AIFF 2009 - Comments on Point Traverse and Birthday

We're sitting out tonight.  It's all stuff we've seen and we need a break.  But here's a comment from a festival passholder on Point Traverse, a film I missed.  It actually had its world premiere here Saturday night and I got to talk to the film maker, Albert Shin, Monday night as he was getting ready to fly back to Toronto.  You can see my short video of Albert here.  Lewis said he liked the film, so I asked him to tell me why.






I also found this comment on the ADN website that echoed my thoughts about the best feature. 

Alaska_Willie wrote on 12/14/2009 11:35:18 AM:

While admittedly, Hipsters was great, I thought the best film of the AIFF was Birthday. Birthday was completely robbed! Hipsters seemed like a big Hollywood-Moscowood- Bollywood blockbuster complete with a reported $22 million budget!
Birthday, on the other hand, was shockingly raw and intimate; the kind of film that film festivals exist for. Birthday pulled off what makes movies truly "worth freezing for". The suspension of reality and boundaries and masks for 104 minutes.

It's a shame Birthday didn't even get 2nd place or at least an honorable mention. Hopefully, the film will receive the recognition it deserves at another festival somewhere. Unfortunately, AIFF snubbed it and in so doing...snubbed Anchorage.

I don't know that they 'snubbed' Birthday as much as chose other films.  Hipsters, Bomber, and Son of the Sunshine, were all good films.  Different people will differ on which was best. But I think Willie's comments about Birthday being special and being a perfect festival film are right on the mark. It was my pick too for best film.