Simply put, put, today blew my mind, I don’t even know how to start describing it, it was like being at 5 different film festivals all at once, each one wilder and crazier than the other. As I’m writing this now it’s 3AM and I’m still wide awake, so I’ll attempt to describe mayhem of today…

First up was My Lunch With Kobayashi, featuring a very funny and honest interview with the competitive eating legend Kobayashi, who almost forms a comedy double act with this manager/translator, the interview featured all the permanent questions that never seem to get asked, including the classic, where does all the food go once you’ve eaten it? This was also accompanied by the the documentary Hungry!, which takes a detailed look into the world of competitive eating and lifts the lid on those controlling it. 

Next up was something I had no knowledge about at all – Johnny Ryan’s Prison Pit, which turned out to be a totally over the top animated adaptation of a series of graphic novels. This totally wild and ultraviolet cartoon was great fun and was followed by a making of documentary and then great Q&A session with the cast and crew.

it was about this time that it dawned on me how back-to-back today was going to be, most people there head out to the back patio after screenings to drink and hang out, but as I’m watching everything I have to head back out to the front to queue to get back in for the next screening.

Then we had a very special guest intro from Jack Black, who was there to introduce the one and only Dr. Demento for an afternoon of show and tell.

This is so hard writing this at 3.30AM, I’m going to finish this later today…

…it’s now 4-hours later, my sleep has been so bad while I’ve been here, no matter what time I go to bed I still wake up around 7AM, then seem to spend the rest of the day in a state of nearly falling asleep. 

So Dr. Demento was great fun, so many classic stories and he also screen so e great vintage video clips, including a very rare one off TV special called Welcome To The Funzone. 

Then we got to the screening I’d most been looking forwards to – Everything Is Terrible’s Welcome a To The CyberNet! Now this also included a few very cool extras including a screening of all the Fenslerfilm G.I. Joe spoof safety TV adverts, I’d not seen or heard of these surreal takes on the Joe ads before, was fun to see them for the first time in a big scree. We also had two bonus comedy monologues from Wham City Comedy, both of which spiralled off into very unexpected territory. Then EIT’s Dimitri took the stage for a brilliantly put together intro sketch for the new mix, which involved him being very confused about his new computer, all in a very 1980s style. The mix itself was great and ran for about 20 minutes’ish, all focusing around the 1990s internet.

Now at this point I have to say a huge thanks to my new Cinefamily buddy Merritt, who’s made it her mission to upgrade me to a sofa seat each time it’s possible, can’t say thank you enough to her for making me feel so welcome and at home. I love being here so much, it’s such a fun place with such a great atmosphere. 

The penultimate show was the brilliantly experimental 256 Colors, a 90-minute feature made up entirely of computer .gifs! Now to fill so much time with these super short blasts of video they must have spent so long compiling them, it was an amazing collection. Now as gif files are silent we were treated to a live score buy the electronic trio YACHT!, which took us on a sonic journey through every different Thor of gif imaginable, some funny, some classic and some shocking.

Then the final event was a midnight screening of a Hackers, which tied into the festivals 1990s web theme, really odd to see this at the cinema again, I’d not watched it again since it had originally been released, the 35MM print looked good, though there were a few sound issues at the start. It’s of it’s time and was fun to watch, but the story itself seems underdeveloped and could have been more exciting, still it was a fun way to end an epic day! HACK THE PLANET!