Good As Gold

Which is more important, the story or the character names? I’ve always thought the former, but today made me wonder.

We place a lot of importance on names. The Percy Joneses and the Harry Potters – they matter. They’re part of the magic that makes it all memorable.

We’re fortunate enough in Gympie to host the Heart of Gold International Film Festival – a festival for short, feelgood ‘films that lift you up’.

So this morning, with only a minimal amount of grumbling on my part, I dragged myself out of bed and took Miss9 and Master8 to a screening of family shorts to give ’em some culture.

Despite being less than two kilometers from the venue, I’ve never gone to a Heart of Gold screening before, although I have used the reviews and recommendations of customers and friends to seek out short films, like Chris Jones’ wonderful, moving and beautifully crafted Gone Fishing.

Both my kids were very excited about the prospect of watching international short films.

“I’m hungry,” Master8 announced before I’d even purchased the tickets.

“Do they sell popcorn?” was Miss9’s primary concern.

The five films we watched were diverse and amusing, each with its own special ‘something’ for which it stood out, including a film on bullying and the anger directed at boat people which was darker than the rest to the point where I had to keep reminding myself this was the Heart of Gold and it would end nicely. I’m starting to wonder if maybe we project a little onto our kids with respects to this sort of thing. I know in one of a films, when a worm and bird said hello to each other before the bird ate the worm, it was myself and my sister in law who sat horrified, not the kids. But neither the bullying or the worm have so far come up in conversation.

Nor, thankfully, has the line ‘let’s get the flock out of here’ which really surprised me, both for when it was said in a film and when it wasn’t repeated ad nauseum afterwards.

So what are the kids talking about? Which part of this cultural experience really spoke to them?

Well, let’s just say there was a very minor character in the last short film who’s name was Dick…

At least I can’t say I paid all that money to take my kids to a movie festival and they didn’t learn Dick. I guess character names are heaps important after all.

This is not a sponsored post. Wouldn’t help them now, you see, because the festival’s nearly over 🙂

When not typing away over here and checking his stats every two minutes Bruce Devereaux hangs out at his ‘BIG FAMILY little income’  Facebook Page.

 ’raising a family on little more than laughs’

2 Comments

  • Aha! Dick, YES! I read my girls a few chapters of the first book in the Famous Five series on the weekend. Everything Dick said had them in stitches, not sure why as he isn’t very funny?! Kids! 🙂 Glad it is not just mine!

What do you think?

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.