In reply to callwild:
> The final 90 minutes of depression was I have heard described at tantamount to abusing the audience.
I was at the Kendal show on Sunday night and while I share the view that it was disappointing, the above comment is a bit OTT and actually a bit insensitive given the nature of "Drawing the Tiger." In defence of the festival organisers, I think it is good they show a wide range of films including such a hard-hitting one rather than catering for a narrow demographic of wannabe sick gnarly dudes who only want to see people jumping off stuff while screaming when not lazing in their campervans tending their dreadlocks. OK, that is OTT on my part but you get my drift.
That said, while I liked the film about the Aussie photographer and enjoyed the Icelandic surf film (mainly for the wind character), none of the films will stay with me like Eclipse, High and Mighty, Operation Moffat and especially Denali did last year. And I'm a bit amazed there were no actual climbing/mountaineering films in there on Sunday.
I'm not sure what I think about the inclusion of Drawing the Tiger. It was staggeringly grim and sad, and I wasn't entirely comfortable being party to this family's private life, irrespective of their consent. I also felt that it was strange to end the festival on such a downward note, a thought that compere Nick Wharton probably shared hence the decision to end the programme with the Flying Frenchies. Again, I'm not sure what to make of this move. One one hand it seems unacceptable to have everyone leaving the festival in gloomy silence, but on the other, we felt uncomfortable with having been engaged for 100 minutes with this probably none too rare Nepali tragedy, and then immediately cheered back into our happy western bubble by some French loons launching a few musicians across the Verdon gorge. I think showing Drawing the Tiger in such a programme was a damned if you do damned if you don't move.
Drawing the Tiger probably needs its own thread. I felt it was an important film and as appropriate to the festival as a whole as anything else (indeed much more than a few I can think of) but I'm not convinced it fitted with a programme like Best of the Fest, even if it was a prize winner.
Anyway, grumbles aside, I think the organisers mainly do a great job which is probably a bit too thankless in places. I'll almost certainly be back next year, though I'll do a bit more research about the films in Best of the Fest first.
And finally, they need to drop the Jim Bowen "Here's what you could have won" thing with announcing the Grand Prize winner but not showing it. I think that pissed a lot of people off.
Post edited at 19:59