Without

I did a couple of earlier poetry pieces about this year’s Sidewalk Film Festival (here and here).  Here’s a quick one in prose.

They give awards at Sidewalk, sorta like the Oscars.  There’s a list of the 2011 awards on their website.  The awards for narrative features went:

• Without by Mark Jackson (jury winner)
• The Dish and the Spoon by Alison Bagnall (jury runner-up)
• A Bag of Hammers by Brian Crano (audience choice)

Not me.  I didn’t see The Dish and the Spoon or A Bag of Hammers (you can’t see everything), but Without wouldn’t have been on my list.  If you forced me, my list for narratives would be something like:

• Kidnapped by Miguel Angel Vivas
• The Robber by Benjamin Heisenberg
• Sahkanaga by John Henry Summerour

Guilty Pleasures

The Sidewalk awards for documentaries were:

• Guilty Pleasures by Julie Moggan (jury winner)
• Where Soldiers Come From by Heather Courtney (jury runner-up)
• Man in the Glass: The Dale Brown Story (audience choice)

I didn’t see any of those, sadly, but my list might be:

• Project Nim by James Marsh
• Puppet by David Soll

Mr. Happy Man

Lastly, I’m not going to fret too much about the awards for short films, because I didn’t see that many:

• Terrebonne by Jeremy Craig (jury – short narrative)
• Mr. Happy Man by Matt Morris (jury – short documentary)
• An Inconvenient Youth by Slater Jewell-Kemker (jury – student film)
• The Dancer by Seth Stark (audience choice – documentary)
• Annie and Her Anger by Tam Le (audience choice – narrative)

An Inconvenient Youth

I will say that I really liked Mr. Happy Man and An Inconvenient Youth.

Thanks to Rebecca Pugh, Rachel Morgan, and everyone responsible for one of Birmingham’s hidden gems – the Sidewalk Film Festival.  There seemed to be a bunch more attendees in 2011 and I hope the pattern keeps up in 2012.  Better and better.