Terrace Agenda

Tallgrass Film Festival this weekend…

I’m introducing the movie Kassim the Dream along with a representative from the Peace and Social Justice Center and Johnson Olanya, a naturalized American from Uganda who runs the Nile Heritage Foundation. Kassim is a documentary about Kassim Ouma, a middleweight boxer from Uganda who was kidnapped when he was young and forced to join the National Resistance Army where he was, yes, forced to kill. He began boxing for the Ugandan national amateur team and on a trip to the US with the team he defected and started his pro boxing career in the States. The movie follows him through a number of high-profile fights and then as he eventually returns to see his family in Uganda.

I admit I haven’t seen all the movies at the festival, but this one is easily my favorite among those I have seen. I’m going to claim credit for getting it into the festival even though that’s probably not really deserved. But this guy’s story is just so compelling. And the photography is fantastic– you can’t say this about a lot of documentaries, but it just sizzles visually.

I really, really liked it. It’s playing at noon on Saturday and again at 9:00 a.m. (ugh) Sunday morning, I’ll be at both showings to give the intro, I’ll probably stay to watch the first screening, maybe not so much the second. Here’s a trailer:

Most of the movies are pretty darned good (there are a couple that, um, I wouldn’t watch again), you can see the whole schedule here, but a couple other notables:

Who Is KK Downey?: This is the midnight showing (Friday night/Saturday morning) and it’s completely ridiculous. This was actually one of the first movies I screened, way back in May or whenever that was, and I’m pretty amused that it made it all the way through into the festival. I remember watching it and thinking the entire time, “I should really be hating this,” and I kept waiting for the other shoe to drop, for the movie to show that it was actually a fraud and wasn’t nearly as fun as I thought it was, but it never did. It fights in the comedy trenches and then goes over-the-top, then charges full-bore into the enemy’s defenses, finds itself in another trench, and goes over-the-top again. It pushes things way too far, then pushes them farther. And that’s the secret to comedy. If you’re a “midnight movie” kind of person then I definitely recommend it. But you’ve been warned:

Also, XXY, from Argentina, which is about something I guarantee you haven’t seen another movie about, unless you’ve been spending too much time on the internet when you’re alone:

(Saturday at noon at the 20th Century Club, also Sunday at 11:30… go see it Sunday so you can see Kassim on Saturday at noon)

Elite Squad, which is more or less City of God from the point of view of the police. Really, really violent. Friday night at 9:30, I’ll probably be there.

The Edge of Heaven, which I haven’t seen, but everyone seems to agree that it’s pretty much the best thing at the festival. Read Roger Ebert’s four-star review. I’m really hoping to catch this one, probably Sunday at 2:15. Also plays Friday at 2:00.

The Wrecking Crew, a doc about the LA studio musicians who played on what seems like every hit record that came out of the 1960s and 1970s. The Beach Boys, Phil Spector’s “wall of sound”, Frank Sinatra, The Righteous Brothers, you name it. The director, Denny Tedesco (son of guitarist Tommy Tedesco) will be there at the Friday (7:30) screening. Honestly, I wasn’t blown away by this movie, it just doesn’t seem quite dynamic enough, but look it up– if you’re really into the music these guys played, you’ll probably really like it.

And I’m a moron for not watching Sita Sings The Blues before the festival, it looks like so much fun:

I’m hoping I can catch that one Friday afternoon.

There are a bunch more. These few are definitely not the only ones I would recommend. Check the schedule. Ask me if you want to know about anything specific. The shorts programs should all be worth it, too.

And if you’re not in or near Wichita, tough luck. But you should actually be able to find a lot of this stuff pretty soon, a number of these are fairly high-profile.