August 29th, 2012
AWARDS PROGRAM
August 29th is when we honor the most critically received films from our program with awards at the Oregon Independent Film Festival Awards Ceremony on Aug 29th at 7:30 and immediately followed by the Best Picture Screening of “Toad Road” at 8:00 and surrounded throughout with screenings from of our most recognized films.
Benny Loves Killing
Dir: Ben Woodiwiss
A film student struggles to keep her funding for her thesis, a horror film, but is challenged by her inability to compromise. In this first feature film from Look/Think Films, we see a young woman struggle with her blindness to the horror in her own life, as she attempts to protect herself in numbness and distrust. Against this grippingly rendered claustrophobic emotional landscape, Benny must face her responsibility in introducing more horror into the world.
UK
Blood Film
Dir: Lara Salmon & Kevin Walker
Brakhage meets Bram Stoker in this film literally made with the filmmakers’ blood. Directors Lara Salmon and Kevin Walker each took a paintbrush and dipped it in a cup of their own blood and painted over eighty feet of film to make this experimental feature.
USA
Cantata in C Major
Dir: Ronnie Cramer
Director Ronnie Cramer pushes the edge of experimental filmmaking in this playful short composed of 605 film clips. Audio is converted from analog audio to digital music data, and then visually represented as music notation. The result is a fun and artful assemblage of electronic sounds.
USA
Everything is Everyday
Dir: Patrick Tarrant
An entrancing portrait of a window cleaner, composed of 54 shots recorded over different days. The film is a worthwhile attempt to find beauty in the quotidian, or to reveal it as it becomes obscured by familiarity and automatic recognition. We see how lights and patterns change, in this strange space within the city between inside and outside.
UK
Heavy Lifting
Dir: James Macdonald
Director James Macdonald shows a rare virtuosity and understanding about the subtler aspects of filmmaking, giving us an portrait of two slightly off-beat characters becoming friendly, with a deft touch that evokes a wide range of emotions with sensitivity and respect. A quiet masterpiece.
USA
Here Build Your Homes
Dir: Cameron Beyl
Owen and Rosie invite their significant others and friends up to their family’s cabin in the redwoods forest for a Fourth of July weekend getaway. A relaxing vacation gives way to turmoil when the campers begin to doubt the true identities and intentions of two of their new guests.
USA
Just Before Dawn (Juste avant l’aube)
Dir: Roman Quirot
An American in Paris tries to make his last night in the magical city last forever, before heading home to face his mother and brother after his father’s suicide. With an overwhelming urge for a hamburger and whisky, he wanders the streets. A charming nod to nouvelle vague, Quirot shows a sympathetic portrait of a man who doesn’t want to face the grief and loss of his father’s death.
USA
Later Than Usual
Dir: David Hovan
Skillfully underlines the subtleties in the day in the life of an elderly couple. The non-verbal interactions between the two make for sometimes funny and at other times poignant moments throughout the film. This couple has lived so long together that they have nothing left to say to each other. Living in an isolated state in their old house, they go about their daily routines, until...
Canada
Men Who Don’t Work
Dir: Andrew Franks & Alexander Atkins
Based on the short story by Raymond Carver, Men Who Don’t Work follows a small town postman who becomes obsessed with an unusual family that moves into a house on his route. An examination of a man unquestionably sure of his beliefs in the face of the ambiguities of 1960s America, the film was shot entirely with a local cast and crew in Portland.
USA
Moon Cakes
Dir: Chang Liu
Moon Cakes is a simple story fashioned as a modern day fairy tale in China. A lonely boy attempts to make his dream come true through the delicacies of a dessert made only on the moon.
USA
Occupy and Repeat
Dir: Nelson Carvajal
The Occupy Wall Street movement was one of the most heavily documented social events in recent memory. Another entry in a body of appropriated videos, ‘Occupy and Repeat’ illustrates the police brutality inflicted on the peaceful demonstrators and also comments on the theme of repetition in the media.
USA
One Night Stand and Consequences (One Shot et petites conséquences)
Dir: Sylvain Giannetto
Handsome Nicolas may have been rolling through life treating every girl as a one night stand, but when he hooks up with Nina at a night club he’s got a lot to face the next morning – including her father. Part sexy thriller, black comedy and angry critique looks at the consequences of a shallow world where love is as disposable as a condom.
France
Overunity
Dir: Mark Gerstein
Part of a multi-chapter essay film that blends fiction and documentary, Overunity shows us a father and son who stumble upon a Theory of Everything that could change history and heal the rift between them. Grand in its scope like any cosmology, the film explores intellectual ideas of perpetual motion and infinite regress within the 20th century context of the energy crisis, ecological disaster and political cynicism.
USA
Parkinson’s Dreams Of Me
Dir: Pam Kuntz
An untrained, but graceful and expressive, dancer performs to an original cello score and short, dream-like interview excerpts. Featured performer, Rick Hermann, was diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease 20 years ago, in 1998, and has been living with the symptoms for one-third of his life. Parkinson’s Dreams About Me captures and documents the emotional intensity of Hermann’s experience through the film maker’s attention to his graceful movements, both subtle and obvious.
USA
Petit
Dir: Jenny Kroik
In a world where computer animation pushes towards breathtaking realism, Petit attempts to re-examine the potential of analog animation, using the computer for recording and keeping editing to a minimum. Influenced by the Soviet animated films of the prolific Soyuz Multfilm studio, this animated short looks at the lives of young professionals and intellectuals.
USA
Pow Pow Pow
Dir: Dianne Bellino
Almost 40, hipster Danny is a sometimes artist who recreates himself as a clown for kids’ birthdays. Finding himself before a tough crowd of suburban parents and kids, he has an unexpected moment of insight. In this era of extended childhood, Director Dianne Bellino explores the themes of aging, connection and alienation, and regret.
USA
Rickets
Dir: Brian Barth
An idyllic boat trip down the Hudson River becomes transformed in this experimental short which traverses the transition from white to black. In-camera camera distortion gives us a negative landscape responding like harmonics of sound.
USA
Sid the Killer
Dir: Harry Teitelman
Shortly before the director’s charismatic grandfather Sid died, at 95, filmmaker Harry Teitelman recorded him telling some of his crazy stories. Presented here is an animated retelling to accompany the posthumous audio recording of this tragic tale which Grandpa Sid recounted with his signature sardonic humor.
USA
Spotted
Dir: Jeremy Murphy
This animated short portrays the remarkable self-protective ability of our minds which can undergo an intense moment of unexpected change and fear — then just as easily dismiss it once the crisis is over. An exploration of egocentrism.
Canada
Tag und Nacht (Day and Night)
Dir: Sabine Derflinger
In this erotic drama, two university girls from the country who’ve been best friends since childhood entertain the idea of working together as call girls. They form a pact to go into it together, promising to both quit if one of them stops liking it. Starting from this engaging premise, the film is a deft portrayal of 2 personalities and an examination of the relation between sex and money.
Austria
The Particulars
Dir: Ayse Altinok
In this moody short, David, a business traveler, wants to escape from a hotel room where he is trapped by the iPhone, laptop and Ipad his company has given him. The film accomplishes a great deal, showing us the character losing his sense of time and space as well as his autonomy. Gus Van Sant said of the film: “It’s difficult to entertain an audience for 25 minutes with one character and one location but The Particulars achieves the hardest thing.”
USA
Toad Road
Dir: Jason Banker
This surreal psychological drama gives a truthful look at human behavior while crafting a current of unease. Subtle horror permeates this tale of James, a part-time pizza worker addicted to taking situations to extremes, hurting himself physically and avoiding any type of relationship that demands openness. His friends enable this behavior until he meets Sara. But she soon becomes immersed in experimentation with drugs and finds herself unleashing something locked away since childhood. His life is torn apart by her...
USA
Troubled Tommy’s Tales of Woe
Dir: Stuart Allan
In this colorful animated short, complete with a moral summary at the end, director Stuart Allan brings us the character of Troubled Tommy, who hates his baby brother and asparagus. When Tommy comes up with a plan to avoid eating what his mother tells him to, he does indeed make a “horrible, horrible” mistake. An ironic and grim cautionary tale about the familiar conflict of sibling rivalry.
USA
While You Were Out
Dir: Noah Lambie
Like a heart in the blender, While You Were Out finds faith in nothing. Part documentary, experimental, animation and musical, the film follows a man swimming in memories of violence, drugs and loneliness, examining transitions between experiences through the kino eye.
USA
Within My Nature
Dir: Heather Sparks
A kaleidoscopic, apocalyptic fantasy generated from digital images of human skin. Sickly sweet Fabergé-esque nature scenes open into each other to reveal new worlds, alluding to transformation and self-invention in a world where self is increasingly defined by our technological economy.