Ellipsis

. . .

Ellipsis (Randyjw; October 31, 2017)

 

There is an ellipsis

which connects our dots

forever and always

in my heart

 

Forevermore

Forevermore (Randyjw; October 29, 2017)

 

The torch in my hand

in my heart

and at the door

remains lit

always

and forevermore

 

 

 

Ocean

Ocean (Randyjw; October 27, 2017)

 

Like the ocean,

I wish you would always flow

Sometimes high,

Sometimes low

Sometimes raging

other times mellow

Seeking the inlet

never having to go

 

Cracking Up

Cracking Up (Randyjw; October 26, 2017)

 

Wearing reactionary emotions that dance across my face

 

I do not hide well these types of things, and never did!!!

 

So my tremendous smiles, shy blushes, out-loud laughter and unbottled tears

 

Just leave people wondering about my inner ideas

 

I’m super-glad my imaginings are something they can’t hear

 

but it gives me the greatest feeling and leads to so much inner cheer

 

So, if you know that reason, and I hope I’ve made that clear

 

I can’t pretend to secret when it always reappears

 

To complete and utter strangers, who see me in the day

 

It just appears I’m homeless; Thank G-d is what I say

 

It legitimizes my seeming craziness, walking in a daze

 

and validates my reason for being so distracted in this way

 

FLIFF 32: IN SHORT

FLIFF 32: IN SHORT (Randyjw; October 25, 2017)

 

Hooray for Hollywood!!! And Fort Lauderdale, Sunrise, and Davie, for acting as host home to the 32nd annual Fort Lauderdale International Film Festival (FLIFF), kicking off festivities on October 27th, and screening exhibits through November 19th.

 

Showing at several South Florida venues scattered throughout the above towns, the film festival represents more than forty countries, with 167 entries in this, the world’s longest film festival.

 

Included are many special collaborations, engagements, and soirees, apearances by Burt Reynolds and Karen Allen (I loved the movie, Starman!), themed dinner events, cruises, and more.

 

Signature Parties include FLIFF’s Exec At Large Board of Directors’ Steven Savor’s party, November 18th, in his home, Villa DePalma, to honor Karen Allen with the FLIFF Lifetime Achievement award. Open Bar, eats, entertainment by OTIS DAY & THE KNIGHTS, film screening (ANIMAL HOUSE) aboard-barge in the canal. Dress code is strictly toga; what else?

 

Karen Allen, who played a role in ANIMAL HOUSE, and hence the party theme, directs her first feature film, A TREE. A ROCK. A CLOUD. I love her take on the premise of the film, of a meeting between an older man and young boy. It’s one of my film picks of the festival.

 

Steve Savor helped renovate Cinema Paradiso Fort Lauderdale, now known as the Savor Cinema, one of several event locations hosting the films, and which, itself, hosts most of the food-themed reception dinners. The other screening locations include: the Hard Rock Live at the Seminole Hard Rock Hotel & Casino in Hollywood; Bailey Hall on the Broward College campus; the Museum of Art, in Fort Lauderdale; Cinema Paradiso Hollywood; and Sunrise Civic Center.

 

The Opening Night Party will be held November 3rd at Hard Rock Live to honor Burt Reynolds, who is adored worldwide, with another Lifetime Achievement Award. His new movie with Chevy Chase, DOG YEARS, will also be screened.

 

At The Centerpiece Film & Party on November 10th at Sunrise Civic Center, the soiree will include serving stations, a buffet, pasta stations and a cash bar. It follows the screening of SERIOUS LAUNDRY. The movie’s director and stars will be in attendance.

 

Other themed food-party receptions include:

 

– Festa Italiana, an Antipasti Buffet served al fresco following MOGLI E MARITO;

 

– Another Italian extravaganza of pasta Alfredo, meatballs in marinara sauce, minestrone soup, and tiramisu, following LOVERS;

 

– Arctic Chiller sushi sampler, following HEAVEN’S FLOOR;

 

– Chinese Reception of steamed dumplings, Sweet & Sour Chicken, and fortune cookies, following KING OF PEKING;

 

– Madras Party of Chicken Tikka Masala and biryani rice, following NEWTON;

 

– Estonian Party, with fried herring, cold cucumber soup, and rye bread, following THE SPY & THE POET;

 

and my probable favorite,

 

– Israeli Reception, with a make-your-own Pita Station, including falafel, kibbeh, and more. Yum! This follows the movie screening of IF & WHEN.

 

The films include a week-long retrospective of the past thirty years of Best Film awardees from the European Film Awards (EFA), free for FLIFF members, running October 27th through November 2nd. FLIFF member benefits are many — too numerous to mention — so, please call for details: 954-525-FILM, or visit FLIFF.COM. Some of them include: discounts, special FREE screenings, seating priorities, concession specials, parties, and more.

 

On Veteran’s Day, November 11th, there will be a FREE event, featuring an 11:30am snack, followed by KELLY’S HEROES, starring some classic class actors and acts: Clint Eastwood, Telly Savalas, Don Rickles, Donald Sutherland, Carroll O’Connor — I think I might have to stand and clap as each appear on-screen.

 

On the two days following festival end, there will be four screenings at Savor Cinema to benefit the recently hurricane-ravaged islands:

 

November 20th: Barbuda and Dominica

 

November 21st: Puerto Rico and US Virgin Islands

 

Here are some of my screening picks, which sound promising, based on their descriptions:

 

Feature:

 

A Tree. A Rock. A Cloud. – Karen Allen’s directorial debut, based on the short story by Carson McCullers.

 

Acorn and the Firestorm – Documentary. Andrew Breitbart’s sting operation into the affairs of the non-profit ACORN organization

 

After You’re Gone – Russian ballet dancer faces questions of his legacy

 

Cries From Syria – Documentary. In the streets with the people, fighting this Syrian war

 

Darkest Hour – Winston Churchill weighs a negotiated peace versus a waged war against Nazi Germany

 

Dede – In isolated Georgia, men and women begin to address the issues of modernism versus tradition

 

If & When – Coping daughter makes Divorced father realize he’s not yet ready for romance. Can love return with the woman he fell in love with, one year ago?

 

Intent to Destroy – Armenian Genocide, Turkish Denial.

 

Larger than Life: The Kevyn Aucoin Story – A retrospective of groundbreaking makeup artiste, Kevyn Aucoin’s life, until his passing in 2002

 

Mogli e Marito – A Freaky Friday premise, but husband and wife doing the body switcheroo

 

Newton – Present-day problems and escapades of pollworkers on assignment

 

Pinsky – Crazy life for liberal (sorta), Russian Jewish family

 

The Bird Was Not A Bird – Afghani birdseller is recruited for a suicide attack

 

The Cinema Travellers – Documentary. Travelling film exhibits and their exhibitors. India.

 

The Cutlass – A woman is abducted by an unstable man

 

The Earth Is Flat – Emotionally non-expressive parents leave an Amish compound for the outer world, and their son discovers his inner artistic brilliance

 

The Sense of Wonder / Le Gout des Merveilles – Eccentric man meets a family

 

The Spy and the Poet – Secret Service officer falls in love with the enemy

 

The Tree – Two girls are friends since childhood

 

Young and Innocent – Past life loves and precognition in this retake like Psycho

 

European Film Academy (EFA):

 

 

Amour – Love in later years

 

Ay, Carmela! – Republican musical troupe team of husband and wife run into danger during Spanish Civil War

 

Goodbye, Lenin! – East German Mother awakes from coma in unified Germany

 

Ida – Poland, 1960’s

 

Life Is Beautiful – Father and son in Holocaust concentration camp

 

The Lives of Others – Stasi secret police in 1980’s East Germany

 

Short:

 

Assisted Living – A man who wants to dance, facing dementia

 

Girlfriend Killer – Man becomes obsessed with empathetic woman

 

Norman Pinski Come Home – Frankenstein for the Modern Age

 

Our Ghosts – Two girls, friends their life long

 

Peace of Heart – Non-communicative girl with autism and new possibilities

 

Program – Lost Love, Revisited

 

Rotten Mangos – Two estranged brothers, one now homeless, reconnect

 

Streetwrite – A graffiti art musical about freedom of expression

 

The Choice – Estranged daughter travels to United Arab Emirates to meet family after father’s death

 

The Luck Bird – Foolish decisions and bullying by others, leads man on quest to seek happiness

 

The Peculiar Qualities of Mr Mahler – A special investigator in 80’s East Germany

 

The Pirate Captain Toledano – Sixteenth century Jewish man escaping Inquisition

 

Rose’s Turn – A homeless woman lives in the park beside an upscale condo

 

Speak – Trauma gets in the way of a woman and her potential suitor

 

We Could Have, We Should Have, We Didn’t – Set in middleclass Germany

A Butterfly Kiss

A Butterfly Kiss

(Randyjw; October 25, 2017)

 

Catching butterflies with a net

The catcher has caught nothing yet

At times, elusive, as often they get

Weaving through dreams, at last they met

 

Love (Six)

 

Love (Six) (Randyjw; October 24, 2017)

 

When I was young

the kind of child I was

was patient, kind,

sensitive, blind

No faults to be found

with others’ minds

Everyone had their reasons

for doing what they’d done

No excuse was unaccepted

all songs were to be sung

Without judgment,

black circles and white

melted and melded then turned

In the overlap of the Venn diagram

the colors indistinguishedly merged

they began to fade slowly to grey

and morals quite often

would vanish this way

Inside that narrow path, then

those footsteps led away

Selfless giving

aspired to selfish living

imitating others, these days

Taken advantage of

and trampled like a doormat

Why was it that others

could easily prosper

while doing exactly just that?

My love was given

in this same vein

deep in devotion and true

Beyond the duty,

the convocation

for worse

as abuse only grew

There came a time

deep inside my mind

that said love shouldn’t hurt like this

I didn’t know how

I could break forever vows

although something was wrongly amiss

I held on and on

thinking I was crazy or wrong

but I found I was right, as I thought

I learned to be strong

it was there, all along

a one-sided marriage won’t work

I understand martyrdom and sacrifice

my Middle East mind is complex

but born in the US, a feminist

It seeped over and deeply within

I, unfortunately, won’t die “just because” of love

there’s no point in just ending a life

were a bullet be shot in between of us

I’d die happy having been your wife

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