WE ARE ONE ONLINE FILM FESTIVAL
WELCOME TO THE 21ST CENTURY!
The Coronavirus is changing the world - for ill and for good.
One of the good things is that it has accelerated the emergence of new ways of doing things based on the technology of our times.
Large organizations, such as film festivals, are stuck in the world that its creators or its management were born into. Film Festivals take place in one location, often exotic like Cannes, FR or Venice, IT, at one time and with a decidedly elitist point of view - the powerbrokers of the movie business control the entire event.
But today, there is no need for a film festival to be tied to a place or even a time and the “powerbrokers” of the movie business change as often the new technology changes - who foresaw Netflix as a dominant player? Nobody at the staid Fortune magazine which predicted in 2012: With Amazon (AMZN) Prime Instant Video, Walmart's (WMT) Vudu, and even HBO Go gaining popularity in the streaming space, Netflix isn't nearly as important as it once was. Wrong.
So now that the pandemic has forced the hands of the powers that be - WELCOME TO THE 21ST CENTURY!
WE ARE ONE is a FREE, ONLINE festival. The 10-day online festival is from May 29 - June 7 on www.youtube.com/weareone. Each film or program will have a first screening at a scheduled time but don’t worry if you miss it! Many of the films will be available on VOD to watch at your leisure through the course of the festival.
The list of participating festivals is impressive:
Annecy International Animation Film Festival, Berlin International Film Festival, BFI London Film Festival, Cannes Film Festival, Guadalajara International Film Festival, International Film Festival & Awards Macao (IFFAM), International Film Festival Rotterdam, Jerusalem Film Festival, Mumbai Film Festival (MAMI), Karlovy Vary International Film Festival, Locarno Film Festival, Marrakech International Film Festival, New York Film Festival, San Sebastian International Film Festival, Sarajevo Film Festival, Sundance Film Festival, Sydney Film Festival, Tokyo International Film Festival, Toronto International Film Festival, Tribeca Film Festival, and Venice Film Festival.
During the next ten days itsjustamovie.com will be reviewing movies daily and giving you a heads up on the best movies.
If you will be watching on your laptop, computer or phone, remember to check your settings and use an HD speed or the highest you can use. Some of these films are made in 3D and you will see in the upper left-hand corner of the screen a directional button so you can manipulate the screen to see in every direction.
If you have the YouTube streaming channel on your TV, you can watch there or Chromecast from any device.
Today, I recommend Annecy Shorts for Families, three animated shorts curated by the Annecy International Animation Film Festival and produced by DreamWorks that will be favorites of the whole family.
The first is Bilby from DreamWorks Animation Studios. Do you know what a bilby is? Neither did I. It's one of those native to Australia marsupials that are like nothing else you've ever seen. Our Bilby finds a helpless baby bird in the deadly desert of Australia and somehow becomes its guardian. The animation is DreamWorks so you know it is good and the story is Chaplin-esque - in fact, all three of these animated shorts owe a great deal to the great silent comics, Chaplin, Lloyd and Keaton (on TCM you can watch a fine documentary about Buster Keaton directed by Peter Bogdonavich - The Great Buster (2018)).
Bird Karma is the story is about a long-legged bird who is successfully and contentedly fishing in a pond when a beautiful golden fish catches its bird eyes. Our long-legged friend must have that fish and in the course of its quest, it transforms its world and itself.
Marooned is about a robot stranded on an abandoned lunar outpost in the not-too-distant future. It longs to return to Earth, but being alone it finds it difficult to rebuild its spaceship. One day, it happens on a child-like robot who helps it, but all may be in vain as there is not enough power to get both back to earth.
WE ARE ONE is full of movies that are a treat to watch visually, like Jérôme Blanquet's Alteration. Alexandro (Bill Skarsgård) volunteers for an experiment to aid scientists with the study of dreams in order to earn some money to pay for the baby his artist/girfriend (Lizzie Brocheré) is about to have. The plot is not half as interesting on the imagery - make sure you crank up your streaming speed to get the most out of this strange, beautiful 20 minute film. Michael J. Goldberg's Egg is a wild fantasy about the adventures of an egg, a good egg. Nabwanna IGG's Crazy World is about child kung fu masters who face off with the evil Tiger Mafia in this action flick from Uganda's no-budget, gonzo super-studio, Wakaliwood. If you like action - this is the movie for you. Then there are fine documentaries like Roger Ross Williams' Traveling While Black, a kind of primer for the Oscar-winning Green Book, it details the long history of restricted movement in the USA for Black Americans.
And the best part of this free, online festival is - if you don't like something, no big deal, click off and move on!