Sal Calls It a Wrap...

I'm always a little sad when the Film Festival ends, but also a bit relieved.  My poor posterior needs to recover from the painful experience of many hours sitting on the terribly lumpy seats at Tower City Cinema!  (Note to Cleveland Cinemas: I love you, but please replace those seats with comfy ones!)  This year I saw many wonderful films -- and I'm already looking forward to next year!

Here are some highlights of Sal's last visits to the 38th CIFF.

My sister is always game for a fun acting gig.  As a passholder, I could enter and spend time in the Hospitality Room, which has chairs and tables -- and free snacks!  Poor Anne, as a lowly ticket holder, was not permitted to go through those doors.  I asked her to act unhappy about this, and she did a fine job! 

Another fine acting job by Anne!

Nicole, one of the fabulous Cleveland Jumping Fleas, posing with Sal by the board indicating showtimes.  We saw The Winding Stream together.  What a great film!

My friend Barb and Sal with one of the GuitarMania guitars on display at Tower City.  We saw two films together -- both of which were amazing.  We would both highly recommend Heart of a Lion and Matt Shepard Is a Friend of Mine.

This gentleman played a violent neo-Nazi in the compelling Heart of a Lion.  In real life he seems like a very nice guy, as evidenced by his willingness to pose with Sal.

After seeing the super-entertaining Just About Famous, I was excited to see that two of the film's featured impersonators were at the CIFF!  Obviously Sal had to have her photo taken with them. 

This is not the sort of young lady Mr. Hefner usually poses with, and I believe he thought I was quite nutty, but he posed with Sal anyway.

Maurice Reedus Jr. with Sal.  Everybody who goes downtown has seen him playing at sporting events and in front of the Playhouse Square theaters.  The film about him -- The Sax Man --  won the Local Heroes Award.

A bunch of Film Fest chums hanging out with Sal at the closing ceremonies.

Conclusions about this year's Cleveland International Film Festival:
1.  It was awesome!  Most of the films I saw were very good to excellent.  My love of documentaries and road pictures is confirmed.
2.  Because I had some sort of coughing/sneezing/blechy virus, I had to scale back my attendance from last year's average of five films per day.  My total this year was only 44 feature films and one shorts program.  Next year I plan to avoid all sick people pre-Film Fest. 
3.  Sal had her photo taken with lots of cool people.  I know I could get even more pictures of her with Film Fest luminaries if I brought her every day.  Maybe I will do that next year, even though it's a pain to carry so much stuff.
4.  The Festival ended with a wonderful new beginning -- the birth of my first grandchild!  You can be sure that Sal's future travels will often lead her to Sophia's house!


And last, but not least, the rest of my Facebook apre-film posts for the cinema obsessed:

Transfusion = Interesting subject (food trucks) + too long + too repetitive.
A Simple Piece of Paper = Touching multi-hanky documentary about adoptees receiving their birth certificates.
The Dark Matter of Love = Excellent documentary about a family adopting three children from Russian orphanages. Word to the wise = Not a good idea if you can't afford long-term professional help.
The Winding Stream = Excellent music-rich documentary about the Carter family. 
Hopeless Hopeful = Very clever + extremely entertaining + bank robbery comedy + cupcakes!
Deep City: the Birth of the Miami Sound = OK documentary + a bit disjointed.
Sex, Drugs and Taxation = There was a long wait between two films, so I decided to watch the beginning of this and skip the other movie if I really liked this one + I didn't.  (I didn't include this in my total of films seen, because I saw only about 1/4 of it.)
Monk With a Camera = Slow, but very interesting + great photography.
The Dog = Fascinating + funny documentary about the Dog Day Afternoon bank robber.
West = Outstanding + suspenseful + Iron Curtain drama.
The Life and Crimes of Doris Payne = Super entertaining + very funny + documentary about a notorious jewel thief.
Here Was Cuba = Cuban missile crisis + pretty good film.
A Fragile Trust: Plagiarism, Power, and Jayson Blair at the New York Times = Very interesting + too drowsy to completely enjoy 5th film of the day.
The Cooler Bandits = Very mixed feelings + cue the debate on crime and punishment.
Slingshot = Fascinating + inspiring!
Jingle Bell Rocks = A jolly good time!
Just About Famous = Super-fun documentary about celebrity impersonators.    
Matt Shepard Is a Friend of Mine = Absolutely heart-rending. A theater full of tears... 
Heart of a Lion = Powerful drama.
3 Autumns, 2 Winters = Strange French film + many people leaving theater saying things like "that's an hour and a half of my life I will never get back." 
Clownwise = Hard to describe + I liked it.
Rich Hill = Extremely depressing
To Be Takei = Entertaining + uplifting + funny
Sex(ed) = Hilarious      

Farewell, 38th CIFF.  Sal and I can't wait for the 39th!


        

Sal Returns to the Film Festival and Meets Awesome People

It's a bit of a pain lugging Sal around at the Film Festival, so she doesn't get to go every day.  I did decide, however, to take her there on days when people are coming down to meet me for a film.  Yesterday my sister was coming, so Sal got to go, too.  Anne and I saw an absolutely wonderful film together --  Life Inside Out.  It was a story with much relevance to both of us -- for different reasons -- but we were both greatly moved by it.  In the movie, lives are transformed through the power of music, and Sal -- who is, of course, a musical instrument -- is part of my transformation.  I'm changing from "afraid to approach new people" librarian to "not-too-shy person who fearlessly approaches people with a silly request to pose with a tiny ukulele."  The resulting interactions are always interesting -- and sometimes quite wonderful.

Travels with Sal is just part of my transformation.  I don't want to spend my life working, cleaning the house, weeding the garden, and eventually dying of boredom.  I want my life to be fulfilling -- and to be a part of making the world a better place!  Of course there are times at work when I make a difference, and that's wonderful, but most of the time I don't feel like my contribution is very important to anyone.  And who cares if my house is clean?  Who cares if my laundry is folded?  Nobody!  

So I suppose picking up my first ukulele a couple of years ago was a bigger step than I thought it was at the time.  I just wanted an instrument to play in storytime, and I ended up falling in love with this amazing four-stringed life-changer.  I have done so many things I never would have considered doing before.  I'm not changing anybody's life but my own at this point, but I feel like I'm moving in a direction that could lead to helping others in the future.

Enough about my inner monologue!  Back to the Film Festival!   Anne and I were thrilled to hear that the stars of the film -- Maggie Baird and Finneas O'Connell -- were at the showing for an apres-film Q&A.  Of course I immediately thought of Sal!  Would they agree to pose for a photo with her?  After the Q&A I left Anne holding all of my stuff -- except for Sal and the camera -- and waited for Maggie and Finneas to finish speaking with other people who had enjoyed the film.  I asked my question, and they were very kind and agreed to have their picture taken with Sal. (I always wonder what I should call celebrities in the blog.  Should I call them Ms. and Mr., like the New York Times does?  Or should I use their first names, which seems overly familiar?  In this case, I'm going with first names, because of the friendly personalities of these multi-talented people.)

Mother and son in real life -- and on screen!

Something interesting happens whenever I hand Sal to musicians.  They start tuning her!  Unfortunately, Sal is devilishly hard to tune.  Her strings are so short that as soon as a string approaches being in tune, it's already past the in-tune spot.  Oh well, she's small and cute, so who cares if she sounds good?

Sal is hard to tune!

Or maybe impossible...

Anne and I ended up having a really great conversation with Maggie and Finneas.  What truly nice people they are!  A while later they performed at the fountain in the center of Tower City, but I could only stay for one song, as I had to rush off to my next film.  I left Anne there -- listening and enjoying the music. 

Later in the day, I was in line to see Ride With Larry -- a truly inspiring story about a man with Parkinson's who rides a bike across North Dakota.  One of the directors of the film came by and took a picture of all of us in the line, so I whipped out Sal and asked him to pose with her.

Ride with Larry director, Ricardo Villarreal.

I ended my Film Festival day with another wonderful film -- The Ballad of Shovels and Rope.  It was great seeing two fantastic music-themed movies in one day!

Just for Film Fest fans!  Here is what I posted on Facebook after each of the films I've seen since the last Travels with Sal post:

Paris or Perish = Enjoyable light comedy + a fun start to Sunday at the Film Fest.
The Missing Picture = Hated it + walked out.
It's Only Make Believe = Getting into a life of crime is a lot easier than getting out + tension-filled gripping story.
Le Weekend = Great acting + difficult to watch people inflicting emotional pain on those they love.
Life Inside Out = Touching film about life and music + beautiful songs that made me cry in a very good way! <3
The Rugby Player = OK doc.
Ride With Larry = Inspiring + I don't think I would have such courage and determination if I received such a diagnosis, but one can hope.
The Ballad of Shovels and Rope = An absolute delight! <3       

Sal Goes to the Cleveland International Film Festival

Yesterday was Day 4 of the Cleveland International Film Festival!  So far I've seen 14 films, and plan to watch about 40 more in the remaining eight days of the festival.  Seeing so many movies in a short time is quite exhilarating and exhausting -- and leaves one with a very fuzzy head -- but it's an amazing experience that I look forward to every year!  I brought Sal with me to the Festival yesterday and got some fun photos of her there.

There are Film Festival graphics all over Tower City, giving it a festive international look. 

This picture shows part of a group of windows that are covered with Film Festival designs. 

If there is enough time between films I often walk laps around Tower City.  Sitting down all day is a pain in the butt (literally), and it's best to keep moving anyway.  As I was walking around the top level I thought it would be cool to get a shot of Sal on the railing -- showing the Film Festival banners framing the stairs on the other side and some of the other Film Festival graphics decorating Tower City, too.  Since I didn't have an assistant with me, I had to hold Sal with one hand while holding the camera with the other.  Obviously this limited what I could do.  I took many shots -- most of which were not sharp because of camera movement or Sal movement or a combination of the two.  This is the one I picked to share.  (The blurry edges are intentional, but I wish there was better depth of field so the Film Festival banners would be sharper.)

I've always wanted to go up to the observation deck of the Terminal Tower, but it just never worked out before.  When I read that the deck would be open on Saturday and Sunday afternoons during the Film Festival, I was thrilled.  Today Sal and I took the elevators up and saw some great views of the city.  Unfortunately, there were the usual problems that occur when I put Sal in a window and try to take a properly exposed photo of her.  A person would need lots more equipment and much more photographic skill than I possess to get good shots in this sort of situation, but that's not what this is about.  It's just me and Sal -- and a small camera to capture our experiences.  Also, there was a railing across each window, so I couldn't just balance Sal on the sill and take photos.  A helper and/or an extra hand or two would have been useful, but these situations force one to be creative, which is a good thing.

I cropped this photo, but didn't do anything else to it. I'm grateful it was a cloudy day so the outside light wasn't as bright as it could have been.

I cropped this picture and adjusted the exposure to show Sal's grain.  I also used the antique effect and edge blur.  Doing all this made an unusable photo into something I think looks pretty darn cool.

To get to the observation deck, you take two elevators.  One stops at the 32nd floor, and the other takes you up to the observation deck.  On the way back down, I stopped and took this from a window on the 32nd floor with the Retro Camera app on my phone.  It's supposed to look like a Polaroid.  I also took a bunch of shots with my real camera.  Interestingly enough, I like this one the best.

Just for film lovers: the mini Facebook reviews I posted after seeing each film:

Not Another Happy Ending = Light rom-com, not great, not terrible, just okay.
Waltz for Monica = Wonderful jazz + based on a real Swedish singer's life. Very good film!
Shorts Program 2 = Most were pretty good, 1 was shocking.
A Birder's Guide to Everything = Delightful coming-of-age road movie. <3
Continental = Too long and repetitive + not enough Barry.
Kidnapped for Christ = Excellent film + infuriating + very disturbing.
A Thousand Times Goodnight = Compelling + disturbing + excellent + want to discuss with somebody!
The Verdict = Amazingly powerful indictment of the legal system in Belgium + gripping story.
As the Palaces Burn = Metal guys can be good guys, but I still don't want to listen to their music.
Code Black = Amazing film + several hankies required + how about fixing our broken medical system!?
82 Days in April = Very slow, but eventually quite lovely + now I know what Turkey looks like (the country, not the bird.)
Ivory Tower = Good overview of the problems of higher education + must discuss.
Antarctica: A Year on the Ice = Magnificent time-lapse photography + now I know what it's like year-round there (flippin' cold and windy...)
That Burning Feeling = a super-enjoyable romcom!      

More to come!!!  Sal and I love Film Fest!!!     


   

One Last Day at the Film Fest...

Today was the last day of the 37th Cleveland International Film Festival.  The closing ceremony is always held around the fountain in Tower City and I decided it would be a fun photo opportunity for Sal.  Since there would be so many people there, I thought of doing a "Where's Waldo" sort of thing.  To put the plan into action I asked my friend Heidi to hold Sal up while I stood on the second level and took a picture of the crowd.  The idea was to ask those looking at the blog to see if they could find Sal in the crowd.  After taking the picture, I realized the idea was a dud.  I know where Sal is, and I can't even see her!  Oh well, nothing ventured, nothing gained.   Here's the picture anyway.  :)

I would have needed a panoramic camera to get the whole celebration in the picture, which would have made the almost impossible task of finding Sal even harder! 

I took a couple of other Sal pictures, too, since I brought her along.  Here are today's film-going companions in front of the cool tile mural at the West 65th Street Rapid Transit Station. 

And last but not least, I got a picture of Martin Lund, the director of the delightful children's film Twigson Ties the Knot with Sal!  He came from Norway to attend the festival because two of his films were being shown.  The other one was The Almost Man -- not for kids, but a super film, too.  I think he thought I was a bit of a nut for asking him to pose with the uke, but he was good-natured about it.  (And let's face it, the project is a bit nutty -- but that's okay!)

Very dark photo, I know, but it was taken in the theater and the lights were obviously very low.  Didn't want to impose by asking him to go someplace with better lighting.  He was on the move!

Sal Returns to the Film Festival

In my previous post about the Cleveland International Film Festival, I mentioned that I thought it would be impossible to get a picture of Sal with any "festival luminaries."  The person I most wanted to photograph with Sal was Bill, artistic director of the Festival.  If you wonder why, just watch this Film Festival trailer about him!  He is a busy guy, though, always hurrying from place to place -- usually with a bunch of other people -- so I figured it couldn't happen.  Imagine my surprise when the very next day I saw him walking all by himself!  I took a chance and asked him if he would pose for a picture if I brought Sal to the Festival again.  He graciously said that he would -- if I could catch him -- so yesterday I stuck Sal's case in my bag and brought her along for another amazing day at the Festival.  I saw Bill a few times, but he was very busily rushing about doing his Film Fest thing, and I began to think the picture wasn't going to happen.  But hooray!  As I waited around for my last movie to begin, he came by and the time was right!  I took this picture quickly, not noticing the light fixture right behind Bill's head, so you can see that this blog is not going to be an exhibition of fine photography.  On the bright side, I think these little adventures with Sal are teaching me a lot.  I'm working on absorbing the following:
1. It's not always the product.  Sometimes the process is the important part.
2. Slow down and be more observant.  It only takes a little more time to do a better job.
3. Write things down if you want to give an accurate description later.  Names and details are quickly forgotten in the hurly burly of events.
4. Do things when you have the opportunity.  You might not have another chance.

Sal Goes to the Film Fest

Yesterday I took Sal to the Cleveland International Film Festival.  Held at Tower City, this is an annual opportunity to see an amazing variety of films from around the world.  It's a whirl of activity, as film lovers rush from theater to theater to catch as many films as they can.  Because of the hectic nature of the day, I didn't have the nerve to ask any of the festival luminaries to pose for a picture with Sal, so I went with the next best thing -- a photo of her next to a giant Film Fest stand-up sign.  ;)

Also at Tower City, and all around Cleveland, are 10-foot-tall replicas of Fender Stratocaster guitars. They are the results of Guitar Mania, a community art project that raised funds for the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and United Way.  Sal looks small next to any guitar, but next to these she is truly Little Sal!