SIFF press screenings, doing some business, late dinner, exercise
Today - the first day of SIFF press screenings - started really early, compared to my recent schedule. "J" and I drove to the park and ride, took much longer than usual finding a place (in the third lot we tried), and got on the bus. The bus arrived downtown slightly ahead of schedule, and we walked the three blocks down the hill to Pacific Place Theaters.
The e‑mail about the press screenings had said that there would be no late seating, so we knew we were racing the clock. We got to the door of the theater at 9:56 am - and it was locked. We knocked and someone came to the door. We asked about SIFF press screenings, and they said they locked the doors five minutes before show time, and that's why they had a large digital clock stuck to the door.
Oops. We missed the 10 am show, Project Nim.
We wandered the Pacific Place mall, had a snack, and hung out at the book store until around 11:40 am. Getting into the noon and 2 pm shows, and picking up my pass went smoothly. The crowds were pretty impressive for early on a weekday, and it was nice seeing lots of familiar faces.
The noon show was The Future, directed by Miranda July. Although I liked her debut feature Me and You and Everyone We Know a lot, and enjoyed her in‑person appearance at Bumbershoot a few years ago, I didn't care for the short films she had showing at Bunbershoot. I had hoped for another winner like Me and You, but The Future was a dud. It had its admirable moments, it was often incomprehensible and pointless.
The 2 pm show was Kosmos, a Turkish film with some sort of invisible contribution from Bulgaria. I had hopes for it because SIFF has selected some good Turkish films in the past, but this was another dud. The photography was artistic but much of the plot was incomprehensible. I speculated that it may have been confusing because it depended on a lot of Turkish cultural metaphors. I saw an old SIFF regular who had lived in Turkey years ago whether that was the case, or if it was a lot of metaphors comprehensible only to the screenwriter. She wasn't definite, but said more likely the latter. I also asked her whether a hostile border mentioned in the film was the one with Armenia or Greece, and she said Armenia. Off topic, she added that Armenian food was better that Turkish, which was better than Greek.
After the film - and an important business phone call - we went to the downtown library for a while. That was fun.
Next we took the bus to the park and ride, then drove home.
We had a few more errands, first to two different big box hardware stores then to an overnight shipping place, all to follow up on the business phone call. Bother.
By that point it was pretty late. We had dinner at a nice Thai restaurant. Finally, we went to the gym, where I wrote almost all of this.
Because it's so late now I'll have to leave full reviews of the films for later. Now that SIFF is starting, the pace of reviews will be getting pretty feverish.
At the gym, I did 39 minutes on the exercise cycle, for an estimated 334 calories, a somewhat lower pace than usual because I was writing while I pedaled. Today was day 118 at the gym.