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[rmd]

So, last week was the Boston Science Fiction Film Festival. I watched a lot of shorts and a lot of features. My user icon for this post should tell you one movie listed under the cut:

I listed IMDB links for the features, but stalled out on getting trailers or info pages (imdb or otherwise) on all of the shorts.

Shorts programs:

• Jovianic Occultation:
• The Waystation, d: Shea E. Butler (like a twilight zone episode: you have to be the waitress at the (purgatory?) diner and help people)
• Homefront the Revolution: Game Intro Cinematic Trailer, d: Hugo Guerra and Will O'Connor (north korea does Dragon Day: the game)
• Sleepwalkers, d: Pouya Nabi (Iranian film - a man wanders a house, uncertain of anything around him, and encounters a girl and a woman)
• Thalamos, d:Scott Robson & Andrew Jaksch (WONDERFUL practical models. Out at Mars, there's a problem with an astronaut who doesn't realize where he is and what he's doing. trailer at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lFde-n29emQ )
• Departure, d: Donovan Vim Crony (Aliens living in human bodies have to leave. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DpkzZBXVk3g )
• Caronte, d: Luis Tinoco (win the game level and believe it'll save the brother in real life)

• Reflugent Collapsar
  • Haley, d: Corey Sevier (a man and his daughter become refugees during mass alien abduction, then he takes a long voyage on foot without her)
  • Sui Caedere, d: Stas Kapralov (city of suicides)
  • The Tinwife, d: Travis Neufeld - (After the death of her husband, a woman is taken to a facility for android wives, called "tin wives". https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jCzH4tP4l6s)
  • Extent, d: Paul Draper - (An inventor and his android (?) companion discuss whether death makes life worth living https://www.extentshortfilm.com/ )
  • The Onlookers, d:r Jason Albury (In a world where time portals show up unexpectedly, don't look or else you may see your future (and it might not be what you think it is) https://www.facebook.com/TheOnlookersFilm/ )

• Barnhardt’s Asterism
  • Paleonaut, d: Eric McEver (into the past! to become a fossil! (shot in bejing))
  • Prenatal, d: Bears Fonte (Woman who thinks her unborn child was teh result of angels (who talk to her), and her sister in a hotel room. hijinks ensue)
  • Bride of Frankie, d: Devi Snively (adorable lesbian frankenstein bride story)
  • Generation Mars, d: Alexander Armas Turpin (swedish? winning social media crew to mars)
  • Man in the Moon, d: Monique Mulcahy (Mom deals with her kid weirdly leaving for the moon)

• Illusory Wolf-Rayet
  • Program, d: Gabriel de Urioste (making things right with her bf via vr from an apocalyptic hallway in brooklyn)
  • Homunculus - Clockwork AI, d: Andrew Woodward (gorgeous moving sculpture of head)
  • Personal Space, d: Tom R. Pike & Zack Wallnau (web series - we bought the space program! with Richard Hatch)
  • Biomass, d: Larry McKee Rumination, d: Chad Eric Smith (solyent green is children!)
  • The Gill Pill, d: Will Wightman (the drug was supposed to only last a minute!)
  • The Boogeys, d: Sanjay Francois Sharma (cop saves kid from being sold to aliens "benefactors")

• Mendacious Siderestat
  • After We Have Left Our Homes, d: Marc Adamson (music is outlwed)
  • Stretch, d: Stephan Larson (robot dreams of stretching ALL THE THINGS)
  • Please Love Me Forever, d: Holy Fatima (French - mom regularly has body parts replaced (selecting the perfect nose: "too large", "too small", "too 20th century") her daughter loves boy, boy doesn't love girl. So she replaces his heart. Doesn't necessarily go as planned)
  • Sandbox, d: Eddie Lebron (grief processing in VR)
  • Through Fire She Calls, d: Jason Georgiades (WW1 sniper encounters Germans and something weirder)
  • Lazer Town, d: Marwan Abderrazzaq (gun duel to protect something that came to the town - apparently a pilot for something)

• Tropospheric Tiptoe (family-oriented):
  • Sunny and Gerd in Spring Cleaning, d: DaCosta Bayley (drop this in front of a pixar movie. Cute animated short!)
  • Tale of the Kite, d: Michael Fallavolita (crashed pilot's experience interwoven with his memories of learning to fly a kite from his grandfather)
  • Looney Foodz, d: Paolo Gaudio (amusing animated bits of animated food in a fridge)
  • Scienstars, d: Adam York (Two Earth kids have joined SCIENCE STAR ACADEMY and hijinks (and saving the solar system) ensue! slow pacing annoyed me a bit, but could be the basis for a solid 'kids adventure' show with massaging)
  • Litterbugs, d: Chris Musselthwaite (adorable! dorky, friendless english girl gets bullied and a local boy tries to avenge her. It doesn't go well until the litter-bugs she has built come save the day. and then they go become the AweSomeSquad.)

• New England shorts
  • Bizarreries d'outre-espace, Director Bob White
  • Blood Highway, Director Joseph Dwyer
  • Be Us, Director Alex DiVincenzo
  • Ascendants: Horizon, Director Don Schechter
  • Boswell Incident, Director Wes Palmer

• Predatory frond
  • Book Return, d: Jamie Gower (adorable animation! fun use of graphic design. Please return the book without opening it.)
  • The Dark Skin of the Soul, d: Allan J. Arcal (Spanish short. "On that day, the devil visited my house") trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9-L1dKV0cXE
  • The Itch, d: Timothy Ryan Driscoll (Funny-gross short about a bug bite that's JUST THAT ITCHY.) review: https://www.pophorror.com/tony-driscolls-the-itch-2017-short-film review/
  • Where's Roman?, d: Jack Perez (A guy trying to cat-sit ends up in a surreal world.) imdb: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt4054644/
  • Fisher Cove, d: Sean Skene (Be careful of what you catch when fishing.)
  • I Am the Doorway, d: Robin Kasparik (well done adaptation of a Stephen King short story - makes surprisingly good use of first-person POV)
  • Meow, d: Chris Jopp ("No pets" policy vs landlord vs a Very Good kitty.)

Fest Features:

• Andover - Genetics professor tries to get his wife back. There were many good things about this (Beth Grant playing an ordinary person!), but I couldn't get past some of the plot - it came through as a bit too misogynistic for me.
• Junk Head - Gorgeous stop motion animation!
• Kill Order - A teenager with strange (violent!) powers is on the run. I felt like it was directed by someone who's spent lots of time shooting action scenes because so much excellent violent sequences, and IN FACT, it was directed by a dude who's been a stunt coordinator etc.)
• Brute Sanity - Locally-shot reality bending heist film
• Before We Vanish - Japanese film where aliens take over the bodies of three people
• Tangent Room - Swedish film about saving the world - WITH MATH
• Paradoxical - Chinese time travel loop movie
• House Shark (no IMDB entry? here's a trailer) Uneven but it knows it's stupid. Some really annoying anti-trans humor early on, although the character talking smack has already been exposed as a damned fool.
• Closer Than We Think - documentary about Art Radebaugh, a mid-century illustrator who did the eponymous newspaper strip. Some of the Jetson's look and feel was a parody of his style.
• Muse - Solid celtic-myth-based film with artist inspired. Contains Heather Alexander/Alexander James Adams lyrics
• Canaries - Aliens in Wales. Would match well with Grabbers!

Thon:

• Close Encounters of the Third Kind
• The Time Machine (the George Pal adaptation)
• The 7th Voyage of Sinbad
• Haley (winner of the shorts program)
• Lost World (silent film w live accompaniment Jeff Repsis)
• Marjorie Prime
• Bride of Frankenstein
• They Came From Within (aka "Shivers") (an early David Cronenberg film. hoo boy)
• [I didn't actually see Night of the living dead as I napped]
• World Without End
• The Little Shop of Horrors - I'd never seen the original!
• Yellow Submarine
• Army of Darkness
• 20 Million Miles to Earth
• Looper

Comments

[minoanmiss]

*takes so many notes*

[rhiannonstone]

What did you think of Marjorie Prime? Paul said it was his standout this year.

[rmd]

I really liked it. I wasn't quite sure what to expect going into it, but I ended up really liking it. I'd seen most of the other stuff in the Thon itself, so that made it stand out even more so. It's on Amazon prime, I think.