Cucalorus in Review

The time has come to shed some light on a festival I had always heard about since coming to Wilmington but had never gone to. In complete honestly, I have been an idiot for not doing so. I honestly feel as though it is an experience that more people need to have and is certainly an untapped resource. For me personally, it had been a lack of motivation and the fact that I felt as though I would have been isolated going to the festival on my own.

But for this adventure, I did take more of the solo approach. Given my circumstance of having to commute to the festival I did what I could to take advantage of the Pegasaurus pass while still making it so that I didn't die from exhaustion. I made it a point to see a good variety of films while at the festival on Friday and Saturday primarily. I did miss more of the party aspects of the festival but I made sure to get a good idea of the atmosphere of the filmmakers lounge. Personally, it felt a bit crammed from the get go considering I really had no room to walk when I first entered the space. It was in Thalian hall and I feel as though it could have been better somewhere else. From the way it was laid out, it felt as thought it was optimal for possibly a few groups of 6 or so at best. But aside from that most of the aesthetics for me were from what I saw advertised in downtown Wilmington.

Most of the venues really were in walking distances. Like the VFF it really was great to know that I didnt have to drive from theatre to theatre or feel as though I was going to miss something that I really wanted to see. The films themselves were opened with the sponsors beforehand which were very bare in my opinion. Most slides were singular to show each for emphasis but I feel like it was a missed opportunity. Each slide was solid in color with the sponsor being at the center with the Cucalorus logo being the only other image on the slide. It all felt hastily made in my opinion and as though they didn't really put as much effort as they could have.

Finally the films I saw were primarily narrative films because I had taken more of a documentary approach during the VFF. I did see a block of shorts that were all comedy in common. The narratives I saw on Friday were June, Adrift, Dough, Lace Crater, and Missing Girl. The audience was again a wide variety as I saw a couple of common faces from UNCW but also saw a random age range aside from that. Overall it was interesting to see the way that the audience could differ and that Cucalorus did bring in such a curve.

I would definitely go to Cucalorus again and definitely make sure that its the only festival I go to in order to experience it without having the feeling of being so burned out.