STIFF08: A look back.....
Well I can't really give an accurate accounting of the events that took place as part of the 2008 Seattle True Independent Film fest because, like at the Wisconsin Film fest, I was too busy (and nervous) to see any films other than my own. Yeah I know, kinda jerky but my trip to Seattle only lasted about 36 hours. I thought I would roll into town VIP director style, attend my screening, go to the after-party and slip out of town the next day.
Ok...it felt like very VIP thing to do but really I'm just too broke to get a hotel room for an extra night. And because of my aforementioned brokeness and the lack of any decent restaurants out by my cheapo hotel by the airport, I did most of my dining at Jack in the Box. (We don't have Jack in the Boxes in the Chicago area so it semmed acceptable.) I did get to try a Piroshky when I went to the Pike Street Market though. Peroshkys aren't just a tasty russian treat that happen to be popular in Seattle, they have a special Nerdcore connection. Optimus Rhyme expressed their love of the pastries in a song called My Piroshky. Hey I just learned that I can embed video from youtube in my blog. Wow, ok well here's a clip of Optimus Rhyme raping about Piroshkies.
Ok so enough about that stuff. The fest was fun and we had a really good contignecy of Nerdcore rappers in the crowd. Stars of the documentary Ultraklystron, Beefy and Ytcracker were there and so were two Nerdcore MCs who make brief cameos in the film; Shinigami and MC Gigahertz. There were even several Washington state crew people that were cool enough to come out, Gerald and Nells who helped film the Nerdcore Night show back in 2006 and Associate Producer Ryan Tidrick. The screening went really well and one of the organziers said we had one of the best turn-outs of the fest.
The make-up of the crowd was really fascinating since most of the people there went to the screening because they were already fans of Nerdcore. That was a bit of a surprise to me. During the Q&A afterwards we were getting asked about Nerdcore events and happenings that we don't even cover in the film. The crowd had a very different feel than the Wisconsin Film Fest crowd. The Seattle crowd didn't just laugh at the bits that were supposed to be funny, they laughed with a special delight. I think it's because to really enjoy the film you need to love the things that Nerdcore artists rap about just as much as they do. Everyone cracked up at the moment when the Lords of the Rhymes said that they were from "Brooklyn-shire." That little joke usually flies over people's heads but man, the STIFF crowd loved that one.
The organizers behind STIFF couldn't have been any cooler to us. The head of the fest was there at the screening and the after party, we all got free stiff shirts and even the guys selling the tickets said they were psyched to be working the box office for us. So STIFF is run by good people who care about indie films but I will say this...everyone of those dudes looked tired as hell. The fest had already been underway for days by the time I got to Seattle and I can't imagine how burnt out they must have been at that point. Still, several STIFF people stayed until they every end of the after-party at like 2am.
So the after party, it too was fun. We were in a tiny little theater in a cool bar but every seat in the place was filled. Again, there were at least a few hardcore nerdcore fans there so they really got a special kick out of Beefy's, Ultraklsyton's and Ytcracker's sets.
Because I went to Seattle alone I didn't have anyone to take pictures so photographic evidence is limited to a few pics I took on my crappy digital camera:
