NSI FilmExchange 2005

Just got home from a party at the NSI film festival. There was another party I was going to go to but I decided that it would be in my best interest to be able to wake up tomorrow. It's 3:31am as I write this. Have been watching the short films mostly at this festival, a great slate. Much better than last year, overall. Highlights so far have been Ryan (which won an Oscar a few days ago) and The Salt Pillar by my friend Daniel Eskin, an outstanding film in the tradition of Tarkovsky. I will be inviting at least half of these short films to screen at the Gimli Film Festival this summer. I would invite more but some just screened last year (we scooped the NSI!) and I don't want to fill up all the slots before I even get to look at the films submitted by mail. I should have thought enough to have Gimli business cards made up. Tonight I watched It's All Gone Pete Tong by Mike Dowse and it was fantastic. He also did FUBAR which I have not seen but will have to rent. The most shocking thing to me about Pete Tong was that it was shot using HD for around 2.1 million Canadian. Insane. It looks like a 10 million dollar Hollywood film, only it doesn't suck. Got my tickets to see Noam Gonick's Stryker tomorrow. Also going to try and catch The Decline of the American Empire, a Denys Arcand classic. I'll issue a fuller report from the festival tomorrow or Sunday.