Boston Scifi Film Festival Day 8

Boston Scifi Film Festival Day 8 - Well this is Valentines Day and I started out at the watching some of the 5pm shorts before heading out top dinner wife my wife. Unfortunately my plan with Garen to see these at another time ran into a technical problem so I tried to sit in for as many as possible. Another storm rolling in for Saturday is further going to make seeing everything in the festval tough. Only 4-8 inches of snow are expected out where I live in Hudson, but as you head to the coast and the Festival more snow is expected. This snowy element is a first and certainly a challenge to the organizers.

5pm Shorts for Lovers  controlled by overlords. So the love between

Permanence (2013) - Directed by Calvin Johnson is an intiguing future world where relationships are controlled by the overlords of society who are not past erasing memories to maintain control. When Rebecca (Hannah Bryan) and Stanley (David Alexander) find love in this world we see their story and struggle against control. Leaving a lot about the future society is left to the imagination. The film is a balanced love story that fits well in the festival.

Another Day (2013) - A very human story about the usefullness of alien and human interaction. The story of a young man Brendan (Brendan Osei-Antwi) who works hard each day to trade with an alien (Emma Connell) for one more day of life for his ailing Mother (Marie Tobias). Quiet and thoughtful it is a testament to love within a family.

Sorry About Tomorrow (2013) - Written & Directed by Motke Dapp from a story by Tim Arnold and Ryan Hartsock is a clever and thrilling short that has a great start and finish. Imagine  Baldwin (John Ferguson) meets a child and breaks up with her 15 years before they ever became a couple. Throw in time cops and trying to fix the problems that travelling ionto your past can cause and you have a really wonderful time travel short.

Slumptown (2013) - Written and Directed by Bryan Costanich it is a story about connecting, Dave (Vinny Chhibber) is the last human worker at a local coffee shop, who even with the end of his employment nearly finished can not bring himself to ask regular Ivettte (Leah McKendrick) out on a date. Tasked with training his robot Al (Patrick Edward Wynne) replacement not only on the serving of coffee but on the world of interaction with the customers.  A simple but cute short where Dave does his last job just a little too well.

A Better Life (2013) Directed by Conor Holt and written by Holt and Ben Grell. After a medical emergency Diane (Aimee Klein) finds herself caring for her comatose husband Bill (Bill Siderski). A new technology makes him more of a robot than a man as Diane controls him with a tablet. The film is then very interesting with Diane exercising her husband of learning to use the controls. Through flashback she realizes that she can now have her less than perfect man be more of what she wants in a relationship. The set up is a double sided sword that leads to a decision for Diane that is well turned in this very good short.

EMIT (2013) -  by J.S. Mayank An incredibly smart short about a world where time runs backwards. We join a family as an old man waits impatiently to meet his wife for the first time. He and his family also have a small child who is facing the end of her life and since we are in a hospital the prospect of unbirth is darkly considered a sad time. It was also cool to see Jack Coleman from the TV show Heroes. One of the best shorts of the festival in its well executed idea.

I did not get to see these last to but if the film makers want me to do a post update they can contact me at eddie   at  edhovey dot com with a way to see them I will do some coverage.
Match Perfect
My Date w/Adam

The Perfect 46 (2014) - What if you could find the perfect genetic partner that guaranteed that your children would be born perfectly healthy? What if an easy blood test could begin to erase the deseases effecting society? The Perfect 46 explores the idea and the acknowledges that eugenics no matter the positive effects is a serious subject for humans to struggle with. The style of the film focusing on the Perfect 46 founder geneticist Jesse Darden (Whit Hertford) a man driven by the idea that genetic match making can save lives. The film uses post event interviews in a documentary style to tell the story of the rise and fall of the website. Mixed in with this is the film in real time where two robbers break into Darden's house looking for something specific that we never actually see. All of it blends to tell a story and to leave the audience thinking about a difficult subject.
  Pacing is a problem for this film and could have used a sharper editing process. Also playing against the enjoyment is that the Darden character is written as really unlikable. A compliment to Actor Hertford

Senn (2013) - A factory worker on the forgotten planet of Pyon, spending his days assembling items he does not even know the purpose of. Part of a faceless workforce that is exploited for profit with little hope of advancement of a quality life. Senn (Zach Eulberg) begins to have visions that this is not the only life he can have. Contacted by an alien in the form of a light in his locker and his increasingly vivid day dreams have him worrying about his employment future. In love with fellow worker Kana (Lauren Taylor) the film takes the necessary time to build the characters so when things start to happen we are invested in them. The stark monotonous lives of the workers is interrupted by the arrival of a spaceship which has come for Senn. the contrast between the life on Pyon and that when Kana and Senn are o nt the shift is well done. The ship scenes filmed in a jungle environment changes the yellow orange colors of the planet to a deep green. Visually striking the ship part of the story concerns Senn being a unique being in the universe. He this alien race believes is the key to figuring out a structure this race has taken generations trying to figure out the Polychronom.

 Represented humorously by We (Wylie Herman) they need Senn to figure out how to activate the structure which looks like a planet sized moving globe puzzle. The film asks questions about fate and faith. What if your race spent all its resources trying to figure out and contact  something  and when it finally is activated you learn the thing did not even acknowledge your existence? So bring this back home you are a believer in a god and you find her/him and can't communicate. When you find a way to finally communicate you find that this god never even knew you existed?  The music by Cubosity is wonderfully done , the filming very nice with CGI that could have used a bit more time and money. The acting although adequate was not exceptional. Overall this was a decent film and the privelege of speaking with the film makers made this a even better way to finish the evening.