2014 90-Second Newberys from the Bay Area
February 5, 2014
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San Francisco and Oakland! Our 90-Second Newbery Film Festival screenings this Saturday, 2/8 are featured in articles in the San Francisco Chronicle (read here) and Inside Bay Area (read here). Check out my events page for details and reservations.
As the San Francisco and Oakland screenings of the 90-Second Newbery Film Festival draw near, I thought I’d highlight some excellent movies I’ve received from the Bay Area!
The first batch is from St. Andrews Episcopal School in Saratoga, California. Check out their adaptation of Megan Whalen Turner’s 1997 Honor Book The Thief, above. Hilarious and clever! The kid who played the Magus in particular was so flamboyantly funny. “And this is your majestic steed!” and “You’re holding the wrong end of the sword” made me crack up, as well as every time I saw that little riding mower. Good beards. Good delivery of the idol joke. Good everything! (And that deliciously ridiculous freeze-frame at the end!)
I received six great movies in all from St. Andrews Episcopal School, in a variety of styles—a version of House of the Scorpion done in Minecraft, another version of House of the Scorpion done as an surreal one-man show, a version of Breaking Stalin’s Nose that is replete with lovely Russian accents, and a very good Graveyard Book. You can watch them all here.
We also received, from Isabella of Foster City (with help from her friend Briana of Round Rock, TX) this cool puppet show of Janet Taylor Lisle’s 1990 Honor Book Afternoon of the Elves:
A confession: I haven’t yet read Afternoon of the Elves, but this adaptation makes me want to. That’s a sign of a good movie! (Seriously, what was all that stuff about the mother going to the insane asylum, and the Ferris wheel that is a water wheel for elves, and making an elf village in the garage . . . I’m very intrigued.)
Thanks, everyone in the Bay Area, for your great movies this year! (And I’m not forgetting about Bennett of San Mateo’s great Sign of the Beaver, either!)
See you on Saturday for the screenings at the main branch of the San Francisco Public Library (make your free reservations here), and the Rockridge branch of the Oakland Public Library! Complete info on my events page.