1st Annual Thanksgiving Film Fest

A few months ago, I suggested that we have a Thanksgiving Film Festival, but because it was August, no one took the bait. The time has finally arrived to plan what we will watch when the Macy’s Parade is over.

Last year, I watched Fantastic Mr. Fox while I cooked dinner. While FMF doesn’t technically take place on Thanksgiving, the forest animals do gather for a meal where they give thanks for their bounty and their friendship right before the hated Boggis, Bunce, and Bean raze their hideout. There’s another thanksgiving celebration at the end as well. FMF will continue to hold a place of pride in my movie lineup, but this year, it won’t be alone.

The next movie in the festival is The Last Waltz, the documentary about The Band, filmed at their last show on Thanksgiving 1976. It’s considered one of the greatest music documentaries of all time but more importantly, has cameos from some of the best musicians of their time including Joni Mitchell and Muddy Waters.

Those two are previously disclosed but two movies do not a film festival make, right? I checked this list of films set around Thanksgiving and there are a lot of horror films on the list. There are also a lot of very “mid” comedies, like The Oath and Funny People. By the way, “mid” is a word that Generation Z children use to mean something is “middling” or boring or not-bad but also not-good.

There are two candidates on that list for inclusion in the film festival. The first is Alice’s Restaurant, which seems like a no-brainer. It’s on the list. I’ll figure out what order these go in later. The other is Planes, Trains and Automobiles. I’ll be honest with you: if I never see that movie ever again it will be too soon. I know some people love it (I don’t know who those people are) and Steve Martin is a genius and so is John Candy, blah blah blah, but ohmigod they are annoying. It’s not on the list.

A surprise entry that I will be watching next week, however, is American Movie, another documentary that is touted as being one of the greatest ever made. I completely forgot that they celebrate Thanksgiving in the movie because I haven’t seen the movie in 25 years. Definitely worth rewatching.

The other night I got it into my head that I should also watch Shawshank Redemption. I’ve never watched it. It probably doesn’t have anything to do with Thanksgiving. Maybe it’s an Easter movie? (There might be redemption in it?) It’s up to you, dear readers.

I’ve just decided that the order of the movies will be a Thanksgiving Day decision based on the preferences of whoever is in the room with me when I am cooking. If you want a vote, you’ll need to come over and cook with me.

Two Other Things

Longtime readers may recall that I occasionally blog about Italian subs. Here’s a long review from my old blog. Last weekend, I had an Italian at Twofish Baking in the Stewart’s Point Store in Stewart’s Point, CA (duh). Here’s what was the Italian Sandwich:

House made baguette, salami, ham, provolone, pepperoncini, red onions, and italian dressing. Classic!

First of all, they weren’t kidding. That was all that was on the sandwich. Not lettuce, no tomato, no salt and pepper, and certainly no mustard, mayo, pickles, or any of that other hoo-haw that has no business on an Italian. So let’s talk about what’s in this baby. The bread was perfect. 10/10 best baguette for an Italian I’ve ever had. It was firm and chewy but didn’t get too soggy or cut the roof of my mouth when I ate it. The meats and cheese were sliced thin but not shaved - just right. There were a lot of pepperoncini, and I pulled most of them out of the sandwich, but they made up in texture what the lettuce would have offered. Same with the red onions. The dressing was on point. This sandwich was an 8.75/10 for me. I missed the lettuce and tomatoes, I’m not going to lie.

The other Other Thing is that I’ve been watching the new Netflix show Life On Our Planet, narrated by Morgan Freeman. The nature footage of real animals is of course incredible and the CGI prehistoric animals aren’t that bad either. Nigel Marvin did it better in Chased By Dinosaurs and Prehistoric Park, both of which are nigh impossible to find at this point, but I recommend trying to track them down. Maybe on DVD from the library?

Anyway, here’s my real beef with this series, and maybe nature documentaries in general. The narration is strictly colonizing language. Conquering, dominating, alpha males, etc. It’s the language of manifest destiny; as if each species sets forth to rule over the earth, with the implied understanding that we the human viewers are the ultimate victors. One of my sons disputed this last night, saying that the narration is just describing evolution. The problem is that what is being portrayed in the video is not strictly colonization. There’s also lots of collaboration and fluidity and adaptive skills that are not fighting skills. There would be a different way to write this narrative that was not so patriarchal. The filmmakers choose to present it as they do.

So I did the tiniest amount of research and of course, there’s already lots written about colonialism in the conservation movement and that there are efforts afoot to decolonize documentary filmmaking as well. I’m glad someone is taking this on. I’d love to rewatch this show with a decolonized script written by scientists who aren’t being poisoned by their own testosterone.

Okay, screed over. I’ll go back to being thankful for the abundance of life left on this earth. Have a great week! Let me know if you will be watching my film festival too!