Strange beauties on the screen in Durham
I spent my evening at the opening session of Durham’s third annual Strange Beauty Film Festival:
There were 14 films of various lengths from various places, and yes, all were strange and most were beautiful.
My single favorite was Kudzu Vine by Josh Gibson of Durham:
You can watch a clip at http://bit.ly/yeFpjC. It’s a handcrafted, luminous ode to The Vine That Ate The South. It ends with us listening to an old-timey radio host extol the virtues of kudzu, its industriousness, perseverance, etc. Meanwhile, a rising tide of kudzu growing in time-lapse photography threatens to engulf the radio and the house containing it. (For my friends Ann and Chad, who raise goats: yes, there’s footage of goats happily munching kudzu leaves.)
The strangest beauty of the bunch, I think, was Pennipotens by Heather Freeman of Charlotte:
You can watch the whole thing at http://dai.ly/zfWVkW. It’s a twisted fairy tale rendered in dream-like animation, water-colorey and light-soaked yet creepy, a little reminiscent of Coraline. I’m not familiar with the old Flemish story on which it’s based, but it strikes me as something Uncles Sigmund and Carl would have found sehr interessant.
Altogether, another brilliant night out in Durham.
