writing through the day

Pop the corn.  Pour the soda.  And buy those raisenettes and jujubes.


It is movie night.  Or more accurately, movie day.


But I am getting ahead of myself.  My stop at the Guanajuato International Film Festival did not start until the afternoon.  And my day of activities was well under way by then.


I have been very fortunate to meet a number of fellow bloggers during my stay in San Miguel de Allende  I expected to meet most of them.  But we had a surprise visitor this morning.


Marc Olson of an alaskan in yucatán stopped by for a quick visit.  Babs and I picked him up at the bus station and drove him up to her house -- where we had a pleasant conversation on what he is doing in this part of the world.


For several years he has been spending part of his summers in a puebla outside of Querétaro.  It is something like summer camp with a purpose.  He teaches ways for the children to help their village become more sustainable.  By planting trees.  Taking care of litter.  Learning how to be a friendlier presence on this planet.  I am hoping he will tell us a bit more on his blog.

We then adjourned to lunch.  Because what would a blogger meet be without food?  We decided on Italian, and Babs directed us to a little restaurant I have walked past several times – El Vivlio.  I am not going to walk by again without stopping to eat.


The food was far better than anything in Melaque.  In fact, it was better than most of the restaurants in Salem.


But, as good as the food was, the conversation was better.  We talked about what seems to work on each of our blogs.  And what we have learned from fellow bloggers.  Plus our usual critique of the blogs we like -- and why -- and those that don’t seem to work for us as well as others.  Of course, we lamented the passing of Felipe’s blog.


Far too soon our afternoon was over and Marc rushed to catch a cab in a downpour.  Babs decided to catch a cab back up the hill.  And I elected to wander over to the film festival.


Someone has done a great job of turning an unused cinema into a great venue for the festival.  Everything (including what I assume are temporary seat cushions) had a spiffy look.


When I arrived, they were showing a series of shorter films.  I did not catch the title of the first film.  But it was a clever montage of group photographs of people who represent power in the world culture -- all scanned left to right and increasing in speed to represent that power is power. 


Even though I am not quite certain what Queen Elizabeth and the Chippendale dancers have in common.  What the power photographs did have in common is that everyone was in stiff poses.


The parade of bourgeois rectitude was replaced with heroic photographs of young people throwing Molotov cocktails and challenging The Man.  As revolutionary propaganda it was visually interesting.  But the title I missed could easily have been “Clichés of Youth.”


And speaking of youth, the next two films were about boys on wheels.  Skateboard wheels to be exact.


The first was a documentary entitled Skateistan -- eponymously titled for a program in Afghanistan to teach Afghan boys and girls to skateboard.  A place to break down sexual and class barriers while giving the children hope.  One of the male skaters lamented the fact that the Taliban had brought peace, now there was war, and that Afghanistan needs a leader who can bring peace.  The End.  I guess that was the hopeful note.


The other skater film was Dragonslayer -- an American film (partly filmed in Oregon) about a young man who has nothing in life except skating.  It was dreadfully boring.  And I suspect the director wanted it that way.  For us to share in this kid’s almost existential Charybdis.  My suggestion would be to get his butt to Afghanistan at Skateistan.


But I cannot skip over my favorite Mexican short.  For me, it was the highlight of the afternoon.  Tomatl is a witty revenge film.  In some incredibly clever stop-action photography, the film traces the spread of the tomato throughout the world as an Aztec plot.  When the Aztec calendar ends next year, a secret poison in the tomato will annihilate the world in revenge for what the Spanish did to the Aztecs.  If you note a tongue buried deep in a certain Mayan myth, you will appreciate what the film offers.


But the big piece was in the evening.  Paul Schrader’s Mishima: A Life in Four Chapters.

 

Before the film began, Paul Schrader, who wrote and directed the film, told us a bit about the background of the film and how it related to some of his other works – including Taxi Driver and its theme of ritual suicide. 


The film is a stylized biography of Yukio Mishami’s life using three of his novels as devices to move Mishami’s life along.  For artistic authenticity, the dialog is in Japanese.  And where there are usually English subtitles, Spanish subtitles appeared.  As a result, a lot of the expatriate audience cleared out in the first 15 minutes.  But, to be fair, quite a few Mexican nationals left early as well.


It is too bad.  They missed a stunningly beautiful film -- very Japanese in its visual effects.  And some marvelous acting.  Not to mention an outstanding soundtrack by Philip Glass.


For me, it topped off a great day of talking about writing and seeing the results of some very good writing on the screen.


I was about to add one rant.  But I will save that for another day.  This day was too good to ruin it with my own irritations with some audience members.