Palm Springs Film Fest 2009 : oz arrives
Nine years ago, it was the blistering heat that almost peeled our skins off, the shoulder that dislocated while playing pool volleyball and being carted away in an ambulance to the nearest hospital. It wasn’t good. I swore I wouldn’t return to this town. A town that is built is some freaking desert. No one, nothing, barren 100 miles east west north south. And there in the middle of the desert in California, is something called Palm Springs. The city that peeled my skin and yanked my shoulder off.
But nine years is enough to cool anyone off. Unless you are one of those who forgets nothing forgives none (tip: a Sidney Sheldon novel). Oh come on knock it off. It is a beautiful city to be in if you can time your arrival to perfection. So January, 2009 it had to be.
Arrived noon. Pleasantly surprised. A city where people retire to live in peace and do that what retirees do… and beyond… Beyond? Yeah… a city like this is equally competent in running an International film festival… of high standards…
So got my pass, my photo stamped… and jumped in to watch the first movie I could catch… a documentary…
Shaked hands with the director Susan Morgan Cooper at the entrance, told her who I was (well not exactly… but that’s another story)…
Rushed in to watch… in the dark room, found a seat… I was home… Away from everyone, from anyone, from the hustle, bustle, tustle, fucked up commenters, pain in the ass people who I love so much, authors who I’ve to butt heads with almost every second day, from the nervousness of building the future, seeing the past intact, the enthusiastic child like energy of the authors, their new ideas, their brain waves, their enthusiastic shouts of hurray and fuck you bastard, the constant emails, the few dozen calls and voicemails, the weight of PFC… I was away from it all… back to where I belong… that dark hall, the seat, the screen, no one knows me, I have no fucking inclination to know anyone, cause my relationships exists with just one… the silver screen… Day One (well the festival’s almost halfway through, but it’s my day one)
An Unlikely Weapon
I barely knew who Eddie Adams was.
Now I know. And you most probably have come across Eddie Adams too. His pictures. As an Associate Press photographer, a cracker jack, sharp straight shooter from the mouth… here was one person who God or Destiny or whatever you believe in – put him at the right place at the right time… to capture that moment on camera in a way that evoked emotion in the coldest dead.
For starters this picture changed the perception of Vietnam War in America. And years later upon being asked on camera about this – as the man who changed the course of history – he flicks his shoulders and shrugs “Bull! I was just there… and the picture ain’t even right… the light is bad, the composition (of the picture) sucks…”
In short, he wasn’t falling for that line Boy you changed the world!
No he wasn’t… and it was damn strong and straight on his part, when he said that the police chief who pulled the trigger was treated unfairly (the chief cop moved to US and ran a pizza shop after the war)
No he wasn’t and that’s the beauty in the documentary. Because Susan Morgan Cooper moves beyond the pictures. To search that man… the guy who clicked some life changing pictures… for entire countries, for this world.
And I found a lot of Eddie in me and cross my fingers that this is an “auspicious” sign. Like Eddie I can’t be diplomatic about things. I can’t help but shoot my mouth and end up at times being rude and hurtful to people around me… and yes like Eddie, it opens you up to get equally hurt cause those sharp shooters carry the most sensitive hearts of all.
And above all, the passion for the art of the man, comes alive. It doesn’t take long for you to start following what the guy did next, if you are one of those who haven’t heard about him as yet.
I wish the director could have gone into the details and technical aspects of his shooting techniques. But perhaps it never was about that… it was about a man who stopped wars through his camera and his passion, so intense that he jumped into a boat full of Vietnamese running away from their country, so he could capture their sufferings and help them in anyway possible and at the same time being candid enough to say to us “What the fuck was I doing on the boat?”
Overall a very watch-able documentary… I wish our directors in India find the guts and courage to cover our own hidden heroes…
Its been a long time. Since I could peacefully come out of watching a movie, just feeling fine. Feeling me. Being me. That dark screen, that seat, that silver screen… if you are in that relationship, it’s one to treasure for life… and the next four days, I pray I stay there… it’s where it all began, as it did for you (if you’ve reached reading this far)… it’s the movies… and specially those where you see a reflection of yourself…
I walked out, having just seen a reflection, a minor one, in the life of a brilliant photographer. One who cared a damn. Spoke sharp. And was drowned in his passion… it is reflective moments like these when you look at yourself and go Man I’m doing something right!
Yes! You are… you’re damn right… you are…
Watch the trailer of “An Unlikely Weapon”
Tags: film festival, Palm Springs
Anurag Kashyap
Abhay Deol
Dibakar Banerjee
Hansal Mehta
Khalid Mohamed
Kundan Shah
Anish Kuruvilla
Jaideep Verma
Manish Gupta
Navdeep Singh
Bhavani Iyer
D. Santosh
Onir
Ashvin Kumar
Ramu Ramanathan
Sudhir Mishra
Pankaj Advani
Revathy
Saurabh Shukla
Shilpa Shukla
Sujoy Ghosh
Suparn Verma
Santosh Sivan
Shashank Ghosh
Shivajee
Pavan Kaul
Partho Sen-Gupta
Prroshant Naryannan
Sam Langoria
Satish Kasetty
Awesome. Keep us posted on the rest of days, and have fun!
Yeah..some more updates please..good stuff.
an unlikely oz..guess you were at the right place at the right time, in front of my eyes on my silver(computer, actually) screen..thank you for this.
Brilliant. Love the prose on the intro. Yeah, i donno when I last saw you enjoying a movie alone. something that you always said you cherished!
Have fun bhai… show us more!
Just saw the film “Tokyo!” done by Michel Gondry, Leos Carax, and Bong Joon-Ho. Found out its opening in Palm Desert, CA on 4/10/09 @ the Cinemas Palme D’Or theatre. Highly recommended to go check it out http://tokyothemovie.com