Posted by Redgrrrl26 on: Mon 7th Feb, 2011

Wow!  Is it me or did the film festival just fly by?  I gorged myself like a greedy, hungry child let loose in Willy Wonka's Chocolate Factory.  And I still didn't get to see everything I wanted to see.  Sad face.

But if they are still doing the "Best of Fest" program this year, then perhaps all hope is not lost.  ("Patesserie (Coin de Rue)" I'm looking at you, my little eclair.  We did not get to meet today, but perhaps the Gods will be kind and our sweet paths will cross someday.)

And now, in the spirit of the info-tainment niblets that we've all come to hunger for, I present my SBIFF 2011 niblets:

1. Megaphone, Megaphone, He's Our Man!

That "Megaphone" short was pretty darned catchy.  I found that little ditty playing in my head at odd hours of the night.  I actually didn't get tired of seeing it before each screening, although it would have been nice if they had different versions so they could mix it up.  (I think there may have been one long and one short version.) 

I do realize the ditty was written by someone in town and the short was made by someone else; all done on their own time and money.  So making multiple versions was probably not feasible.  I'm just sayin' it would have been fun to have different adventures of Megaphone Man play throughout the week.  That beard was kinda hot.

2.  Ring-A-Ding-Ding

When the nice film fest person introduces the film and asks people to turn off their cell phones, that means everyone.  Yes, pal, including you, the guy at Make A Movie Like Spike who was so busy that he walked out five minutes into the movie with his iPhone blinding me on the way out.  Whatever.  You missed a great film.

3.  Paper or Plastic?

Did you know there is something more annoying than hearing someone unwrap a cellophane candy wrapper in movie?  There is.  And that would be someone who opens up their (crinkle) Rite-Aid (crinkle) plastic bag (crinkle) of snacks (crinkle) every 10 minutes (crinkle).

It was pretty cool that the film fest gate keepers let us drag in our own snacks, and we didn't even have to hide them in oversize bags!  (Which would have been murder for the lady carrying that cardboard tray full of steaming Starbucks beverages.)  But please do the world a favor, GET YOUR SNACKS OUT OF THE PLASTIC BAGS BEFORE THE MOVIE STARTS.

There, I got it out of my system.  Ok, I lied.  I harbored evil fantasies about strangling those repeat offenders with their own Rite Aid bags.  If I could pack a jury with 12 people who feel as I do about movies (capital punishment for disrupting film viewing), I could get off too.  NOW, I got it out of my system.

4.  Be Cool

Almost everyone was pretty darned cool; from the volunteers, to the staffers, to the talent (directors, actors, writers, etc.) who held Q&As after their screenings, to the attendees (minus the bag crinklers).  Nice, happy to be there, and interested and enthusiastic about film.  It was like I died and went to celluloid (or DV) heaven.

5. Cause 2 Out of 3 (or 9 out of 10) Ain't Bad

Out of the 10 or so films I saw at the fest, there was only one that I wasn't super crazy about.  Since that track record probably doesn't hold up when I go to see movies outside of a film festival, that's pretty impressive.  The scope of the selection was amazing and when you factor in that there were only two or three films that I heard other attendees give a thumbs down to, I'd say the SBIFF batting average is fab-u-lous.

So a round of applause (APPLAUSE) for the film fest organizers, volunteers and talent for bringing such an incredible event to our little town.  See you in 2012!

Tags: c2sbiff, sbiff, Santa Barbara International Film Festival 2011

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