Movie Premiere

I attended my son's movie premiere yesterday, which was the presentation of the final projects in his Film Studies class. There were five groups that showed their movies. One was a documentary, and the other four were works of fiction.

I have to say that, based on the quality of these films (about 10 minutes each), there is a lot of talent coming to the movie industry (if Hollywood lets them in).

The documentary looked at a family in our area where the husband was stricken with frontotemporal dementia. This type of dementia affects the portions of the brain that deal with impulse control, and it has no effect on memory the way Alzheimer's does. The film showed interviews with the family members and caregivers, divided by topics like the discovery of his changes, the diagnosis, changes in the family, and lessons learned. The family was able to find joy in each other even with the dad's child-like state. Overall, the film left the viewer with a sense of life being worth living, no matter what. My only criticism of their film was that I couldn't read the credits, but I think that was from my tears.

The second film was an art movie, with high-contrast images and slow shutter speeds that blurred people in motion. It was a murder mystery with a twist within a twist and a surprise ending. And though the showing suffered from technical difficulties with the sound setup (not the film's fault), the film held my curiosity, satisfying it at the end.

Third was an adult-topic film about a young woman with a day job in an office and a night job working for an escort service. Her childhood had been one of incest at the hands of her father, and it drove her into prostitution later. The film captured her struggle to overcome her past and learn to have healthy relationships. The filmmakers did a masterful job of letting the viewer know what was going on without being graphic, and the acting was strong enough to make the story believable.

Then came the humor. My son's group made a Buck Rogers serial-style movie that was the "final episode" of the series. When the professor asked, "What's the title of this one?" the title credits instantly appeared on the screen in vibrant black-and-white, accompanied by a flourish of period sci-fi music. "Commander Cosmos and the something something Zondor." It was cheesy. It was only a little overacted. And it captured the essence of the genre, right down to the hero and heroine's kiss being faded out into "The End." Lots of special effects and quirky costumes. Lots of fun.

The last movie was a take on all the sports movies, where the old drunken guy tells the young kid that he has talent and then the old guy sobers up enough to coach the young kid to a win. The sport? Foosball. The training? Mostly jogging, with some exacting hamburger-flipping thrown in. Then there's the final tournament where the young kid has to beat the world-famous "Argentinian." With the big game tied, there's a slow-motion shot of the foosball spilling out of the hole and rolling across the table between the two rows of plastic foosball men. And when the kid wins the game, he even gets his old girlfriend back--she had dumped him because he was a loser. Classic.

If you get a chance to attend the final presentations of a filmmaking class, I recommend it. I'm informed (by my son) that the movies aren't always this good, but it's worth an evening spent seeing films that other people won't be able to see.