Cucalorus Reflection

I attended the Devil’s Tongues shorts block, which screened The Babysitter Murders, CROW HAND!!!, Disco Inferno, Fuck Buddies, Man Without Direction, Ramona, and Trust. This was my first year attending Cucalorus, and I must say this shorts block was a great way to start my experience. I am a huge fan off all things horror and gore. Each of these films covered the wide spectrum of horror film genres from demonic gatherings to campy prosthetics. The shorts block was held at Jengo’s, which provided a cozy and relaxed atmosphere. Everyone felt comfortable to laugh, scream, or moan in disgust during the screenings. However, the late night gathering at Jengo’s backyard was also occurring at the same time. The noise was extremely loud and took me out of the films, especially hearing drunk girls whining about how cold it was outside. The director of The Babysitter Murders, Ryan Spindell, attended the screening, but I was extremely disappointed that they did not organize a Q&A for him. He did talk briefly before the screening, but I would have liked to ask him questions after viewing his film. Ryan made an excellent point that not all horror films need to be feature length, that some of the scariest stories don’t take a long time to develop. He said he is greatly inspired by The Twilight Zone and how their episodes, although short, left a huge impact upon the audience. I completely agree with him and I feel most theatrically released films lose their sense of horror because of this ‘need’ to have a longer runtime. The Babysitter Murders was better than an recent horror film I’ve seen in theaters.

Another phenomenal screening I attended was The Anthropologist. This was the number one film I needed to view at Cucalorus. I was excited for it ever since it caught my eye in the film listings. The Anthropologist is exactly the type of documentary that I wish to create for my career. I was even presented with the amazing opportunity to meet and converse with the director of the film, Jeremy Newberger. I was in the Filmmaker's lounge to kill some time before the screening of The Anthropologist, and Jeremy was sitting right across from me as I was talking to my friends about how ecstatic I was to finally see the film. My dream career is to do exactly what he does and it was inspiring to meet someone who has had a successful career in this field. Jeremy also directed The Linguists, which addresses the death of languages and how the studies of linguists help preserve endangered languages. I even viewed this film for my linguistics course a few semesters ago. At first, I was terrified to start a conversation, but he ended up being very welcoming and offered me terrific advice in pursuing anthropological documentaries, such as how to scout for a topic and how to prepare for travel. We exchanged contact information and I hope I will be able to contact him to kick-start my career! The screening overall was fantastic except that someone next to me was obnoxiously crunching on some popcorn they brought. The Q&A afterward even included the anthropologist herself, Susan Crates! Having anthropology as my second major, hearing her insights and studies in person was inspiring as well. This was without a doubt the best experience I had while at Cucalorus!