As Durham prepares for the Full Frame Documentary Film Festival (starting tomorrow—check out the INDY’s preview package), Winston-Salem is getting ready for an ambitious film festival of its own. The 16th annual RiverRun International Film Festival which attracts thousands of cinema fans each year, showcases features and shorts from all genres of independent film and from all over the world—plus industry guests, this year including Oscar-nominated Winter’s Bone director Debra Granik.
Running from April 4th to April 13th, this year’s festival includes some productions with strong Triangle ties. Today, we’re reviewing three, all documentaries, that we saw.
Mipso in Japan is a 16-minute documentary short that follows the young, Chapel Hill-based pop-bluegrass band to Japan on their first major tour outside their comfort zone. While you’ll hear snippets of songs here and there, the majority of the film focuses on the band’s awkward interactions with Japanese fans and home video-style scenes of them enjoying such local activities as a Japanese bathhouse. If you’re a fan or relative of the band, you’ll probably love it, but for a general audience, there isn’t too much to see here.
