Berkeley Video and Film Festival this weekend
Posted by editor@vimooz.com on September 26, 2008 under Berkeley Video and Film Festival | 
The 17th annual Berkeley Video and Film Festival, featuring more than 50 independent films and videos, kicks off today and runs through the weekend.
Founded by award-winning filmmakers who were involved with the “independent underground cinema revolution” in the early and mid-1960s, the festival was created in 1990 to provide a venue for independent film and videomakers, organizers said.
Screenings begin at 7:30 p.m. today and at 1 p.m. both Saturday and Sunday at the Landmark Shattuck Cinemas, 2230 Shattuck Ave.
The 2008 films
DOCUMENTARIES
“Stop The Presses: The American Newspaper in Peril” - Mark Birnbaum & Manny Mendoza - 80:00
This documentary should be mandatory viewing for any student or persons working in journalism today. Interviews with the leading publishers and editors of the largest U.S. papers indicate the future demise of this traditional medium. Co-Producer, Manny Mendoza wil answer questions following the films screening.
“The Road to Bonneville” - Brian Darwas - 60:00 - Join this hot rod builder and filmmaker on a shotgun journey with two of the most significantly influential hot rod builders of this generation cruise cross country to the Bonneville Salt Flats and witness a 175 mph run in a ‘32 Ford flat-head powered roadster.
“Ausangate” - Andrea Heckman and Tad Fettig - 61:00
A journey to 20,800’ Ausangate, a great mountain spirit to the Quechua people living around it and how it influences their daily lives and rituals.
“Ellsworth Kelly: Fragments” - Edgar B. Howard and Jo Carole Lauder - 65:00
Insights into the abstract painter, sculptor and printmaker, Ellsworth Kelly, who influenced the development of abstract art in America.
“Hit, Run & Score: The Oakland Banshees Story” - Kenya E. Davis - 35:00
A hard-hitting film following a unique group of female athletes through the challenges of a season playing professional tackle football.
“The James Baldwin Anthology” - Claire Burch - 68:00
A retrospective of the author’s life, featuring a historic speech delivered at UC Berkeley and mixed media.
“Laura Graff Hit & Run Accident: Search for The Driver” - Ed Sharpe - Documentary - 0:37
The Emmy Award winning Glendale Arizona news gatherer, is once again on the scene for this short news spot in the heinous hit and run accident involving local resident Laura Graff, Sharpe’s daily news-webcasts are legendary in Arizona and beyond.www.glendaledailyplanet.com
FEATURES
“FIX”-Tao Ruspoli, Starring Shawn Andrews, Olivia Wilde, Tao Ruspoli, Megalyn Echikunwoke, Dedee Pfeiffer - 93:00 - A frenetic Odyssey-like journey through Los Angeles’ underbelly of drug culture and addiction that explores notions of family, loss and ultimately redemption.
“A bold new style and talent” - Oliver Stone.
“Brash, cool and energetic…a wild ride” - Variety
“Nailed” - A Ben Katz Productions Film - Feature - 84:00 - Directed by Adrian O’Connell.
Starring Charles F. Porter, Sam Sarpong, Wilson Jermaine Heredia, Veronica Borchi & Ray Stoney.
Two hoodlums on the lam seek refuge in what they think is an abonded house, but once inside, they are dying to escape the house’s sinister, horrific clutches.
“Pretty Ugly People” - Brunson Green, Producer and Tate Taylor, Director - 99:00
After getting gastric-bypass surgery and losing all her excess weight, Lucy tricks her college friends into gatheing together again so she can finally feel like one of them. But she soon learns that life isn’t always greener on the other side of obesity.
Carlos Flores Delpino
Founder and Director Academico of the Escuela de Cine de Chile, brings to BVFF the two following Feature Films from Chile, with a Q & A following the screenings:
“Malta con Huevo” (”Scrambled Beer”) - Alberto Fuguet & Sebastian Varela, Producers, Cristobal Valderrama, Director - Chile - 92:00 - A dark comedic past-present-future story of Vladimir, who wakes up one morning after drinking too much ‘malta con huevo’, a concoction made by his friend, Jorge, who has sinister motives.
“Sabado” (”Saturday”- A Real-Time Movie) - Gabriel Diaz, Matias Bize, Producers, Matias Bize, Director - Chile - 63:00 - 60 plus minutes of one hand-held vidcam shot, tracking a bride’s hysterical warpath after discovering her intended is a cheat.
“Black August” - A TCinque Picture, Jan Mabry & Judd Fleming, Producers, TCinque, J.Sampson & Samm Styles, Co-Directors - Feature - 116:00
Starring Gary Dourdan, Darren Bridgett, Ezra Stanley, Vonetta McGee, Elizabeth Nunziato, Leith M. Burke,
Tina Marie Murray & ‘Big’ Leroy Mobley.
Inmate activist George Jackson’s short life became a flashpoint for revolution, igniting the bloodiest riot in San Quentin’s history.
“The Highway Home” - Laurel Hunter -70:00
A disillusioned teen falls in love and runs away to escape a hollow existence; her boyfriend, a small time dealer, is arrested for selling drugs, she is then forced to make her way in an unkind world as she searches for a new place to call home.
“Transmission” - Alex Kopel -7:00 ( The Trailer )
An alien lands in Berkeley on a mission to inform humans that they are destroying the entire universe.
SHORT FEATURES
“Now You See Me, Now You Don’t” - Attila Szasz - Hungary - 30:00
What would you do if your child became invisible?
‘Reflections” - Barry Caldwell - 16:00
Carol sees things in mirrors. Things that have happened before, things that will happen in the future. It’s not a gift. It’s a curse!
“Check Brights” - Barry Levy - 8:14
Take a late night drive through the mind of the ‘driver’, a highly irritable man, who takes his road rage manners very seriously.
“My Worst Nightmare” - Elizabeth O’Neil, Ali Eriekat, Waylon Bacon - 7:00
The cinematic retelling of a nightmare creates results that are both creepy and humorous.
“Honey, I’m Home” - David Branin -5:40
He cheated, She Knows!
ARTS
Premiere*
“Rebel Roar: The Sound of Michael McClure” -
Kurt Hemmer, Tom Knoff, Michael McClure and Harper College -34:00 - Screens Friday Sept 26, 8:45pm
This is the quintessential cinematic Michael McClure primer; this remarkable anthology of McClure’s works includes vintage pics and clips spanning the Beat days to the present, Dennis Hopper once said, “Without McClure’s roar there would have been no sixties”. McClure has been there from the beginning of the Six Gallery in S.F. with Allen Ginsberg and Howl in the ’50’s, he co-wrote Janis Joplin’s “Mercedes Benz”, he was there at the first Be-In with Gary Snyder and Ginsberg, friend of Jim Morrison of the Doors, appeared in Scorces’s “Last Waltz”, Peter Fonda’s “The Hired Hand” and as an outlaw biker in Norman Mailer’s “Beyond the Law”.
This is a ‘must-see’ cinematic marvel with America’s greatest living poet, Michael McClure, Live and in Person with producer Kurt Hemmer providing a Q & A following the film.
“Tilt Project” & “Game Over” - Chiara Scarfo - Italy - 3:25
Directed from her authentic ‘mental institution” studios in Genoa,Italy, reflect a haunting ultra-personal world, only she can share. Scarfo is convincingly becoming one of Italy’s more important renaissance multi-media artists.
“Abattoir, a cinepoem” - LaDonna M. Witmer & Michelle M. Brown - 3:50
In this allegorical cinepoem, meat is a metaphor and in “Abattoir”, death is just part of the daily grind.
“Soul Moves” - Marlene Sinicki - 5:05
A celebration of the improvisational dancer Hallie Aldrich.
“I am a Gladiator” - Carol Saft - 5:00
Starring Todd Godwin, in his most penultimate-sacrificial-ritualistic-narcissistic role to date, with dead incinerated deer, “Greek Fire”, & sword play and then some.
“Why Hillary Swank is My Role Model”- Luis “Louie,Louie” Ramos - 4:18
East Coast “white collar” boxer, and humanitarian, Luis Ramos, struts his stuff and admiration for Hillary.
STUDENT FILMMAKERS
“California King” - Eli Akira Kaufman -21:00
A mattress salesman, who employs faux science to get female customers into bed, falls for a skeptical insomniac who knows her science better than her heart.
“Honor” - Flying Dork Productions & San Francisco School of Digital Filmmaking - 6:35
Three paratroopers patrolling the French countryside; as each soldier fights for his own reason, their fates will be determined by their honor.
“Game Over” - Adrian Avila - Student Filmmaker - 10:38
A man takes his video games a little too seriously and finds out how much thay have an impact.
EDUCATIONAL
“Freedom’s Song: 100 years of African-American Struggle and Triumph” - Randy Rice -75:00
“One Hundred Years of African-American Struggle and Triumph” relates ten important stories from the 20th Century which have either been omitted from textbooks or only marginally discussed. *Bay Area Premiere
EXPERIMENTAL
“Corporate Art Policy” - Neil Ira Needleman - Experimental - 5:30
A film about the art reproductions that hang on the walls of the office complex where I spend my days unconsciously working, while I consciously dream about art.
“Case Histories in Psychotherapy” - Tony Gault - 8:15
Follows the progress of Richard, who began the psychotherapuetic process in a previous film, “Not Too Much Remember”(BVFF’05).
“High Heels” - Dale Sophiea - 14:30
After hearing a Television psychologist say that women are more comfortable being followed by another woman than by a man, Gregory fashions a plan to meet the girl of his dreams. The results are, to put it mildly, not what he was hoping for.
“Torn Asunder” - Bob Barancik - 4:18 - Explores the frayed American National Psyche
YOUNG PRODUCERS
“Jeff Higgins: Dead Blood” - Zack Scott - 14:08 -A “how-to-kill-a-zombie” training video…..with a twist.
“Self-Portrait” - Emma Strebel - 0:45
This self-portrait is an art project, that developed out of a radical intervention to remedy my head lice.
“First Light” - Kevin Walker - 3:39L- Losing a flashlight can have serious consequences…for all of us.
“The Bourne Legacy” - EBMC Summer Teen Media Camp- 7:00
Selections from the Young Producers of Harvard - Westlake School, N. Hollywood
Cheri Gaulke - Video Teacher
“Ridden” -Sebastian Spader & Patrick Hibler - Harvard-Westlake School - Young Producer - -3:16
“The Life and Times of Buster Chaplin” - Evan Hamilton - Harvard-Westlake School - Young Producer - 7:35
“Ticklish” - Max Grey & Drew Foster - Harvard-Westlake School - Young Producer - 7:10
“Castles Made of Sand” - Michael Stampler - Harvard-Westlake School - Young Producer - 2:38
“Ridden” - Sebastian Spader & Patrick Hibler - Harvard-Westlake School - Young Producer - 3:16
“The Amazing Adventure of Sarah Waters” - Danielle Strassman-Harvard-Westlake School -Young Producer- 6:30
“Broken” - Evan Hamilton - Harvard-Westlake School - Young Producer - 8:35
SENIOR PRODUCERS
“Festa Del Redentore” - Richard Randell - 5:30 -A story of old Venice, Italy told in stop motion animation.
“Murder in Moline” - John@Dillinger - 2:00 -Is Ricky Stickle dead, or merely dead drunk? Does it matter?
ANIMATION
“5 Tears” - Colin V. Barton - 3:30
Part poem, part spell, the shedding of past debts, fake religion, fake friends, false society, lost love and loss of innocence.
“Thanks to the Whistleblowers” - David Puls, Fredrick Armstrong - 4:30
An homage to the efforts and risks assumed by those known as “Whistleblowers”.
COMEDY
“BOB” - Waylon Bacon - 2:30
Bob is the most popular guy in town. He is also suicidal.
“The Legend of the Evil Count Spatula” - Ed Sharpe - Comedy - 2:32
Take a trip into the whacky world of Emmy Award winner Ed Sharpe, as he takes the literal challenge of making a common kitchen utensil into an epic maelstrom of comedic proportions.www.glendaledailyplanet.com
“God Libs” - Alex Kopel - 5:47
Be careful what you wish for…..God is listening, and Satan’s got some killer adverbs ready….. !
ETHNOGRAPHIC
“?Tienes Hambre? (Are You Hungry?) - Margo Mercedes Rivera-Weiss - 6:00
A romantic interlude between two Chicanas set in the Taco truck parking lots of the East Oakland Fruitvale neighborhood.
MUSIC VIDEO
“Na Ono o ka Aina - Delicacies of the Land” - Puhipau & Joan Lander - Na Maka o ka Aina Productions - 9:19
Jerry Konanui works to protect the numerous varieties of Hawaiian taro from genetic engineering. Set to a song praising taro varieties for their beauty, taste and spiritual significance.*Bay Area Premiere
“Salam Pax” ( Peace ) - Don Arbor & Pam McCann - 5:00
A peace anthem inspired by an Iraqi blogger who posted stories of Life in Baghdad, during the invasion of Iraq, under the pseudonym “Salam Pax”.
