Last weekend we saw Inception, twice.

A good, entertaining film about dreams-in-dreams, with beautiful special effects. And a good cliff-hanger at the end, obviously targeting a sequel.

We had a wonderful time at Full Frame 2010 two weeks ago. We saw more than 20 movies including some absolutely brilliant ones.

It really felt like a mini-vacation. On Saturday the first movie we saw started at 10.00 am and the last one ended around midnight.

John and Jane
Man Push Cart -- not a bad film, but very annoying that a fiction film made it into the programming. Sure, it says in the booklet but it has no place on Full Frame.

Here's a list of movies we saw on Saturday:

• Born Sweet -- a 15-year boy with arsenic poisoning which finds joy in karoake singing and becomes famous through his hobby.
• Today is Better than Two Tomorrows -- two boys in Laos are good friends. One of them is sent to become a monk and the two split up. Sweet movie.
• Book of Miri -- a short documentary about a girl in Sweden who was adopted and is looking for her identity. I wasn't crazy about it; Sasha loved it and apparently so did the jury because it won an award.
• In the Matter of Cha Jung Hee -- a second movie about adoption. Forty years ago Cha Jung Hee, the filmmaker, was adopted from South Korea. Everybody called her Cha Jung Hee, but she knew that that wasn't her real name. A social worked had swapped the girl. The movie maker goes to South Korea to find the real Cha Jung Hee. Wonderful movie.
• Stonewall Uprising -- description and reconstruction of the riots around the Stonewall bar in New York City, which started the gay rights movement in 1969. Interesting.
• 12th & Delaware -- on an intersection in Florida an abortion clinic and a pro-live pregnancy center are located on opposite sides of the street. Very intense documentary.
• The Sixth Section -- fun, short movie about Mexican immigrants in New York City who fund projects in their hometown.
• H-2 Worker -- older documentary about guests workers from Jamaica in Florida. Not bad, but we would have preferred to watch a more recent documentary instead.

On Sunday we saw 5 short documentaries, which was great:

After the winners were announced we went to see two of them:

• The Poot -- gorgeous short on how tapestries are made in Iran.
• Surviving Hitler: A Love Story -- stunning movie about a love story in Germany during World War II, with great footage and a beautiful interview.
• Maria's Way
• Notes on the Other
• Photograph of Jesus
• Seltzer Works -- the last setlzer factory in New York City. Short, interesting, beautiful camera work and a great topic.

The festival was well organized, as always. Last year the economic situation impacted the festival, but sales this year were strong, according to the executive director. The only downside was that the curated series wasn't very good. We saw several of the curated selections and didn't really enjoy them, except for The Sixth Section.

Full Frame Festival 2010 started today and we just came back from the first three movies. The opening movie of the festival was phenomenal: "16 chefs, 3 days, 1 chance" -- Kings of Pastry.

This documentary showed the intense examination in France to become a M.O.F. in pastry making. Very funny, beautifully made -- absolutely recommended.

Sasha arrived in New Jersey on Friday. On Saturday we went for dinner and a movie.

We went to the movie theater in New Brunswick and watched Avatar.

The film showed a beautiful alien world, with great flora and fauna. It was an entertaining movie and great to see it in 3D. It's been a long time since I've seen a movie in 3D.

Last night we went for dinner and later saw "This Is It", a documentary about the shows Michael Jackson planned to do in London.

Very impressive dancing and music. The dancers absolutely adored Michael Jackson, 'worshiping' may be a better word even. Good movie.

We saw Inglourious Basterds yesterday, the new movie by Tarantino. A great film!

Very violent, as most his movies are, but very well made and a terrific story line. The acting by Christoph Waltz was phenomenal. Going into the theater I had no idea what the film was about, and that was a great way to see it.

If you liked his previous films, you'll love this one.

We saw Frost/Nixon recently. We had heard good things about it and I picked it up from Blockbuster without reading the summary. So it was somewhat surprising that in the first few minutes of the movie the whole Watergate-to-Nixon-resigning story was told. Obviously, the film was not a documentary about the actual affair, but about 4 interviews that President Nixon gave after his resignation to Mr. Frost, a celebrity journalist.

An original angle to take, and the movie was very interesting. The journalist, obviously looking for a spectacular 'scoop' of some kind, is depicted as in an battle against the smart and ex-president, who is looking for redemption in the public view.

Very good acting, especially by Michael Sheen who was playing President Nixon's role.

We had a fun weekend. On Saturday we attended a very nice and romantic wedding (congratulations Sylvana and Daniel!) We had a great dinner with a good friend on the balcony.

On Sunday I went for an ambitious run. I tried to do 16 miles, but it was 85 degrees and I gave up after 14 miles. That meant I still had to walk another two miles to the car. Since it's also pollen season I was sneezing quite a few times during the run. Beautiful course though, through Umstead and the Cary Greenway.

I was pretty much wiped out Sunday night, and watched "Quantum of Solace" which was exactly the right movie at the right time. Simple, uncomplicated with a lot of car chases and explosions. I enjoyed it.

Tonight Sasha and I saw Sons of Cuba, a wonderful documentary about Cuban kids in a school for boxing.

This was the openings movie of Full Frame 2009, and it was a great choice. The movie was very touching, very funny, and beautifully shot. After the movie there was a Q&A with the makers, who followed the group of young boxes for a period of over a year. They had amazingly good footage. At one point the film maker said "I was worried there wouldn't be enough action in the movie" -- well, that was a thing he didn't have to worry about.

A great start of the festival.

It's pretty cool to realize that four out of the five Oscar nominees for Documentary Feature played at the Full Frame Festival last year, and I saw all four of them.

Of the four movies that I've seen, Nerakhoon is my personal favorite. I think that Man on Wire has the best chances of winning the Oscar, since it's more 'commercial' and has received a lot more publicity. My least favorite was Encounters at the end of the world, it was just boring.