My husband and I recently spent an expensive evening out watching the gazillion-dollar blockbuster movie, Avatar. The movie has made gazillions of dollars because people like us were willing to shell out a small fortune just to see it. Between the popcorn, the soda and the extra ticket cost for the 3-D special effects, we came home broke. Was it worth it? Heck yes it was. Seeing it in 3-D on a big theater screen with those cool glasses was truly amazing. But did I actually like the movie for itself? Was the plot compelling? Did the characters really come alive? Not really. The story line was a bit predictable and the infiltrator-falls-for-native-girl theme has been done to death.
Last weekend, all of Beloit played host to the 5th Annual Beloit International Film Festival (BIFF). 20 feature-length independent and foreign films, 19 documentaries and 80 short films were shown throughout the weekend and thousands of people watched them. Film festivals on the local level have been gaining in popularity and I think it is partially because audiences crave films with some substance. Audiences want to see award-winning films with characters and themes that touch their hearts and stir their minds.
In October of last year, the Beloit Public Library started a new program called the Reel to Reel Film Series. On the 1st Tuesday of each month we show an award-winning independent feature film and a short film. This month’s film, Mine, will be shown on Tuesday March 2nd in the Public Meeting Room at 6:30pm. It is a film about the human-animal bond and Hurricane Katrina. And just like all other library programs, there is no admission fee to the see the film. Take that, Avatar.
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