Mike Plante

The great (and rough) thing about the Festival is the total immersion of films and events over 10 days in the sun and snow. Great for your soul, rough on the body. Here’s some stuff from what I think was the last 24 hours.

Miranda July’s new film The Future premiered to a massive crowd of fans and eager industry folk at the Eccles. July has been anticipating the 1,200 audience members nervously for months, she said, feeling like she knew everyone. “And this will be the last time we are all together,” she pointed out.

The crowd loved the film, laughing with the jokes and whispering during the mysterious parts. Afterwards, she admitted she was not a real dancer (which actually works great for the film), and she talked about creating the film first as a live performance. One of the gems in a film packed with actors who are revelations, older, non-actor Joe (played by Joe Putterlik) was found by July through the Penny Saver.

The midnight premiere of Corman’s World: Exploits of a Hollywood Rebel was bombastic (duh, Roger Corman plus midnight). The audience got treats of free “I’m With Roger” and “University of Corman” T-shirts and chanted “Corrrrman… Corrrrman… Corrrrman…” as he walked into the theatre. The film provides all the dirt of the legendary writer/director/producer’s career, entertaining the novice Corman fan while giving the hardcore followers a surplus of stories and insider info.

At the Q&A, Corman mentioned his next three films, which included the now-highly-anticipated Piranhacanda. Then, in a classy move, Corman declared that this night was really about the director of the documentary, Alex Stapleton, and left the stage and refocused the rest of attention on her. She then gave us great stories about the two incredible years of putting the film together – also on a Corman budget.

And while on Main Street I overheard two guys standing in front of the poster kiosk: “I dunno, it’s probably about death and dying.” Hard to tell which poster they meant, maybe Corman? Possibly Reagan.