Sometimes when life gives you lemons, you make lemonade. And sometimes, when you crash on a ski slope, get knee surgery, and can’t fly back for the first week of class, you find yourself at one of the largest independent film festivals in the country.
For the public, the way it works is simple: you get to the theater early and wait in line for a chance to get a standby ticket. Crutches and all, I got four.
I was excited to see the Light Blue well represented, with 34 SoA grads involved in 17 different films. Sadly, few were bought at the festival---the real marker of success for indie filmmakers.
Here’s what I saw---look out for their releases in the coming months.
Kill Your Darlings
Remember when Daniel Radcliffe was on College Walk? The result is “Kill Your Darlings,” a film chronicling the Morningside murder that brought together Allen Ginsberg, Jack Kerouac, and William S. Burroughs on our very own campus.
It’s a story of the Beats that most aren’t familiar with, and the scenes of pranking the guards in Butler and sticking it to the CC dean would make any Columbian proud---and even though director John Krokidas went to Yale, he still managed to slip in a Barnard joke. Daniel Radcliffe brings a stunning portrayal of Ginsberg, conveying all of the awkwardness and genius that James Franco couldn’t in “Howl.”
