(Originally written: March 24, 2011) Being a member of a volunteer group is so rewarding and I love every moment that I put in to my groups. These rewards usually consist of personal growth, new friends, an updated resumé and the occasional free doughnut. Now I'm all for free doughnuts here and there but I was very excited to learn this year that one of my volunteer groups gets us free movies to a local movie theatre! I am an avid movie fan and I was more than thrilled to go experience free movies. What I didn't know was that this theatre only played 'indi' movies (aka movies that Hollywood has nothing to do with). These are the cultural films that are always winning those odd non-Oscar/Golden Globe awards like Sundance, Toronto Film Fest, Cannes film awards or South Park film awards (for all you South Park fans who remember the episode where Sundance got overrun with tourists so the film festival was moved to the lovely little Colorado mountain town). They are also the films that are nearly impossible to rent from a video store or to find online. They are in all rights, the oddities of the film industry and for the longest time I opposed them greatly. It wasn't until I started getting free movies to this wonderful little movie theatre that I realized just how spectacular 'indi' movies can actually be.
My dear friend Karina and I recently decided that since we were receiving these movies for free all school year long that we would start going every week to the new 'indi' movie that was showing at the theatre. We decided that Wednesday made the most sense since we'd be out for Wings either way and that way if Reggie was free he could join us! We have so far gone every week for the past month (except for the week where Karina was sick) even though we had midterms/papers to be done (See Karina, I covered arts and science, I'm so politically correct it hurts!). I really do look forward to our movie nights, they make the week seem a bit more bearable (plus it doesn't hurt that Wings precedes them)! ;) As for the quote unquote Rules and Regulations of 'indi' movies, these are more like things we've decided to do/not do when attending 'indi' movies and also what to expect from a typical 'indi' movie.
The first and most important rule is that we CAN NOT look up a synopsis of the movie. It's way more fun to go to the movie not knowing what the hell we're about to see instead of being prepared for (on average) two hours of random stuff. We have however found out the country of origin on occasion but only because we happened to either see the preview at the theatre while watching another 'indi' movie or we happened to glimpse at the poster hanging in the theatre. The best 'indi' movies are the ones where we can't even remember what the title of the film is until we're sitting in the theatre and the title comes on screen. Those are usually the ones worth watching (with obvious exceptions like 'Wasteland' and 'The Fighter').
The second rule of 'indi' film watching is about seating. If the movie is playing in the upstairs section of the theatre we HAVE to sit in the front row of the balcony. Not only can we put our feet up but there is ample leg room for my tall companion Karina. She definitely benefits from the extra space! :P If however the movie is playing in the downstairs theatre (which consists of maybe 15 rows of seats and a very small/cute little screen in a quite small room), we CAN NOT sit in the front row until it gets warmer (aka at least May, we live in Canada, enough said). We learned our lesson that week when we went to see 'Carlos' (3 hours long -_-) and we froze our butts off sitting in the front row because we were right beside the emergency exit.
The third and final rule (which is more like a way of predicting the outcomes of the movies) is that 'indi' movies do not have concluding endings. They (in general) leave their endings open and without much conclusion. This must seem like a very cool thing to do because I have seen so many 'indi' movies without conclusions that it's not even funny. The screen will just randomly fade to black and I'll say, "We should have seen that ending coming." My favorite example of this was 'Another Year' which just ended without so much as an explanation of the events or a 'let's wrap things up guys'. Good movie, good 'indi' ending. I would also just like to note (for all you South Park fans again) that even though Cartman seems to think all 'indi' movies are about gay cowboys eating pudding, this is in fact false. I know, I know, I was devastated to find this out too.
And now it's time for shameless plugs! Here are some AWESOME 'indi' movies I've checked out and that I truly recommend! (And again, good luck finding them.) 'Agora', 'En ganske snill mann', 'The Way Back', 'The Fighter', 'Wasteland', 'In a Better World' and 'Catfish' were all totally worth seeing and yes some were subtitled (aka the Norwegian film 'En gangske snill mann') but if you guys get the chance to see them, please check them out. Also Karina/Reggie, if I've missed any gooders please don't be hating! It's late and my brain is fried! :P
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