One Friday night in DC, we struggled to find something to do. Go out to dinner? Go see the new Fifty Shades movie (before seeing the first two)? Nothing seemed right. However, after doing a little research, we decided to go to the DC Independent Film Festival (IFF). We watched a trailer online for that evening’s 7:00 movie. It looked different from anything we’d ever seen before, so we headed down to the Naval Heritage Memorial to spend our Friday night seeing an Indie movie.
When we arrived, we paid the $11 fee to get into the movie. Once we got into the theater, it was less than halfway full. It’s an independent film festival after all, but we honestly felt a little bad.
The movie was called “Captain Black.” It’s about a guy named Mike who finds a comic book and becomes obsessed with the main character and his girlfriend, Kitt Vixen. When he goes to a Halloween party dressed as Captain Black, he meets a mysterious girl dressed as Kitt Vixen. After a one night stand, he discovers that his mystery girl is only 17 (he’s middle-aged) and she’s pregnant. The movie ends with Mike sitting on the couch crying, and there are three knocks on the door.
We have seen better movies. The writing of the film was weak in some places, and the whole plot was a little uncomfortable, from the point of view of two 17-year-old girls. It was unclear what the message was supposed to be: consent? Comic books? True love? Being a hero? Many questions still remain.
After the movie, Jeffrey Johnson, the writer, director, producer, and star of “Captain Black” sat down for a talkback. Feeling a little starstruck, we heard some film fans ask some very in-depth questions about character development, and we were a little confused. Although it is very impressive that Johnson was able to do basically everything for this movie, he was a little cocky about it, saying that “it would be different if this movie sucked, but it doesn’t suck.” I mean, okay, but it wasn’t great.
After the film, Johnson himself gave me a free Captain Black shirt. Who doesn’t love a free shirt? Although the movie wasn’t the best I’d ever seen, going to the DC Independent Film Festival was certainly a unique experience and a very fun one that I’ll never forget. •
