It's been a fun week for the Tyneside Cinema Front of House staff, not just thanks to the terrific selection of NLFF films but also the influx of inspired people who've come to see these unique pictures. It's easy to enjoy working in customer service when the place is full to the brim with others similarly passionate about film, particularly when it involves getting to see a lot of these certainly distinctive features. Not that taking tickets is anything close to a bad deal anyway,
Catching the last 20 minutes of Gael Garcia Bernal's directorial debut Deficit left me feeling more than slightly bummed as it looked like an uncannily real and lucid exploration of youth and the confusion that comes with. At times funny and others devastated and heavy with the woes of 'growing up', it's a rich debut for sure.
Where Are There Stories preferred longer shots emphasising the empoverished sprawll and detachedness of both youth and family in (very) rural Mexico, it's a slow one, certainly, but subtle and loaded with a gritty sense of beauty.
Cook County focused on a different side of rural life in the form of meth labs in middle-of-nowhere Texas. The character's loosely reflected cliches often found in films of drug addicition but overode this with distinctive performances and an engaging narrative. Perhaps not as affecting as I'd hoped, but a very strong story with a perfect amount of rawness.
I guess the only downside to working at the Tyneside during NLFF is having to miss a fair deal of terrific looking films, only guaging those by overheard conversations of cinema goers, who, for this week seemed even more animated and inspired than usual by this wide-scoped festival that encourages their intereaction.
By Richard MacFarlane
