By Samir Mathur
Contributing writer
Staff page | Twitter | Tumblr
JIRO DREAMS OF SUSHI: FFF always does food, and food-related-events, incredibly well. This is a documentary about an 86-year old man who operates a sushi restaurant inside a Tokyo subway station, that seats only ten people, and is fully booked up for three years. Sounds like an interesting tale about an interesting guy.
Contributing writer
Staff page | Twitter | Tumblr
As Mark posted, the Florida Film Festival hosted its annual press party this past week, announcing the titles and events that will be part of its upcoming 21st birthday. I'll be giving the whole event a lot of coverage, and here are some early thoughts on the line up. These are the five films I'm most excited about seeing. I'm going to write another post shortly, about films with familiar faces in them, so this post here is focused on the less attention-grabbing titles. For all my articles on this year's event, just look for the tag FFF2012.
The links will take you to the page where you can see showtimes and buy tickets.
KUMARE: This is a documentary playing in competition, in which the filmmaker Vikram Gandhi reinvents himself as a spiritual guru, moves to Phoenix, and gains a loyal following of devotees. It's all fake, though, and Gandhi is trying to make a point. It sounds like 'The Love Guru', only real. And actually funny. And actually thought-provoking. And watchable.
ANDREW BIRD: FEVER YEAR: A behind-the-scenes look at Bird's 165-date world tour. I've been a fan of the man for many years, and his newest record 'Break It Yourself' is as good as anything he's done before. Apparently, he had a low-grade fever throughout this particular tour, so he's playing through sickness and the occasional hallucination. Should be interesting.
JOBRIATH A.D.: Another music documentary, this one's about a singer from the early 70s, who received a giant record deal, and then lost all possible fans by being openly gay. After his death, he's been championed, at last, by influential musicians. Sounds similar to the Emitt Rhodes film from last year's festival.
JIRO DREAMS OF SUSHI: FFF always does food, and food-related-events, incredibly well. This is a documentary about an 86-year old man who operates a sushi restaurant inside a Tokyo subway station, that seats only ten people, and is fully booked up for three years. Sounds like an interesting tale about an interesting guy.
DEAD DAD: This is playing in competition, and it's about three siblings whose dad - you guessed it - just died. The teaser makes it look funny, and charming, and honest. For the sake of full disclosure, I guess I should mention that one of my close friends from college co-wrote and stars in this. But I'm excited to see it, so it fits.