Seventh Annual Film Festival Draws National Interest!

Seventh Annual Film Festival Draws National Interest


Story by Stephen Zegalia
Photos by Branden Andersen

This weekend the OpenLens Winter Short Film Festival featured a number of screenings, workshops, and competitions. Held at the University of Oregon Baker Center at 10th and High Street, the Downtown Initiative for the Visual Arts (DIVA) sponsored the festival. For the short film competition, first prize and honorable mention received prizes of $500 and $200, respectively. A vote by OpenLens attendees determined the $100 Audience Choice award.

This year’s host was Dan Schaefer, a storyboard artist, filmmaker, and conceptual designer whose work in film ranges from the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles cartoon show to Gus Van Sant’s Paranoid Park. The festival opened Friday night with a showing of Schaefer’s documentary film Mania, an exploration of the history of the Portland Trail Blazers as seen through the eyes of some of the most important people involved with the team, including Brandon Roy and Harry Glickman.

Saturday began with a storyboarding workshop run by Schaefer, in which he shared some of the artistic and conceptual lessons he has learned during his career. A showing of Schaefer’s latest film, Figaro, followed the workshop. Also a documentary, Figaro is about the collaboration between University of Louisville students and Polish students on a production of the opera, The Marriage of Figaro. It follows the production through rehearsals to the finished show, which was staged in both Kentucky and Poland. After the film, Schaefer and Philip Piele of the Eugene Opera hosted a Q&A session where they explained the making of the film and the differences between college and professional productions.

This was the first year that the short film competition drew entries from across the state, instead of just the Eugene area.

“We got forty submissions but could only accept twelve,” says Eric Ostlind, the DIVA program coordinator. “I sent out the standard rejection letter saying we had too many good submissions, but this year it was actually true.”

(From left to right) Eric Ostlind, program coordinator for DIVA; Dan Schaefer, the show's host and resident filmmaker; and a volunteer chat before the start of a screening Saturday night.

The event drew over hundred people to the screening Saturday night, where the short films ranged from music videos to high school basketball-themed projects. The winner of the $500 first prize was The Tell, a short about the story of two demons playing poker in order to win a human soul. Honorable Mention went to Mutate, a stop-motion animation about the evolution of several clay characters. The French-language Sous La Pluie received the Audience Choice award.

Sunday brought the Youth Visions’ Teen Video Competition, in which fifteen shorts made by Oregon residents aged thirteen to eighteen were screened and judged. The competition included shorts about archery accidents, dating, and an undead Beethoven.

Part of the reason for the festival’s success, Ostlind says, was that this was the first year it was held at the Baker Center instead of DIVA’s old space. Longtime DIVA supporter Leslie Oldenburg was happy about the change: “If you’ve ever seen a film at the old place, it was about half this size, and dark. It was terrible. This year is much better.”

Press release for the Derby Fest!

NEWS
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Kristofer Rommel
502-618-3192
derbycityfilmfest@yahoo.com

Kentucky & Regional Films Showcased At The Upcoming Derby City Film Festival in February
Film Festival includes 20 films from Kentucky filmmakers and 10 more from Indiana & Ohio.

LOUISVILLE, KY. (January 25th) —

Gritty crime dramas, quirky love stories, clay-mation sci-fi and stirring documentaries are just some of the themes being offered from films by Kentucky filmmakers at this year’s Derby City Film Festival.

In all 20 films from Kentucky filmmakers and 10 from Indiana & Ohio will be screened during the festival, which takes place February 18th through the 20th at the Clifton Center. Two more films are from filmmakers with ties to Kentucky, both documentaries. One, “Figaro: Living in the Moment of a Character” by D.V. Schaefer, focuses on a collaboration of the opera “Figaro” between the University of Louisville School of Music and the Szymanowski Academy of Music in Poland. The other, “Our House” from Greg King and David Teague, deals with an illegal squat house designed to be an alternative to New York City's impersonal homeless shelter system. Greg King is a native of Louisville. Both films screen on Saturday February 19th.

The festival opens with a group of short films from The Bob Rogers Group, a Louisville based production company and features seven films from four Kentucky filmmakers; Kristofer Rommel, Jacob Goldberg, Jake Snider and Steven Matthews. The screening group is at 6:00 PM on February 18th and is free to attend. Two more Kentucky films follow on Friday night; “The Very Worst Thing” from Georgetown filmmakers Michael Crisp and Andrew Moore, and “Hell is Full” from Dawson Springs filmmaker Steve Hudgens. “The Very Worst Thing” is a documentary about a 1958 bus crash in Floyd County and “Hell is Full” is narrative feature film about what happens...when Hell is full. Both films are finalists in their respective categories.

Three more Kentucky narrative feature films screen Saturday, two of which were shot in downtown Louisville. “Mountain Mafia” from Lexington filmmaker Cherokee Hall plays Saturday afternoon and “Almost Nothing Good Happens” and “Queens of the Dead” screen Saturday night.

“Almost Nothing Good Happens” is from New Albany filmmaker Tom Whitus, who’s last film “Sam Steel and the Junior Detective Agency” was a 2010 DCFF selection. “Queens of the Dead” is from Louisville filmmaker Ray Cart. Both films were shot in Downtown Louisville, feature a local cast and are World Premieres. Prior to the screening of “Almost Nothing Good Happens” will be a special screening of Louisville filmmaker Archie Borders latest film “Turnaround”.

On Sunday at 1:00 PM there is a “Kentucky Short Film” program which features six films from Kentucky filmmakers and one that was produced in Owensboro by California filmmaker Lee Goldberg who has written numerous television programs, including “Monk”. The other films being screened come from Simpsonville, Louisville, Somerset and Lexington.

The festival closes on Sunday February 20th with the film “Hitting the Nuts” from Cincinnati filmmaker Joe Boyd, which is a mockumentary about the “true” story of the 2009 Scott County, Indiana Poker Championship. Other films from Ohio and screening during the festival include the short films “<3 (Heart)”, “Bubbly” and “Meth”, all of which are from Cincinnati, and the feature film “Demons Rising” from Columbus.

Additional films from Indiana include the short films “The Mercy Seat” and “Crux” from New Albany Filmmaker Jared Hardy, “Bots” from Mary Pollio of Sellersburg, and the feature film “Tow” from Indianapolis filmmaker Adam Newell. In all 68 films from five countries will be screened during the 2011 Derby City Film Festival.

Full film information on all the films which screen during the festival is available on the festival website. The festival also includes panels, workshops, and filmmaker Q&A’s, which take place throughout the weekend. Tickets and passes are now on-sale on-line and start at $6.00.

The 2011 Derby City Film Festival runs February 18th - 20th at the Clifton Center in Louisville, Kentucky. More information on the upcoming festival can be found at the festival website: www.derbycityfilmfest.com or by calling the DCFF office at 502-618-3192