FargoReviews.com

Tuesday night the 19 on time entries to the Fargo 48 hour film festival were screened in two separate showings, one supposedly at 6:30 and another at 8:15.  Both were about an hour late.

19 is a large number for this event.  The 48 hour fio\lm festivals is an international event, with the winners at each level advancing a level.  According to the moderator, the international body wants 24 films, but 19 was close enough.  Good thing, or Fargo would have lost the event, or at least was in danger of doing so.

For those not familiar, teams of filmmakers sign up, are given a genre(eg: romance, comedy, mystery, etc) a character that must appear, in this a pizza shop employee, a name that a character must have, in this case Nick or Nicole Nelson, a prop that must be in the film, in this case a laptop, and a line of dialogue that must be included, in this case “You’ve got to give me something to work with here.”

The teams then have 48 hours to produce a movie within these parameters.  There were 19 on time submissions and a few late ones that were shown on Tuesday as well.

Most of the teams were made up of tweens or young adults, so one can imagine what Tuesday night was like.  FUN.  Loud, raucous with loss of cheering and laughter.  Most movies had a pizza delivered by a pizza delivery guy named Nick Nelson.  Fortunately for most of us, Sammy’s Pizza, across the street, was closed when the second session was over.  As it happens, one of the films was filmed almost entirely in Sammy’s.  Another, “Mother’s Day” had one of its three segments filmed in the gift shop at the Red River Zoo.  Seems a character was trying to buy a T-shirt for his mother for mothers day.  Problem is, his mother didn’t like animals, and the gilt shop had no other types of T-shirts.  I mention this to give sort of a flavor of what the films were like.  Regardless of the genre, I could classify them all as comedy.

Obviously I cannot review all 23 films that were shown.  Bishop: a tale of Gene Harris was a Thriller/Suspense movie.  It was actually quite good, with an actual plot with a twist, impressive given the short time allowed, or force, however one views it.  This is perhaps a good time to mention that I thought the acting professional, except in a very few instances.

“Gold” was a musical that took place in a pizza parlor.  Tremendous audience response and my vote for best in show.  “Amlore Pizza” of the Sci-Fi genre was about aliens that delivered Pizza Amore to everyone ordering a pizza delivered.  Amore is, as most will know, Italian for love, and that’s what the recipients engage in once they get their pizza.  What happens when a pizza is delivered to a man and his dog is left to the imagination.

“The Gospel of Nick Nelson” is about a novelist writing about Jesus’s ministry when a pizza is delivered, and the author and the pizza delivery guy(Nick Nelson, naturally) discuss and change the novel, and finally ask Jesus himself, who sqays he’ll ask his dad.

The inclusion or exclusion of any entry above is not intended to suggest any film over another, except in the one case.  I enjoyed the movie “Special Delivery,” which would have my vote as the grossest.  I had my adoptive grandsons, ages 7 and 12 with me, and do not think a cat eating semen off a laptop screen was appropriate for them.  I think that in the future some mention should be made of the ratings these films might have had they been rated would be appropriate.

I’ve been going to these since they started in Fargo a number of years ago.  Each year it gets better, and I hope they continue for a long time.  To anyone young at heart and/or with a sense of humor, i recommend these festivals thoroughly.  To learn more)in particular who won), go to www.48hourfilm.com/fargo