return to top
Saturday May 26th, 2007
12:00 NOON - Wild and Wonderful World Premieres
Fission
by Kun-I Chang, New York City, NY (5 min.)
World Premiere
A motion-graphic film about a man who sees himself as graffiti on the wall. It combines the technique of video shooting, 2-D motion graphic animation, and rotoscoping. Instead of just eye-popping visual style, it's a film that uses captivating motion and graphic images to tell a sparse but lush story.
Kill The Alphabet
by Waine Paris, Australia (10 min.)
World Premiere
A failed writer wants to kill himself only to find a publisher who wants to publish his suicide note. But when it all comes to bare, he realizes that the only way the book will really be successful is if he actually does kill himself.
Preservation
by Sara Zia Ebrahimi, Philadelphia, PA (8 min.)
World Premiere
Preservation is the story of a 5-year-old girl and her mother who have moved in with her grandmother while her father is away at war in Iraq. The daughter sees her grandmother storing food in the freezer and misunderstands the concept of 'preservation.' Using her child-like logic, she decides to freeze her pet hamster, Binky, to ensure that he will still be around when her father returns.
Blood of an Earthworm
by Brittaney Gravely, Jamaica Plain, MA (32 min.)
A non-traditional narrative juxtaposing found footage with office scenarios, creating a story of government conspiracy. A zombie-like existence is challenged by the "heroine" of the film. Screened at the Harvard Film Archive and the International Exposition of Experimental Cinema. Winner of Best Experimental Film at the 2007 Fargo Film Festival.
1:00 PM - Loss, Obsession, and Independence
I am Hearing the Last Bird
by Ryan Tebo, Hull, MA (5 min.)
World Premiere
Before the filmmaker’s grandmother went blind, sculpting was an important part of her life. After she went blind, she relied on her sense of touch to redefine her understanding of and place in the world surrounding her as she neared the end of her life.
The Goldfish
by Debbie Abrahamson, New York City, NY (25 min.)
An ailing flutist, obsessed with building the perfect aquarium for her goldfish, becomes consumed with the underwater world she is creating and sinks into her own psychological abyss.
Blue Dress
by Katie Stern, New York City, NY (20 min.)
Blue Dress is the story of twelve-year-old Hadley, who is devastated when her older brother goes away to camp, leaving her to endure an endless summer alone with her parents. But when the bookmobile rumbles into town one dusty morning, Hadley discovers a new source of companionship and begins to crave independence. Recipient of the Warner Bros. Pictures Film Production Award.
2: 00 PM - Central PA Pride: Local Filmmaker Spotlight
Fiend Without a Face: Aliens and Strangers
by Mitch Mathias, Camp Hill, PA (4 min.)
A raucous music video from the Harrisburg-area band Aliens and Strangers. The song is based on a B-Movie from the 1950's, and the video is a slight take-off from the film.
The Lonely Bliss of the Cannonball Luke
by Levi Abrino, State College, PA (11 min.)
Featuring stuntwork by world-record-holding human cannonball David Smith, Sr. in an homage to Werner Herzog's "Great Ecstasy of the Woodcarver Steiner". There’s even a love story, too. Filmmaker Levi Abrino is a Central PA native.
Earano
by Mechanicsburg native Luke Matheny (12 min.)
In “Earano,” writer, director and star Luke Matheny’s modern comic retelling of the 1897 play Cyrano de Bergerac, the protagonist is afflicted by large ears. With super sensitive hearing, he takes a job in a library and falls for the librarian, only to end up helping a janitor learn English so he can try to win her heart instead.
Memories from the Box Office
by Todd G. Bieber, Lewisburg, PA (9 min.)
World Premiere
This documentary tells the story of the historic Campus Theater in Lewisburg, PA, and its impact on the history of film. Filmmaker Todd G. Bieber is a festival favorite whose films have won several Artsfest Film Festival awards.
Dirt Track: Save the Speedway
by Jim Hollenbaugh and Derek Roden, Lancaster, PA (18 min.)
A documentary on the Selinsgrove, PA speedway, designed by well-known Hollywood stunt man and race driver Joie Chitwood and built in 1945, which is now struggling to stay alive. Popular local filmmaker Jim Hollenbaugh has completed many of his own fictional short films on a variety of formats as well as documentaries, most notably a popular featurette on the Falmouth, Pennsylvania Goat Races.
3:00 PM - Meet actor/director Frank Whaley!
Meet the festival’s special guest, actor/director Frank Whaley. He has starred in more than 50 films including Pulp Fiction, The Doors, Swimming with Sharks, and World Trade Center. His directing credits include Joe the King, The Jimmy Show, and the recently-completed New York City Serenade, starring Freddie Prinze Jr., Chris Klein, and Wallace Shawn.
Join us as Frank Whaley shares his experiences and answers questions from the audience.
Frank Whaley In-Person and a Screening of "The Jimmy Show"
The Jimmy Show
Directed by and starring Frank Whaley, New York City, NY (93 min.)
Jimmy O'Brien works in the stockroom of a grocery store, where he is reminded of his powerlessness by his boss. Only his love for his wife offers him comfort, but their obligations to his invalid grandmother and a new baby stifle their dreams. It is not until open-mike night at the local comedy club that he allows himself to do what he needs to do: run off at the mouth. Screened at the Toronto Film Festival and Sundance Film Festival.
7:00 - 9:00 PM
Meet and Greet Reception with Visiting Filmmakers
The Mantis Collective, 202 North Street
All are welcome to attend a reception for visiting filmmakers. Visit one of Harrisburg’s hottest galleries and talk film with filmmakers visiting the festival. Light refreshments provided.
12:00 - Midnight Madness at the Midtown!
Drawing Restraint 9
by contemporary media artist Matthew Barney, starring Björk and featuring the music of Will Oldham and Björk. (135 min.)
Shown in glorious 35mm at the Midtown Cinema, 250 Reily Street, Harrisburg
New York Times art critic Michael Kimmelman called Matthew Barney "the most important American artist of his generation."
return to top
11:00 AM - Post-Katrina New Orleans
Quincy and Althea
by Doug Lenox, Brooklyn, NY (10 min.)
A comedy about an old couple looking for a divorce in post-Katrina New Orleans. Shot on location in the aftermath of the storm. Best Short Film at the Memphis Film Festival.
Walking to New Orleans
by Lynn Estomin, Williamsport, PA (5 min.)
On the third anniversary of the war in Iraq, hundreds of U.S. veterans and survivors of Hurricane Katrina marched for Peace and Justice through the ninth ward of New Orleans.
Kamp Katrina (73 min.)
by David Redmon, Brooklyn, New York
Kamp Katrina is an unflinching and emotionally gripping story of Ms. Pearl, an eccentric New Orleans resident who transforms her backyard into a tent city for 14 people, just one month after Hurricane Katrina. In the tradition of Luis Bunuel's "Viridiana", Kamp Katrina is packed with idyllic intentions gone awry, where the very people targeted for help eventually turn against each other due to the wear and tear of living in tents. Surrounded by apocalyptic destruction and drunken revelry, Kamp Katrina is more realistic than "The Real World" as it brings the audience to a Lynchian world of 14 dispossessed strangers who all share awkward companionship. Yet, the mixture of personal troubles and social problems eventually pull them down paths of disturbing violence.
1:00 PM - Animation Hour!
In a Distance, But Within View
by You-jin Lee, Providence, RI (5 min.)
A visual poem depicting a moment of isolation, disillusionment and awareness through a young boy's internal atmosphere.
Evolution
by Elaine Lee, Providence, RI (3 min.)
Four different species, due to different circumstances, must change and adapt for their own survival.
Life Unkind
by Y. Grace Park, Providence, RI (3 min.)
A son is turned into a man, a husband, then a father; but he becomes none of them. It is a piece for those who we never learned to love.
Dear Alphabet
by Marina Budovsky, Portland, OR (8 min.)
Inspired by all things absurd, Dear Alphabet is an experimental cartoon, which takes place inside a law-forsaken world. Weaving a variety of hand-made Animation with video abstraction, this film tells the story of one girl and what happens after a monster eats her mother. When our hero still cannot escape the depths of chaos, a magnificent storm washes her sadness away.
Unravelling
by Sarah Cortese, Middletown, NJ (4 min.)
Using the metaphor of a ball of yarn, Unraveling knits together the memories of Marie Keller, an 87-year-old struggling with memory loss.
I Forgot My Name
by Matthew Cox, Miami, FL (5 min.)
A film that uses animation to confront the reality of the loss of self that occurs with Alzheimer's and dementia.
What Have I done?
by Eileen Reynolds, Albuquerque, NM (13 min.)
An experimental documentary that explores the filmmaker’s relationship to her grandmother while she reverts back into infancy during the last stages of Alzheimer's disease. The artist/filmmaker is shown creating infant-like characters which spring to life when the artist leaves the studio. Surreal and conceptually layered, this piece brings new meaning to clay animation.
Glimpse
by Dustin Grella, Medina, OH (9 min.)
This animated short using stop motion photography, is a study of the life of painter Willem de Kooning and a stream of consciousness narrative concerning the impermanence of life.
2:00 PM - A Very Rare Screening about a Very Rare Talent
A Skin Too Few: The Days of Nick Drake
by Jeroen Berkvens (48 min.)
This movie documents the 26 short years of singer/songwriter Nick Drake’s life (1948-1974), focusing on his brilliant music, as well as the talented musical and technical people who helped shape his sound in London in the late 60's & early 70's, as well as his sister Gabrielle, and haunting audio segments of both his late parents.
Unfortunately, Nick Drake was not of his time, and was never really appreciated during his short time here. But his 3 albums, Five Leaves Left, Bryter Later & Pink Moon, continue to indoctrinate new fans day after day, moved by the songs that were written almost 40 years ago. Shown at SXSW in March 2007.
Shown with:
Aurora and the Sea
by Charlotte Taylor, Iowa City, IA (1 min.)
World Premiere
A girl and her journey to the sea, told using stop-motion and computer animation.
3:00 PM - Laughter and Comedy: 7 Funny Films
Moon Cake
by Marty Stano, Wayne, MI (7 min.)
An eccentric being harnesses the light and energy of the moon to create a glorious cake - a moon cake- that he sends to Earth where characters dance and fight to obtain its magnificence. Anything goes on the night of a full moon!
We Desperately Need More Americans Like My Late Uncle Mack
by Neil Ira Needleman, Ketonah, NY (8 min.)
Filmmaker Neil Ira Needleman states, "My late Uncle Mack was a great American who personified liberal patriotism in everything he did and said. Here was a man who truly understood that America was a "Blessed land". And when he said "God bless America" (which he did quite often), he meant it!" Neil’s hilarious films have been festival favorites for many years.
Gandhi at the Bat
by Stephanie Argy and Alec Boehm, Hollywood, CA (11 min.)
Gandhi plays with Babe Ruth and the gang for a special game in NY. Does Gandhi hit the ball or does he stay a pacifist? Winner of the Eastman Kodak award for Best Narrative Short.
Paul and the Badger: Episode 2
by Paul Tarrago, London, England (10 min.)
The Badger and the Squirrel relay the world through a lens. Equal parts moral instruction and narrative play, mediated through the forced fit of an experimental filmmaker as children's entertainer. Paul Tarrago’s humorous films combine experimental filmmaking with a comedic sensibility.
Raspire, Mon Ami
by Chris Nabholz, Sarasota, FL (3 min.)
A twisted animation about a young girl who finds a head near a guillotine, and becomes best friends with it. Funny, sarcastic, and strange. A dark comedy.
Speaking of Yiddish: A Memoir About Yiddish-induced Paranoia
by Neil Ira Needleman, Ketonah, NY (7 min.)
Filmmaker Neil Ira Needleman states, “Yiddish is a joyous, delightful, humorous, expressive, emotive, poignant, and touching language. So why does it make me uncomfortable? Why does something as innocent and a rarely spoken old-world language make me feel paranoid? There's a reasonable, logical, perfectly sensible reason. You shouldn't know from it! Or maybe you should." Another hilarious film from a festival favorite.
Dear Sweet Emma
by John, Derek, and Loraine Cernak, Winston-Salem, NC (5 min.)
As the search is given up for Emma's latest husband, Tucker, a private look reveals that Emma has a secret and uncontrollable dark side. The sweetest angel and favorite citizen of the town of Fishtickle would indeed pose an uncomfortable dilemma for all if her problem were ever found out.
4:00 PM - Small-Town Life in the '70's
The Garage
by Carl Thibault, Burbank, CA (94 min.)
A mechanic at his father's garage during the late seventies, Matt dreams about leaving his small town existence and pursuing grander ambitions. But strong feelings for a new girlfriend and deep family bond's may prevent Matt's ultimate escape, despite pressure from best friend Schultz to take off immediately. 'The Garage' offers much more than the average coming-of-age story, adding a poignant sense of reality to life in a small town and the bonds that form there.
Shown with:
Gone
by Andrew Watson, Newport Beach, CA (5 min.)
World Premiere
Bill Madden brings the worlds of film and music together with a metaphorical environmental warning alert. This compelling video raises questions, fusing art, social commentary, and music to spark debate on what it means to be alive and grapple with the consequences of environmental change. The film is directed by Andrew Watson of Current TV, an interactive cable TV channel founded by Al Gore.
7:30 PM – Festival Awards Ceremony and Reception
Stage Two Underground
All are welcome to attend the festival awards ceremony, where the judges will announce the winning films in the categories of Best Documentary, Best Animation, Best Experimental, Best Narrative, and Best of Festival. Light refreshments provided. Then, stick around for more fun to follow.
8:00 PM – "Hey! Ho! Let's Go!" – Rock Out with the Ramones
Rock 'n' Roll High School
Directed by Emmy winner Allan Arkush (93 min.)
Starring THE RAMONES.
Vince Lombardi High School keeps losing principals to nervous breakdowns because of the students' love of rock 'n' roll and their disregard of education. The putative leader of the students is Riff Randell, who loves the music of the Ramones. A new principal, the rock-music-hating Miss Evelyn Togar, is brought in and promises to put an end to the music craze. When Miss Togar and a group of parents attempt to burn a pile of rock records, the students take over the high school, joined by the Ramones, who are made honorary students. When the police are summoned and demand that the students evacuate the building, they do so, which leads to an explosive finale.
return to top
11:00 AM - A Study in Emotion
Morning Diminuet
by Alex Skitolsky, Decorah, IA (11 min.)
World Premiere
A shut-in's dance with diminishment on a Midwest, winter-blue morning. The objects unsettle, shift and sway - insinuating self-reflection upon his routine and deriding his isolation.
With or Without Reason
by Nathan Silver, Lexington, MA (11 min.)
World Premiere
A younger brother, faced with his sister's wedding and impending departure from the family farm, resorts to childish tactics in an effort to maintain life as he knows it.
Paper Lanterns
by Rebecca Hu, Ontario, Canada (16 min.)
Winter is here again. But each day blends into each other and the people in V’s world seem to be slowly slipping away from her as she gradually recoils into her world of insecurities. Caught in a vortex of existence between the future and the past, her demons and her dreams, V is finally jolted into a revelation that arrives too late.
Moth To Light
by Elizabeth Strickler, Atlanta, GA (10 min.)
Through a dark and tense atmosphere twists the horrific coming of age of Muriel. Caught between the domesticated world of her mother and a dark and luring force in the garden, she contemplates what to do with the baby her mother dotes on and whose origins are unknown.
12:00 NOON – Pushing the Envelope: Adventures in Film
The Touch
by Vanessa Woods, San Francisco, CA (3 min.)
The Touch is a meditation on Anne Sexton’s poem of the same name. The film examines melodies within spoken, written and visual language and how they can interact. Because the subject of the poem deals specifically with the idea of touch, the film sustains a highly tactile, textural quality.
What The Water Saw
by Vanessa Woods, San Francisco, CA (3 min.)
What the Water Saw explores a mystery at the depths of the sea. The film is structured to mimic the ocean’s moods, creating a varied psychological space for the viewer. Equally important, the visual construction moves between form (appearance) and formlessness (withdrawal) echoing both the ocean’s tides, and the idea of creation and destruction (death).
Intersticed
by Deon Kay, Iowa City, IA (3 min.)
An interstice is an interval of space or time between things or parts. The film attempts to consider - if not immanently, at least poetically - the distinction between a thing as an autonomous unit and a part as an object of experience. One is unknowable; the other, unnamable.
Secrets
by Charlotte Taylor, Iowa City, IA (4 min.)
Hand processed shots of shadows combined with optically printed photograms. Contact printed with a manipulated found footage optical soundtrack
All That Remains
by Stephanie Maxwell, Fairport, NY (6 min.)
All That Remains is an intricate mosaic of sequences of animated abstract images and musical passages that create a chaotic yet coherent and tightly choreographed portrayal of figurative matter in perpetual decomposition.
Bed Ballet
by Jennifer Beth Guerin, Tucson, AZ (5 min.)
Bed Ballet is a collaborative video exploring notions of the everyday (beds and bodies). Through a lens of enchantment, it evokes a feeling of connection and play, while simultaneously suggesting birth, death, intimacy, loss, and grief.
The Space Within Memory
by April Grayson, Oxford, MS (6 min.)
An abstract journey through the filmmaker's memory and emotions about her hometown in the Mississippi Delta.
Ohm
by Yoko Okumura, Golden Valley, MN (6 min.)
Abstraction and Color in cooking and forms.
Ovulation
by Dark Foterek, Vancouver, BC (6 min.)
The discharge of a mature ovum from the ovary.
Carne
by Miruna Boruzescu, Romania (8 min.)
A disturbing film of a man trying to change into meat.
1:00 PM – A Potpourri: Hot Soup, Cold Meat, and Hard Cash
Soup Stories
by Elena Topouzoglou, Mobile, AL (3 min.)
In a house on top of a hill, in a distant land lives an ageless toucan all by himself. He cooks up stories with his magical blue pot and scoops them with his wooden ladle to serve to his friends.
Absolute Zero
by Alan Woodruff, Australia (27 min.)
An account of the grim and ironic death by freezing of a man trapped inside a refrigerated meat wagon, told using a combination of archival and imagined material to speculate on the man's final hours.
Voila l'histoire
by Elias Brossoise, Mexico (20 min.)
A stirring commentary on the traffic of weapons in Kosovo. The film has played at several leading politically-oriented film festivals in the US and Canada.
2:00 PM – An International Perspective: Films from Abroad
Agnieska
by Martin Gauvreau, England (12 min.)
Joy and pain go hand in hand when an angelic being is delivered the box of eternity and subjected to the fateful decision of the gods.
Press Play
by Michael Stanmore, England (10 min.)
In a near future world, economics and business competition has led the British government to start banning the various forms of artistic expression. It has been decided that such pursuits are a distraction from the more important task of strengthening the economy. In the dark corners of Britain, underground groups gather to play and listen to what little music there is left. They must always stay one step ahead of the police to survive and are often brutally attacked.
Yggdrasll: The World Tree
by Christopher Spencer-Lowe, Canada (17 min.)
Yggdrasll,(ig-dra-sil), The World Tree, is a travelogue of sorts through mythic landscapes. A travelogue based on the universe and legends of the Vikings but re-told with images from our own world, creating a modern mythology rooted in ancient lore.
Supreme of Turkeys
by Blick, Paris, France (11 min.) .
Wild and nihilist portrait of a rock’n roll band. At the beginning, it’s a common interview. And then, the video explodes itself and the interview enters in the labyrinth of several games disturbing all the codes and also what we are expecting from an interview. With bricks of the band self-representation, a kind of anti-portrait appears. The perception of the audience is also disturbed. Many ways of understanding are possible. Which one are you going to choose?
3:00 PM – Outside the Box: The Next Level of Filmmaking
Vitruvius’ Toybox
by Dennis Iannuzzi, Philadelphia, PA (6 min.)
Experimental animation that explores the relationship between motion graphic techniques, electronic music, typography and the use of traditional graphic design ideas as a way of visually organizing an animated film.
Startle Pattern
by Eric Patrick, Greensboro, NC (13 min.)
The interior space of a puppet becomes increasingly reflective, revealing the artifice of his own creation. The film is a farewell card to the film medium. In this late age of emulsion, this essay is a call of the cinematic gaze to a state of crisis. The film functions as a deconstruction of spectatorship and authorship in the moving image.
Something Awful
by Clifton Childree, Miami, FL (32 min.)
This film takes place at a turn-of-the-century harbor and has the look and feel of a lost vintage slapstick film dug up from within a haunted vault. It is the story of a fisherman who discovers, after having an oyster drink for constipation, that he has caught a Victorian woman’s derriere in his trap. There is a strange connection with this butt to an arcade game called “Sh*tty Britches” at the local bar. It’s low tide, the antique cloud is passing through town, the pudding has collapsed, and something strange is going to happen.
4:00 PM – Life on the Fringes
Dear Mr. Peasant
by James Roxbury, Harrisburg, PA (87 min.)
A documentary that exposes the loopholes of squatting and the local squatters of the Harrisburg area and what they deal with on a daily basis. Featuring beats by local DJ Ill Cosby and music by local band Brave The Day.
FESTIVAL ENDS AT 5:30PM.
(61 films)
|
