Omaha Film Festival

So this past week I volunteered at the Omaha Film Festival. I would recommend volunteering to everyone! You have to work a minimum of ten hours, but then you get an all-access pass and a t-shirt. An all-access pass I think is worth at least $60 or $70. I'm not sure of the prices. An all-access pass gets you into all the movies and parties for free. I was really sad because I didn't get a chance to go to a party this year, but last year the parties were a blast!

So Monday was my first day of volunteering, and it was basically an "observation" night. That meant that I just hung around for a couple hours, and then I got to watch the special screening of the movie Sleepwalking. This was an okay movie. It was a bit depressing, and the main guy was a lazy bum. I also volunteered Saturday and saw the Nebraska shorts, The Living Wake, and Strongest Ever.

For the Neb shorts some were strange, some were boring, and some were really good. You never know what you're going to get. They were all totally different.

The Strongest Ever was a good film and won best documentary, but I'm pretty sure it was rigged because everyone in the audience knew the people who made it. Oh well. This was just a movie about a woman body builder and how she took steroids and got in fights with her boyfriend. Last years documentary was better, I think.

The Living Wake was such a great movie! It was unlike any independent film I've ever seen. That's probably why I liked it so much. And the main character reminded me of Conan O'Brien. It's a really funny and bizarre movie about a man who finds out exactly when he is going to die, and so he makes a list of things to do (which kind of blow up in his face) and invites everyone to his wake. I hope that maybe I will be able to find it on dvd someday. One of the producers was there. He said that they were trying to make the film so that no one could really tell what time period it was in.

So I recommend that everyone volunteers for the festival next year (if you are around) or submit a film of your own.