I called Sonic Cinema covering the upcoming Atlanta Film Festival a “pretty big thing” when I announced it here a couple of weeks ago. Now that I’m looking at the schedule of screenings, I might have undersold the “big” part of that. I’m not even thinking about the workshops as part of the Creative Conference they have planned for the daytime of April 8-12 yet, and this is going to result in a lot of content on Sonic Cinema in the first half of April.
In the decade I have attended Dragon*Con, one thing that has occurred to me was how important it is to keep your schedule fluid, build in breaks, and don’t try to do every single thing, and you can read and hear about how each Labor Day has evolved in the annual posts and podcasts I do after each trip to downtown Atlanta. Now, Dragon*Con is a completely different beast in the massive amount of tracks and activities that are available to Con-goers; my busiest weekends, no doubt, amount to less than 1% of what Dragon*Con has to offer, even if it feels like a whirlwind. Looking at the schedule for the Atlanta Film Festival programming, some days are lighter than others (the big bulks of screenings happen on the weekends), and there’s plenty of downtime to be had for meals and other things. This first time out, though, I want to take in as much as I can, and I want to make this experience as full for my readers and listeners as it will be for me.
The current screening schedule I am planning is subject to change, but it should also be relatively doable, as most of them take place at the same venue, the famed The Plaza Theatre on Ponce de Leon in downtown Atlanta. The turnover for reviews will be another matter, but, especially during the week, with fewer screenings happening, I should be able to get them posted in short order. If you’d like to see the full schedule for the Atlanta Film Festival, it is available here, and if you are a reader who is in-town, and attending, feel free to hit me up and say hi.
Like with Dragon*Con, it’s always entirely possible that I am not able to attend all the events I plan on, for one reason or another. (There’s still one conflict between screenings I am still undecided about which way it will go.) While my full intention is to take in each of these screenings and short film blocks, life may intervene, or something else may occur that prevents me from attending. If this holds, however, it’ll be a pretty diverse and compelling selection of films you’ll be reading about in April, and I’m excited to share it with you.
(Each feature film will be linked to its IMDb page, if it has one. If you would like to know more about the short films in each block, feel free to check out the official schedule, which has a list of each of the shorts included.)
Short Film Blocks
“It’s a Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood” (Local Shorts)
“Moments in the Multiverse” (Sci-Fi & Fantasy Shorts)
“Midnight State of Mind” (Midnight Shorts)
“Rebels in the Rye” (New Mavericks Shorts)
“The Florida State University College Of Motion Picture Arts Presents: Selected Keylight Films”
“Lonely Hearts Club” (Narrative Shorts)
“Rendering a Reverie” (Animated Shorts)
Feature Films
“The Farewell” (Opening Night)
“Speed of Life”
“Summer Night” (World Premiere)
“Miles Davis: Birth of the Cool”
“Life Without Basketball”
“Always in Season”
“Reckoning”
“Extremely Wicked, Shockingly Evil, and Vile” (Marquee Screening)
“The Tomorrow Man”
“Fly By Night”
“Little Woods”
“Hail, Satan?”
“Teen Spirit”
“Monos”
“Afterlife”
“Them That Follow” (Closing Night)
“The Fourth Kingdom”
I might have one more post prior to the Festival, if there’s more pinned down by then, but for now, this is a big part of what Sonic Cinema’s first time attending the Atlanta Film Festival will look like, and there might be more to come than this.
Brian Skutle
www.sonic-cinema.com
