going back home/ Film debuts

first of all, going back home is not going to Memphis.
that's a new one for me.

secondly, i saw some amazing films at the Telluride Film Festival this week.
this is a 4 day festival that premiers movies (like Sundance and Cannes) but a little differently.
this is an old mining town in thevalley of the San Juan Mountains, which is part of the Rocky Mountains in Colorado.
there is only one road that takes you in and out of the town.
it is beautiful and devastatingly expensive to live there. million dollar homes. nothing less, much more. ralph lauren, oprah, tom cruise own houses up there. but that is not the point.
THE POINT IS i have a wonderful friend (we met in 10th grade in high school) whose family has had a house there for many years.
if we can afford to get there, we get to live meagerly, spending our money on seeing films and hiking and camping gear for the mountains.
this is the second time i have been and i cannot relay the amazing realizations of being alive that happen while standing on a mountain looking at the stars that cover the entire sky. there is nothing like it.

as far as the films go...
THE U.S. VS JOHN LENNON - did not premier there, but showed in the outdoor park theater one night
this is amazing. the director was there and talked about how 10 years ago (and several times since) they tried to distribute this film, but no one would pick it up. after 911 happened, vh1 picked it up and it is about to open in theaters.
EVERYONE NEEDS TO SEE THIS
for me, it only deepened the need to "do something" about our generation's conflicts.
the manner in which they compare nixon to bush and our parents' situations to ours is so appropriate, as well as the fact that history does repeat itself...especially if we choose to forget it.
VERY INSPIRING AND POIGNANT

SEVERANCE - Horror film, english directors
hilarious spoofs on the typical horror film stuff, but it is a serious horror film. my knees were in my face the whole time. i was watching it through my fingers. it also comments (in undertones) the U.S. government's involvement in biological warefare.
good to see if you like horror films and want to see a recently well made original idea for a change.

BABEL - drama, Alejandro Gonzalez Innuritu is the director
memphis' own Robin Tucker got to work on this assisting amazing photographer Mary Ellen Mark
well made end to his trilogy of films describing the connection we have as humans with the sense of loss and pain as well as the relationship between parent and child.
he is also an amazing man that i had the honor to meet and melt in front of when he looked at me!
one thing he said about loneliness is that it is "...the language of silence".


THE GHOSTS OF CITE SOLEIL - documentary on Port-au-Prince in Haiti that is the poorest, most violent slum today.
the Danish director Asger Leth risked his life to make this going there by himself with a credit card and camera he learned to use the day before he got on the plane.
this movie shows life and death in this town during the last months of Jean-Bertrand Aristide's regime and the military takeover that followed.
it follows 2 brothers and their roles in fighting for and against the dictator and the violence that is everyday life for these people.


well, i am not a film critic.
so, go see these films.
http://www.telluridefilmfestival.org/

thanks Robin for the hookup!!!!