Indie Grits is a marathon, not a sprint, if you're a staffer, intern, or a juror, as I've come to learn. I dragged myself out of bed to meet up with Georg and Roger to hash out the award winners (about which more in a separate post). Thanks to (part-Cuban) Georg's strong coffee and fest director Andy Smith's amazing muffins -- the man is tireless! -- I may survive.

OK, so Saturday. A little known secret of juror survival is screening a couple of films in competition during our "down time." In order to be able to do things like, you know, eat yesterday, we watched Jason Affolder's sweet indie Sun Dogs in advance.  I've been singing the lead character's karaoke song (Sam Cooke's "Cupid) under my breath ever since. Just be warned, if you're too squeamish to give blood, you may want to have your fingers ready to peek through at points.

The student showcase at 2 p.m. was packed with friends and admirers of the featured filmmakers, as well as the young star of Reverie, Miss Shiri Fitzgerald. This meant a last-minute order shuffle so some of the more "grown up" themed films would show before she arrived. Both during the screening and after in the Q&A it was wonderful to see such enthusiasm and passion for filmmaking in the southeast. Start 'em young.

The 4 o'clock feature first saw life as a series of webisodes, I learned in the post-screening Q&A. If that's the secret to Ronnie Gunter's assured feature debut, Solid Country Gold, I recommend it to all the students at the fest. Set in the Upstate around Blue Ridge and Traveller's Rest, it follows recently laid-off mill worker John and his pals as they set their sights on a country music career. Shot as a mock doc, Gold invites the audience to laugh (primarily at Hagen and director Gunter as Wayne) and hold their breath in equal measure as the will-they-or-won't-they-succeed story unfolds.

Saturday at 6 p.m. was one of the only time slots with two programs scheduled. The Nick hosted local filmmaker Jamie Clark's action-packed Adios Mr. Falcon, while the beautiful 701 Center for Contemporary Art screened three local docs: Canoeing for Kids, Healing Springs, and -- meta alert -- a doc about the restoration of the Center's building, called simply 701 Whaley.

Those folks there for the docs could sit tight while the rest hustled over from the Nick for the final screening of in-competition films. Horror/suspense shorts Going to the Beach and Steve Daniels' Dirt Dauber bracketed the program, the former creeping out the audience with a demonic child and some icky bugs while the latter marshaled live action, animation, and puppets to weave a nerve-wracking tale about the history of the Stumphouse Tunnel in Walhalla. I should probably say "Spoiler Alert," but another (big) bug memorably figures into the story. You've been warned.

What was sandwiched in the middle? Where to begin? Allegedly a work of the "3rd Grade of the Jesus Loves You School," The Gospel of Mark for Little Children (abridged version) was a phantasmagoric rendering of familiar Bible stories using animation and puppets. Let's just say I'd never before realize how much John the Baptist resembled Animal from the Muppets.

We moved from religion to politics with the out-there but on-point Lousianan satire The Eleutheromaniacs (look it up): Merica Parish's Next Top Commissioner. Reality TV, big pharma ads, and texting your vote -- it's all in there in the race between incumbent Fred Coal and challenger Sir Huckleberry Waffleshoe.

Good thing the Saturday night party was one room over from the screenings, because juror Roger Beebe's Films for One to Eight Projectors was so staggering I don't think we could have made it further. Roger showed work I'd seen (and loved) before, such as the Strip Mall Trilogy and TB TX Dance, and concluded with the mesmerizing eight-projector piece, set to a Teddy Reilly composition performed by Bang on a Can. To say it was magical sounds trite, but after all this summing up, I'm at a loss for words.

Which is a shame, because the food and music and art at the party deserve all my 50-cent ones. You'll just have to trust me it was amazing. So much so that I stayed up way past my bedtime. --Amy