something different for a Friday night

Something I have been meaning to do for a while is attend, if not participate in, some more diverse activities here in Houston, whether they be grass-roots politics, museums, or independent film. Friday night SHG, M, and I went to the Australian Short Film Festival at the Aurora Picture Show, which was really good. For $20, there were heavy hors d'ourves, plenty of alcohol, and lots of Aussies chatting - so good cheer!  Then during the films little chocolates were passed around. Well, there went the diet. Again.

There were about 8 films, and like any event like this they were of varying quality. The first one had most people laughing but I actually thought it was fairly deep. It was this guy locked in the trunk of an old Holden (big GM car sold in Oz) that was speeding through the Outback with no driver. He gets out, crawls on top of the car (very Mission Impossible), breaks the windshield and gets in, gets control of the car, and stops it. Big breath of relief. Then he pulls the keys out of the ignition and it blows up. Well, I thought it was about struggling through life, through some problem that you are trapped in, that seems insurmountable... and then it just does not matter. Or maybe it's about life, no matter what you do it's a bad trip in the end. I dunno....I thought it was thought-provoking. Everybody else just laughed.

Another one hit home much to closely for me to comment on.

One was way too long, about this guy who hired a hit-woman to kill him(self). He did not want to know when it was gonna happen. So she fucks him, he's in heaven making breakfast and then she kills him. Well, they could have done all that in 8 minutes, not 20.

Another one was good, somewhat surreal, birth/life/death (as rebirth), etc. I don't remember what the point was because it was too 1989-MTV.

There was a sad one about a little North Korean boy (cartoon), but again many people thought it was funny. Huh?

My only thought is that many of the people there, mostly Australian, were older than us and conservative (mid 40's - 50's) and here as expats in the oil industry. So maybe they simply did not see the pain and irony as some of them. Oh well. I enjoyed it and got something out of it. A good evening.