A special guest post from Ron Brouillette:
Living in Utah, I’m no stranger to film festivals. I’m used to second-rate resort towns receiving international attention as celebrities, mostly has-beens, pack the overpriced condos and hotel rooms. I’m used to local media personalities reporting live, acting like this will be their big break, and trying hard not to realize that they are laughed at by their peers. I’m used to too much media coverage and not enough of anything that’s, well, good.
Let’s face it, the big film festivals in Utah are terrible. Out of all the good films, maybe half of one percent of them are worth seeing. Ever.
Fortunately, I wasn’t thinking about that as I went out to Layton to bask in the twelfth Gangrene Film Festival (or The Gangrene Film Festival: Size 12). What I was thinking was something along the lines of, “Why the hell am I driving all the way out to Layton to see something I’ve only ever heard of four or five times before?”
Of course, I was thinking that mostly because I thought Layton was south of Draper, not north of Ogden, and I was really worried that bad things would befall me out in the middle of Utah-nowhere. I’ve seen Deliverance.
It turns out, though, that Layton isn’t as much of a hick-town as I was imagining. It’s not a city, by any means, but it’s better than Tooele or Grantsville, or anything in the western portion of this state. As I circled around for fifteen minutes as my GPS tried to tell me that my destination was on my left in three-tenths of a kilometer, this thought soothed me. Soon, I gave up on the GPS, parked my car where everyone else was – right by the police station – and wandered over to the amphitheater to buy my ticket and bask in film festival goodness, tired from a long day, but stoked to be there.
The event opened with a murmur as the crowd took their seats. Being the kind of guy that I am, I meandered around the back of the lawn, looking at watch, wondering why the event was taking it’s time getting going. And then I saw them. The mighty Wasasquatch. Big, hairy beasts with musical instruments. Slowly, they came out on stage, surrounding a group of boy scouts hadn’t noticed before, and then it began…
If you’ve never seen a group of bigfoot awesomely covering 80’s music, then you haven’t really lived, I’m afraid.
So many bands have their own gimmick: Korn has their tricked out mic-stand, The Eagles have a five-part harmony, Limp Bizkit has an amazing lack of talent, and The Rolling Stones have wrinkles. But what Wasasquatch has is something so much more bizarre that it makes them so much more awesome. These are a bunch of guys who can deck themselves out to look like sasquatch and still play musical instruments, sing, and blow the roof of any given place off.
And they did blow the roof of the amphitheater off. Trust me, if you go there now, you won’t see a roof.
For an hour, I was enthralled seeing these hairy beasts blast out all of the hits of the eighties, and then some. When I heard the opening notes of “Bring Him Home” from Les Miserables, I knew I was witnessing one of those rare magical moments, like seeing the very first sunset, or a really hot chick naked. It was just spell-binding. Throw in a great cover “Stairway to Heaven”, complete with ballet dancers; a subtle nod to OK Go with synchronized gliders; and a brass-band flash mob, and I was in a magical world where Neil Patrick Harris rides unicorns and Adam Sandler watches a midget on a tricycle.
And did I mention this was just the opener for the festival?
As Wasasquatch cleared the stage, we took some time to get to know the Weber State drum line, a moment that made me finally realize that a drum line can be used for something useful, and then we were off, viewing comedic short films the likes of which I’d never seen.
First on the block was “Recess”, a short film from Texas, directed by Bradley Montesi. This little film reveled to us how mean kids can really be by showing us the world that is recess through the eyes of a new student. Featuring a living trashcan and duck-duck-goose, this film had a certain subtlety to it that I was expecting. This being my first Gangrene experience, I was expecting all-out, obnoxious, horrible humor, similar to a Seth Rogan movie; instead, I was treated to something intelligent that seemed rather daring to make. A fun little piece, this one took home the best director award for the evening.
Moving ahead from “Recess”, and an interview with its director, I was surprised to find out the festival has international appeal, as a French film, from director Philippe Gregoire, called “Beep Beep” hit the screen. Probably the most original film I saw all night, and my second favorite, this entire short takes place in the cab of a truck while a man and his girlfriend try to sleep amidst the annoying alarm of her wristwatch. I just about died laughing to a dance/techno soundtrack – which, I can honestly say, I never thought would happen. Of course, after the film, there were the typical French jokes, but this one hit it out of the park.
My memory of the order after this gets kind of hazy, but I think our next flick was “BFFs At the What-A-Waffle”, from Florida director Jeffrey Fulgraff. Kind of a take-off on The Office, this whole short revolves around three “best friends” who work at a waffle house as they are interviewed about their friendship. As the three gets whittled down to one or two over the course of the interview, we get to see how friends truly feel about each other. This one I thought was surprisingly insightful, and somewhat twisted. Sadly, though, there weren’t enough waffles on screen to satisfy my hunger, but the crowd, which had grown substantially with the late arrivals by this point, just got into it.
After the waffle-fiasco, the Canadians invaded (less scary than it sounds) with a really dark, twisted view of the family gatherings called “The Table”, directed by Andrew Wall. This one just left me cringing and laughing together. The lead actor was so creepy as he sat in his shrink’s office, recounting the horrors of his youth sitting at the kid’s table while his disgusting family mocked. But he would get even, oh yes, he would…. There was just something about this one that was slightly off-putting, but I loved it for that. Probably, the only true dark-comedy (I’m thinking in the vein of The Ice Harvest when I think dark-comedy) at the festival, this was a blast, and reminded me why I wanted to kill my family. Er, I mean, why I love my family so. This was so twisted, disturbing, and humorously anti-climactic, it will always hold a special place in my heart.
And then we hit a hiccup in the festival when some locals managed to sneak their train wreck in. “MythOmania”, directed by D. James Henderson. This whole mood-killer takes place in a meeting for gullible people, much like an AA meeting without the good stories, as a new member shows up and completely takes advantage of them. Of all the films I watched, this is the only one where I actually wanted to leave, but I had to keep telling myself it was a short film and the pain would end soon. Still, it’s all relative, and the fifteen or so minutes of it felt like an eternity. I still have the marks on my wrist from when I tried to escape. What makes this one so much more disappointing is that it was the only local film of the night, and it just killed the mood.
The thing that was awesome, though, is that the presenters were interrupted during their introduction as a man made a really sweet carving out of a log with his chainsaw in under five minutes. Things you won’t see at any other festival. That, and the breaking of yeti eggs by directors for a mystery prize. Let’s just say that the prizes were as mysterious as anything bought at the DI – probably because they were.
Thankfully, there were two films after the Utah travesty, and they both helped the evening end on a high note.
The Australians kicked it up a notch with “Abbie”, directed by Erin Good. This one was just good-hearted and whimsical, following Abbie on her first day at major corporation full of mindless workers, which she refuses to be. There’s a child-like quality to Abbie as she explores this new world with the curiosity of a child, finding fun in everything from the tape dispenser to the keyboard. Aside from a technical glitch that pulled me out of the movie, thank you, Ben, this was just a beautiful film that I don’t think could ever be pulled off by an American director. Also, it was the only multimedia film of the evening, featuring a really nice animation sequence at the end. Easily, this was the biggest surprise of the evening.
And then the last film, which has been hopping around the festival circuit for a bit of time now, and has, rightfully, won a crap-load of awards. “Sudden Death!”, from California director Adam Hall. I actually loved this one so much I went to the website for it and bought the DVD. It’s just that funny, and features John Laroquette. Basically, what’s worse than a musical? How about having your life become a musical… right before you die. The whole film deals with a new virus that kills you, but first makes you sing and dance like you were on Broadway. This one had me laughing my ass off!
Really, I went to Gangrene this year to support it. I wasn’t expecting much, especially in Layton, but in the end I had a blast. I saw a lot of funny movies, listened to some good music, and was able to just chill out in a park for a night, laughing and forgetting that all of this was happening in Utah. If you didn’t go to the festival this year, it was definitely your loss. The main festival cost just ten dollars to see, and you got three hours of mind-blowing entertainment for it. Sadly, I bought the ticket to stick around for the late festival, but I had to bail and miss it. But seeing what I did was fantastic! I just have to believe that next year will be as good, or even better…