A Look Back With Dwight Edwards of The Filmcake: The 2009 Festival

June 2nd, 2010 | No Comments | Posted in The Guest Spot
The 10th edition of deadCENTER is just ONE WEEK AWAY. The drone of festival buzz is in the air. Anticipation can barely be contained. Hyperbole abounds. Since I’ll be seeing a ton of films starting in just one week, I decided to keep it short and sweet this week as I look back at last year’s festival. There were plenty of great feature films that screened last year. My two favorite features happened to be documentaries, the wonderful Sweethearts of the Prison Rodeo from Bradley Beesley and the Best Documentary Feature winner Official Rejection. Both definitely worth checking out. But, I’m sticking with short films in this final recap. The short film programs are often your best bet. You can pack in a bunch of movies in a short period of time. And if you happen to run across a not-so-good one, you only have to wait a few minutes for something else to start playing. Luckily, there are more than enough real gems to be found as well. For this week, I looked back at SAFE, Hit Boys II Men, Whore, The SPAM Job, and Miracle Investigators.
 
SAFE – A nice Okie short that came out of Living Art’s 2009 24-Hour Video Race contest. A curious kid tries to see what is locked away in his neighbor’s safe. Given the limitations of the video contest, the film is nicely done with a fair amount of restraint. Good camera work. Not too wordy. But certainly very promising. The two young filmmakers, Bunee Tomlinson and Jackson Fall are also bringing a couple of films to this year’s festival as part of the Kids’ Fest shorts program–Mom’s Favorite Vase and Without a Doubt–which will screen Friday and Saturday mornings at the downtown library.
 
This 5-minute short film is available on Vimeo.
 
Hit Boys II Men – Another Okie short from the ubiquitous Singletree Productions. Mark Potts, Cole Selix, and Brand Rackley deliver a funny dark comedy about desire, redemption, and…MURDER. On the one hand, it emits an honest vibe of three friends sitting around the house, goofing around, and just deciding to make a movie. It looks like they’re all having a blast. On the other hand, it happens to be well crafted, quite funny and eminently watchable. Stone’s (Potts) delayed reaction to drinking the raw eggs makes me laugh every time. The Singletree crew was also responsible for the very hilarious Hard Justice promo videos before each screening at the 2009 festival. This year they return with the feature Simmons on Vinyl and the short The Bedazzler.
 
This 20-minute short film is available online.
 
Whore – Screened during the Midnight Shorts program, this 22-minute short film from Prarthana Mohan follows Wendy’s awkward high school experience. Wendy (the excellent Corina Boettger) is a former home-schooled student who both fears and is fascinated by the sexuality around her. As the bullies encroach, she must come to terms with her own sexuality while figuring out who are her real friends. The director is respectful of the female lead, her religious home-school background, and her dysfunctional family. These depictions are tempered, seeming more honest than exploitative.
 
The SPAM Job – This 12-minute short film directed by Padraic Culham follows a stolen can of SPAM in a story of international mystery. This “documentary” follows the multitude of evidence that surrounds the theft of the aforementioned meat-like product. The filmmakers play it so straight that in between all of the laughs you almost begin to actually care about the eventual outcome of the investigation.
 
Miracle Investigators – My favorite short film from the 2009 festival. This 13-minute comedy short from Jeremy Dehn certainly delivers on the laughs. The movie has to contain two of the most quotable and hilarious lines of dialogue from any deadCENTER film past or present: “I’ve been pretty New Testament with you up to now, want to see me go Old?” and “I gave up ass-kicking for Lent/But it’s not Lent/I know.” The movie also very competently alludes to old cop shows and kung fu movies. I could watch this one ALL day.

 

 

Next Wednesday: The 10th Annual deadCENTER Film Festival begins!!!

A Look Back With Dwight Edwards of The Filmcake: The 2008 Festival

May 27th, 2010 | No Comments | Posted in The Guest Spot

There are three constants in my deadCENTER experience. One, multiple people will ask my wife and I if we’re filmmakers to which we’ll reply, “not yet.” Two, at approximately the mid-point of the festival we’ll skip out on something we really wanted to see to go have a bite and a couple of drinks. For a moment, we’ll feel bad about missing the opportunity to see what ever it was that we missed. But, then we’ll feel as if our batteries have been recharged and we can make it through to the end. Three, related to the first, we’ll watch something brilliant and decide there and then that we MUST make our own film.

Still no film. Not yet. But, it’ll come. Wayne Coyne’s much-anticipated labor of love Christmas on Mars provided one moment of inspiration. You would catch snippets of it here and there throughout the years as it seemed perpetually on the verge of being released. So, finally seeing the finished project–to see that it actually existed–was a real treat. The soggy conditions of the screening were forgotten amongst all the Flaming Lips fans drinking Stella and munching on popcorn within a giant circus tent. How awesome was that!? For this week, I took a look back at the 2008 festival by rewatching American Teen, Disfigured, Gustav Braustache and the Auto-Debilitator, and The Aviatrix.

American Teen — A documentary from Nanette Burstein about a handful of high school kids in Warsaw, Indiana nearing graduation. I really enjoyed this documentary. Very compelling. Mostly I just love Hannah Bailey. She’s the arty rebel who can’t wait to escape small-town mundanity for life on the coast. While the rest of the students (Colin, Megan, Mitch, and Jake) remind me why I didn’t much care for high school, Hannah is someone I wish I knew in real-life. This film was criticized upon its release for seeming scripted and staged. I don’t really care. All of cinema is a lie, even documentary film. I’ve long ago accepted that fact. But, an engrossing story is still an engrossing story.

This 95-minute documentary feature is available on DVD.

Disfigured — Winner of the Grand Jury Narrative Feature award. A socially conscious film from director Glenn Gerrs about two women’s struggle with their own bodies. Lydia (the fat one) and Darcy (the skinny one) strike up an unlikely friendship and end up finding much in common with each other. The movie would seem a little too preachy if it weren’t for the fact that Hollywood wouldn’t touch this subject matter from a mile away. Fat people, especially women, can’t be actors. Hollywood barely acknowledges their personhood. On the rare occasion when a heavy woman appears on screen she is either the joker or the butt of a joke. But it’s not all Hollywood’s fault. Too many ordinary people still think it’s okay to be downright mean to someone because of their weight. That Gerrs tackled the issue in his film is admirable even if it comes off as just a bit heavy-handed.

This 96-minute feature film is available on Netflix Instant Viewing.

Gustav Braustache and the Auto-Debilitator — Too many comedic short films seem to be little more than set-up and punchline. They’re not much more than a joke told in front of a camera. In only the rarest of circumstances is this enough to sustain even a short film. A truly effective comedic short needs the components of the joke(s) to be told visually. This is film, not stand-up. In this short, filmmakers Rob Cunningham and Tony Mullen get things absolutely right.

As an eccentric inventor struggles with his creations, his landlord struggles to collect rent payments. Nothing complicated, but room for a lot of laughs. The direction here is impeccable. The film is delivered in black & white, even though it takes place in 2002. As such, it harkens back to the early magic of cinema and to the work of the first cinemagician, Georges Méliès. It shows how effective an early special effect like stop tricks can be. This isn’t a simple joke preserved on film. It’s a well-paced set-up with lots of payoffs along the way.

This 20-minute short film is available on Vimeo.

The Aviatrix — Winner of the Best Student Film at the 2008 festival. This sweet short film tells the story a young woman stricken with cancer who finds relief within her imagination. First, I appreciate the notion that in severe illness empathy is more effective and desired than pity. Second, I think this short stands in for a general cinematic experience. While most of us are thankfully not suffering from cancer when we watch movies, we all know what it’s like going through trying times. Watching movies, for me anyway, can sometimes be a wonderful way to escape the hardships of life. Movies aren’t just art. They’re therapy.

This 10-minute short film is available on YouTube.

–Dwight (www.thefilmcake.com)

Next Wednesday: The 2009 festival…

A Look Back With Dwight Edwards of The Filmcake: The 2007 Festival

May 20th, 2010 | 1 Comment | Posted in The Guest Spot
In the Guest Spot today, we have Dwight Edwards, the man behind the very cool Okie-film website The Filmcake. Dwight has attended deadCENTER every year since 2002 (we’re willing to forget the two years he was absent, as he was there in spirit), and even contributed to our live blog of the festival in 2009. Every Wednesday until the festival, we’ll feature his look back at the deadCENTER film festivals of old, starting with 2002. This week: 2007

I think the defining moment of the 2007 deadCENTER Film Festival was the WORLD PREMIERE of famed international auteur Esteban Don Von McDonaldson’s brilliant film, L’Hell. Truly, deadCENTER had come into its own with this spectacular get. First, it’s in French. So you know it’s really good. Second, it’s in black and white. So you know it’s REALLY good. Despite the infamy surrounding that film’s premier, it turns out there were some other films that screened at the festival as well. For this week’s look back, I re-watched UFO’s At The Zoo, Shwarma: Spawn From Hell, BITCH, and Man With a Moustache.

UFO’s At The Zoo — The Flaming Lips have become a deadCENTER staple. Wayne Coyne, Bradley Beesley, and George Salisbury brought their footage of the 9/15/06 Zoo Amphitheater concert to the Saturday night outdoor screening. They returned in 2008 with the long-awaited Christmas on Mars and this year’s they’ll bring their documentary short Blastula: The Making of Embryonic to the festival.

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A Look Back With Dwight Edwards of The Filmcake: The 2006 Festival

May 12th, 2010 | No Comments | Posted in The Guest Spot
In the Guest Spot today, we have Dwight Edwards, the man behind the very cool Okie-film website The Filmcake. Dwight has attended deadCENTER every year since 2002 (we’re willing to forget the two years he was absent, as he was there in spirit), and even contributed to our live blog of the festival in 2009. Every Wednesday until the festival, we’ll feature his look back at the deadCENTER film festivals of old, starting with 2002. This week: 2006

Ahh…2006. There was Maxed Out and Brothers of the Head.  There was The McPassion and Secession. There was Rusty Forkblade and Mr. Malikai. There was Binta and the Great Idea and Entre Luz Y Sol. There was even Armand Assante as a super-serious mall cop. And still some of the most enjoyable stuff I saw at that festival was before the films even started. The City of deadCENTER spots, starring Matt Brown, were among the best stuff at the festival. After 2006, I began to anticipate these spots almost as much as the regularly submitted films.

But, alas, a film festival is more than its brilliant intro spots. For this week, I take a look back at Maxed Out, Outside Sales, Mr. Malikai Battles the Aeroplane, and Secession.

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A Look Back With Dwight Edwards of The Filmcake: The 2005 Festival

May 6th, 2010 | No Comments | Posted in The Guest Spot
In the Guest Spot today, we have Dwight Edwards, the man behind the very cool Okie-film website The Filmcake. Dwight has attended deadCENTER every year since 2002 (we’re willing to forget the two years he was absent, as he was there in spirit), and even contributed to our live blog of the festival in 2009. Every Wednesday until the festival, we’ll feature his look back at the deadCENTER film festivals of old, starting with 2002. This week: 2005
 
The 2005 festival was madly hot. While Mad Hot Ballroom DID kick off dCFF ‘05 at the Noble Theatre, the rest of the fest was literally sweltering. All the venues were blasting fans. Whatever good the air circulation might have provided was mitigated by the drowning out of sound on some of the films. Despite the sweat, it was still a blast of a festival. This week I’ll be looking back at Rosevelt’s America, Admissions, and The Fearless Freaks.
 

A Look Back With Dwight Edwards of The Filmcake: The 2004 Festival

April 28th, 2010 | No Comments | Posted in The Guest Spot

In the Guest Spot today, we have Dwight Edwards, the man behind the very cool Okie-film website The Filmcake. Dwight has attended deadCENTER every year since 2002 (we’re willing to forget the two years he was absent, as he was there in spirit), and even contributed to our live blog of the festival in 2009. Every Wednesday until the festival, we’ll feature his look back at the deadCENTER film festivals of old, starting with 2002. This week: 2004

I may have missed the 2004 festival, but I don’t plan on missing another. I found three short films that screened at the 2004 festival that I figured I would take a look at now. All three were nice surprises and I would highly recommend them all. That I might never have seen any of these three if I hadn’t been doing this blog feature certainly makes it all worthwhile. This week: two documentaries (Banned in Oklahoma and Farmingville) and a short (Flip).

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A Look Back With Dwight Edwards of The Filmcake: The 2003 Festival

April 21st, 2010 | No Comments | Posted in The Guest Spot

In the Guest Spot today, we have Dwight Edwards, the man behind the very cool Okie-film website The Filmcake. Dwight has attended deadCENTER every year since 2002 (we’re willing to forget the two years he was absent, as he was there in spirit), and even contributed to our live blog of the festival in 2009. Every Wednesday until the festival, we’ll feature his look back at the deadCENTER film festivals of old, starting with 2002. This week: 2003

When deadCENTER moved from the lovely confines of UCO to downtown Oklahoma City, I somehow missed out in the transition. Now it seems almost inconceivable that I would miss two festivals in a row. I returned in 2005 and have attended every one since. But just because I missed out then, doesn’t mean I still can’t go back and revisit a couple of films from that 2003 festival. For this week, I watched two short films from that festival–Five F***ing Fables and Nice Night for Murder.

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A Look Back With Dwight Edwards of The Film Cake: 2002

April 14th, 2010 | 2 Comments | Posted in The Guest Spot

In the Guest Spot today, we have Dwight Edwards, the man behind the very cool Okie-film website The Filmcake. Dwight has attended deadCENTER every year since 2002, and even contributed to our live blog of the festival in 2009. Every Wednesday until the festival, we’ll feature his look back at the deadCENTER film festivals of old, starting with 2002.

This year I’ll attend my seventh deadCENTER Film Festival. Once again, I await that week in June with boundless anticipation. Familiar faces, great and not-so-great movies, flowing beer. What more does one need? The 10th Anniversary edition of the festival arrives in just eight weeks. In anticipation of that, I’m going to go back and rewatch some of the festival movies that I remember fondly, remember quite UN-fondly, or just flat out missed the first time around. I’ll start with the 2002 festival and work my way up weekly to this year’s festival. Here we go!

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The Guest Spot: Beau Leland talks The Facebook, The Twitter, The Filmmaking and The Internet

March 12th, 2010 | No Comments | Posted in The Guest Spot

This is the first entry in a conversation we’re having with filmmakers on filmCENTRAL about the role of the internet in filmmaking. Today’s post is written by a good friend of the festival, filmmaker Beau Leland. Beau co-directed Rainbow Around the Sun with our programming director Kevin Ely. You can read more of Beau’s thoughts over at his own blog, http://invisibleartsonline.com/

When I was younger with aspirations of becoming a filmmaker, I knew it meant a lot of things. I knew it meant I needed to man up on my film history, the craft itself, the newest trends, etc. But what I never expected to have to master was this business we call “the internet.” I’m not sure any of us knew we would. But today making a great film is only half the battle. Today you must become one with “the internet” in order to create an audience for your film (this may not be the case for well-established filmmakers, but it certainly is for less-seasoned ones). Sure, marketing has always been a part of filmmaking, but in today’s indie world and today’s indie lack-of-money disorder that plagues so many of us, the use of DIY internet marketing has become a crucial survival tool. And guess what. This can be very difficult for someone who, for lack of a better term, LOATHES the brainless droning that social networking can be. Maybe loathe is a strong word, because I can’t stop checking my facebook or twitter every minute or so. But it seems that this week, I’ve had an epiphany. Social networking doesn’t have to be used for dim-witted darkness, it can be used for the powers of good. But it’s still a jungle out there, and I have a lot to learn.

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