Questioning Beauty

I. I interrogated Jim Haverkamp, co-creator and co-runner of Strange Beauty, on Friday the Twelfth at 10:00.

II. Strange Beauty was begun by Jim Haverkamp and his wife, Joyce Ventimiglia, and continues to be under their auspices.

III. Researching Strange Beauty I found no mission statement. There was however an epigram, a Sir Francis Bacon quotation: "There is no excellent beauty, which hath not some strangeness in the proportion." Interviewing the man, Haverkamp that is, I initiated by working with him to shape a mission statement. Thus: "To showcase twilight films that are intriguing, challenging, and possess a potent emotional soul which evoke a sense of faint familiarity like dreams."

IV. Hitherto Jim/Joyce have held to their vision for Strange Beauty. Each year their selections are at least accented with abstraction and many plunge headlong all giddy into the depths. A lot of animation is featured, and each film animated or not is anchored by concentrated emotional evocation. Reading over the descriptions such words as "fear""anxiety" "nostalgia" appear over and over again.

V. The venue so far has always been The Manbites Dog Theater in Durham, NC.

VI. The event keeps shifting its season. This year it was held in June from the Twelfth to the Fourteenth.

VII. Each hopeful entrant must complete an entry form to be found on their website. The films themselves may be delivered either via a URL link or a DVD mailed in to Jim/Joyce.

VIII. There is only one deadline for entry. This year it was the First of March.

IX. The fee is but ten American dollars. Surrender your Hamilton.

X. Strange Beauty enforces no descriptions on their filmmakers. The films must be films thirty minutes or less, strangely beautiful and/or beautifully strange.

XI. There is no student category. All submissions are judged equally.

XII. I may have fed this question to Question VII. Either an online stream or a DVD.

XIII. Look you to Questions VII and XII.

XIV. Forty-Five films were screened.

XV. There are no paper presentations. Film blocks tend to be eighty to ninety minutes. The goal seems to be an hour and half.

XVI. Somewhere in the vicinity of ten films per block, varying based on length of films presented to maintain the target of an hour and a half.

XVII. No registration, only ticket purchasing to access these pretties. Tickets are purchased on Manbites Dog Theater's website. Twelve dollars per block, or forty dollars for a pass to all blocks.

XVIII. No sponsorship page to be found. Not a terribly common phenomenon for Strange Beauty is censorship.

XIX. Look to Question XVIII.

XX. No Kickstarter. No Indiegogo.

XXI. Each year the flood of film abates for a thirty minute Aural Fixation, a soundscape showcase.

XXII. Strange Beauty remains concentrated on film appreciation in a theater setting.

XXIII. The website for Strange Beauty proved to be a smooth buttery sea for these eyes on account of its minimalist aesthetic and simplicity.

XXIV. No difficulties to report, captain.

XXV. I could scrounge up all I needed, excepting the Entry guidelines and form, as this year's festival is done and that particular service is not currently required. I received direct links to those from Jim Haverkamp.

XXVI. The barebones banality of the site pleases me.

XXVII. The barebones banality of the site displeases me. Apparently it is making me ambivalent. I feel split.

XXVIII. I fail to see what is necessary that is not already present.

XXIX. I fail to see what is present that is not already necessary.

XXX. To better evoke the intention of the vague familiarity of dreams I would adopt a color scheme of saturated cool colors.

XXXI. I would keep its simplicity of content. We need not burden eyes to make minds soar.