My first Cucalorus experience was a fun one.
I mostly stuck to my screening plan, besides having to skip
out on Dancealorus. I was still able to get in my five screenings.
I ended up going to see Slash, Tower, Olympic Pride, We Are
the Flesh and the secret screening which was a drama film titled The Levelling.
My favorite out of what I saw was, by far, Tower. It was a
documentary that combined archive footage, interviews and rotoscope animation
in order to recreate the story of the first mass shooting in a public place
that happened at the University of Texas in 1966.
Going into the film, I was really excited to see how the
animation and live footage would work together. The result was no disappointing.
Afterwards, one of the producers answered some questions. One of the points of
discussion was the choice to focus on the stories of victims and witnesses
rather than the story of the sniper. I really appreciated that they chose this
route.
Olympic Pride was also a documentary. This one was done in a
traditional way, but I still really enjoyed the entire thing. It focused on the
Olympics in Nazi Germany and the decision to send African American athletes to
the event. It’s a point in history that I wasn’t at all aware of and it was
incredible to see the story unfold and discuss with the audience about the
ramifications of the decision to still participate in the games. I also felt
that it was an especially poignant film to watch after the recent election and
the events surrounding it.
Overall, I think the entire festival was a great experience.
I got to pick films to watch that I probably wouldn’t have looked at twice
before and while all of them weren’t my favorite, I got to experience some
really amazing films that quickly became some of my favorites.