|
2008
Winners
Features
First place: Tattered Angel, Will
Benson, Cincinnati. 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.
Second place: Crash
Gordon, Bill Richardson,
Williamson, W.Va. 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.
Third place: Grilling
Bobby Hicks, Tommy
Wood and Marc Benton, Lawrenceville, Ga. 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.
Documentary
First place: Change
Comes Knocking: The Story of the North Carolina Fund,
Rebecca Cerese, Durham, N.C. 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.
Second place: Mountain
Top Removal, Michael
O’Connell,
Pittsboro, N.C.
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.
Screenplay
First place: “Juniper
Bass,” C.B.
Wilson, Ruther Glen, Va.
Second place: “11:11,” Meg Lansaw, Wilmington, N.C.
(formerly of Huntington)
Short
Joe Mover,
Gabe Fazio and Lev Gorn, Sunnyside, N.Y.
Young Filmmaker. "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.
Young Filmmaker
Anthropophobia,
Zachery Groff, McLean, Va. 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.
Micro-Film
Simulacra, Tatchapon Lertwifojkul, New York
City
Read
stories of winners in the Herald-Dispatch
and Huntingtonnews.net.
Past
Winners
Click
below to see:
•
2007
winners
•
2006
winners
• 2005
winners
•
2004
winners
|
