Citizen Jane!

This year’s Citizen Jane Film Festival was a lot of fun. I had intimate knowledge of the planning of the festival, so I know how much work went into it, and I think it was pulled off well. I didn’t get to go to the opening night film because I was working the Ragtag merch table, but I heard it went really well and that the party after was fun. I saw the stop motion animated film $9.99. I think this was a really beautiful and meaningful film. The story was intricate and moving. It is about tenants of an apartment building, and how tiny things in their lives intertwine, and even though Dave never gets to read his book about the meaning of life, I think we learn a little bit about it through the film. I think the major message of the film is to just be happy. Dave teaches his dad to swim like a dolphin, the little boy frees his piggy bank, Lenny shaves himself completely to be with the supermodel, the old man gets out and enjoys life by traveling abroad. This film is about finding the happiness you seek without knowing. The animation was beautiful, and definitely allows the story to go in places it couldn’t if it were live action. One of the illustrators from the film, Shira Derman spoke after the film, and she talked about the author of the stories and the painstaking processes that went into making the film, and how the puppets were made. I think it added a lot to get to see her after the film, I feel like I learned a lot about how stop motion is done. I also saw Cold Souls, with Paul Giamatti. I really liked the concept of this film, and it had a very cold look to it, that made me feel really distant and sad the whole time. I did like the film, it had a beautiful look, but seemed very slow and yet almost too fast at times. It didn’t seem like he spent nearly enough time considering the removal of his soul. He tries out soullessness and a replacement soul before finally getting his own back. His story is intertwined with a Russian ‘soul mule’ who helps him out in the end. But when he tries to return the favor, he finds there is no real way of saving her. It ends on a very melancholic tone. There was really no joy in the film, and yet I think it had almost a similar message to the previous film. This one is about accepting who you are, in essence. Beth Mickle spoke afterwards about the set design, and I thought her ideas about the way the souls office should look were really interesting, I would probably never have thought to give it a retro futuristic look, I would have just gone futuristic, but I think the retro thing totally works with the film, it gives it a unity it would not have otherwise had. I also worked the merch table at the Tiny Circus/Videology party. The Tiny Circus films were really cute, and I liked the one they made at Columbia, but I felt really bad for the flower. The rest of the party was a little boring for me at first because I was just working merch and no one came to buy anything. I got really addicted to the rosemary lemonade though. But the party was fun later on because Lydia danced with me for a little while. The videology was really well done, the songs all flowed really well and introduced me to new music. I would recommend getting Darrel to do Videology at just about anything in the future. Overall, it was a great weekend, and I had a lot of fun, I’m sad I won’t be here next year!