I've asked my friend and former colleague Samir Mathur, Britain's greatest export of the last ten years, to cover this year's Florida Film Festival. Below you'll find his self-introduction, which includes some constructive criticism regarding the annual festival calendar.
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Hi, everyone! My name is Samir and I'll be writing about the Florida Film Festival, which is taking place in northern Orlando starting next Friday. OK, so it's not as big and established as SXSW or Sundance, but it's one of the biggest in this area.
Here's some of the things I'm looking forward to, and hopefully I'll make at least some, and at most a few, of these titles. The opening night feature is Paper Man, with hey-I've-heard-of-them actors Jeff Daniels, Lisa Kudrow, Ryan Reynolds (as "Captain Excellent"), Emma Stone and Keiran Culkin. There's a couple of exciting-sounding music documentaries playing: there's The Sun Came Out, about Neil Finn from Crowded House, who gathered a bunch of indie A-listers to his house in New Zealand to make a record; and Strange Powers, which follows Stephen Merritt, the main guy behind The Magnetic Fields, who make music that is ideally suited for getting drunk and moping around your apartment to. Is that an endorsement? It's supposed to be.
Disney World is only half an hour away, so we're getting Waking Sleeping Beauty, which you may have caught at some other festivals earlier this year. Likewise, Best Worst Movie, except that one is about the making of Troll 2 (also playing at FFF, as a midnight selection) and not, like, Aladdin 2: The Return of Jafar. As a comedy nerd, I'm excited about Drones, starring at least two people that were on Freaks and Geeks, as well as James Urbaniak and Paul F. Tompkins. I expect a chuckle every six minutes, or else I'll be mad. But not that mad.
As far as documentaries go, I like the sound of Cleanflix, which concerns a guy in Utah who takes new release movies and makes them more appropriate for the family audience. Anyone that's ever chuckled at that Youtube clip of John Goodman saying "This is what happens when you find a stranger in the Alps, Donnie!" should keep an eye out for this one.
Among the cool special events to look out for, there's a program in honour of John Cassavetes, which'll feature a conversation with Gena Rowlands and Seymour Cassel, and a screening of Faces. I'll confess: I don't know much about Cassavetes, but I do know all about the Hold Steady song 'Slapped Actress', which is all about his film Opening Night, so that sort of counts, right?
Now a brief rant.
As I said before, and as you probably know, we don't get many film festivals down here in Florida. That's okay. I've sort of resigned myself to that. So when one comes along, like FFF is, that's very exciting for us. If only there were more festivals like this, right?
Ooh! Sarasota Film Festival, you say? That's only, like three hours away from here! I can't wait! When is it? What?! The EXACT same days as Florida Film Festival? So nobody can attend both festivals? And the two festivals are competing to screen the same titles and competing for celebrity attendees? Why, that just seems ridiculous. Whose idea was this? The people running each festival didn't talk to each other? Lame. In the words of a greater man than I, it makes me madder than a rattlesnake at a Thai wedding.
Oh, and young upstart Tallahassee Film Festival is also running during the same period.
Three film festivals within a six-hour radius of each other? We're spoiled!
Three film festivals within a six-hour radius of each other all at the same time? Never mind.
I'm not letting that get me down too much, though. I'll be checking in with some posts during the festival, and you can keep an eye out on my twitter page (@samirmathur) for more instant updates.