blog Profiles In Awesomeness: SIFF
SIFF could easily claim the title of awesome with just one fact: the movie Alien world premiered at SIFF. I think this fact pretty much sums up how much I love SIFF. Did you world premiere Alien in your basement? No, that was SIFF, and SIFF is awesome. They also premiered countless other iconic films, such as Donnie Darko, Last Days, Braveheart, Poltergeist, Trainspotting and Return Of The Jedi (next, they should premiere a movie thatâs a cross between all of those, about Kurt Cobain as a ghost Jedi who has 30 days to save Scotland before the world ends).
SIFF is definitely awesome for being the largest film festival in America, spanning the entire city of Seattle for 24 days. They also play amazing movies year-round at SIFF Cinema (like black and white spy movies, the original Godzilla, and The Neverending Story). But SIFFâs most awesome moment comes with curating the 1 Reel Film Festival. Yeah, I know that seems like a cop-out, since I work for the âShoot and all, but think about this: theyâre hosting a short film festival inside a giant national music and arts festival. Itâs a festival within a festival—like Russian nesting dolls. If you canât step back and appreciate the awesomeness inherent in that, then youâre just too cool for school.
And if youâre not impressed by the very presence of a festival within a festival, then check out the film offerings (SPOILER ALERT: theyâre all awesome as well). I happened to watch a few, including the hyper-cute John and Karen, an animated short where a polar bear is apologizing to a penguin for his past, probably cute, transgressions. (ADORABLE TIME!) Or maybe youâre more in the mood for Rubberheart, a romantic short that turned from funny to bizarrely sweet in a matter of seconds. Or thereâs always Parachutes, a compact tale in the âMeaning Of Lifeâ program featuring a heartbreaking funeral for a batch of toy soldiers, overseen by a child genius and a philandering husband.
Thatâs just the start. The films are divided into 27 programs, each an hour long (featuring a total of 126 films from 24 countries), including my two favorites thus far âLove And Marriageâ and âThe Twilight Zone.â
So for those reasons (and my own desire that one day with SIFFâs continued success they will merge my two favorite programs to create âLove and Marriage In The Twilight Zoneâ), I am awarding Seattle International Film Festival (and the 1 Reel Film Festival) with the title of Awesome. Maybe I will have a plaque made up, and present it to SIFF during Bumbershoot. But itâs hard to present a plaque to a festival⦠Maybe Iâll just make a certificate instead and tape it to the doors of SIFF Cinema. Either way, Congratulations, SIFF!
posted August 20 '08 at 10:49AM by Evan in film, siff
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