37th cleveland international film festival :: April 3 - april 14, 2013
Film Festival Blog
March 28th, 2010 @ 1:30pm

Early Birds Get The Seats

I arrived this morning lugging sleepiness like an albatross. The car ride was silent; all of us were still trying to shake off our late nights and were in the daunting process of wrestling with the idea of waking up at seven to catch a nine-fifteen showing of a movie on a Sunday. My seven year-old self would have hung his head in shame.

But my seven year-old self was nowhere to be found on this windy, drizzle ridden Cleveland morning. Instead, my fifty-seven year old father and his sons of twenty-four (me) and twenty-two (my brother) were off to Tower City to spend some father-son bonding time over some foreign filmography fantastic. But none of us had ever been up that early to see a movie.

But over the last week, if I've learned anything about the film festival, it's that it, is, busy. There's no other way to spin it, no set of words that can give rise to or take away from the grueling and fervent hustle of bustles. According to an article from the Case Western Reserve publication The Observer, last year alone there were over 66,000 movie maniacs and film fanatics that graced the gala of the Cleveland International Film Festival. And it seems like it could be more this year.

From staff and promoters, to security and the stars of the films themselves, everyone I have talked to have only had one complaint (if you can even call it a complaint) and it's that the festival is almost too busy. On any given night that I've been tooling through the crowds, I've seen hundreds, maybe thousands of people lined up in the black queues with the corresponding movie title striking the same name on metal signs sitting at the front of each of the lines.

"Stand-by;" a phrase that has probably had many a filmgoer tossing and turning in their sleep. But so many of the patrons that have found their way to the festival this year have had to stare this beast of an axiom and swallow the bittersweet savory of knowing that you'll get to go in, but might not be able to find a seat.

But there have actually been few complaints, surprisingly. Every one seems to be taking it tongue in cheek.

"It's all part of the excitement. It's not just about the movies," a lady told me as I waited, leaning against the golden banister of the third floor terrace, for security to kindly open the door to the press area and my caffeinated savior lying in wait just on the other side of the large, glassed, wooden doors.

"I've seen about forty-five movies, so far. And the only thing that has really saved me any trouble or money is the pass; this directors pass (she held it up so I could see)."

At first I was thinking, "Ya, but that cost you an arm, a leg, or some other appendage." But, I was wrong.

"They're really relatively cheap and I haven't had to deal with stand-by or anything like that." (Explains the forty-five movies a little better.)

And like the early birds that my father and brother and I had found ourselves flying into Cleveland as on a morning where the ground misses the sun, it seems that birds of a feather flock together, and that if you really want to catch the film festival without all the hassle, it's better to hunt the worm than let it come to you. And since we're not of avian decent (at least last time I checked), it's better to say, "Let's Go;" even if it is seven in the morning.

As I made my way into the theatre to catch the aforementioned nine-fifteen showing of The Happiest Girl In The World, a 2009 film from Romania and the Netherlands about a girl that wins a car and the chance to star in her own commercial, the theatre was packed, even before it began. A trend that has been pretty consistent the entire festival.

So, moral of the story? The early bird gets to sit and watch their movie of choice while the bird who hangs out with the grasshopper gets to wait quietly in the lobby till their friends let out from the very screening they set their personal sights on seeing. Proving, in an age old and ancient way, that the best things aren't the ones worth waiting for, they're the things worth working for. Even if it means getting up at seven.

I'll be hanging around the film festival for the rest of the day before I head out to the watch the Cavaliers take on the Sacramento Kings at 3p.m. at the Q right across the street. So if you still want a chance at winning those vouchers for that one last show you might not be able to afford, just say, "hi," and they're yours.

Chad Lutz is a Kent State University graduate and a freelance writer.

Posted by Chad W. Lutz

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