New Orleans Film Fest

Tonight I attended a film at the 18th annual New Orleans Film Fest. Though I do like film fests very much, I must confess that this was the first time I had been much less even heard of the fest. For shame. The fest goes on from the 11th-18th of this month at three different theaters around the city. Check out the website for locations, showtimes, and movie description.

Tonight I saw King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters, a thrilling documentary about the conquest for world domination via the official high score on the original Donkey Kong arcade game (think Mario, the Princess, rolling barrels, elevators, fireballs, etc.).

It stars 35-year-old Steve Wiebe, a science teacher from Redmond, WA, who was on a quest to beat the world high score in an effort to accomplish something definitively meaningful in his life. Before then, his life had been a story of near-championships, near-promotions, near-successes. As an avid athlete, musician, and fill in the blank hopeful, he found solace sitting in his garage on a barstool in front of the soft glow from the screen of this 1981 Nintendo classic.

Enter Billy Mitchell: reigning world champion from his original competition in 1982. He holds (held) numerous world gaming records and is a self-proclaimed perfect man in everything he does. The movie goes on to show tears of defeat, tears of victory, a bunch of gaming nerds, a hilarious helmet-like mullet, and one very courageous Steve Wiebe.

This is definitely a film any independent movie fan should see. So get your NetFlix queues ready, people. Also, stay posted on the NOFF website for more films. Go support indie filmmakers.