Tampa Film Fan

gasparilla film festival — friday

I didn’t make it to the Gasparilla Film Festival on Thursday, but made up for it with a full day on Friday. Friday was the day of “liked it, didn’t love it.”

That began with the festival’s schedule. The festival’s program guide gave descriptions of all the films and listed the screening date/time for all of the feature-length films at the end of each description. The program guide didn’t give a day-by-day schedule, which I missed dearly. I need the easy-to-read, TV Guide-style grid of what’s playing when. I looked at the festival’s online schedule to map out what I wanted to see each day. I didn’t “drill down” and click on each movie title, however, so I had no idea that each feature-length film would be preceded by a short film or two. I’d just assumed that the shorts would be shown during the time slots marked Shorts Section I and Shorts Section II. (You know what they say about assuming.)

I’d received several emails from local filmmakers listing the date/time their short films were scheduled. Thank goodness for that, because that’s how I found out about how the short films were going to be shown. When I arrived at the theater, the first thing I did was take a look at a festival volunteer’s detailed daily schedule page so I could see which short film was scheduled to proceed which feature-length film. I managed to dart back-and-forth between theaters to catch most of the shorts and features that I’d wanted to see, although I had to miss out on some filmmaker Q and A sessions to do so.

While I like the festival’s attempt to expose moviegoers to short (often local) films by running them before each feature-length film, I didn’t love the execution of that attempt. I hope that next year, the GFF will list the shorts on the overview page of the online schedule and include the screening date/time in the program guide.

I saw the local short Good Samaritan, which screened before Dream Havana. Good Samaritan paired Rachael Lee and Robert Elfstrom, two very strong local actors, in a drama/thriller about justice and revenge. Liked it, didn’t love it.

Then I hopped over to a different theater to see American Fork, a comedy/drama about an overweight, sad-sack, nice-guy loser with the usual quirky friends, family and co-workers. American Fork combines the job/home/job monotony of Bubble, the retail world quirkiness of The Good Girl and the socially-awkward misfits of Eagle vs. Shark without adding enough oomph of its own to make it really stand out. (Although American Fork won the festival’s grand jury prize, so what the heck do I know? [info via Steve Persall’s blog] )

Local short film There’s Always Hope was next. I missed the first minute or two — which is more important than it sounds, since the entire movie was only 13 minutes long — so to my “liked it, didn’t love it” I’ll add the caveat that I need to see the movie again before saying anything more.

The documentary Big Rig was one of the films on my GFF Must-See List. It takes a look at truck drivers across the country and gives the viewer a glimpse into truckers’ lives, experiences and opinions. Big Rig was beautiful and fascinating, but a little long and in need of some “framework” text (or narration) at either the beginning or end in order to provide some information and put the film in context. I had a lot of questions after watching the movie, but had to skip out on the filmmaker Q and A to catch my next film.

Next up were two exceptions to the “liked it, didn’t love it” vote: The Job and the preview of Strip Club King:The Story of Joe Redner. I LOVED those. The Job is a very short (4 minutes, I think) hilarious take on the struggle to find employment. To say any more would spoil the fun of this clever, funny film.

I figured that Strip Club King would be interesting — how could it not be, with controversial, often-hated, outspoken strip club owner/political activist Joe Redner as the subject — but I had no idea it would be fascinating. Local filmmakers Shelby McIntyre (director) and Chris Woods (producer, editor) had full access to Redner, his family and decades’ worth of incredible footage. I thoroughly enjoyed the 14-minute preview and am looking forward to seeing the completed documentary.

Last film of the night was Judy Toll:The Funniest Woman You’ve Never Heard Of. Toll reminds me so much of Gilda Radner: the zaniness, the physical comedy, the multiple characters on stage, the never-ending sense of humor…and unfortunately, the ultimately unsuccessful battle with cancer. Toll’s brother and mother made this film, which was brave not only because of the obvious pain of their not having Judy in their lives anymore, but also because a lot of Toll’s humor was about very personal subjects, especially her sex life.

Toll co-wrote the film Casual Sex, wrote for Sex and the City, toured the nation performing in clubs big and small, and was devastatingly hilarious as Andrea Dice Clay, the female version — and very clever parody — of comedian Andrew Dice Clay. For some reason, however, Toll never became a national success, so her brother made this documentary to ensure that her talent would not be forgotten. Judy Toll’s mother attended the screening. It was so late that no one stuck around for the Q and A session with Mrs. Toll, so I made sure to thank her for coming and for making the film. She asked me if I had any questions, but I didn’t. (I wish now I had come up with something to ask her.)

I stopped by the GFF party long enough to stalk actor Shane West into a photo op, then I headed over to another party. I had a chance to chat with Mike Compton (Good Samaritan), Rachael Lee (Good Samaritan), Chris Woods (Strip Club King) and Rod Grant (Gunn Highway) for a while. I’ve met Grant before, but had never really had a chance to talk to him much. After seeing him as the creepy bad guy in Gunn Highway and the creepy, crooked cop in 100 Tears, it was a relief to finally get to know Grant as the NON-creepy, regular, nice guy that he is.

My mind wasn’t ready to give up on GFF yet, though, because I dreamed about the festival that night. And then overslept the next day…