So stoked but also a half basket case about what’ll go down this Sunday at the Oscars, I decided to stay in this Friday and get indie. Tonight, I screened the following two Lake County Film Festival documentary feature submissions:

Title: “An Alternative to Slitting Your Wrist”
Description: In April of 2006, Owen Lowery found himself in the psychiatric ward for attempted suicide. He decides he needs a drastic change in his life so that he will not return. After making a list of 52 things he wants to do before he dies — stop drinking, get stung by a scorpion, ride in a hot air balloon, burn my regrets to the ground — Owen takes one year of his life to complete his list. He chases his demons instead of being chased by them and documents his journey along the way to complete his final task: Have this film played at a film festival.
Note: The trailer follows.
Note: This is a Chicago-based filmmaker.

Title: “Urban Explorers: Into the Darkness”
Description: Urban Explorers plunges into the world of urban exploration, a growing international subculture of adventure-seekers who explore places where most people would never dream of going. They crawl through storm drains and sewers, wander around faded tourist attractions, and rappel into long-forgotten government sites. Some do it for the thrill of being where they’re not supposed to be and not knowing what lies ahead. Others do it to document places before they are demolished. The bond they share is the desire to explore an urban landscape that is almost completely unappreciated or simply forgotten. Urban Explorers follows Max Action, Katwoman, Turbozutek, Slim Jim on their “missions” to infiltrate abandoned hospitals and “lunatic asylums,” the decaying “House of the Future” in Florida, and even the forbidden Catacombs in Paris. Urban Explorers won Best Feature at the Boston Underground Film Festival.
Note: A production still from the film follows.