In what it is inarguably one of the worst years for feature films ever, the Telluride Film Festival has worked another seeming miracle by assembling a slate of consistently entertaining, if not outstanding, motion pictures and retrospectives in its coterie of makeshift theaters miraculously transformed into high tech film palaces from such mundane places as school auditoriums to conference centers. And like Cinderella of fairy tale fame, Telluride film founders Tom Luddy and Bill & Stella Pence perform their magic by changing this beautiful, bucolic old mining town filled with ski bunnies, stoners and slow service into a film world mecca. Each year film connoisseurs from across the globe make the pilgrimage and are rarely disappointed in this paen to the art of cinema. Unlike the glut of mediocre regional festivals which seem to pop up in every small hamlet of the U.S. (the Cedar Rapids International Film Festival, anyone) and the big three film fests (Toronto, Cannes and Sundance) which are more about showbusiness and cell phones than showart, Telluride stands alone. And this year was no exception. While it certainly didn’t hit the highs of previous years, it also avoided many of the pitfalls I’ve been witness to in the my last ten years attending the show which is pretty amazing given the dearth of quality filmmaking of late.
Get the whole festival report in part two of THE 28th ANNUAL TELLURIDE FILM FESTIVAL: POCKETFUL OF MIRACLES>>>
