We're back from a two-week journey to the East, Eastern US, that is, back to the bouncing temperatures and changing winds, to the realities of home. Some realities are annoying, thousands of spam Emails, snail mail which is also mostly spam. Some are a pleasure, reading the final 250 pages of SATURDAY by Ian McEwan in time for book club, seeing family and friends, biking, finding broccoli and arrugula still growing in my garden.
We missed the first eight days of the Milwaukee International Film Festival, would have missed it all if a friend hadn't given us tickets to Sierra Leone. Seeing that film made us realize, almost too late, that we wanted to see more. Only two days left, we saw So Far, So Close, an Iranian film that drew us right into a neurologist's relationship with his dying son, and Encounter Point, bereaved Israeli and Palestinian families who have joined together to try to stop the bloodshed. All three films looked at serious issues with artistry and empathy. And made me comment on how much better these are than the usual Hollywood films. Edie B. said we owe a lot to Robert Redford and the Sundance Festival, which is definitely true. I'd say that also these films aren't commercial, aren't created solely to be money-makers, but as works of art that make people think about the world a little bit differently after seeing them. And I think I'll make sure I'm not out of town next year when MIFF is in town.
