pleasing portlander ponderings

how we investigate – short films/videos/power point presentation…curated by morgan currie
posted by laura becker
i went into to my final day of TBA yesterday pretty pleased, thinking, while i may not have been blown over or swept away by anything i’d seen this year like i had been last year, i had still seen a lot of rock solid performances and productions, i had thought a lot about things that i really didn’t mind contemplating, and i had been refreshed and impressed over and over with my city, its artists, and its residents -those same faces over and over in different dark rooms. and while in some sense yesterday was just more of the same – especially more pride in the local talent – it felt like the first time that the creativity around me resulted in real inspiration and amazement inside me. i finally had those silly (almost embarrassing to admit) moments when i teared up just because i was so grateful and proud to be part of the community of this festival. i know, so cheesy, but SO SATISFYING…ah…now i can go on with the rest of my life.
so, getting to the subject at hand – the films.
two of my favorites were actually very similar – randall wakerlin’s “twenty-six” – a one minute video made of 365 frames – a picture of the director every day for a whole year and edited so that his face and mouth moved to match the voice over, and cassandra c. jones’ “eventide” in which she compiled hundreds of photographs ranging from recent vacation snapshots to archival photos from books and magazines which all had the sun (or sometimes moon, i think) in what seemed at first to be the same exact spot in every picture, but was actually a seamless story of a sunset. both ryan jeffery’s “continuum” and matt mccormick’s “going to the ocean” involved an unexpectedly beautiful cinematic and musical collaborative rhythm – almost as if ice and giant barges were dancing to their respective soundtracks. but the most pleasant surprise for me was andrew blubaugh’s “hello, thanks” – a revealing and touching look into the makings of a personal ad. “hello, thanks” was just good filmmaking – a simple straightforward and smart story endeared us to the protagonist and his goals right away. it was sweet and brave and unpretentious.
and then there was the power point presentation. eloquent and enlightening, mike’s lesson had the audience pondering the consequences of technology, amazed at the power of lego, and appreciative of the beauty around us while it’s still around to appreciate. i highly recommend that anyone reading this and/or who saw mike wilder’s presentation go see his upcoming 3D film and that you get your hands on a copy of “the beautiful and the fine” made by archipelago – another example of fine local film talent which includes a segment about mike’s love of carnivorous plants.
there were just lots of high points during yesterday’s set of films – like the audience’s immediate and strong applause after the explicit and unsettling (yet hilarious and thought-provoking) images in “where’s my boyfriend”, seeing everyone in the 3-D glasses, and all the varied visual candy of the choices that made it a perfect dessert for my meaty tba experience.