This year was my first time attending Cucalorus Film
Festival and it was also the first time I had a film play at a festival. Cucalorus
2014 came the week after I attended Virginia Film Festival so I was still on a
festival high from the previous weekend. Since the film I produced, Love & Affection, was premiering at
the festival, I received a complementary Pegasorus pass that got me into unlimited screenings and events. My
Cucalorus experience started on Friday with Evolution
of a Criminal in the morning and Daylight
Come in the evening, followed by the Midnight Brunch. I enjoyed both
documentaries and was impressed with the Q&A after Daylight Come because several of the key crew were in attendance.
The Midnight Brunch was packed and I got to meet one of the filmmakers that had
his film premier in the short animated block. The energy of the event stayed
high into the early hours of the morning and a very peculiar guy asked me to
sign his ukulele because I was a filmmaker (highlight of the night). On
Saturday I went to see The Hip Hop Fellow
because I opted out to see it at Virginia Film Festival and I LOVED IT!
Later that day my mom and her friend drove down from Raleigh to attend the
premier of Love & Affection in
the Orloff shorts block at City Stage. To start, I loved the venue and had no
idea that Level 5 had a theater in it. I was blown away by the programming of
this block and was genuinely intrigued by every film. Cucalorus did a much
better job of creating a cohesive shorts block than Virginia Film Festival. My
only complaints were that the moderator did a poor job of making sure that
filmmakers talked into the mic and failed to restate the audience questions.
The Q&A portion of this block was easily the weakest that I attended. On
Sunday, I attended the 10x10 block and really enjoyed the concept and the
energy of the filmmakers and entrepreneurs. Ally Gold was one of the filmmakers
and I enjoyed her video and her entrepreneurs new venture as well as the way
she hijacked the Q&A (like a boss). The last block I attended was Force Majeure and I’m still not sure how
I feel about it. I enjoyed the subdued humor, the performances, and the cinematography
but, parts of the plot were underwhelming for me and the film seemed to drag
out longer than I would like. Overall, I would say that my first experience at
Cucalorus was great and I would love to attend next year and get more involved
with the community aspect that it is so famous for.
