This Short Post: The Brooklyn Underground Film Festival
Last week, I took a look at the Brooklyn Underground Film Festival at the Brooklyn Lyceum. I went to two nights of shorts and one night of Japanese ridiculousness.
The main appeal to Brooklyn Underground is that it turns out it's a block and a half from my house. I once had a punk band in my living room, and it was a lot like that.
The other appeal was shorts. I like watching shorts at film festivals because not a lot of people watch shorts; I get to see films very few others have seen. It's one of the same reasons I screen films for the First Sundays film festival. Plus, if a short is terrible, at least it's over soon.
After watching hours of bad shorts for First Sundays, I was impressed by Brooklyn Underground putting up a shorts program that was about 1/3 amazing, 1/3 meh and only 1/3 bullshit.
My favorites were Brad Neely's animated short "Washington" (scroll down for the SXSW film festival trailer), a British short documentary called Fountain of Youth, and Just 2 Guyz from the Lonely Island guys (Lonely Island is a great way to kill time at work if you already know you'll be working somewhere else in the summer.) If the Bush Administration Was Your Roommate would also play well at First Sundays.
Brooklyn Underground also had a raging party Friday night. Now some jerks (like my cousin the revolutionary) skipped the films and just showed up to the party.
That plus the fact that you could hear the party quite clearly from the back sections all through the second half of the shorts program convinced my mate that Brooklyn Underground was more about the scene than the cinema.
It was also telling that they scheduled a music showcase in Williamsburg in the middle of their Saturday features.
But I don't want to be a whiny bitch. It's tempting to take the film festival down my block for granted. I had great fun, and it was a clear that a lot of work went in to the fourth (!) year of Brooklyn Underground. I am all for more culture in my neighborhood, puzzling as it may be.
Thanks, Program Director Josh Koury. Thanks, Brooklyn Underground Film Festival. I was well rewarded for my three-block round-trip walk.
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4 comments:
How is it that you once had a punk band in your living room?
Inquiring minds want to know.
Ms. Alison, the punk band was Husky Dave, the place was my odd, non-Greek co-ed house. We had them play in the living room because it was bigger than the other rooms.
who wears short shorts? snake eyes wears short shorts.
Maybe Speedrail's born with it / Maybe it's Maybelline
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