Film Festival

No posts for days and days. Elderly cat is stable, Michele Bachmann is quiet, and Current Occupant is on his downward spiral, rumored to be drinking and begging Laura to stay. Life in cube land continues to be boring. Spring has come to Gotham-on-the-Prairie. In short, not much is happening.

And then, along comes the Minneapolis St. Paul International Film Festival. Apart from the fact there are no screenings in St. Paul, the title says it all. There's a nice array of movies at different film palaces around town. Some of the films will be in general release before long, while others would never otherwise be seen.

There does seem to be a large number of Norwegian films. Given where and who we are, AND the presence of a Norwegian consulate in Minneapolis, AND that said consultate was the sponsor of several of the screenings, this is probably not surprising. However, the lack of African films is pretty remarkable. They have an entire semester class devoted to African film at the University going on right now. In fact, Joe College is (allegedly) taking the class. There are clearly African films available that are worthy of study. But not many of them made the cut in Minneapolis. Given that this area is home to a large East African refugee/immigrant population, including the largest Somali population in the US, it might make sense to include more African films. As we all know, the flood of Norwegian immigrants ended sometime prior to the Boer War....note to Minnesota Film Arts for next year: remember where you are.

So far we've seen German and French comedies. Our next outing will be to a Romanian movie on Friday. That will probably be it, given our lack of time to spend hours each day in a movie theater, enticing though that may sound. And that's undoubtedly why most of the congregation at the screenings appears to be of retirement age....they don't have to get up the next morning.