Tuesday, June 17, 2008

money, idealism spent at this year's silverdocs festival

This week marks the start of Silverdocs, the yearly documentary film festival hosted by the American Film Institute and held at our very own AFI Silver Theatre downtown. Actually going to see a movie at Silverdocs has long been a goal here at Just Up The Pike. I'm still smarting from the scars earned two years ago from waiting in line to see The Great Happiness Space only to be turned away just twenty minutes before it started.

Over the next week (the festival has been extended from its usual six days; it runs from yesterday through June 22) you can expect to see a flood of snooty film types downtown, throwing around five-dollar words, ten-dollar tips and probably making snide comments about how "contrived" Ellsworth Drive is.

At least, for the first day or two. Events like Silverdocs are good publicity for the area, both nationally and on a local scale as well. Long stereotyped as either a derelict city or an unenlightened suburb, Silver Spring has the opportunity this week to show the world - from Brussels to Bethesda - that it's a thriving, sophisticated sort of place, with lovely shops and its own Metro stop and all sorts of foreign foods you can't pronounce.

Hopefully, our visitors will return home with stories not just about the movies they saw but about the people they met and the times they had right here. That's probably a ridiculously hopeful thing to hope for, but it's summer, and youthful idealism is the only thing that keeps one from wilting in the unforgiving sun like a hothouse flower.

As for me, I'll try once again to see a movie at Silverdocs - I'm gunning for Bird's Nest, Bi The Way, or Chevolution - in the hopes that overwhelming interest does not lock this humble blogger out of a showing. We'll see how that goes. (So much for youthful idealism, right?)

2 comments:

JK said...

I learned my lesson the first year. If you want to see a movie at SilverDocs you have to buy a ticket in advance. They don't charge extra to buy online, so why not do it? And anyone can attend the free Beatles movie in downtown on Friday, so no excuses there.

Anonymous said...

SNOOTY Silverdocs. These people are a legend in their own mind.