The Final Recap (*Sniff*)

What? Already? Well... I suppose I'm in denial about my festival experience being over (though there are still films ongoing, and the Buskers will make their valiant last stand at the Missouri Theater later tonight). So before I get into any "best-of" list-making, let me just run down each of the events that I've attended since my last post.

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The Show (Saturday night concert @ the Blue Note).

This concert proved something about each of the night's performers:

- Even Casper & the Cookies acknowledge that their name is stupid. But that won't stop them from rolling out their winsome pop stylings.
- Scream Club know how to work a crowd. They had the whole Blue Note posse locked in with waving arms and exuberant chants throughout their blazin', Peaches-inspired hip-hop set.
- The Apples In Stereo's Robert Schneider is the fuzzy-faced patron saint of friendliness. The guy was giving out handshakes, hugs and grins to fans the whole night, thanking them between every song, and just generally being impossibly warm and goofy. He didn't miss a beat when fans started taking the stage for his band's last number, even allowing a rowdy pair to take the mic for the final coda.
- As a band, you do not under any circumstances follow up Mucca Pazza. There are like 30 of those people. And not just that - they are good 'n' crazy. They could take out similar high-population groups like the Polyphonic Spree with a single blast from their Jericho-crushing horn section. MP absolutely owned the joint lock 'n' key throughout their set. The 'fourth wall' between them and the audience was nonexistent, as they paraded out on to the Blue Note Floor, up to the balcony, and everywhere in between - all without collision incidents. Amazing.

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"King Corn" @ The Bull Pen on Business Loop 70.

What an odd spot for a documentary - a little bullring in the center of the floor, with stadium seating hemming it in from all sides. The room's heaters went on and off sporadically, creating an unstable room temperature. A vertical support beam blocked the center of the projector screen from my vantage point. But hey - the food was free and the film was sharp, so no complaints here. Director Aaron Wolff and stars Curt Ellis and Ian Cheney give us a pointed and at times poignant look at the way the country's shift toward the overproduction of corn has affected our diets, the lives of farmers, and even the stomachs of livestock. Clearly one of the better festival entries that I saw, I anticipate a big campaign for this feature to be in the offing, especially with Congress debating a new farm bill this year.

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"The Devil Came on Horseback" @ The Missouri Theatre.

This was the only flick that Mark and I both caught together. Maybe he can weigh in on this feature, too. Really, the horrors of Darfur have reached a boiling point where our nation vitally need documentaries on this conflict to get the information out there to the American public. The title of this particular doc is a bit misleading, in that it promises a more generalized examination of the Arab Janjaweed militias and their barbaric tactics in murdering and displacing hundreds of thousands of black Sudanese.

But really, this is the story of Brian Steidle, an ex-Marine who was sent to Sudan a few years ago to "monitor" the ceasefire between rebel and government forces. This approach has its strengths and weaknesses - undoubtedly this is a powerful film that will galvanize people to action. But much of it really is Steidle just talking to us, so that it takes on more the feel of a polemic than a panoramic view of the origins of what's going on in the region. For example, the rebel Sudanese Liberation Army (SLA) and Justice for Equality Movement (JEM) are barely touched on, and when they are, they are only portrayed through Steidle's lens as selfless freedom fighters. Is this really the case? I left wanting to know more - and that's definitely the mark of a good film. In the end, though, I left feeling like this particular feature missed out on an opportunity to educate the public more fully, and instead leaned heavily on the knee-jerk factor of repeated shots of gruesomely mutilated bodies.

All the same, it has inspired to pen some letters to my representatives on the Darfur matter - an act of political participation that I've never undertaken. I'd say, on the whole, it was a worthwhile view.

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"Buddha's Lost Children" @ The Missouri Theatre

This feature was for me a necessary uplift after "The Devil' and its blood-splattered desert landscapes. "Buddha's Lost Children" follows of the travels of Thai monk and ex-kickboxer Khru Bah as he and his novice disciples (a group of mostly pre-pubescent boys) travel the heavily forested regions of Thailand, looking to do good by area villagers and learn basic life lessons. It's an absolutely charming cast, led by the gregarious wit of Khru Bah. Watching the emotional maturation of his charges proves a real treat - we see one little fellow go from a maladroit mute to a confident, hard-working achiever. Director Mark Verkerk and his cinematographers take full advantage of the lush jungle setpieces and the rambunctious energy of the novices, tying everything together with a warm sense of humanism - a welcome breather after some of the festival's more relentlessly dreary entries.