Saturday, March 31

It's the last day of March, already. Very warm, lovely day.

We were up around 7:30. The first thing that happened this morning was that the upstairs toilet overflowed. Not a great start to the day.

But once the bathroom was cleaned, I did a treadmill session and resistance exercises. Hubbie called a plumbing service to get on the list for a plumber to come early next week.

Once I was ready for the day, I fried turkey burgers for our supper, which Hubbie heated in the oven later. Then I went to Mother's house to accompany her to our house, where she made coleslaw dressing, and sliced tomatoes for supper.

Later, after a sandwich lunch, Hubbie went out to work in the yard, while I attended the Film Festival. The first film, made on a zero budget, has two men looking for dates. The two are friends. One is not looking for a permanent relationship, but finds one in the end. The other is looking for a permanent relationship, but ends up still searching at the end of the film.

The second feature was animated. A pair of skeletonized birds try in vain to produce an offspring. A long time later, they finally produce, but the offspring is a fully fleshed, fully feathered bird, an embarrassment to his parents. They finally lock him in the attic, where he eventually perishes and becomes skeletonized like themselves, so that they can love him.

The third film was a documentary about a couple who bought land in a remote area of the Ozarks, where there are no utilities, and where they lived in a small shack. They bought the land (around 140 acres) for about $3 an acre. The couple spent 20 years as teachers, before deciding to live off the land. The man writes poetry. The woman, sixteen years the man's senior, suffered Alzheimer's Disease and eventually had to be placed in a nursing home, where she died about a year ago at age 96.

The man's granddaughter filmed the documentary, which is very well done. The man, now 81 years old, attended the showing today, and read several of his poems, which are enchanting.

This was followed by four really powerful short features, directed by a young African-American activist filmmaker.

The first was about a single mom who in desperation resorts to shoplifting at a grocery store to feed her two young children. The second was about a young black man, who, after returning from war, has extreme flashbacks that cause him to lose his family. He later visits a store, run by his Middle Eastern friend, and threatens to kill him and his wife. Instead, he turns the gun on himself.

The third film revolves around a father just released from prison, who visits his drug dealing son on a a street corner. The son is assailed by a bad guy, and in a scuffle he kills the guy. The father, in an act of fatherly love, convinces the son to run, so that he, the father, can take the blame for the shooting.

The fourth film features an 11-year-old boy watching his grandmother die after Katrina. He finds his way to San Antonio to search for his mother. He finds her entertaining a man in an alley. The mother makes it clear she doesn't want him. The man threatens the woman with a gun; the boy tries to protect her; the boy's dog attacks and is shot to death. The mother chooses to go off with the man, leaving the boy to find his own way in the world.

I skipped the 5 p.m. film, so I could come home and join Hubbie and Mother for a supper of hamburgers/turkey burgers, leftover Parmesan potatoes, and coleslaw. Afterward, I accompanied Mother to her house.

Around 7 p.m., Hubbie and I went to the film festival to see a film about a young man who brings his newest boyfriend home for a week-long vacation with his family. Everyone in the family is fine with the situation, except the young man's brother, a minister, who struggles mightily with acceptance. This family drama has its share of awkward/comedic moments, but the whole film is tastefully done.

Back home, we watched the Final Four NCAA basketball game between Louisville and Kentucky.