Horses are good company -- The Witcher

I received a gorgeous, emotional, wonderful vid for "God's Own Country", called Hounds of Love, by CroissantKatie! I am so pleased with this, it captures a lot of what I love about the film. It is perfect.

Ao3 link, https://archiveofourown.org/works/44246569

I made a vid for colls, about the show Andor, which is my obsession at the moment. My vid is called "Why We Fight" and you can find it here:

https://archiveofourown.org/works/44277415

Part of making this vid was allowing it to be imperfect. I had a lot of pain and anxiety in December and January, and I thought seriously about defaulting, but I did not want to, and so I ended up finishing this by the due date. To do so involved cutting down the song because the original is close to 5 minutes long. Thank you to thingswithwings for help and encouragement through that process; I've never done a vid with an edited song before, but now that I have, I am going to do it all the time and finish some of my other drafts.

Art is open to interpretation, so you can think what you like of this vid, but here is what I thought about when making it!

I listened to anti-fascist play lists on spotify to try and find a song, but many of them felt too specific. I knew I wanted to vid the prison escape and the more action-y parts of the show and this song felt right, it was more about feelings. It felt even more right as I continued to make the vid.

I did not include Luthen or Mon Mothma, because I needed to narrow the scope of the vid, and they don't have as many action scenes. It also feels like Mon hasn't stepped fully into her power yet. Her and Luthen's style of fighting is different.

At first I thought "come hell" was the horrors of war, but as I made the vid, I realized that Cassian is hell. Cassian and the other fighters featured here are hell in the sense of "give 'em hell" and righteous fury. The archers are your ranged fighters; and the infantry, they are your melee fighters.

So, we are going to give the fascists hell, and we are going to die on our own terms, with our arms unbound.

Why do we fight? It's probably different for everyone, they each have a personal reason. But connections with others is one of the reasons. The peace to be a space lesbian feeding the sheep is one of the reasons. It's the freedom to live your own life the way you want to.

Thank you to colls for the prompt, and to the Festivids mods for organizing.

Dear Festividder,

Thank you for making a vid for me! I really appreciate you sharing your time, talents, and love.
I will most likely enjoy whatever you make, so please don't stress about it too much.

Stuff I like: queer stuff, diversity in TV and movies, kink, romance, warm feelings, found family, activism, animals, friendship, science fiction and fantasy, hugs, kissing, sexually explicit scenes, fluff, dancing, angst is OK too, disabled characters, fat characters, characters of color, music by marginalized creators, tough women, soft men, action and adventure, OT3s, OT4s (etc), any genre of music.

Stuff I dislike: Songs by abusers*, rape scenes, suicide scenes. I'm not fond of ableist lyrics, including common lyrics like "blind" and "crazy". I don't like slurs in lyrics either. Swear words are fine though, as are sexually explicit lyrics. Not into torture scenes.

*Search the artist's name and "abuse" or "harassment", see if there are reputable links; if not you're probably good.

Requests in no particular order.

1. 120 battements par minute | BPM: Beats per Minute (2017) [SAFETY], Gorgeous and heart-breaking movie about Paris ACT UP. This film is so inspiring and affecting and realistic. I think I'm a fandom of one and I'm trying to get other folks to watch this movie!
I wrote a bit about this film here: https://sasha-feather.dreamwidth.org/1259299.html

2. Thirteen Lives, 2022, [SAFETY] - dir. Ron Howard, starring Viggo Mortensen and Colin Farrell.

I love this scripted depiction of the Thai cave rescue that happened in 2018, in which 13 young people were successfully rescued from a flooded cave, a seemingly impossible task. I also loved the documentary "The Rescue"; feel free to use footage from that if you like. Real-life footage from news sources would also be interesting.
It's clearly a big story with a lot of facets. I loved how this movie gave time to the wisdom and expertise of local villagers. I ship the two main divers depicted (Mortensen and Farrell's characters). But anything about this movie would be awesome. :)

3. Andor (TV 2022). I am absolutely in love with this show right now, how it actually engages with racism, police violence, and the fascism of the Empire. I love Diego Luna's face, the costumes, the sets and locations. I'm super here for Vel/Cinta (the two rebel women involved in the heist). I love Cassian's whole story.
I'm not interested in something that humanizes or celebrates the Empire's people.

4. The Expanse (TV), Space Opera with so many cool characters. I especially love Naomi, Drummer, Bobbie, Amos, Prax, and Chrisjen. I ship Amos/Prax. Really anything you want to do with show would be amazing.

5. Spy (2015 movie) [SAFETY], super funny Melissa McCarthy comedy with f/f vibes. I would love a gay take on the main characters or something that celebrates friendship and the goofy humor of the movie.

6. God's Own Country (2017) [SAFETY], Rural queers, raising sheep! I am a queer who grew up on a hobby farm where we raised sheep, so this story is very dear to my heart. A friend of mine noted that the queer love at the center of the story heals the whole family. It also pushes back against toxic masculinity. This is a beautiful movie and I'd love any kind of vid for it.

7. Pride (2014) [SAFETY], Queers organizing to help aid miners on Strike! This is a wonderful film about activism, solidarity, and coalition building. I'm especially fond of Andrew Scott playing Gethin, a rural queer. All the characters are great and I'd love anything you choose to do here!

Thank you again you rule!

Hey check out these two amazing vids I got for Festivids! These vidders created something so perfectly crafted for me, it's incredible, but I bet you will enjoy them too.

The Phoenix

The Expanse, Camina Drummer

https://archiveofourown.org/works/36732631

This gave me chills. She is my favorite character on the show, one of the greatest characters of all time, and Dessa is one of my favorite musicians. I'm so thrilled with this vid.

No Place Like Home

A multi-vid about rural and small-town queer people!! It's so warm and loving and perfect, and funny too. Uses a variety of source some of which are obscure movies! This will put joy into your heart.

https://archiveofourown.org/works/36438106

Hi internet hi!

I just spent a lovely couple of days with thingswithwings and Rorshcach the dog, and on Saturday we managed to spend most of the day watching Festivids! In the evening we met up with were_duck and watched some more.

So far my favorites are:

Maru the Cat (both vids)
Stand by Me
The Fresh Prince of Bel Air: Baby I'm a Star
How to Train Your Dragon: I'm Still Here
Independence Day: Doomsday
The Middleman: Do it Like a Dude
Moulin Rouge
MythBusters (both vids)
Newsies: Express Yourself (watched this 3 or 4 times already!)
Plata Quemada
Rise of the planet of the Apes
Pride and Prejudice - What a Man
Starship Troopers


Aaaaand there are so many more to watch!!!

:D What a great holiday this is.