Last night, I went to a screening at the Writers Guild of a Foreign-Language film, The Promised Land. This isn’t about that, thought it’s a starting point to a couple of tales and an embedded short film. I’ll just say that it was recommended to me by a friend who’s in the Motion Picture Academy and has inundated himself with the International Film Committee for years. (This is no small thing. Unlike other Oscar categories, to vote for International Films, members have to register that they’ve actually seen a certain number of the submitted movies.) It was a great recommendation: The Promised Land is superb – a sprawling, at times exciting epic from Denmark about a man’s effort to expand the country in 1755 by cultivating a desolate section of the country. It stars Mads Mikkelson, who most recently was the villain in Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny. I had thought it was one of the official Writers Guild evening screenings, but to my mistake it wasn’t, which I discovered when I got to the Guild theater. Rather, it was a Los Angeles Scandinavian Film Festival screening, and they wouldn’t let me in. After a few minutes of trying, I left to go home -- but before getting to my car, something was nagging me, and I tried to figure out what the problem was. I checked through my phone for the Guild Screening List email, but couldn’t find it. And the list on the WGA website didn’t have it there either. Confused, I did an email search another way – and found the the problem. What I’d forgotten was that my Academy friend had sent me an email a month ago about there being a screening of the film at the WGA Theater – not a Guild screening, but a promotional one. I’d totally forgotten that I had written to the PR agency handling it to see if I could RSVP, and they were happy to say yes, since they were trying to get not only world of mouth, but also awards votes within Guilds. And I had the email back from them approving me. So, I went back in to show them the email exchange, sure that this would resolve everything. But… But it didn’t, the woman at the desk was still being an authoritarian, even checking my phone and looking at the email exchange. (This is the short version of the story.) It was very annoying. I kept saying that I should be on the RSVP list, “Don’t you have one?? Just check it.” Yes, they did have a list, but said it was a mess, so they wouldn’t check. I got more specific and said, “I was approved because they wanted Guild members to attend so that they could vote for the awards.” (And we were at the WGA Theater, after all.) That didn’t phase them. This went on for a while, and was all the more stupid because, while it had a nice-enough crowd, the theater was 60% empty, so they could have just said, “Fine, whatever, you’ve driven all the way here, go in.” Eventually, I said something like, “Look, here’s the email from them saying they’ve been accepted, from “Josh Haroutanian.” I thought this was an unnecessary thing to say, because they’d spent the past minute scrolling through the email threat on my phone, but apparently they’d been more interested in scrolling than reading what the messages said. Because when they heard that, the woman said. “Ohhhh, from Josh, well, that’s okay then.” But still she wanted to see the email, asked for the phone again and kept scrolling through. Until eventually she said, “Ah, yes, I see, it’s from Josh, well, that’s very different.” As very politely as I could, but bluntly, I said, “No, it’s exactly what I’ve been telling you, just that now you can see the name.” And they let me in! O huzzah. This is all prelude to the larger point here. Before the film, they showed a very good Danish short, Knight of Fortune. Initially, I was annoyed at having to sit through a short, and just wanted to get to the main feature – not because I didn’t want to see a short (I actually like them. For years, when he lived in Los Angeles, my Academy friend would bring me to the days when the Academy would show the nominated short films, short documentaries and animated shorts), but for another reason entirely. As it happened, before leaving for the movie last night , I set the DVR to record four hourlong TV shows, plus with the second half of the Detroit-Rams Wild Card football game, and wanted to get back home early enough in the late evening to watch as many of them as I could before collapsing. But in the end, I’m glad they had the short, since I very much enjoyed it. I mention this because it turns out the short is from the “New Yorker Screening Room,” and they have it posted on YouTube. So, I’ll embed it below. It’s 24 only minutes and very good. I don’t want to give away too much, but it takes several unexpected and offbeat turns. It's eligible to be nominated as Best Feature Short, so we'll see what happens there. Having sat through all the screenings of others that have been nominated, I think it's good enough to be considered.
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AuthorRobert J. Elisberg is a political commentator, screenwriter, novelist, tech writer and also some other things that I just tend to keep forgetting. Feedspot Badge of Honor
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