AOF Festival - Day 4, Monday July 28

Headed down to AOF and saw a couple films. One in particular blew me away, and another one pleasantly surprised me.

Swing Vote - Short

This was a political short about two Democratic women who seduced Republican men and convinced them to change their party. It was interesting because the filmmakers were obviously Democrats, but the short actually presented these two in a negative light, as manipulative scheming women. There was a fair amount of Bush bashing at the Q&A afterward as well. All in all the film gave me a bad taste in my mouth.

My Last Night - Short

This was a very disturbing dark short. It tracks the last night of a security guard, he is heading to vacation in Hawaii... some guys come to rob the place and he goes to stop them, and he gets shot, then we see him in Hawaii, with a gunshot wound on his arm, and we all breath a sigh of relief, but then we see his ticket on the ground of the building he worked at, and blood covers the ticket. Very chilling film, I thought it was well done.

Treasure Blind - Feature

When I went to see this I had no idea it was a faith-based film until I heard Brian Shoop (director) and his wife talking about San Antonio (SAICFF) before the movie started (they were sitting a couple rows back in the theater. I'll be honest, I was a bit saddened as I thought, oh no a Christian movie... lol. But, I still had hope as it had been nominated for several awards, including BEST DRAMA and BEST ACTOR (Brian) so I sat back to enjoy the film. The film is about Cliff Edwards, an aging taxi driver who is also a treasure seeker. His grandson, Henry, (who is blind) is dropped off at his house one day, and they start learning how to deal with one another. Soon his son comes into the picture and we find out he has a ton of debt to pay off from gambling... well, I won't give away anymore. I really enjoyed the film, and enjoyed meeting Brian and his wife afterward as well. I certainly hope they get some distribution as well. I would recommend it to people. It is definitley an indie film, and has some technical shortcomings, but it's a good story, and has some great performances, specifically from Brian (who plays Cliff) and Daniel Brookshire who plays Henry.

The Flyboys - Feature

This is THE BEST film I have EVER seen at AOF. I was absolutely blown away by the film. I am surprised it hasn't gotten a domestic theatrical distributor yet. It had incredible performances by both Stephen Baldwin, and Tom Sizemore, and the rest of the cast was fantastic as well. The story is about two friends, Jason and Kyle, who are normal junior high kids. They accidently stow away aboard a plane owned by the mob, and craziness ensues. The cinematography in the film was incredible, specifically the shots of the plane, some great stuff. I will be surprised if this film doesn't win best picture of the festival.

After The Flyboys, IRH screened and we had about 15 people in the audience, everyone laughed at the right spots, and seemed to enjoy it overall. The show looked fantastic on the big screen, and the music ROCKED! I love hearing it through the theater speakers.

The next film I have showing will be Welcome to the Party on Wednesday night, hopefully we'll get a bigger crowd for that.