Screamfestindo 2007: Ver Weg (2004)
Just before the screening of Jack Ketchum's The Girl Next Door, the event organizer had a 'surprise' short-film to be screened to us. It was titled Ver Weg, and it was about a couple of astronaut on a mission to space (probably at Mars) and having this kind of virtual reality glasses attached to them so that they could pretend that they were home, with their wives and kids, instead of on a bland red planet. It was terrible. Luckily, it runs only six minutes. However, the terrible-ness of the film was overshadowed and probably forgiven because the director of the film, a Dutch by the name of Jan Doense, attended the screening and had a few welcoming words. Even he claims that the film was intended to be meaningless. But there's a meaningless thing that was actually good, and other that merely unwatchable. Ver Weg was in a later category. The event organizer had said that this guy was the one who held the similar fantastic film festival in Netherlands. For twenty-one years. But still, the film (short as it is), was terrible.
3 comments:
Too bad you didn't like Ver Weg (Far Away). It is certainly not to everyone’s liking, as I have experienced before. Maybe you would have appreciated my other short film R.I.P. better. It was shown prior to the other screening of The Girl Next Door on November 30. In case you missed it you can catch up with it here: http://www.fir.nl/data/rip.mov. Please let me know what you think.
Best regards, Jan Doense
Wah, Mr. Doense, i wouldn't have thought that you'd drop by. Apologize for my rather straight-forward comment on your short ^_^. But, in my defense, i was a fan of sci-fi, the works of Philip K. Dick, and Arthur C. Clarke, and my idea of space-related sci-fi was in a more grandeur things, a vast of nothing, and a vast musical background that inline somewhere with the mood of Also sprach Zarathustra and therefore, would be very very difficult if not impossilble to be caught on a six minutes time frame. And short films rarely amused me, had you put an hour or so - i was thinking before the event depicted at your film - at the film, i could probably enjoyed it a tad more. I was just one of the audience anyway, and i've got an opinion, and merely wrote about it ^_^. Anyhoo, i really appreciate you coming in the festival (and of course, here, in my blog), you seem like a very nice guy - i was laughing when i heard you said, 'uh, oh' when the film stuttered at the first few seconds -, hope you could make it again next year, and i would definitely catch your R.I.P later today.
Best regards, Rhama Arya Wibawa
Dear Rhama Arya Wibawa, Don't apologize for your honest comment. Everyone is entitled to his or her opinion. Actually, my lead actor Victor Löw (very famous in The Netherlands) also suggested that we should have made Ver Weg into a more lengthy film. But as it is now is precisely how I wanted to do it. And although I am not entirely satisfied with it myself I like the tone of melancholy, as did quite a few others. Let me know what you think of R.I.P.; I'd be interested to know. And I will certainly be back at ScreamfestIndo 2008. Best regards, Jan
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