I discovered late last night that I titled yesterday’s entry as SIFF 2012, and I got a little freaked out looking through my archives thinking that I totally forgot to write about last year’s festival only to realize a moment later that it is NOT 2012. I’ve corrected that now. It’s one of the pitfalls of working in the apparel industry, where you are always working in the future.

My second film was the documentary film The Bengali Detective. It follows a few months in the life of Rajesh, a private detective in Kolkata. He and his team of investigators track down shopkeepers selling counterfeit hair oils, run surveillance on cheating husbands, and, in this film, take on their first murder case. The workload is exhausting, so to unwind the detectives dance. Boss man Rajesh even goes so far as to enter them to audition for a dance contest show, with hilarious results. There are poignant moments as well, as we get to know the woman with the cheating husband, the fate of the shopkeeper, and as we watch the decline of Rajesh’s ill wife. The Bengali Detective plays again in Everett on May 28, and in Kirkland on June 3. See it! I think it will make you chuckle, which is a good thing.

The Seattle International Film Festival started last week, but I was not able to begin my film odyssey until now (oh, woe is me, I had to spend a long weekend in NYC). I began my adventure with Homme Au Bain (Man At Bath), a film about two lovers spending a week away from each other after a fight. The film’s star, adult film actor François Sagat was on hand for some Q&A following the screening. He mentioned that it initially was supposed to be a short film, and he was right. The filmmakers would have done well to stick with the original plan, as there was quite a bit of extraneous footage. This was mostly what was shot in New York with a small non-pro camera, ostensibly by the second lead. There is a lot of male nudity, which I’m all for, but it is short on plot and much too long. Homme Au Bain plays again May 26 at 4:30 at the Egyptian.