Popcorn Film Festival

Top 5 Flicks at the Popcorn Film Festival

By Molly Freedenberg

One of the best things about college was exposure to random art,
especially short indie films. Lucky for Santa Barbarians, we
needn’t be in college to see this weird and wonderful art form.
That’s because the Contemporary Arts Forum is bringing the Popcorn
short film and video festival to town on Saturday, August 12, from
6-8 p.m., in the parking lot of Samy’s Camera at 614 Chapala
Street. (Visit sbcaf.org or call 966-5373 for more info.) And
thanks to curators Bob Pece and Jon Spiak, your chances of catching
wacky and enjoyable films are pretty good. Here are highlights:

1} Springtime for Eva: A collection of
home-movie footage of a young, happy German girl on an eternal
sunny vacation, made more profound by the fact that the boyfriend
accompanying her is Adolf Hitler.

2} Updebum: Worth watching for its title alone,
this piece gives a list of actual items that have been retrieved
from people’s you-know-whats, complemented by illustrative
X-rays.

3} Back Seat Bingo: Charmingly animated senior
citizens (based on real people) discuss sex after middle
age with candor and personality.

4} La Leyenda del Espantapajaros (The
Legend of the Scarecrow): A delightfully dark, Tim
Burton-esque fable about a lonely scarecrow who tries to befriend
the very birds he was built to terrify.

5} Pilgrim’s Progress: Uses the language of
early Atari computers to turn the story of America’s early
colonization into a hilariously accurate multiple choice-style
video game.