If you are a regular reader of Unseen you know I’ve been hinting at a secret project for the last four or five months and it’s finally been announced. I was part of the selection committee for THE INDIES a group pf awards sponsored by Slamdance that is aiming to put films that were a bit off the radar on the radar.
The details of the awards can be found here.
When I was approached about being part of the awards I wasn’t certain if I belonged. I’m not this big writer. I just quietly do my thing… It wasn’t until I mentioned to Ben Umstead, who was acting as the shepherd for the committee, that I had seen well over half of the films being considered for the documentary categories going in that he politely said, “that’s why you are here,” that I understood maybe I did have a place.
To be honest I had a blast doing this. Partly because pretty much all the films we saw and discussed were really good. There are only a few films nominated but the truth is we could easily have expanded the nominations. The documentaries were such a great selection of titles that we were discussing things to the last moment. The films were so good that I have reviews set to go of many films I discovered because even though the films didn’t make the cut, I still have to tell you about them. Most amazingly there were no real clunkers in the mix, there were a huge number of films, and the nominees were chosen picking the best by degrees.
Mostly though this was a blast because I loved talking movies with everyone in our group. I loved everyone who popped up on my zoom screen. I made notes for films to see based on everyone’s suggestions. I would love to get everyone of the group in a room, with no time limit and no enforced subject matter and see where the talk goes. What would be discuss other than documentarie? We did the whole thing over zoom and all I wanted when it was done was to simply hang out with everyone and talk movies.
Thank you, Matt, Soham, Tina, Shelagh, Vincent, Peter, and Ben, you made this a joy. I hope we can do this again next year.
I need to say that while I normally bitch and moan about the nominations for awards, I honestly can say that with the Indes everyone is a winner. Seriously. This is the first time with any awards, even my own Unseen Film Awards, that I can’t quibble with because all of the nominees kick ass. The choices presented here are truly the best, and the selections were arrived at not through arguing but because everyone genuinely agreed.
Please do yourself a favor and track down all the films we nominated and watch them. They are some great films that will delight and move you.
More importantly go watch some small off the radar films not mentioned because there is real magic hiding in plain sight.
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