Florida Film Festival coverage Day 2

    It was a long long day for me at the Florida Film Festival today. I had one volunteer shift to complete myself and then I spent the rest of the day watching films. I spent 2pm to 11om at the Winter Park regal watching two short film programs (short programs) and two features.  The first short program that I watched was Shorts #2: Scales of Justice 1 and Shorts #4 Love Me Not 2.  My favorite film from Shorts#2 was a film entitled Thule which made its world premier at the festival.  It was about men in the service working out of a secluded artic base where the only good thing is news from home.  The short starred Chris Marquette (The Girl Next Door) and Noel Fisher. The only part that stunk a little bit was that there were some audio problems during the screening of this and two other shorts in the program, which made it heard to hear.  Luckily the director was very nice and eager to answer questions after the screening, which was great to hear about the film and invited people to stop him during the festival for a chance at a proper viewing of his film.
     In Shorts #4 there were a lot of films that I enjoyed.  This set included Oscar winning short narrative God of Love which was an adorable film with an original idea around an age old question, "Can't I get this person to like me?".  One film that hit many audience members over the head with surprise was The Candidate, which features well known character actor Robert Picardo (Stargate: Atlantis, Star Trek Voyager).
    My first feature length film was called Norman.  It was about a boy that was a very self loathing individual that accidentally gets a rumor started that he has cancer.  The film stars Dan Byrd (Easy A, The Hills Have Eyes, Cougar Town) Emily VanCamp (Brothers and Sisters) and Richard Jenkins (Six Feet Under, Hall Pass).
     The second film that I watched was The Happy Poet.  The film is about a man that has hit a few dead ends in his life and decides to make a small change in his life by opening a vegetarian food cart.  The film has a simple direction and a some interesting performances.  The director also wrote, produced and starred in the film.
  All of the films/ programs have at least another showing coming up this week (The Happy Poet has two more screenings) and I would suggest that anyone go ahead attend anyone of them.

1. Shorts #2 Line up
Inside Out
DIRECTED BY JIM O’DOHERTY
USA, 2010, 24 MIN
SOUTHEAST PREMIERE
Producer Denis Leary presents this hilarious glimpse at the privileged inmates and blue collar corrections officers inside a minimum security prison.

We’re Leaving
DIRECTED BY ZACHARY TREITZ
USA, 2010, 12.5 MIN
SOUTHEAST PREMIERE
Rusty and Veronica have 30 days to vacate their mobile home and find a new place that will accommodate Chopper, their 19-year-old pet alligator.

LaSalle de Jeux (The Playroom)
DIRECTED BY TIM MILLER
USA, 2010, 5 MIN
IN FRENCH WITH ENGLISH SUBTITLES
WORLD PREMIERE
Amid a moody black-and-white tableau of cigarette smoke and low-key lighting, two existentialists discuss (en Français, natch) the nature of art, life, and cheese.

Captain Fork
DIRECTED BY G.J. ECHTERNKAMP
USA, 2010, 13 MIN
EAST COAST PREMIERE/2ND US SHOWING
Lyle wonders what his life would be like if his four-year-old, Fox News-loving son were to tragically die. His conclusion: it’d be pretty sweet. A darkly funny new work from the director of Frank & Cindy (FFF 2007).

Spider Fang!
DIRECTED BY JUSTIN PERKINSON
USA, 2010, 2 MIN
2ND US SHOWING
A cute little girl and her goofy grandpa make scary faces at each other—some scarier than others.

After the Snow
DIRECTED BY BROOKE SEBOLD
USA, 2010, 9 MIN
EAST COAST PREMIERE/2ND US SHOWING
In the dead of winter, a very pregnant woman with a gun shows up on the doorstep of the man who raped her eight months ago. A powerful new drama from the director of “The Last Cigarette” (FFF 2010).

Thule
DIRECTED BY ROBERT SCOTT WILDES
USA, 2010, 27 MIN
WORLD PREMIERE
For men in the arctic desolation of a Cold War air base, mail from home means everything—even if retrieving it means risking their lives.


2. Shorts #4
California Romanza
DIRECTED BY EVA MENDES
USA, 2010, 19 MIN
WORLD PREMIERE
No one wants to spend Christmas Eve tracking down her aunt and uncle’s lost cat, but Lena may luck out with love after all. The directorial debut of noted actress Eva Mendes stars Christina Ricci, Daniel Stern, and Kathy Najimy.

¡Una Carrerita, Doctor! (A Doctor’s Job)
DIRECTED BY JULIO O. RAMOS
USA, 2010, 10.5 MIN
IN SPANISH WITH ENGLISH SUBTITLES
EAST COAST PREMIERE
A doctor, forced by circumstance to also drive a cab, finds himself challenged by his latest fare.

God of Love
DIRECTED BY LUKE MATHENY
USA, 2010, 18 MIN
A love-struck lounge singer is gifted with a box of darts worthy of Cupid in this Oscar-nominated short. Winner of the 2011 Academy Award for Best Live Action Short!

Ex-Sex
DIRECTED BY MICHAEL MOHAN
USA, 2010, 9 MIN
EAST COAST PREMIERE
She calls him, suggesting one last hook-up for fun. Can he do just sex, though?

The Strange Ones
DIRECTED BY CHRISTOPHER RADCLIFF AND LAUREN WOLKSTEIN
USA/FRANCE, 2011, 14 MIN
EAST COAST PREMIERE
Stranded on the road, a young boy and his older brother each ask a hotel clerk for help in this short from the director of “Cigarette Candy” (FFF 2010 Special Jury Award-winner).

The Candidate
DIRECTED BY DAVID KARLAK
USA, 2010, 20 MIN
WORLD PREMIERE
If you could kill off your most aggravating co-worker and get away with it, would you?

Florida Film Festival coverage Day 1

The Florida Film Festival 2011 (20th year) started today with film, food and a little gluttony on my part.  For the Opening Night Screening the audience was privy to the HBO film Project Nim, which also screened at Sundance.  The film is a documentary about a chimp that was raising entirely by humans for the first few years of its life and almost as if he were a human. The film is a combination of a cautionary tale of treating animals as humans as it is a film about the exploitation of animals for human gain. Many people that I talked to very much enjoyed that film and as an added bonus two of the participants in the film were in the audience.  Unfortunately because I was a little hungry I did not stay for the post screening Question and Answer session and headed over to the party.
  There was samples pf food from many different places in the area.  There were booths for K Restaurant, Black Bean Cafe, Ravenous Pig, 4 Rivers, Eden Bar (Enzian Theater), Whole Foods and there was alcohol thanks to Greygoose Vodka.  Black Bean had some empanadas, a Spanish version of a Shepard's Pie and plaintain chips. Eden Bar had a pepper tart as well as fried aligator.  Everything was fantastic and I am currently full.  Tomorrow looks to be another crazy day and I can't wait.

Rain Wilson is going to save you

     James Gunn, the writer of the live action Scooby Doo films and writer director of Slither, has decided to take a comic book type turn.  With the film Super he has created his own super hero out of the average Joe that has found something to fight for.  Rain Wilson is Frank D'Arbo a man that takes a lot of knocks but it isn't until his wife falls under the influence of a drug dealer that he breaks.  Frank transforms himself into The Crimson Bolt to go out and fight crime.
     Other actors that appear in the film are Ellen Paige, Kevin Bacon and Liv Tyler.  According to imdb the film has not had many showings and its showing at the festival may be part of the film's official domestic release.  So if you believe in truth, and kicking evil to the curb this could be your movie to check out at the Florida Film Festival.
April 16 at 6:30pm at the Winter Park Regal
April 17 at 7:30pm at the Winter Park Regal
for Super page at Florida Film Festival website click here