Thursday, April 17
10:00 AM
Devil's Oven:
The Fire in the Heart of the Little Cities of Black Diamonds
Documentary 52 min.
Valda Lewis - Cleveland Heights, OH vlewis@goodwinvideo.com
New Straitsville is home to the longest burning mine fire in the history of mining in North America. It is also often referred to as the birthplace of the United Mine Workers.
The films origin tells a troubling story of an age when the mining of fossil fuels, a prevailing concept of progress, and corporate power overtook the human capacity to provide fair and decent wages and working conditions, to plan for a sustainable market and industry, and to consider the short or long term consequences to the environment from which the ore was being extracted.
The documentary features tales of migration, mining disputes, mine fire tours and moonshine. The story concludes with present-day environmental and social restoration projects.
11:00 AM
Troubles Sens
Short 10 min.
Ana Condo - New York, NY aacondo@aol.com
For in Paris, some liaisons remain dangerous. New Year’s Eve and the strange games old lovers play.
11:30 AM
In Silent Spaces
Short 13 min.
Safiya Songhai - New York, NY safiya@mpirefilms.com
After the 9/11 attacks claim her mother's life, Sade becomes so consumed with receiving signs from the dead that she neglects the world of the living. When her young son, ventures off into a deserted graveyard, that is everything but empty, Sade's greatest wish, and worst fear will come to pass.
12:00 PM
Simulacra
Microfilm 4:06 min.
Tatchapon Lertwirojkul - New York, NY tatchapon_me@yahoo.com
In the vast galaxy there is one robot planet which every natural life form is extinct. One day, a robot finds a piece of organic life existing in this world. The robot becomes very excited about his discovery and wants to save the organic life form. Unfortunately, the life form exists in a dangerous and restricted area on his planet. Finally, He decides to risk and save that piece. Then his adventure begins.
12:10 PM
Spiral Bound
Microfilm 4:45 min.
Tobias Roediger - Athens, OH
tobias@ravdesign.com
A man with a penchant for losing things is united with a magical notebook with the ability to find anything—until something special goes missing. Spiral Bound was scripted, shot, edited and completed in just two days as a part of the 48 Hour Film Project in Cleveland, Ohio. http://www.ravdesign.com
12:20 PM
Inside
Microfilm 5:00
Mayumi Komuro, - Astoria NY komumayu12@hotmail.com
One day, a girl found out that she's unable to get pregnant. All shocked and devastated, she went back home alone. And there, right in the middle of her room, she found a huge cocoon. Desperate to have a child, she looked after the cocoon. Then, strange things began to happen...
12:30 PM
Joe
- Non Competition Festival Screening Microfilm 5:00 min.
12:45 PM
Change Comes Knocking
The Story of the North Carolina Fund
Documentary 59 min.
Rebecca Cerese - Durham NC rcerese@mindspring.com
Change Comes Knocking is the tumultuous story of a bi-racial anti-poverty organization, called the North Carolina Fund (NCF) that boldly confronted the explosive issues of race, class and politics during the turbulent 1960s. In 1963, progressive Democratic governor, Terry Sanford took an audacious step to attack the entrenched poverty he found throughout his state. The Fund directly empowered poor people, including African Americans, so they could themselves ruffle the feathers of the establishment, all too comfortable with the racial divisions that were the foundations of the economic status quo. Add to that a charismatic Fund employee named Howard Fuller, who spoke of Black Power and urged a more confrontational approach, and the backlash came swiftly.
2:15 PM
Mountain Top Removal
Documentary 74:00 min
Michael O’Connell - Pittsboro, NC mikeoc@embarqmail.com
News of environmental exploitations of other nations is at the forefront of our awareness. What's happening in our own country, our own backyard, is neglected or ignored. Director Mike O'Connell, though, points a sharp lens at the harsh coal-mining practice called mountaintop removal, a process that involves clear cutting and then the removal of up to 1,000 vertical feet of mountain by explosives. With breathtaking helicopter footage of the Appalachian Mountains, O'Connell effectively captures the personality of the landscape and its culture. He is there when citizens, students and evangelical environmentalists confront the nation's fourth largest coal company. As Southern Appalachia's mountains are leveled to access coal seams for cheap electricity the communities standing in their way don't have a chance. Or do they?
The film follows the anti-mountaintop removal movement from 2005 to 2007 and includes interviews with Coal Valley residents and activists from the group Mountain Justice Summer, including Larry Gibson, Ed Wiley and Maria Gunnoe. Donna the Buffalo, Sarah Hawker, Jim Lauderdale, Julie Miller and John Specker provide music for the film.
Friday April 18
10:00 AM
Anthropophobia
Young Film Maker 10:00 min.
Zachary Groff - McLean VA zdgroff@cox.net
Jim is a young man suffering from a common fear: fear of people. When Jim suffers from a fear-induced panic attack, neither he nor anyone else can keep his mind grounded in reality.
10:15 AM
Speaking Truth to Power
The Story of the Farm Labor Organizing Committee
Young Film Maker 10:00 min
Melissa Mergner - Silver Spring, MD leemergner@comcast.net
This documentary, by high school students, is about the farm labor activist Baldemar Velasquez and his organization, the Farm Labor Organizing Committee.
10:30 AM
Meter
Short 21:00 min
Garrick Lane - Conover, NC manwiththecam@roadhousepictures.com
http://www.roadhousepictures.com
Set inside a Taxi cab the dialogue between the cab driver and occupant leads one on a psychological thriller that will keep you spell bound. One bad fare, one bad proposition, one bad night will change two men’s lives forever.
11:00 AM
What Ana Left Behind
Short 9:00
Catherine Rios - Lewisburg, PA carr33@psu.edu
11:25 AM
Joe Mover
Short 15:27
Gabe Fazio & Lev Gorn - Sunnyside, NY fontbone@bmail.com
"JOE MOVER" is a quirky unconventional blue-collar drama about small people with big dreams.
Joe is an over-the-hill laborer, who has worked "off the books" his entire life. One day, he twists off a soda cap and wins a shot to fulfill on his childhood dream of becoming a NASCAR driver, which would finally give him the means to take care of his old man.
Our story is set in a dying industrial complex, in Long Island, New York, featuring a cast of oddball characters who will all be changed forever as they witness Joe fight for his American Dream.
11:45 AM
Gravida
Short 22:00 min.
Lucas McNelly - Pittsburg, PA lmcnelly@gmail.com
A woman's desire for companionship prevents her from being completely honest with a potential lover.
12:15 PM
Moving Mountains
Documentary 44:32 min.
Daniel Anderson - Cleveland, OH Dpa4@case.edu
Everyone came from somewhere. A large number of people in the industrial Midwest came from southern states like West Virginia and Kentucky. What drove them to leave friends, family, and familiarity? Could it be the same motivation that led many people from Northern Ireland to come to America in the 18th Century? Is that original move still in motion today? By looking backward to see forward, this independent documentary explores the links between the rust belt of the 21st Century and the Ulster Plantation of 400 years ago. By mixing interviews with noted scholars, industrial films of the 1950's and interviews with people who made the journey north, this film presents history in a personal and abstract manner, pushing the form of the historical documentary.
1:10 PM
Fashionable
A Music Video for Quiet Company Micro 4:28 min.
Cameran McCasland - Nashville, TN cameron@newvalient.com
This music video is currently receiving rave reviews internationally with its recent play on MTV.ca as well as being accepted into multiple film festivals. It shows the raw energy of Quiet Company presented in a performance style that has been abandoned for novelty by other film makers.
For more information visit www.newvaliant.com & www.myspace.com/cameronmccasland
1:30 PM
Johnny Boy
Non Competiton Feature 80:00 min.
Ian Nolte - Huntington, WV
ian.brainwrap@gmail.com
johnnyboymovie.googlepages.com
John Fitzgerald decided to leave a life of crime -- and took twenty thousand dollars with him. Now, the blood-thirsty Mr. V has tracked him down and wants his money back. John just has to survive long enough to give it to him. Fortunately, surviving is what Johnny Boy does best.
3:00 PM
Kilowatt Ours
Documentary 55:00 min.
Jeff Barrie - Nashville, TN jeff@kilowattours.org
'Kilowatt Ours' follows electricity from our light switches to its sources, exposing the ongoing environmental catastrophes facing America today. The seemingly harmless act of powering up contributes to disappearing mountain tops in West Virginia, disappearing views in Great Smoky Mountains National Park, global climate change, and a worsening epidemic of childhood asthma.
But the message isn't all gloom and doom. 'Kilowatt Ours' offers a message of hope -- an uplifting recipe for saving the planet. The second half of the film follows filmmaker Jeff Barrie on his search for a guilt-free way of life in America's energy intensive society. He visits success stories offering proof that our lives, economy, environment, and pocketbooks will benefit tremendously by transforming America into a clean energy nation.
4:15 PM
Tattered Angel
Feature 95:00 min.
Will Benson – Cincinnatti, OH wbenson@fuse.net
No matter how hard you run, the past has a way of catching up with you. No one knows this better than Vince Jacob, who can’t escape his sister’s abduction and murder more than 30 years before.
This psychological thriller features Emmy award-winning Lynda Carter and numerous other talented castmembers.
6:00 PM
Stomp! Shout! Scream!
Feature 77:00 min.
Jay Edwards - Atlanta, GA jedword@mindspring.com
Stomp! Shout! Scream!, a beach party rock and roll monster movie, is set in 1966 and features an all-girl garage rock band and the legend of the Skunk Ape (the Florida Everglades version of Bigfoot). Theodora, Jody and Carol, collectively The Violas, are on tour when their van breaks down in a small southern beach town. The local police are investigating a mass of mysterious debris on the beach and the disappearance of a little girl’s parents after she’s found walking the beach in a state of shock. Scientist John Patterson is called in to help investigate. Both John and local mechanic Hector Garcia fall for Violas lead singer Theodora, but she seems to have no interest in them, possibly because of a mysterious past. Hector convinces the girls to stay in town when he offers to repair their van in exchange for playing his party, but the mysterious creature is still on the loose.
7:25 PM
Playdate
Short 21:19 min.
by Laurence Langton - New York, NY larrylangton@gmail.com
Young Kevin is bribed by his mother to meet Bragan, the awkward, home-schooled son of her friend from the gym. Expecting the worst from the forced meeting, Kevin discovers looks can be deceiving, as Bragan takes him on an imaginative summertime adventure.
8:00 PM
Elizabeth Gunness
Feature 92:00 min.
Eric Rogers - Greenville, SC ericmrogers@juno.com
Cloverdale is the type of town found in a Norman Rockwell illustration. Elizabeth is the type of neighbor you might see peering through the back window with a cross around her neck, smiling at your children. The freshly sharpened garden shears in her other hand would not be visible.
Elizabeth Gunness is a thriller about a middle-aged woman in a small Southern town. Elizabeth is a conservative, self-righteous, opinionated woman, but considered by most to be harmless. In Elizabeth's world there are no complex problems. Everything is simply right or it's simply wrong, and things that are wrong must be corrected. She is a strong believer in the concept that justice must always be done, that punishment should be swift, and that being precise in all things makes for an orderly world. And where there is no order, she creates it - by any means necessary.
But that is merely the story on the surface. In the style of Ingmar Bergman, Ayn Rand and Voltaire, Eric Maconaghie Rogers has created a plot that stands alone on a superficial level, but upon subsequent viewing reveals a much deeper truth. Elizabeth Gunness is not merely a fictional character with odd ideas, but a representation of a certain faction of society that has become all too dominant in modern American culture. Like Bergman's 'Seventh Seal,' we find that each character is a representation of something beyond the basic plot, and only after discovering the symbolism does the real statement of the film become apparent.
10:00 PM Film Festival Party - Club Luna
Saturday April 19
10:00 AM
Spring 1386
Short 35:00
Chris Oxley - Beckley, WV hollerpresents@gmail.com
Ulysses, Jason, Aeneus, and now, Tom. Spring, 1386 marks Holler Presents' first experimental collaboration with modern traveler Tom Attar, who is returning to Iran, the country of his birth. Spring, 1386 constitutes Holler's first non-narrative film as well. Shot on HDMiniDV, the film questions the nature of East and West, who we are and what we will become, until ultimately, we are left with only Ulysses, Jason, Aeneus, and Tom.
10:45 AM
Doors
Short 35:00
Jerry Daniel Taylor
- Raleigh, NC Jerryfilms@gmail.com
Thomas Mann’s existence has become meaningless, until a stranger offers him the opportunity to repair his broken life.
11:30 AM
Nothing But Net
Short 9:00
Michael Wingate Jones - Collegeville, PA mwjones@wingatefilms.com
Likable guy Adam was having trouble hitting his shots, on the court and off. After botching his shot with Carol, he finally recognized his soul mate in Amy. Now, he's hitting nothing but net. Actor and first-time filmmaker, Michael Wingate Jones, conceived NBN to experiment with producing and directing a variety of different types of shots and scenes, including: sports action, drama and humor, simple and complex scene blocking, dolly/crane/steadicam camera movement, and coordinating multiple camera shooting and lighting setups to tell a simple, identifiable story. NBN was shot in two 12-hour shooting days, starring Tim Weinart (One Life To Live) and Alyssa D'Egidio (2006-2007 Philadelphia Eagles Cheerleader). This streamlined edit cut 5 scenes and 3 embedded mini-mock commercials.
11:45 PM
The Church of the Good Thief
Short 9:00 min.
Michael Raab - Burgaw NC michaelraab@bellsouth.net
Dismas was a thief, a highwayman, a robber and he was our first saint, the only saint
to be canonized by Christ himself, and the only saint canonized while he was still alive.
Nearly two-thousand years later, the first free-standing church in the United States is built inside a maximum security prison, the ultra-rugged Clinton Correctional, at Dannemora NY. Though it was built in 1939, this is the first documentary about the Church of the Good Thief and all the secrets it holds.
12:00 PM
Steak Dreams
Short 13:00 min.
Scott Sullivan - Highland Heights, KY 41076 stufforscott@hotmail.com
Jack is turning 30 and he hasn’t done anything with his life so far but he’s figured out how to make his mark: He’s going to eat a steak. A really big steak. And if he does it in 30 minutes or less it’s free!
12:15 PM
Ken Rotcop Special Guest Speaker
Ken Rotcop began his career as a journalist, but on his Acapulco honeymoon took a job to fill in for a month as staff writer for a game show called, "First Impressions." After Monty ("Let's Make a Deal") Hall asked Rotcop to stay on, so he and his new wife moved to Hollywood.
Ken has served as the creative head for Embassy Pictures, Cannon TV, Hanna-Barbera, and Trans World Productions, and is remembered for producing and writing the award winning made for TV movie, "For Us, the Living: The Story of Medger Evers"," which starred Howard Rollins and Laurence Fishburne.
Rotcop received the Writer's Guild Award, Neil Simon Award, and the Image Award as well as honors from the American Film Institute, NAACP, Democratic National Convention, Women in Film, the City of Atlanta and the State of Mississippi.
Having appeared on the Oprah Winfrey Show and STARZ Entertainment Tonight, he authored "The Perfect Pitch: How to Sell Yourself and Your Movie Idea to Hollywood." Ken previously taught script writing at USC, UCLA.
His feature length "Talk Fast," a documentary on his writer's workshop, won both the L.A. Independent and Philadelphia Film Festivals. As proof of his success rate, over the past years, he has had more than 80 projects optioned to Hollywood and 16 have been made into feature films.
In addition, he produced dramatic, game and talk shows, including the B feature "Bikini Shop," as well as "Couples" for FOX, "The Magic Shop" for RKO, and wrote scripts for "Richie Rich" and "Superfriends."
3:00 PM
Crash Gordon
Feature 83:00 min.
Bill Richardson – Belfry, KY 41514 billrichardson@mail.wvu.edu
A spoof of the early Flash Gordon serials in which space pioneer Crash Gordon tries to keep evil Emperor Bing from destroying the Earth with a plague of killer flatulence. This action/comedy takes our heroes on a rambunctious, roller coaster ride across the strange and quirky planet Mondo. To succeed they must overcome silly robots, strange aliens, Bing’s minions and their own ineptitude. This film combines the public domain serial, Flash Gordon Conquerors the Universe, with new footage and clips from other classic science fiction films to create something wholly different and funny. If you’re looking for sophisticated, urbane humor then keep looking, but if you want to check your brain at the door and have a good laugh then climb aboard.
4:30 PM
Grilling Bobby Hicks
Feature 98:00 min.
By: Tommy Wood / Production: Marc Benton - Lawrenceville, GA tommy@stimulusfilms.com
Trailer-park bully BOBBY HICKS is soon found shot to death and cooked on his barbecue grill. The laid-back Sheriff and his eager young deputy investigate the crime. Convinced that Bobby’s gold-digging wife killed her husband, Sheriff Butterworth wants to close the case. A local lawyer informs a select group that were in some way close to Bobby, that he has left over a quarter-million dollar inheritance to the last one of them left living. Most ignore the absurd last will and testament, but at least one takes it to heart. Just when things seem to calm down in town, the deputy puts the clues together and figures out who the real killer is, and someone’s happily ever after may be in doubt.
6:30 PM Rocco's 21 Awards Banquet Festival
