July 04, 2006

Let's Film Festival-Part One:The Movie Is Online

A Grand Review

The first ever “Let’s Film Festival” happened Sunday, June 25. Considered a “great success” by at least one of the attendees, the evening’s guests were not daunted by the monsoon-style rains or the fact that the film count shrunk to a mere four from the originally promised 12. In all, about 50 people with varying levels of English took in the film fest from a makeshift theatre in Fukuyama’s fashionable West End district.
(Rice paddies are still fashionable, right?)

As part of the competition, each film had to contain three elements. These were:
1. Prop: A rubber ducky
2. Location: A castle
3. Line: “Not hung well enough, I’m afraid.”

Not only did the two of us organize the event, we also produced one of the films. You can watch our little slice of cinematic genius, “Black to Basics: A Ninja Story,”below.
This link has a word file you can read. Also, here's the google video link, it's bigger, but possibly just as difficult to read. Please follow the links below to the other contributors who put their films online.

Josh Zimmerman’s blog plays host to “Pocky.” Not only the name of a tasty pretzel snack, “Pocky” is a Japanese-influenced spoof of Sylvester Stallone’s triumph-of-the-will classic. One word of caution, though: this movie may contain a montage.

Helen Truax and life-commitment-partner Jessie produced the short, sweet, yet sometimes disturbing “Philip Goes to Europe.” In this film, the title character (a rubber ducky finger puppet) sets out on a seemingly harmless tour of the Louvre. However, conflict arises when Philip finds himself experiencing an unrequited attraction to Venus de Milo.

The night’s winner was Jackie Hoffart (incidentally, a former Edmontonian) who wooed the audience with her film “Just Not Enough, I’m afraid.” A wind-up robot named Galaxy stars in this semi-animated short. Turns out the poor little thing has a lot of trouble with public transport and the same-system dating scene. Fortunately, the evening’s big think piece prompted more than enough votes for Jackie to take home the coveted Golden Ducky Award. See the movie on her blog.

Again, thanks to everyone who helped out and everyone who came to watch the films. A special thanks to Yoko and Rob who were super helpful in getting the space lined up.

Finally, here is the link to Liz's photos of the event. She came and shot some really nice black and whites and they're great so check them out.

Stay tuned for details about the next Let’s Film Festival which may or may not be held in Onomichi and may or may not contain subliminal messages urging viewers to drink tea.

Posted by tokidoki at 11:09 PM | Comments (0)