Last Thursday night I attended the opening film and gala party for the Seattle International Film Festival (SIFF). At the Paramount theatre they showed “You and Me and Everyone We Know”. Back in January at Sundance Miranda July won one of the special jury prizes for originality of vision by the dramatic jury. She wrote, acted, and directed the movie. I read just yesterday that at Cannes the film was a co-winner of the Caméra d’Or award. Miranda had actually jumped on a plane from Seattle to make here way to France to accept the award. The film should be out sometime in the month of July and let me say it was great. Before they showed the film Miranda said a few words and talked about the last time she was in Seattle playing music at the OK Hotel. If you do not know her work you really should check her out. She has at least five CD as a signer and her multimedia art has been displayed in prominent museums. I was kind of bummed that they did not to a question and answer period afterward but instead they made that a separate session a day or so later. As for the film I assume it will get an R rating based on some of the content. The film itself tells the story of a few people and how their lives interact. First and foremost it is very funny. You have a father, a shoe salesman, who is not only dealing with a separation but being a parent of two boys. You have a Elder cab driver who is also a struggling multimedia artist who is struggling to find someone in her life. The story unfolds as the two meet and interact. In my opinion some of the best moments are with the kids in the movie. The kids have their own subplot where the younger son who I think was age five is busy in internet dating chat rooms and it is far from innocent. The older son actually get his first blowjob from two friends who are trying to see which of them can do it better and are teenagers themselves. There is also the interaction of the old son with a neighbor child who is mature beyond her years and has a wedding dowry chest full of modern day appliances and housewares that she has purchased with her own money. The film is visually impressive. It will be interesting to see if this film can cross from the art house theatres into the more mainstream. It has a lot of potential and while some of the content is fairly adult the themes of the movie and not overly complex and can enjoy it while you munch on some popcorn.
In the movie the two boys are into ASCII art where you use symbols to create pictures. One of the funniest things to me was when the youngest boy uses ASCII character to make a visual of a sexual act that he would want to perform while he is chatting with a women. I will not give away the joke and just leave you with the visual:
))<>(( “back and forth forever”
The after-party: We no Q&A the next stop was two blocks away in the space that was the temporary home of the Seattle Library. It is currently empty but will soon be the new home of the Museum of History and Industry. It was a cool space for a party and they did a good job making it up. Since the opening night gala is not a true black tie kind of affair you see people in varying degrees of dress. It makes for a fun event. The bummer was that the food lines were way too long and many restaurants that were sampling food ran out very quickly. Luckily there was no shortage of alcohol. Bombay Saphire is sponsor of the festival and there were plenty of gin and tonic to go around. I think the opening bad was called “Radio Nation” and they played for about 30 minutes. They had kind of a country rock vibe to them. Next up was the Posies. They were big in the early ‘90’s at least in the Northwest. I think the last time I saw them was in about 1993 up at Western Washington U. They did not disappoint the crowd. I ended up leaving around mid-night. I guess I am getting old or something.
A digital recording of my life 