SFF, day 7: adult shorts! jasmine! bulletproof!

Friday! Another day with no school!
On the agenda today: the second block of student shorts and two blocks of a short and a feature.
I was even able to sleep in, as none of it started until noon-thirty.
One of my favorite times!
Let's get started!
As I said, first up was 'Student Shorts Block A (adult)', consisting of eight films at the Trustees.
In the order they were screened, here we go!
"Somewhere The King" was a beautiful way to begin! A grandma takes her broken-hearted teen granddaughter on a road trip to an Elvis impersonator contest...so they can compete. The song? "In The Garden", of all things! What a great movie!
Of course, the next film was much more serious. "11 Minutes" concerned a new medic, female, on her first day on the line. We go from all joking and having a snack to a fast response to an IED event. From there, they have an eleven minute ride to a Medevac chopper, eleven minutes for the newbie to make her first instantaneous life-or-death decisions. Quite stressful for us, too!
The next was an animated tale about sentient life in a fridge. "Adam" is evidently a batchelor who allows leftovers to linger too long... aawwRRRR! Munch! Funny!
"Almost Not Beautiful" switched up to two sisters and their dysfunctional relationship. Apparently, Sarah Jane Kruchowski likes to utilize that scenario.
More girls in trouble show up in "Violet", with a not-quite-right older woman taking in runaway girls like some take in stray cats. Make the setting a trailer in the woods and you've got a real creepfest going on, but still suitable for an after-school special.
Fortunately for us, "Palm Rot" sends us back into the world of animated aliens. Hooray! Click here to watch the fun unfold on an airboat in the Everglades!
Back to serious business in "Schoolcraft". Based on a story about an officer working with Internal Affairs to reveal corruption in an NYPD precinct, the film didn't appeal to me.
The last one was absolutely adorable! At first, "Lulu" seems like a tale of a one-night stand between a musician and a woman with a foster dog. But, nope! Gotcha! Men can be soooo easy! It definitely left me laughing out loud!
The writer/director/actor/producer, Shawn Snyder, of that last one was at the Q&A, too. Nice guy with a great sense of humor! He was joined onstage by three others: Brit Wigintton, the writer/director of "Violet"; Adam Nelson, the writer/director of "Schoolcraft"; and Sarah Jane Kruchowski, the director of "Almost Not Beautiful". Nice bunch of students!

Lunch at Panera this time. Chicken soup to soothe my soul...and my scratchy throat. Ah! That really did the trick!
Back to the Trustees for the short and the feature!
Right away, "Dust" provided an immersion into a post-apocalyptic world in which an airborne mutation has wreaked havoc. Enter a rich man who thinks he can beat the odds by hiring a tracker. Really excellent example of money not being the answer.
"Jasmine" takes us to a widower in Hong Kong, tracking down his wife's killer. Very suspenseful and with an incredible twist!

Quick like a bunny, I hopped out while the credits were rolling so I could make the block at the Lucas!
Oh, no! I completely missed "Birthday", the short film in this block. Drats. But I still saw the trailer here.
The feature had already started, too, by the time I arrived. (I had misjudged the length of "Dust", thinking it was only ten or fifteen minutes. I should have doubled that time.)
I was able to catch up with the story in "Becoming Bulletproof". Apparently, this is a documentary about the making of the 2012 western, "Bulletproof". But here's the catch: the actors are all differently-abled, as I call it. Every year, Zeno Mountain Farm of Vermont makes a new movie, using different genres each year, and then casts it with the folks who have been invited to take part. The roles are distributed with an eye toward the capabilities of those who will be acting as well as the goal to stretch their innate talents to allow creation of a movie to merit pride in accomplishment.
The most amazing thing about all of it? No one has to pay anything to be there and no one gets paid for being there. All are there, helping each other, from the very goodness in their hearts. As Fliss of Kickstarter, it absolutely did my heart good to know such a place populated by such people actually existed!
Afterward, the writer/director/producer of "Birthday", Chris King, was present, along with 'the mayor' in "Bulletproof", A. J. Murray, with his mom. A.J. has cerebral palsy, just as local Waddie Welcome did. A.J. has truly caught the acting bug and you can help that dream come true by helping him relocate to Los Angeles.
Meanwhile, for the rest of his life, he will be invited every year to ZMF for their movie-making ventures. What a great privilege!