We Are Wizards

So, this weekend I took a trip with Delma from the Northern Virginia Harry Potter Meetup Group [DADA] and her children to see the East Coast premiere of 'We Are Wizards' at the New York Underground Film Festival.

As a quick note: this is the final year for the festival, which has taken place for a decade and a half. Be sure to keep an eye on Migrating Forms, the next step for two of the NYUFF directors (Nellie Killian and Kevin McGarry).

'We Are Wizards' was nicely shot, though it didn't have a very cohesive storyline. It began telling the story of several Harry Potter bands - full disclaimer, I am a wizard rocker and friends with the Horntail family - and they were entertaining and served as a good introduction to wizard rock for the uninitiated. The story then gets a bit lost, delving slightly into fan culture and then focusing on the Warner Brothers controveries. While I loved the archival footage illustrating 'the man,' I wanted a bit more resolution on how the battles were settled; it felt like quite a lot of buildup for not a lot of answers.

Seeing the film was a great experience, though, because I fall along the line of the film's subject matter and so did a great deal of the audience. For those of us who were familiar with the story, it was an amazing chance to watch our history documented and see hidden glimpses of the stories behind the people we know and love. It was almost like watching Rocky Horror at times - audience members calling the Christian woman a witch when she motioned towards her 'crystal ball' and singing along with various wizard rock lryics. The moments focused on Brad Neely (creator of an audio commentary track for the first HP film titled 'Wizard People, Dear Readers') brought some of the biggest laughs of our showing, with his high-pitched warble retelling the story of Harry P.



All in all, it was a great weekend - though I was too young for the after party, for shame - and I thoroughly enjoyed the film.

Bonus: We stayed at the Hotel Le Bleu, which is a nice hotel stuck with little consideration to location in Brooklyn. It had a very sleek, modern design and classy color scheme, but failed to differentiate between bedrooms and bathrooms. Open showers and frosted glass doors make it much more appropriate for those with close relationships than for near strangers.