Follow up on FLIK

We attended the FLICK Interactive film festival and exhibit at Art Whino at National Harbor, MD. It was funky but I was pleasantly surprised. We first took a walking tour around National Harbor since my boys and their friend had not been there and then entered the gallery. They were the only three teenagers there and I thought they might feel a bit intimidated but their uniqueness didn’t seem to bother them. The interactive art exhibit reminded me of the tugging heart in my previous Toe Jam post, but there were a couple positive stand outs: the interactive video-screen art, similar to an Etch-and-Sketch by design and the computer motherboard collage.

We took our places on red-cushioned, box stools that had been lined up in rows. All the chairs were taken behind us and there were about 200 people in attendance by the time Vandaveer performed. The edgy folk music of Mark Charles and his sister, Rose, was great. Their sound reminded me of Bob Dylan with influence from Tom Waits. This was a real acoustical treat because I wasn’t expecting a live musical performance, and it was interactive because they were being simulcast on YouTube. We’ll have to look for this later since the audience was also being panned by a camera. After about an hour of playing, Vandaveer was gracious enough to allow a street performer’s call to “help him out” — and play his violin for one song. After hitting an initial squealing, high-pitch chord we were all holding our ears in anticipation but he turned out to be alright; although, he did try to steal some solo spotlight time. Finally, the Art Whino folks asked him and his lady friend, who continually shook her tambourine to kindly leave, and they did. I liked the songs Crooked Mast and Marianne You’ve Done It and the last songs, like Roman Candle picked up in tempo. It was touching to see Rose hug, who I thought may have been, her mother when they finished. They have a new record coming out in January.

Finally the film screenings began, after an introduction by the FLIK curator, Joshua Barlow, who received what seemed to be an unplanned phone call from his house mate as he was giving his speech. Most of the films were funky, especially this one — literally, Funkymonk by Tewodross Melchishua, from Maryland. Folks swayed to the beat in their seats:
Funkymonk (trailer)

The others that stood out for me were the submissions by: 1) Casey Drogin, primarily because he is a 16 year old kid (from Takoma Park, MD), about a misunderstood phone call regarding bombing and terrorism that leads to a comical kidnapping with bad acting, all a politically correct take on the Patriot Act (I thought this might provide perspective for my 16 son with a teenager’s entry); 2) One about how the filmmaker came to be named Iran Davar Aardalan with her ancestors’ Iranian heritage and how a mountain in Iran is named after her American grandmother; 3) Another called The Parcel by Samantha Leriche-Gionet, reminded me of The Little Match Girl story and film, similarly produced in claymation-type format; 4) and the one I liked best about Scrabble involved an semi autobiographical story, but because the movie titles are not listed with their creators on the FLIK flyer, I can’t tell which one is hers — not the best marketing or promotion for these artists, unfortunately. Since the voice of Renee Shaw is so similar in this piece, she may be the filmmaker. My Best Friend Mark is also very interesting and compelling in that it ends with a surprise revelation. Here’s the video link to the film that we did not see at Art Whino:

Finally the 5th, All Over Blue by Serena Rodgers, out of several others that I could not fully recall, stood out for its lengthy presentation on something that I totally just did not get. As my husband said, “Way too heady for me,” and my 19 year old texted, “Time to eat dinner!” There was light clapping afterwards from the audience, in comparison to the other films. We left at the intermission @ 10pm. All in all it was a good experience and we left feeling like we discovered something new and found a place that we’ll probably revisit.