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BASTARD
WANTS TO HIT ME
Courtney
Booker, Aaron Sorenson Portland,
OR
"One of the wilder music videos I can remember
seeing--a weirdly lucid cartoon nightmare."—M.A.
DARLING
DARLING
Matthew Lessner Roseburg,
OR
"A fine exercise in sweet surreal suburban
behavior, centering on a few priceless visual conceits,
audacious lighting, and a superb performance by Mr.
Michael Cerra." —M.A.
DRIVER’S ED
Thom Harp Seattle,
WA
"A pleasurably silly story, laugh-out-loud
funny, expertly filmed, acted, paced, edited."—
M.A.
(GONE) ONE MOMENT TO THE NEXT
Morgan Hobart Portland,
OR
"An invocation of transience, with the mundane
and the momentous meeting on common ground via glimpses
of phone wires, clouded skies, a cat in a window, a
half-dressed couple on a couch--and other mysteries."—M.A.
HAVE YOU SEEN ME?
William Weiss Seattle,
WA
"A tour de force display of lost and found
images colliding with unexpectedly perfect sounds. From
what I can tell, an examination of experience that’s
elusive, inexplicable, and practically un-seeable. "—M.A.
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| JUDGE’S
STATEMENT
In a magazine profile I once read, a famous,
Academy-Award winning producer explained that
when he met a new person he made an immediate
judgment, sizing him or her up as a WINNER or
a LOSER. A fairly dismal way to sort out your
experience,
I thought. I had a pretty sure idea I’d
fall on the loser side of that fence, in this
producer’s considered opinion, as would
most of the people, actual or fictive, that I
happen to value or love: Hamlet, Blind Lemon Jefferson,
Che Guevara, Prince Myshkin, or a particular young
woman in New Orleans--LOSERS, every one of them.
So it’s with a mild sense of displacement
that I found myself judging the mostly wonderful
movies assembled in this year’s festival,
making my way through them like any crassly assured
expert. I was impressed by the range and scope
of subject matter and technique. Non-winners should
take solace in the fact that, by other standards,
the films I favor might be considered absolute
losers. That is, I tended to prize work that can
be labeled off kilter, willful, clumsy, searching,
and not quite resolved. Films endowed with a sense
of playfulness and unpredictability scored extra
points.
That said, there were a few pieces that were
unmistakably beautiful, confident, poised and
assured, and I couldn’t resist them either.
—MICHAEL ALMEREYDA
Meet the Festival
Judge
Sunday, November 6 at 3
pm
Leran
more
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PORTRAIT #1: CASCADIA TERMINAL
Vanessa Renwick Portland,
OR
"Scoured, flaring, sepia-toned images of ruined waterfront
buildings. Accompanied by dense rich sound design, this 'portrait”'of
an abandoned place is at once soothing and transfixing. "—M.A.
AT THE QUINTE HOTEL
Bruce Alcock Vancouver
BC
". . .for its Bukowski-esque mix of bravado and self-mockery,
carried along on a stream of visual metaphors that are sharply
clever--at once splashy and simple and fun." —M.A.
CROSSING THE ABYSS
Elle Martini Coburg,
OR
". . .for its bracingly straightforward yet restrained
account of a harrowing history."— M.A.
DANDELION
Grace Carter, Holly Andres
Portland, OR
". . . .for its distillation of shared loss, with
a compelling, seemingly casual use of overlapping voices and
a roving camera. "—M.A.
HELLO, THANKS
Andrew Blubaugh Portland,
OR
". . .for an uncomfortably honest and unique description
of the perils of narcissism." —M.A.
INCONVENIENCE
John Penhall Vancouver,
BC
"Finely-detailed storytelling and a lovable central
performance by its lead actor. (Best use of a Chinese-speaking
mouse). " —M.A. |
