Friday, April 11, 2008

Three Must-See Films at the 2008 Atlanta Film Festival

Festivals can be tough on the wallet and on the clock. There's so much to see and not enough time and money to see it all. So if you're overwhelmed by the amount of choices, I recommend any of these three:

American Teen (Friday, April 11, 7:30 PM at Landmark Midtown Art)
Son of Rambow (Friday, April 18, 7:00 PM at Landmark Midtown Art)
Nerdcore Rising (Saturday, April 12, 10:30 PM at Landmark Midtown Art)

Of course, the beauty of a film festival is that there are so many fascinating films and it's your chance to be part of a select group of those in the know and in a way to be an investor in a film. Your word-of-mouth and support is invaluable to these filmmakers and in the good festivals, you'll find the movies that don't have ten-million-dollar marketing campaigns but rather a lot of heart and creativity. This isn't to bad-mouth Hollywood films nor is it to deify independent filmmaking. But film festivals provide a unique opportunity and I hope that you'll take a chance and try to see a film or two at this year's Atlanta Film Festival. And if you don't want to take a chance but still want to go to the festival, the three films I've listed above are the closest suggestions I can provide for a "sure thing".