Recap: 26th Minneapolis/St. Paul International Film Festival

The 26th Annual Minneapolis/St. Paul International Film Festival wrapped on Saturday night, a full 17 days after opening with Tom McCarthy's The Visitor. All things considered (including the fact that I missed the first five days of the festival), I would say the 2008 fest was a smashing success. We didn't have the films or the stars of Toronto, Cannes, or Sundance, but we had some special moments (where else would Pond Hockey have three screenings, let alone sell all of them out to standing room?). Check out the photos of the festival VIPs - great backdrop from St. Anthony Main, isn't it? Anyway, here's my breakdown:

LOWLIGHTS:

• Missing the first five days, which included screenings of The Visitor, Young @ Heart, Son of Rambow, Tuya's Marriage, Momma's Man, and At the Death House Door.
• Tickets were $10. I can't really complain since I mostly used my volunteer passes, but anyone could have regretted that expense on some of the bad films, especially the short ones.
• Managing ridiculous people in lines.
  
• Some promising movies that didn't live up to my expectations: Black Coffee, Jar City, and the worst movie I saw, Big Dreams, Little Tokyo.
• Festival Director Al Milgrom's introduction of the closing night event at Block E, which he at one point called a "farewell address." Throughout the festival, I heard nothing to refute the rumors that the Oak St. Cinema will close permanently in September. What will happen to Minnesota Film Arts? Who knows.
  

HIGHLIGHTS:

• A handful of terrific films. In the order that I saw them: OSS 117: Cairo, Nest of Spies, Dry Season, The Edge of Heaven, The Grocer's Son, American Teen, Up the Yangtze, and Encounters at the End of the World.
• Free or $0.50 parking at the St. Anthony Ramp.
• The secret screening, which ended up being The Wackness. I didn't even see it that night because I was upstairs working, but it was totally sold out and is a great idea for future festivals.
  
• The Q & A session with Nanette Burnstein, director of American Teen.
• The staff at St. Anthony Main, who were pretty friendly and fast during the huge rushes.
• My lesson in the science of projection from Bill Walker, one of the tireless festival projectionists. While the movies were playing during my volunteer shifts he explained to me the history of 35mm film and showed me how the old school set-up works. I'll probably never see movies in the theater in the same way again. It was like Cinema Paradiso, except I'm not a little boy and the theater isn't nearly as cool as the Paradiso.
• The Closing Night screening at Block E, followed by a free private party at Seven across the street. Great to see a movie like Encounters at the End of the World on a massive screen, and the food was pretty decent later on as well.
• "Meet Me at the Matinee" - the infamous film festival trailer that most people loathed. Sure it was absolutely and in every way bizarre, but after a few viewings I ended up liking it, and by the end - loving it. Now we'll never see it again. It was a moment in time that I'm already nostalgic for.
• The many travels I had, from Iceland to Chad to Turkey to Indiana to France to Morocco to Germany to The Netherlands to China to Costa Rica to Ethiopia to Antarctica. A new global outlook in 2008. Nice.
  

And maybe the biggest highlight? Being among my own people. Seeing the same freaks day after day who, like me, consider it worthwhile to spend 17 straight days in a movie theater, often for hours on end. Of course I didn't actually do that, but it was encouraging in a really weird way to see people who did.