My biggest regret about the Chicago International Film Festival is that I've lived here twenty years and I've only been going to it for the last five. My second biggest regret is that I hardly ever can take much advantage of what it has to offer.

This was my best year yet, though as I was able to attend nine screenings over three different days.

I had purchased two "Movie Goer Plus" passes that entitled the holder to attend nine screenings, including two "special presentations." However, we recently adopted two new kittens (we now have four cats), and Kathy decided she'd rather stay home and play with the kittens than trek into Chicago (a 50 mile drive) to see movies.

So, I ended up seeing most movies by myself, though, admittedly, there were a lot of strangers in the audience. I gave away a bunch of tickets. I handed off two passes with three unsed screenings each. I don't know if they ever were converted to tickets. I gave away two tickets to a documentary, and two tickets to an Italian film, Family Law, that I wanted to see but could not because of the timing.

I didn't use one of my tickets, to Belle Tujours. I missed it because the screenings are held at two theatres and sometimes there just isn't time enough to get from one to the other between screenings.

I hardly saw any subtitled films ... er, I guess that isn't quite true as five of the nine films I saw were subtitled. However, four of those were Japanese animation films, so, to me, that sort of only counts as one, since they share a common language. The other foreign language film I saw was In Bed, a film from Chile.

A few of the live shorts in the Crossroads program were also subtitled from a variety of languages. It's not that I'm an anti-English language snob. It's just that I feel that the International Film Festival is a unique opportunity to see films from other countries that I may not ever have the chance to see again.

As it was, I did give away my tickets to an Italian film and my ticket to a French film went unused.

Do you see the image in the background of this page? These are my ticket stubs.

I saw the following films:

Mobile Suit Gundam I: Heirs to the Stars

Mobile Suit Gundam II: Lovers

Mobile Suit Gundam III: Love is the Pulse of the Stars

Shoot the Messenger

Wristcutters

Paprika

Shorts:Crossroads and Contrast

Nina's Heavenly Delights

Since I wrote about the film's, more or less, on my Film's of 2006 site, I won't repeat the text here. What I will say is that attending films at the festival can be very exciting. For one thing, you know that, even when you're there by yourself, you're there with people who are making a special effort to see quality films. It isn't just a matter of showing up at the theatre. These films are screened once, twice, or perhaps three times during the festival, so people really do put something into deciding whcih films to see and when.

Also, seeing one good film may mean sacrificing the opportunity to see another good film. The coices that you make matter a lot. You get a sense of community, and you have an opportunity to vote, so what you think about the films actualy matters.

Seeing films can also be a bit like work.

The first day I was there, I kept having to run three blocks north between films to feed the parking meter.

The second day, I got there at noon and didn't leave until 12:45 AM. During that space, I only saw three films but did a bunch of running around in the interim.

The final day I attended, I saw the first film at the AMC River East. It was the shorts program and I left before the last short ended. I walked as swiftly as I could to the Red Line station on Grand Avenue, transferred to the Brown Line at Fullerton and got off at Diversey, where I walked swiftly to Clark for the next showing at the Landmark Century Cinema. I just made it in time! After that, my trek back to the AMC for the third showing could be more leasurely.

The experience is fun, exciting and rewarding. Each year, I learn a bit more and next year, I hope to maximize my opportunity to participate.