On SIFF '08

It's now a couple weeks after the close of the festival, so the immediate fatigue has passed. This was my third attendance at SIFF. I saw 60 movies, including the Secret Festival entries. There were some great pictures, and plenty of things I feel privileged to have a chance to see in this setting.

Was it better or worse than last year? Tough question. It feels like the edge has come off the festival a bit. There were less really awful movies, but there were less amazingly good ones as well (or I've just become more jaded). There were more decent and good movies than last year, so overall it may be an improvement. I hope this isn't a sign that the programmers are drifting away from taking chances, though, because getting to see stuff that's more out of the ordinary is one of the best things about the festival.

The mechanics of SIFF itself are worth mentioning, and there seems to be a decline there. Under-staffing problems seemed to crop up more often, and the volunteers that were there weren't trained quite well enough to really handle the crowd. Which probably just means that I should volunteer myself next year.

The really odd change, though, was the change in focus at the festival. The SIFF Cinema, the festival's year-round theater at the Seattle Center complex, was brand new last year. They mentioned it before each screening, certainly, but there was a definite focus on external support, and mentions of sponsors was much more prominent.

They've always had self-promotional advertisements before every screening, but they've been funny, and short, and focused on the festival. This year there were three (3) advertisements before the festival, and the two longer ones (45 seconds each) were for the exact same thing -- the year-round activities of the festival. This is irritating off the bat, since nobody likes to be told the same thing multiple times as if they're too dense to get it the first time, and makes not a whole lot of sense since the amount of out-of-town attendance is high. And the focus on their own income generation rather than sponsors seems like it could easily be a sign of financial trouble.

The theaters in rotation changed this year. The Neptune and Lincoln Square in Bellevue are out, and The Uptown Cinema and a week of the Cinerama added in their place. All in all this seems positive; the Neptune was close to exactly nothing, while The Uptown is in easy walking distance of SIFF Cinema. And the Cinerama is easily the best screen in town, so no complaints there.

Maybe it's just me, but the whole thing felt a bit subdued. Less energy, less extremes, less attendance (that one is probably not just me). Let's hope this is a temporary slump, or at least that the slump doesn't become a trend. Because SIFF is a hell of a lot of fun.