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Sarasota Film Festival Director of Programming Tom Hall found this embed first. Read his thoughts on the film.

Nursing a toothache, Philippe Petit sat in a dentist's office and while waiting for his appointment, read a magazine. It happened right at that innocent moment that he came across his life's object of desire. In New York, a set of towers were right then being constructed, the tallest buildings the world would yet know. Tearing the page from its binding, Petit escaped the office and scurried home. With the sketch of the World Trade Center in his pocket, daring Petit would spend the next several years preparing for his perilous tightrope walk between the Twin Towers. Splendidly made by James Marsh, Man On Wire explores the intersection of art and adventure in a lyrical vision mixed with archival footage, poetic talking head interviews and artful dramatizations. Based on Petit's book To Reach the Clouds: My High Wire Walk Between the Twin Towers, the film is an inspiration with a bittersweet kick, reminding its audience that when we attain what we reach, we also lose that dream's pursuit.

At a late night festival party, Greta Gerwig, the actress quickly downing a Vodka Redbull, described the process of working with Jay and Mark Duplass as being "stuck in a love sandwich." Seeing the finished product Gerwig referenced here, the Duplass' brothers sophomore feature Baghead is a theatrical experience a bit similar, or rather to change and add a word or two, it's like being stuck in an awesome.hysterical.scary.sweet.moving. sandwich of pure joy. Part parody of the indie film scene, part commentary on romantic bumbling and part gritty, forest killer chase, Baghead is the little film that hits with a big punch of humor and tenderness.

When God divided the Earth, he kept only the most beautiful and fruitful track of land for himself. But this track, to his chagrin, he would gift to the one tribe of people who'd neglected to ask for anything of him. So begins Veit Helmer's playful, miss-the-mark oddball comedy Absurdistan. Nodding to various artistic influences from Western to the innovative, experimental work of Georges Méliès, the film adds to its palette the colors of cinema history, and while within that, Absurdistan does find its own voice, the tenor of it ultimately lacks richness of quality. It's an adorable, slice of pie film grinding its nose to the battle of the sexes stone without producing all that much substance.