SF Intl Film Festival

Occasions like the SF Intl Film Festival 2009 is the main reason to move to the city. Even though I was very ambitious while buying tickets, reality was that it was hard to get out of work early and catch as many movies as I would have liked. I wasted a few tickets, but overall feel vindicated following this event with fervor.

Here are the movies I watched and absolutely enjoyed. I couldnt have picked a better mix of movies, each with its own twists and tales.

Sonbahar (Autumn) - 2008 - Turkish

Beautiful photography - Must see for any nature lover. Didnt know Turkey was such a beautiful country. Its definitely in my list of countries to visit now. Better catch it early, before it becomes a tourist hotbed.

The movie is about a political prisoner, released after 12 hard years, tortured and carrying more mental scars than physical - maybe I'm wrong - mental scars matching his physical. He spends most of his days in his small home town, up in the mountains, where everyone knows everyone. While physically there, he has a very hard time coming back to the present - lives a morbid life - choking from both fearful memories and a fading life. Though still very young, he lacks all interest in life, beaten and weighed down by his past.

Egged by a his childhood friend to rediscover life, he finally shows some emotion after a trip to a mountain lodge in the middle of winter. He screams his gut out, over a valley! Pushed hard, he finally falls in love (if you could call that) with a prostitute who is equally lost in her profession, forging a living away from her country Georgia, selling herself to support her daughter.

If you are looking for a happy ending, this movie is a poor choice. Just as the dude starts accepting his love for the woman, she decides to move and provides him an ultimatum to bring his passport and start a journey. He obliges and as luck would have it, he misses her ultimatum by a few minutes and thus loses her.

Depressing... Nah... The beauty in the movie is its lack of the 'so-called-happiness/happy ending' factor.

Heaven's heart - Swedish

This story is about 2 middle aged couple, going through a mid-life crisis. Both couples wondering if the stoic yet happy life, is all there is to a love life and contemplate infidelity. While one from each couple [one wife and one husband] is intrigued by it, the other pair is strongly taken back by the idea. But, strangely as it may be, the less-confident opposites from each pair find solace in each other and practice exactly the opposite of what they fear the most. While this leads to both the couples' short-term breakup, they also find the reason that they were looking for to start with, a reassurance in their chosen paths and marriage.

Some interesting tidbits about the movie - the setting was very scandinavian that Ikea could learn a few tips (no, not cheap, just very contemporary). The entire movie was shot in 5-6 spots - kitchen, dining table, living room, bedroom and lastly, the balcony of the house. Low budget? Hardly. But, very chic and tight. The opposite of the previous movie - vast in its outdoor experience.

Artemisia - Taiwanese

I was about to write my notes on this movie and found an excellent writeup.

This movie made me laugh, and also gave me enough to contemplate. What would you do if your kids challenge you on a daily basis? What would I do, if ever? But to freak out, is not an option, I suppose. Or is it?

Okuribito (Departures) - Japanese

This is a story about untabooing any taboo you might ever think of. Really. Talk about jobs that you wouldnt do. What classic extremes life has to offer! From a cellist with big dreams to a funeral undertaker. However random your job maybe, if you give it all your heart and soul, there is guaranteed transcending quality about your life - such is the story, so vividly knit. If this movie doesnt move you, ... Surreal. Elegantly told and every character in the movie has a purpose and all of the actors play a wonderful, real, and compact role. This movie is all that "Sunshine cleaning" ought to have been. And sunshine cleaning was not so bad :)

Travel Bug : Mission NZ

After a spell of staying put in SF, the fire in me to travel has rekindled and I'm out and about planning my next travel. Traveling is addictive - the more you go, the more you wanna go... Luckily, world travel is still quite primitive - otherwise, we will all be traveling around the world too quickly and will forget to smell the roses.

I have one too many friends who inspire me daily; I know a lucky friend of mine, working in Europe and traveling around there a bit, much too much to my agony :) (yes, I'm unabashedly jealous!) Another one, has traveled the world so many times, that his life must be boring, now that, he has set a fairly monotonous rhythm to his journeys - again, my envy gets the better and reduces his flight among the birds a trivial pursuit. Thinking about his life and journeys, would I ever be able to leave all my creature comforts behind, and pursue such a path of monotone? Maybe for a short while... ? How short 'short' really is? Ever since last November, these thoughts have become ever so strong - with the passing away of a very close friend of mine - letting his last gasp of air following his dream. Watching his memorial slideshow gallery and finding bits and pieces of my life intertwined with his, but still, missing a huge portion of destinations, leaves me yearning to follow his erstwhile sojourn. Was Juergen a forceful divine suggestion/intervention of sorts? - if one could call it that - maybe its my destiny perhaps, to elongate his footprint around the world, to provide continuity to his merrily quest. Such thoughts, often, bring to forth my worldly commitments, reminds me of the bills that are due, the responsibilities that weigh me down - or is this all just a facade of a coward, with no courage to pursue what could potentially be his only path for eden. For now, I procrastinate, in the vain hope of attaining this magical illusion of 'sustainability', that last deposit to come back to, planning a resting place for the weary feet.

A lovely song, Burden of thought, from one of my newly discovered bands (Epidemic), comes to forefront. Could I be suffering a serious bout of BoT? Sometimes I feel the time is just around the corner, to set my sails and spread my wings wide, and follow the unchartered territory with no obvious plans - no maps, no return tickets.

A seriously quiet weekend among the giant sequoias, a 10 minute solo walk, had me convinced of this - multiple travels due the rest of the year. And Juergen needs to be exercised, among other things... Let the planning begin, I said, loudly. A few up my sleeve for the rest of the year, capping with NZ? Why the heck not! A long trip is so overdue!

Just another day @ Rearden

Xmas party pictures

Groundhog Day, the movie on Hulu.com

Ever wondered whether you could live your day without TV? Well, I've had the pleasure of living life without the proverbial idiotbox, quiet successfully I must admit, for the past 6 months or so. Going from 2 TVs in the house to none is a welcome break and I read a lot more and listen to much more music and radio :) Not only has it gotten me back precious time in my life, but, it has cleared up the evenings for something more meaningful.

Some days, like today, when I have the time and the urge to watch something to relax (or kill some time), I turn to Hulu. This site is slowly, but surely adding more movies and shows for free on the Net. Ofcourse, the movies are interspersed with ads (so far, not annoying) - most of the ads, I admit are actually short and sweet and of much better quality than the TV ads!

I have seen some really amazing movies recently. To name a few : The Secret of NIMH, All dogs go to Heaven, Sideways, Koyaanisqatsi, Groundhog Day and many more!

Groundhog Day - Being an immigrant to this country, I'm yet to understand all of the traditional nuances and lore of the country. Watching movies like Groundhog Day and Secret of the NIMH just opens up the possibility to learn something new. Groundhog Day in particular was very thought provoking and educational while it was funny, artful and refreshing. Even if I had watched this movie before, I'm sure I would have enjoyed watching this today. 

Wikipedia, as usual, has a wonderful page on Groundhog Day and also on The Secret of the NIMH. Rewinding as far back as Tom & Jerry (Fred Quimby, William Hanna & Joseph Barbera) and beyond, the evolution of the animation film industry in the US is as enthralling a story as it gets, one that fascinates even a lukewarm moviegoer like me to appreciate Hollywood and its history. No, I would still like to skip the daily theatricals of the who-is-who in Hollywood, but its not all made of glamor and shims. One has to just wipe the trash off of the top and look beneath it all...

Reminiscence # 1

Rewind very fast to about a quarter century (ok, I'm dating myself here! but that gets harder to avoid by the day;)) And slow down - play forward - ever so slowly forward.... That's the premise of this post!

Kovilpatti - Anyone ever heard of this place? Well, if not, its time to learn a bit about this puny little town :) You can read all about the town in the Wikipedia link. But, you can (almost) "see" it end to end these days - Thank you Google.

This town of 90K or so, (it hasnt grown significantly I hear, but it has a bit since '86), played a significant role in my childhood. Surprisingly, vivid mental pictures of my life in this town is only a blink of an eye away, in my memory bank. (Something to be said about my memory or the lack thereof - I couldnt remember what I did last weekend or the week before). Eight years here under some very interesting twists and turns comprising 5 different rental dwellings, 4 schools, 2 failed businesses (not mine, my dad's), and memories of grandma dying, Kovilpatti seemed to have etched a permanent place in my brain. Running away from these memories has never crosses my mind! Past is funny - all the things one remembers are somehow magnified/glorified - one tends to remember the sweet yesteryears; bad moments, luckily just fade away (if you remember these, find a shrink:))

I could plot a rough map of this place out of memory, even today, marking the key locations as I remember it (no, street names not guaranteed:), but you get the idea!). Surely, with so many passing seasons, things should've and must've changed a lot. Afterall, I havent once looked back in all these years, even though the "forced separation" left me with a heavy heart and too many missed connections to count. No way I would be able to decipher a map of this place now, right? Well, a little walk down the google search list, and I find this : a wiki map link. Now, nostalgia has gotten me all choked;) (and hence this blog), but wow, the landscape and scenery of this place hasnt changed much - surely, the Indian growth juggernaut hasnt flown down this path yet. And somehow I'm fairly pleased with the lack of progress! Yeah, easy for me since I dont live there, but life would've just been as happy down there - I would have missed a few continents, but, oh well!!!

The wiki map is a bit much - loads of people marking off their homes and other self-significant locations - brilliant - in a few years, I sure will be able to wave at you all folks down there! If you recognize me, twitter me! 

I recognize streets, the landmarks - my mental map agrees with the internet map - each turn in a street fills me up with a bit of picture in place and a story - if you read this blog, you would get the sense of my picture gallery flipping/fluttering a weebit too quickly. There, down the hill (yes, there is a bit of elevation in this town, not much, a few hundred feet maybe) I was chasing my dog down in my dad's rather large bicycle (monkey pedaling, ofcourse - if you dont know what that means - well, if you cant reach the post/seat, you arch your body through the bars/triangle to reach the other pedal - and when you pedal around, the bicycle will sway about 30 degs, hopefully, affixed at the tires;) - no, I cant demonstrate this anymore since I'm a fully developed homosapien now); oh yeah, the famous 'temple' near school where we could play hide-and-seek all day (yep, really, how many days do we have to go to school on time - boring). I probably would need to add a few of my own landmarks in that map - home/street of my first crush, first school, a hideaway icecream shop that was funded by 'stealth' money, playgrounds - each cricket pitch and football/soccer field, my school(s), all the rival schools, the national hockey stadium that was the one window to the broad outside world beyond the the square mile city, and plenty more! 

Life back then, was rather tough and fun. Especially, when I was helping my parents manage the little family owned restaurant. Start the day before sunrise - pedal to the restaurant to be in time for the grand opening @ 5.30am, suited already for school that starts @ 9am - catch a quick breakfast in another cafe @ 7.45am (shhhh! parents didnt know that then and dont believe this story now either:)) - head to the playground @ school by 8am while forgetting to attend the hour of torture (morning tuition meant to keep me up with the rest of the class), get to school at the dot of the hour 9am (wasting no time in there!), look forward to that afternoon recess, and play hour - 100F? bring it on! - school was a happy distraction! Go back to the restaurant after school around 5pm - catch up with homework before the business picks up (right - what homework?;)) - shrink and hide when dad is around in the night - and get home by 10pm. Weekends meant stay out in the cricket/soccer field the entire day - prevailing conditions being leave home after dad and reach home before he does! Wrath of dad is wrath of god... Everyday was an adventure...

In a lot of ways, 20-20 vision says that the best thing that happened to me is that I was forced out of this place - there would have been no happy endings here - I was too carefree and too loose for a 12 year old - too worldly, too streetwise, too conniving, and yet too naive without any eagerness to look beyond the yardage that I had under my feet - a rather well fed big fish in a rather puny pond - I knew every rock and all the weeds. I missed this place - always looked back upon it fondly - but, never have I gone back (, yet!) 

What triggered this particular episode of the walk back in memory lane? Ah, I caught up with an old friend of mine from this era - randomly connected via facebook - thank god to google and the social networking world that you get to dig in your past and find those missing pieces scattered through the globe. A long roll call after, with a string of familiar and not-so-familiar names thrown around, yeah, most of my buddies from this time long gone have turned out to quiet alright; each having found his/her own way out of the pond we grew up in (some still caught in it, but happy nevertheless in their wisdom or ignorance) Now onto finding more of them and connecting back... 

Some fun facts:

Kovilpatti city has a website : Kovilpatti Municipality. Compare that to a similarly sized city in the US - Pleasanton, CA. Hmm... A few CSS/layout/background/picture changes apart, its hard to pick a winner here. Oh, yes, finally I see it - things have changed, things have progressed, its not visible, its not sparkling, but the place has indeed evolved. No Kovilpatti, you cant hide forever - google got u and your city management crew did it to themselves, in the name of e-governance. That is some crazy progress...

I will update this blog when I go here personally again, and add my own flickr feed to compliment! Until then, I will let these photo negatives bake in the dark room...