Bend Film Festival - Sunday (Part 2)

Barbara joined me to view “Talia’s Journey”.  This is the 5th movie I have seen and three of them are about the main character visiting a different country.  Not sure what that means?  Anyway, Talia was born and raised in Belgium, however her family comes from Senegal.  Talia vacations in Senegal to visit family she has never met, especially her Grandmother.   

She first stays with some cousins who live in a luxury villa close to the ocean.  The first few scenes were located in the plush villa, in a luxurious night club or in a nice restaurant.  All of these scenes are in sharp contrast to the poverty in much of Dakar (capital city of Senegal).

In the second third of the movie, she decides to go out on her own, sneaks out of the villa and explores the city on public transportation.  She makes friends with a local woman and experiences the city through her eyes.

The final third shows the journey to find her grandmother.  The local family in the plush villa have not communicated with the grandmother in many years.  Her grandmother lives in a small village 6+ hours outside of Senegal.  Talia begins her journey with the local woman she met.  We see extended scenes of rural Senegal.  The movie ends when Talia finally meets her grandmother.

I began to like Talia and the local woman she met, not so much the cousins.  It was interesting to see the various contrasting scenes of Senegal.  It wasn’t one of my favorites, however Barbara and I both enjoyed the movie.

The last movie was actually 5 short films (15-30 minutes each).  Barbara also attended this showing.  

The first was a movie about two friends in the Vietnam war who lost contact during the war and have been trying to find each other ever since.   The film documents their lives and their meeting 30+ years after the Vietnam war.  They also discussed issues that they had buried for those years.

The second was a documentary on a trans woman who competed in the Iditarod race in Alaska.  It was interesting.  Lots of beautiful scenery in rural Alaska.

The third was about Range Riders.  These are people who are attempting to discourage wolves from attacking livestock in eastern Washington.  They use non-lethal methods to let the wolves know that humans are in the area.  I realized that reintroducing wolves was very controversial, however I did not know about the Range Rider program.

The fourth movie was an animated feature that I did not understand at all.  An animated woman did not have a mouth, started reading a book, a mouth appeared, she started swimming in the book, mouth disappeared, etc.  I suspect that it illustrated issues that women face in modern society, but that’s just a guess.

The final film was about people in the inner city discussing life issues.  I enjoyed the movie, but if it had a point, I missed it.