A Belated Cinequest Post

Yesterday was a short day of movie watching as I made my way to SF for the evening.

I caught one feature film and part of a collection of shorts. The feature film - The Playback Singer - was a close look at the lives of an Indian woman, her father, and her husband in a story all too familiar to Indian Americans. Every character was flawed, well developed, and the story was enjoyable. But it didn't strike me in the same way as some of the other films in the festival. The performances were strong, but the story felt a little bit predictable. Stubborn and previously absent Indian father is filled of good intent and callous actions, his daughter is a lawyer who despite being the primary breadwinner of the family, falls into the submissive Indian daughter when he arrives, and her white husband trying to both understand this as well as figure out his own career as a freelance designer and builder. It plays out much like I expected it would - but in a well done way. Worth seeing - but maybe wait til Netflix?

And then I moved into a shorts collection - which thanks to the number of films I'm not going to go into much detail on. I will say Priests (Preti) was by far the highlight. A young priest on a work programs joins an older priest and in the course of this humorous short asks many questions of the faith and tradition. Irreverent and yet not disrespectful. Snarky and smart. And very simplistic on the visual style.

Meanwhile my afternoon in SF was partly cloudy in a very dramatic way which I had to capture from Twin Peaks where I went for a quick hike prior to the rain coming down. One of the more dramatic light shots from Twin Peaks, which I tend to shoot on sunnier days.