Hey folks, Harry here with some cool stuff from te VALLEY FEST FILM FESTVIAL. Our main man on the scene is filing his second annual report on the event, and for now... I will just turn it over to Edison Carter.
Well, Edison Carter here again, delivering at least my take on Valleyfest 2000, which just finished up after running the last four days at the Downtown West cinema here in Knoxville...
I said here on AICN last year they deserved another one after the level of films they attracted, and now I'm willing to easily support this festival for many more years, as the quality and number of films increased dramatically...
For those interested in more info on the films below, there's much more info at www.valleyfest.com...
But to start, a quick rundown of the award winners...
BEST FEATURE:
BREATHING HARD - a hilarious look at two Hollywood buddies, one a down on his luck screenwriter/playwright, an out-of-luck actor, and the aging, cantankerous, cursing Hollywood diva from the 1940s who shows them how to deal with life, writing, and attitude... she decides that she has one really great performance left in her, and it's in the writer's new play, whether he likes it or not... An absolutely wonderful little gem of a film that I want to see again already (if you did this one, CONTACT ME!)... featured cameos from Peter Jurasik (Babylon 5) and Armin Shimerman (DS9), among others...
While I personally voted for this one as the audience favorite (sorry Bryan!), that one went (and deservedly so, even though I really was torn between these two) to:
AUDIENCE CHOICE AWARD:
LAST CHANCE - Bryan Cranston's (the dad on Malcolm in the Middle) film about the Last Chance café and motel in the California desert, and the people who live there... the main character, Lauren, thinks she's too busy to actually live life, until an older ex-author ends up at the Last Chance and shows here how to dream again, and hope... features a fabulous performance by Tim Thomerson (playing completely against his Jack Deth/Dollman stereotype) as the older author turned truckdriver (and possibly romantic lead), and Jay Thomas as the simple-minded Earl who's been a ward of the Last Chance since childhood... and not to mention Cranston as the lead character's husband...
As a neat aside, Cranston wrote this screenplay and the lead female role as a birthday present for his wife years ago... not expecting to actually make it... so of course she expected it to be made... and damn if it didn't turn out great...
I really wanted to pick this one as my choice for audience favorite (even after I had dinner with Bryan at the festival) but Breathing Hard was just barely more fun.... IMHO, of course...
FILM IS A FOUR-LETTER WORD CATEGORY:
THE HOOK-ARMED MAN - Lou is the Hook-Armed Man of urban legend fame, but he's grown tired of all the maiming and killing... so he wants a career change... so he tries to go straight, if it wasn't for his propensity for falling back on his old habits...
This was a neat twist on the horror genre, played strictly for laughs as one of the most outlandish fish-out-of-water stories I've seen in a long time...
BEST SHORT FILM:
THE OTHER WOMAN - One day a father finds a mannequin at the dump and decides to make it into a life-size doll for his teenage daughter... however, when night falls, this "Other Woman" transforms the whole family... While this one was fun (and many wonderful double takes on the mannequin in certain revealing situations), it wasn't my choice... that would have been:
SPORTING DOG - really wicked little short film about a compulsive gambler who accepts a bet that would end his troubles forever... or maybe not... nasty trick ending (in a good way) that really paid off for the audience...
BEST ANIMATION:
QUANGLE WRANGLE - Once upon a time, there were these four little people who decide they should all see the world... based on a short poem composed by Edward Lear for his grandchildren, this was a beautiful Seussian journey, done in colored chalks against black backgrounds... a neat little film, although I much preferred:
BILLY'S BALLOON - from the creator of "Lily and Jim" (one of the better animated shorts I've seen in a while, it's on DVD Short Cinema 1.4) comes a riotously funny (I almost gave myself a muscle cramp I was laughing so hard) and twisted look about a little boy and his balloon... should have been called Revenge of the Balloon... :)
BEST DOCUMENTARY:
HABITS OF FAITH - an 86 year old artist reminisces about her youth as an "upstart intellectual" in the 1940s and her interfaith marriage to a philosopher... I can't honestly say much about this one as I missed most of it... there was a fascinating one that I would have picked, tho, and that was:
SMOKE AND MIRRORS: A HISTORY AND DENIAL - a really great documentary about the less-than-honorable history of tobacco and smoking in the US... a lot of stuff I had never heard before (early history of anti-smoking campaigns, as well as the outrageous film and TV cigarette ads of the past), plus a lot of stuff that really makes you think... also had one of the funnier comments of the festival from one scientist in the film about a nicotine suppository....
Some of the other highlights:
AUDITIONS - Three mooks from New York are having a bad time, relationshipwise... women will not pay them the time of day... until one day, they get the bright idea of holding auditions for a non-existent film, and posing as the filmmakers to meet girls... a plan which brings in girls by the truckload... Their luck has finally turned good... but not all luck is as good as it appears... This one was a little raw in the dialogue, but the story was great, and very entertaining... also came in second in the audience choice awards...
THE DEFORMATION OF MYRNA BROWN - Started off as what looked like a serious piece about relationship issues and a woman's "greatest fear", and then in the last shot does a complete 180 and whacks you over the head with a complete "you never saw it coming" one-liner that brought the house down...
DOMINANT SEVENTH - the story of a desperate father who will do almost anything to insure the future of his 9 year old son, a violin prodigy... if that kid was really playing the violin, damn! Third runner up in the audience choice awards...
EXPERIENCING RAJU - a nifty little short about an ordinary guy who meets an Indian guru, and thinks he's been set on the road to self-discovery... or has he? This one also featured a very original and beautiful animated opening credit sequence... (plus the writer turned out to be a cousin I never knew I had!)
HE OUGHTA BE COMMITTED - Conflicting stories from an upwardly mobile executive who has fallen on hard times and his former psychiatrist who has a predisposition for prescribing narcotics... I did not like this one at all... I couldn't even sit through much of it, nor could others I talked to, and yet it ended up first runner up in the audience choice awards... go figure...
KITCHEN GARDEN COP - a short documentary from a German filmmaker about a Soviet police officer in a small Russian town... very interesting in the slice of life views of a place and people we hardly ever get on this side of the world...
MISS SUPREME QUEEN - beauty pageants gone bad... really bad... all of the violence in all the wars ever fought can never equal the sheer level of hatred capable from a 10th grade girl, as the film points out... and just how far will one of them go to win a beauty pageant? Murder? Maybe, but you'll not guess who did it...
WINGED - an elaborate science fiction story about a young engineer used as bait in an effort to regain control of a space station in Mars orbit that was commandeered by his father... featured several elaborate sets (borrowed from Babylon 5 sets) and effects sequences by Digital Domain... that was the filmmaker's USC graduate course thesis film...
There were more films than what I've listed here, but these are some of the best.... IMHO, of course... Hopefully they'll all be hitting the festival circuit near you, or get distribution soon, as with two exceptions (one feature, one animation) everything was well worth tracking down to watch...
Valleyfest 2001, you're gonna have a lot to measure up to... save me a seat, wouldja? Thanks!
Edison Carter
Live and Direct on Network 23
