EDITORS NOTE: This post appeared on Creative Loafing's website (since they were the reason I got to go), so please check it out. It looks better there, anyway!
The Gasparilla Film Festival came into Ybor City this weekend with plenty of glitz, and plenty of local films to feast your eyes on. I had the opportunity to spend an evening at the festival soaking up all the culture, and all the excitement local films brought to the area.
The great thing about having a festival like this in Ybor is there is never a shortage of people or alcohol, and I definitely enjoyed my share of both. As we made our way to the theater, it was amazing to see how excited everyone was to meet the filmmakers, and see the movies that were shot in our own backyard. The movies had a bit of a theme, with three out of the four involving combat.
The first was a documentary that stole the show for me called Bout that Bout, and it was about an underground fight club started in Seffner. The documentary was shot “guerrilla style” with a few hand-held camcorders and alternated, quite effectively between black and white. The film showed some of the fights with really good efficiency, but the best part was the underlying question of whether it was ok to have these kids in a fight club, and whether it was better than being on the streets.
The second short really caught me off guard, after the serious nature of the previous. It was called King Jeff, and was about an English guy who seemed to role-play that he was a king, and went to war with another king, using stuffed animals for troops. I was so caught off guard, I couldn’t enjoy it all that much, and the film came across as just plain bizarre.
Lucky number three was a really quick movie called Perpetual Life, showing an interview with a guy who couldn’t die, and his debate about what God has to go through, an whether the afterlife was real. The film was entirely too deep for the five minutes or so it was on screen, and seemed easily forgotten.
Finally, we had Caged Dreams, the movie that looked like it had the biggest budget. This film was easily the most professional and followed a cage fighter, and the trainer that was told he needed to have his fighter take a dive. The film got the fighting scenes done perfectly, but the characters, especially the fighter just didn’t get enough screen time to flush out the character. Brian and I were really close to being extras in this movie, but it's not easy working schedules out, so, we had to decline due to scheduling difficulties.
So, overall, my first local film festival is in the books and I have to say it was quite an experience. The audience seemed to really enjoy all the films and was very receptive. I’m looking forward to the next festival as the season gets going, but this was certainly a fun way to kick it off.
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