I'm giving the Festival the benefit of an extra star because its intentions & message are good,…read moreeven though I was not at all blown away by most of the films I attended this year. Maybe we just picked the wrong batch. Logistically speaking, there was a lot to be desired as far as the ticket purchase process, figuring out which sessions were the ones we should attend, etc. The people working in ticket sales at the Golden State Theater as well as at the Conference Center, as well the the person in the bookstore, were very friendly & well-meaning, but most of them did not seem to have a grasp of what we needed to know. My gf & I bought tickets to the 3:00 films yesterday. First I bought mine (at the theater). The $15 ticket cost me $18 (cash), and the process took longer than it should have. The scanning & printing device used seemed needlessly complicated (and/or the people using them weren't properly trained). I figured the extra $3 was a service charge. Immediately after I bought my ticket, my gf bought hers, using a credit card. She was charged $16.50 for the exact same session. (And it took way longer than it should have.) WTF? The system should be working by the last day of the festival, folks, and people should be charged the proper rates. Yeeesh!!! Also, the online schedule seemed quite different from the ones that were printed out.
Based on the films I attended last year, I assumed that the creators or people involved would say a few words about their films or their experiences, the film or footage would shown, and then they'd move on to the next presenter. Last year, I felt a sense of excitement as people, with great pride (as well as humility), got up & shared both words & footage, things I'd never seen or experienced before. Not every film or video clip was polished & professional, but it was an amazing experience.
This year, the films we saw were, for the most part, professional but preachy, and I learned & saw little that I haven't seen before on the Discovery Channel, PBS, National Geographic Channel, etc. (In fact, two of the films we saw showed several of the same clips of marine invertebrates chowing down on each other!) There was no one "presenting" the films, except for a brief introduction, thanking the less than a dozen people who were in the large theater at the start of the 3:00 session. (More people trickled in as the session progressed, creating constant disruptions in the way of talking, standing in the aisles looking for seats, crying toddlers, texting...)
Back to the films--"Fish Tale: My Secret Life as Plankton [clip at http://www.mission-blue.org/my-secret-life-as-plankton-video]" was probably the best of the bunch--beautifully filmed (though I didn't learn much from the narration; yes--critters eat other critters, on up the food chain...).
"Oceans at the Tipping Point" highlighted the Ocean Health Index (http://www.oceanhealthindex.org/), an important initiative. It featured a former professor of mine, which I appreciated, but it too was short on specific information content. Promo at http://vimeo.com/49859881
"Alien Deep: Inner vs. Outer Space" (promo: http://www.blueoceanfilmfestival.org/videos-Alien_Deep_Inner_vs_Outer_Space_47.htm) was an annoying pseudo-debate between proponents of making Mars habitable (e.g., Buzz Aldrin) and those who think we should colonize the surface of the oceans or just learn to live more sustainably (e.g., Bob Ballard). Lots of conjecture, dramatic music, etc., but little real substance.
Finally, perhaps most preachy of all, was "Planet Ocean" (promo: http://www.blueoceanfilmfestival.org/videos-Planet_Ocean_115.htm). Yes, we're all culpable for overusing resources, including seafood & petroleum products. Just beat us over the head with it, why don't you.
I'd rather see a less drawn-out festival and more of what individual, small-time film makers, adventurers, conservationists, & scientists are doing, with less emphasis on preaching to the converted, fewer polished films that we can see any time on cable TV or PBS...