining as he illustrated his points with actual film clips. I , who go to the movies just to enjoy and be entertained now have a new way to understand film. Doug also has a blog The Movie List Blogster and has written about movies in newspapers and magazines for the last 30 years.
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