Record Crowds!

The 33rd CIFF has been the most fun festival ever - record crowds, great films, and respectful, quiet audiences make it a great experience. I've especially enjoyed the short film programs and find them so inspiring. It's no surprise that the CIFF has been named an Oscar-qualifying festival for short films. The selection has been impressive so far.

Yesterday I saw a French short film, Forget-me-not, that was sweet, romantic, and simultaneously sad and hopeful...I found myself in tears again hours after seeing it. A man has Alzheimer's disease and his wife recreates the event of their meeting to try to spark a memory. She has also left notes for him all over their home. It appears that their friends have come together to help in the effort - they hold signs bearing messages to him and they have a well-orchestrated performance to put him back in a particular place and time. We suspect that they may do this every Sunday. It was so tender and precarious - is he on the edge of having a memory as he looks at her and smiles? He never speaks, but at one point he writes his wife a note. We never see it, so we never know what he shares with her. As he retires for the night, putting his head to the pillow, he has a gentle smile and we hope that he knows where he is and that he is with his wife. We see their wedding photo with a note attached to the frame in different handwriting than hers - is this the note he wrote? It has their names on it. We hope he wrote it. Oh, tears again...

It's a privilege to meet Katia Grivot, the filmmaker of this short film, who is here from France. Again, a very special part of the CIFF is having over 100 filmmakers present their films. Clevelanders, if you are interested in the making of films, you need to be at the Film Festival!