CHRISTOPHER WOOD: I FINALLY GET A LOOK-SEE AT THE TACOMA FILM FESTIVAL >>>

Like glorious sunrays burning through the clouds after a storm, a hole finally opens within my deluged work schedule. With only four days left before the Tacoma Film Festival hibernates for another year, it seems time for a sampling of independent movies.

A healthy crowd fills up The Grand Cinema’s lobby for Monday’s Afternoon of Drama and Comedy â€" a good sign already that this buffet of shorts won’t disappoint. Jason Gutz, an avant-garde filmmaker whom I had met for an article last spring, sits in front of me in the theater. He helped as grip for director Andrew Finnigan’s The Stairwell, which makes its premiere today.

My stomach tightens as the houselights dim â€" don’t ask me why. Maybe it has something to do with the intimate nature of film festivals: tiny pockets of artists sharing their passion to rooms of strangers. That kind of personal and organic symbiosis between viewer and creator just can’t happen with a Hollywood flick, especially with filmmakers like Gutz present.

A now a word from our sponsors. A commercial for condominiums in Tacoma plays first.

“This movie sucks,” a young female voice whispers from the row behind me, and her cohort’s chortle.

The ad’s artistic merits notwithstanding, it plays a second time. Anticipation in the room dissipates into fraying patience. This must be the “Drama” part of the screening; will the real movies ever begin?

My attention turns from the screen to the restless group behind my chair. I begin recording their random snippets of conversation, which include such exclamations as “Is this a penis?”; “This really IS the worst movie ever!”; and “This is where you start seeing a lot of crotch shots.” Are they watching Showgirls back there? I wonder.

But I digress. To the films:

What would happen in a world of wheelchairs where only you could use your legs? One bold Hungarian director answered this question with his film Forditva (Rotate). The concept at first seems played for laughs, but its story of a job seeker constantly looked up upon has a sober message. 

Initial Conditions spends what seems like half its running time in a lecture hall watching an overzealous professor drone on about chaos theory. Once school gets out, however, the story improves a bit. The last scene has the professor and his brother and niece running across a field DODGING LIGHTNING BOLTS â€" sadder than you’d think.

Several of these shorts in fact dance with themes of death â€" what better drama fodder? Northwest filmmaker Vanessa Williams’s Hart shows droog-like bullies taking their dislike of a schoolyard outsider to almost murderous extremes. And all because the poor gal has antlers … this doe’s got some serious foes (that one’s for free). And The Beneficiary doles out stabbings and shootouts as slick as the film’s cinematography.

But we sometimes find humor in life’s end. The hero’s son in Old Grace passes on with dignity … by falling on his own bayonet in a Civil War reenactment. Its original concept and well-written banter between crusty grandpa and precocious grandson make this my favorite short today.  
 
Section 44 got possibly the biggest laugh with its surprise (party) ending, but this one-joke tale feels more gimmick than anything else. The Stairwell (shot in and around Tacoma’s Financial Center) finds its comedy â€" and heart â€" naturally, through the interactions of its four trapped protagonists. Within their confined setting, these strangers face a greater truth about themselves and each other, and eventually leave with a fresh perspective on things.

Hmmm … such an experience sounds eerily like the Tacoma Film Festival.      

LINK: Tacoma Film Festival on Twitter

LINK: Tacoma Film Festival Web site

LINK: Full film descriptions

LINK: Weekly Volcano Tacoma Film Festival cover story