Report from BiFF

Tonight, at the Brooklyn International Film Festival (and almost everyone around me was speaking other languages, which makes it very different from the Quad City International Airport), I saw a short animated film called Backwards, directed by American Aaron Hughes, and feature Borderline, by Canadian Lyne Charlebois. The film is described as combining the novels Borderline and Labrèche, both by Marie-Sissi Labrèche, to create a visual story of Kiki. "With her mother institutionalized, she takes refuge in school [and her lit prof lover]. Sex and alcohol are her only outlets. But at 30, Kiki faces the hardest challenge of all:" learning to ride her bike in the snow. No, but seriously: there's a lot of bicycling through snow in this movie, which looks picturesque and nearly impossible. There's also a lot of wine flowing over flesh at the film's opening, which seemed a little sappy to me. But I liked the way Kiki appeared around corners as younger and older versions of herself, and I liked the idea of imperfect (and bescarved) reclamation.

And now, the slam summary:
Wine words pain child craziness dog solace skin
Craziness winter loved running hurting wanting dog peace
Bottles spinning addiction skin confession writing mothers pain
Paint birthdays forgotten wine cake child loved slow
Kindness friend pages running death mourning waiting release
Goodbye release winter river child opening arms