SpIFF 2008 opens on a high, noisy note

Virtually every seat was taken in tonight’s opening-night screening at the 2008 Spokane International Film Festival . In the former Met (now known as the Bing Crosby Theater ), that would have seemed like a big disappointment.

But in a 130-seat house, it felt like … success.

And the crowd liked the film, John Jeffcoat’s “Outsourced” – a movie that uses the movement of jobs from the U.S. to India as the basis of its plot. You wouldn’t think a story built on a concept that grim would work. But, somehow, “Outsourced” does.

And when it was all over, director Jeffcoat proved to be friendly and accessible while answering every question asked of him.

All in all, it was a good opening for the 10th-annual SpIFF. I had only one complaint: When will people realize that they aren’t in their living rooms; that they can laugh and cry and giggle and react to the film any way they want?

But when will they realize, too, that they shouldn’t talk? That they shouldn’t do a running commentary on what they’re seeing – as in, “Oh, I KNEW that was going to happen” or “Isn’t that cute?” or even just “Uh oh”?

Watch the movie folks. Leave the dialogue to the actors.