[b.miller]

yeah... from my limited festival-going experience, a good film stays good but everything under that level of quality drastically falls down. A film that might be ok at your multiplex on a friday night is utter shit when it's the 15th film you've seen in 3 days. I've come out of more than one movie knowing i'd like it better with a full night's sleep. but i think the big con with being a film buyer/festival-goer is that you lose the audience part of your brain.. you have to train your brain to examine each movie strictly in terms of is-it-worth-buying and how other people like it rather than how you yourself enjoyed it. I suppose this is true for all critics as well, but I think it'd lose a lot of the magic for me... plus you have to sit through a lot of bad movies that you have to pay attention to.

if you REALLY think about it though, isn't it the festival programmer's job to make sure he doesn't play crappy films? in a perfect festival every film shown would be worth watching... too bad it's not like that.

speaking of though... there's a 7-day horror/sci-fi/fantasy film festival coming up here in Austin this September. It's at the best theater in town and the guys who are putting it together are really cool. Anyone interested or nearby should try to make it! it IS quite a unique feeling to watch 5-7 movies a day for 7 days straight... much like an all-night marathon and The Matrix, it can't really be described