Wednesday, March 16, 2011

SXSW VI

FAMBUL TOK means "family talk."  This extraordinary film made by two women is a film about forgiveness.  Forgiveness ceremonies between the perpetrators and victims of the brutal violence that occurred in Sierra Leone during their 10 year civil war.  We were spellbound and captivated.  The movie was exquisitely shot and edited.  The Q&A with director, cinematographer and a Chief from S.L. was animated, informative and left us thinking about this extraordinary culture that possesses such helpful healing rituals.   Abe and I loved this film.

While I  like Jodie Foster's work  (a lot) her World Premier of THE BEAVER just did not work for us.  Casting Mel Gibson in the lead role was problematic for me.  Just too hard to connect to and believe  this actor whose character  suffers from serious depression .  Could be my own bias but Abe did not like it either.  This was a Hollywood film and felt frivolous.  Alas, this and APART are our only two thumb downs since the festival began.

Music's in town and the beat and laid back flavor of Austin has thoroughly changed.  It's all good for the economy so no big complaints here.

More to come.

1 comment:

  1. Will skip ANY film with Mel Gibson and alas, sadly, we will probably not get the other film, which sounds like it is spectacular.

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