One article that really caught my eye was “Writing and Directing Your First Feature: From Your Story to ‘Film By’”, penned by USC Grad Student Robert Piluso. The article is focused on the hardware and software associated with filmmaking and its uses. Of course, there’s a discussion of Final Draft (Script is owned by Final Draft), Gorilla, Movie Magic Scheduling, and Final Cut Pro. I don’t think I would’ve had as much of a problem, had Piluso kept to his main focus–software and hardware–rather than veering off into festival submission and exhibition, which is article unto itself. Piluso could’ve heeded his own advice and used his two interviewees as a jumping off point for his own research rather than designating them as authorities.

That’s not to say that Piluso doesn’t get a few things right. He manages to avoid making his article into a collection of press releases and soundbites, as Script‘s articles tend to be. He does recognize that with a smaller budget, your film will need to be more personal in nature in order to work. Having a tight script doesn’t hurt. Finally, he stays away from making hackneyed references to El Mariachi and Clerks, two broadly known microbudget classics that have no bearing on today’s indie film landscape.

As someone with a few bad specs in my past, I know that spec writers are used to taking dogmatic advice from people who have worked mainly on the periphery of screenwriting (The late Blake Snyder and J. Michael Straczynski are exceptions to this rule), and are used to tailoring scripts for a market that’s becoming increasingly narrower in taste. In turn, these gurus have very rigid ideas as to what makes a good story. The festival circuit, with its more diverse aesthetic, is more interested in personal vision than a product aimed at a demographic. As I recall overhearing filmmaker Benny Safdie saying outside of a screening at this year’s BAM Cinemafest, “These films aren’t for everybody, but they’re for anybody.”

I’ve uploaded a PDF of Piluso’s original article for you to read and judge for yourself. The article is copyright its respective owners.

What’s most disheartening and irritating about Piluso’s article–and what prompted me to write this response–is that, in the last several years, there have been at least a couple dozen filmmakers who have successfully put microbudget films out on the festival circuit. I know many of these directors. Most of them are enthusiastic about sharing their experiences, yet Piluso didn’t bother to interview a single one. Instead, Piluso chose USC grad student Jordan Ledy without explaining what qualifies him to expound on the subject. (Sorry, being a graduate student at what is arguably the most competitive film school in the country doesn’t count.) As a director, Ledy has shot music videos and a few short documentaries, and has worked on a few other films as crew, but no feature credits of his own.

I realize that freelance writers, especially those working at niche magazines like Script are paid a pittance these days and are under tight deadlines. The directors and that I’ll be referencing throughout this post may not make movies with the broadest appeal, but they do have something Ledy does not: experience.

“If you’re going to spend hundreds (probably thousands) of hours over the year to create a feature-length film, you’re going to want that film to be seen by people, right? “You probably don’t want to just toss the thing up on YouTube or on the Internet,” counsels Ledy. If it’s a feature, then you’re going to want to sell it, and in order to sell it, you need people to see it, and if you want people to see it, it’s got to play the festivals.”

My response to the first quote comes from “Programmers Talk Back”, an article that ran in the Winter 2011 issue of Filmmaker magazine. In this article, Tiny Furniture producer Alicia Van Couvering interviewed Caroline Libresco, Senior Programmer of the Sundance Film Festival:

GET REAL–THE ONLY AUDIENCE FESTIVALS CARE ABOUT IS PRESS AND INDUSTRY

“Press and industry are part of the constituency that we serve,” says Libresco, “but we don’t program for buyers. If we did, we’d define ourselves as a market, like AFM. We just try to reflect the true range of films submitted to us.”

From personal experience, I don’t think the first time filmmaker should be focused on trying to sell their film as an endgame, unless you’re making it for a lot of money. The first time filmmaker is under enough pressure just trying to get a movie in the can, and aiming for a distribution deal only adds to the stress. Unless you’re spending a lot of money, I would be more worried about trying to make a good film.

I learned this the hard way. When I made Are You From Bingo?, an eventual interviewee suggested I read Dov Simens’ From Reel to Deal. At the time, I thought the book was a Godsend, the equivalent of Willy Wonka’s Golden Ticket. I took his advice and sent the movie to larger festivals, which my film was clearly not geared for. Why? Because Simens had advised that the large festivals are the ones that will snap up your film for distribution. Even having your film play a large festival is not guarantee for distribution, but more about that later. This project has taken a lot longer than I thought it would, but hopefully, I’ll have the payoff I’m looking for.

“Moreover, Ledy points out a rare screenwriting secret: ‘Over 100 scene headings is absolutely ridiculous. You want your scene headings to be under 100.’ For example, as writer-director, you want to avoid too much entering and exiting of buildings as scenes unto themselves–basically avoid any scene that does not actively move the story forward and have a dynamic, indispensible reason to be filmed. So cut the dead air on the page before wasting time shooting footage that would only (or should only) hit the cutting room floor.”

At face value, Ledy may be offering valid advice here, but a lack of experience undermines his credibility and the weight of the statement. From my observation, festival programmers aren’t necessarily looking for practicality. As the editor of Filmmaker magazine, Scott Macaulay sees a lot of microbudget films each year and writes about them. Back in May, he shared his thoughts and insights on these films. One passage explicates Macaulay’s thoughts on what makes these films truly unique. What he says runs completely contradictory to Ledy and Piluso’s advice:

The least successful no-budget films have always been the ones made in the image of studio-budgeted models. These are the ones that embrace mainstream sensibilities without having the production budgets, star casts, re-shoot monies, music license fees, and marketing spends to make audiences accept them as mainstream. As Mike Ryan noted recently at Hammer to Nail, they are too indebted to Naturalism, and less willing to take the type of aesthetic risks that characterize not only the avant-garde but the pulp energy of the great old B-moviemakers. These indie films wind up neither fish nor fowl, not connecting with — or reaching — audiences while also not exciting the critics who expect in lieu of production value a different and original sensibility.

When I look back at some of my favorite micro-budget films of recent years, it’s always the bold experiments, digressive moments, or flights of fancies within them that I remember. When I watch these moments, I know the filmmakers haven’t let the opportunity afforded by their tiny budgets go to waste. For example, I love how in the middle of Barry Jenkins’ Medicine for Melancholy the camera glides away from the characters into a real-life neighborhood activist meeting on housing policy and sits there for several minutes, allowing the film to become at that moment a documentary about its very themes. Or when Ronald Bronstein’s Frownland takes a hilarious left turn, jettisoning all ideas of tidy structure by following a peripheral character who surprisingly reveals himself to be as disturbed as its nutso protagonist. I’m always knocked out by the dream sequences in the Safdie Brothers’ films (to say nothing about their poignantly shocking take on parenting). I was tremendously moved by Brent Green’s spoken narration to his stop-motion feature, Gravity Was Everywhere Back Then, when I saw it at The Kitchen. Knowing that Green had replicated the journey of his film’s protagonist by building a version of his house on his own property made it all the more crazily beautiful. I loved watching the recent Slamdance winner Without, which had all the elements of a “woman alone” babysitter thriller until director Mark Jackson reaches for an anti-genre ending that’s both heartbreaking and surprisingly tender. It’s been a couple of months since I saw Sophia Takal’s Green, but the way in which it told a story about female sexual jealousy through lush visuals and a psychologically attuned sound design rather than genre tropes stayed with me.

It should be noted that Barry Jenkins, Ronnie Bronstein, and Sophia Takal were first time directors. I’m sure they all know “the rules”, but they learned how to break them not from initially working in a traditional way, but seeing other films that break the mold.

Then Piluso moves into the hardware. One crucial omission Piluso makes with the essential hardware is the all-important external hard drive. Raw footage takes up a lot of space, and without an external hard drive, you will not be able to cut a movie. Luckily, external hard drives are the most obtainable of hardware, and you can purchase them at office supply and computer stores. Just make sure the one you’re buying is compatible with your computer.

With hardware, Piluso discusses movie camera. The home movie camera you can buy at an electronics store is not suitable for making a feature film (as I found out with my movie), and talks about the options with professional video cameras.

“You’ve got two ways to go: the HF S Vixia series by Canon or the R series by Sony. Whether Canon or Sony, these cameras are small, light, shoot in high quality, high-definition, with built-in hard drives and/or memory cards.”

Piluso solicits the expertise of Alyssa Pfaff, a “multi-department ‘floating’ specialist” with 13 years experience at Samy’s Camera in Pasadena, California. Ms. Pfaff may very well know her stuff, but this would be like me quoting someone from The Apple Store at Eastview Mall in an article on Final Cut Pro. There’s no mention of DSLR’s, which tend to be the camera of choice for many cinematographers out on the festival circuit. For those of you who don’t know what DSLR’s are, they’re high-end still cameras that capture video as well as photo. They give a movies a 35mm look at a fraction of the 35mm cost. Tiny Furniture, The Dish & The Spoon, and The Catechism Cataclysm were shot on Canon 7D; Green was shot on a Canon 5D. The Dish & The Spoon cinematographer Mark Schwartzbard explained in the Spring 2011 issue of Filmmaker why he shot on a Canon 7D:

“‘Because the sensor size of the of the DSLR approximates the size of 35mm film, you end up in the same kind of visual world as if you were shooting film,’ he explains, ‘but working at budgets that a few years ago would have had you shooting on a HVX200 or an EX1, which have an entirely different feel to them.’”

Consider this: a few years ago, the Panasonic HVX200 was considered the camera of high-end filmmakers, and it retailed at $6,000. The Canon 7D and 5D retail at less that $2,000, including lenses. From cameras, Piluso moved onto discussing other equipment, like mics and lighting, and shooting locations. Toward the end, though, he goes into discussing submitting your finished film to festivals, and returns to Ledy for advice:

“Additionally, when your film gets accepted to a festival, Ledy highly recommends investing in a color correction before bringing it to that exhibition, which can run from $1,500 to $2,000 for a legitimate session. It’s sort of the equivalent to taking a long, hot shower before an important date.”

You could do that. Or you could use Apple Color, which is included with Final Cut Pro. Medicine for Melancholy was color corrected with Apple Color, and the results were terrific:

If you want to splurge on Color Correction Software, I’ve heard good things about Red Giant’s Magic Bullet Suite. It was developed by the legendary Special Effects company The Orphanage. At $800, it’s still half the price that Piluso is quoting from Ledy. That’s not to say you won’t need that $1,500-$2,000, though. You can use that money for travel expenses, especially for larger festivals like Sundance, SXSW, and Tribeca, who don’t pay to bring their filmmakers to the festival. You’ll also need it for the eventual blowup to HD, which brings us to the last quote.

“The single-largest and most reputable means of finding festivals to which to submit your finished film is Withoutabox.com, a free-to-use site through which you can find essentially every single film festival worth its grit, both local and international.

To send to these, and show your film at these, you’ll want to have a Blu-ray DVD of your film made. ‘Find a friend with a Blu-ray burner,’ counsels Ledy. Not only Blu-ray show all your hard work in the best light possible, but this is the standard expectation for modern festival exhibition. Don’t make it difficult for the festival organizer, festival projectionist, nor for yourself. Go easy, go Blu-Ray.”

So I’m going to break my own little rule with “qualified” filmmakers when I cite a good friend of mine, Daniel Laabs, who has never directed a feature of his own. But his short, “8“, has played several festivals this year, starting with SXSW. His response to this quote? “Blu-ray is definitely not essential.” Personally, I’ve never had a problem submitting plain DVD-Rs to festivals. What’s more important is that they can play your DVD.

As I mentioned earlier, though, just because your film makes its way into a festival doesn’t mean it’s an automatic “in” for distribution. If you’re lucky, and your film has the right appeal, it might get picked up by a small distributor like IFC or Magnolia, but otherwise, expect to be responsible for the film’s distribution. YouTube has a partners program where you can post the movie online and recieve a little bit of money. If you need a better understanding of the contemporary distribution landscape, Think Outside The Box Office is the book you need to read. Author Jon Reiss talks about the various options you have with distributing your film, and can help you decide what’s right plan for distributing your film.

I’m not guaranteeing that you’ll have a festival favorite by following my advice, but I hope that my response to this article provides you with a realistic idea of how the festival circuit works. Since I’m primarily responding to an article, there’s a lot of ground I haven’t covered, and there’s a lot I have yet to learn. If you’re serious about making your own movie, but don’t have the funds to attend a festival like SXSW, Filmmaker magazine is highly recommended. Filmmaker publishes articles on current trends in Independent Film, interviews with established filmmakers and up-and-comers alike, as well as thorough articles on gadgets and software. There hasn’t been an issue I haven’t read cover to cover.

By the way, both my subscriptions to Creative Screenwriting and Script are up for renewal. Since I’m on unemployment, I have to be more cautious about my money. I’m considering renewing my subscription to Creative Screenwriting, but I won’t be renewing Script.

The Dallas Video Fest kicks off tomorrow evening at the Texas Theater.  Here is our video roundtable chat with Director Cameron Nelson and Actors Frank Mosley and Jodie Moore of Dallas Video Fest selections In Kind and New Animal.

From Rambos Rainbos Productions here are the trailers for Writer, Director, Producer Cameron Nelson‘s two DVF short film selections.

IN KIND (Jodie Moore).

NEW ANIMAL (Frank Mosley and Rebekah Kennedy)

Check out the full Dallas Video Fest Schedule Here.

Her Wilderness written and directed by Frank Mosley showcases a new talent, Riley Templeton, in her first role.  Frank and Riley chatted with PSD about the upcoming film.

From a single photo to a film is how Riley Templeton can say she entered the movie world.  Here is PSD’s chat with Writer/Director Frank Mosley and Actress Riley Templeton.

Video shot and edited by George Wada.

Like the film on FB.

Stay tuned for more from Frank and the cast/crew of Her Wilderness!!!

This year’s sponsor Caddy, had a commercial that talked about re-inventing the blue blooded look.  I’m not sure if Dallas IFF 2011 did that, but it sure was a wild ride.  Take a peak at Dallas IFF 2011 with PSD’s photographer Derrick Williams and his adventure along the Red Carpet.

We’ll start with a PSD favorite Ya’ke!

The multi-award winning Director has his short film, Katrina’s Son ,playing at Cannes!! Also he’s gearing up for his feature debut, WOLF, help him make it happen.

The Lovely Farah White.  We have a few great shots of Farah with The Legend of Hell’s Gate: An American Conspiracy (2011) Team.

Farah and Director Tanner Beard.

Lovely Ladies Summer Glau and Farah White.

Hillcrest High’s own Actor Glenn Morshower (J.H Gordon in Film) with fellow Texan Director Tanner Beard (James Mckinnon in Film).

Derrick is a student of Glenn’s and here Mr. Morshower is being interviewed by Mallory Carrick.

Ok it’s now time for a who’s more Stunning Competition?

Summer or is it Mr. Morshower?

Such a tough call.  Ok back to the Legend of Hell’s Gate team with Farah.

Top Secret Group right here because Ryan Lee (blond kiddo) is in Super 8…hush hush…explosion…moving on.

Time to take a step off the Red Carpet to catch the tear jerker Beautiful Boy .

Producer Lee Clay (Dallas Native), Writer Michael Armbruster, Director Shawn Ku and Dallas IFF Artistic Director James Faust.  Before we jump back to the red carpet I’d like to share a few gems that Derrick caught of my interview with the lovely Gould ladies.

“8” is a real treat from Dallas IFF 2011.  Director Julie Gould and star Logan Gould and I having a laugh moments before our interview.  Here is the link to the finished interview – QUALITY!

A behind the scenes shot.

Julie and Logan Gould easily one of my favorite interviews.

Thanks ladies!  You’re the best.  Back to the Red Carpet.

Big Ups to South Africa with Candice Reisser the Director of the short film Protect the Nation.

Producer Brendan McDonald of the entertaining Irish film The Runway .

Talented Composer Theodore Shapiro with the Arthur Poster.

And now for the duos on the RC.

JESS + MOSS’s, the Target Filmmaker Award for Best Narrative Feature Film, lead actress Sarah Hagan and Director Clay Jeter.

Director Dave Boyle and Actor/Musician/Writer Goh Nakamura with Surrogate Valentine.

Writer and Lead Actor Nathan Jones of, A Seizure by Nathan Jones, with Director Charles Son.

Spilt Milk’s Writer Daniel Bower (UNT!!) and Director Blake Calhoun.  Here is the interview with Blake I did earlier.

Wouldn’t be Dallas IFF/AFI Dallas without seeing Actor/Writer Chris Gardner and Director/Writer Blair Rowan (loving the pimp hat) of Narcissism and Me.

We end our showcase by introducing PSD’s photographer, Derrick Williams.

Gadi Elkon with Pearl Snap Discount.com interviews writer/director Julie Gould about her short film, “8″ . Gadi also talks to Julie’s daughter, Logan, who is the star of the movie.  Video Interview after the Jump.

Here is PSD’s chat with the lovely Gould ladies.  Director Julie Gould and Actress Logan Gould of the touching short film “8″.

Still shot from “8″ Short Film Directed by Julie Gould and Daniel Laabs.

The Short Film categories at the DALLAS IFF spread across numerous genres and styles.  In this post we’ll take a look at the 2 Short film programs as well as the Documentary Shorts and Animation Shorts section.

University of Texas at Arlington graduates Julie Pool Gould, Daniel Laabs and DP Bret Curry bring home their SXSW TEXAS SHORTS JURY AWARD winning film “8″ to DIFF 2011.  The Short “8″ is part of the Shorts Program 1 with 6 other films.

Shorts Program 1

8
Directed By: Julie Gould,
Daniel Laabs
USA, 2011, 8 min
A daughter spends the anniversary of her father’s death with her mother.

The Long Lonely Walk
Directed By: Leon Chambers
United Kingdom, 2010, 13 min
In all walk of life, there are challenges that lie ahead.

Green Crayons
Directed By: Kazik Radwanski
Canada, 2010, 11 min
An elementary school parable involving Xavier and Liam, two 7-year-olds that are moulded by their actions following a classroom spitting incident.

WAITING ROOM
Directed By: Robert Machoian,
Rodrigo Ojeda-Beck
USA, 2010, 10 min
The mundane and not so mundane moments in ones life.

Crazy Beats Strong Every Time
Directed By: Moon Molson
USA, 2011, 26 min
An African American 20-something finds his Nigerian immigrant stepfather passed out drunk in their building hallway and is pressured into murdering him.

The Hunter and the Swan Discuss Their Meeting
Directed By: Emily Carmichael
USA, 2010, 8 min
A Brooklyn couple have dinner with a hunter and his girlfriend, a magical swan woman; it doesn’t go well.

Pioneer
Directed By: David Lowery
USA, 2010, 15 min
A father tells his little boy the most epic bedtime story ever.

Director David Lowery completed a survey for the DALLAS IFF folks and here are some of his wonderful insights into his short film, PIONEER starring Will Oldham.

“Lead actor Will Oldham is a renowned indie / folk musician who records and performs under the moniker Bonnie ‘Prince’ Billy. As an actor, he starred in Kelly Richardt’s ‘Old Joy,’ and appeared in her follow-up film ‘Wendy & Lucy.’ His songs are beloved far and wide (Johnny Cash covered one of his songs on his American IV album) and he was the subject of a lengthy profile in the New Yorker.  Will’s costar in ‘Pioneer’ is Myles Brooks, who was 4 years old at the time of production and had never acted before. A Dallas native, Myles more than held his own with 12 pages of dialogue. Hopefully this leads to more work in the future!

“I was inspired by thoughts of fatherhood – I wanted to make a movie for my dad, and in writing the script I was really inspired by the crazy bedtime stories my dad told my growing up.”

David is a previous award winner from DIFF as he took home the Texas Filmmaker Award (AFI Dallas 2009) for his gripping short, St. Nick.

The Shorts Program 1 runs just over 90 minutes and can be seen:

Friday April 1st at 9:45 pm at the Angelika Film Center #7.

Saturday April 2nd at 3pm at the Angelika Film Center #6.

Shorts Program 2

PSD favorites Blair Rowan and Chris Gardner bring their dark comedy style to the DIFF once again.

Narcissism & Me
Directed By: Blair Rowan
USA, 2010, 10 min
A dark comedy about Ivan Carrol, an intensely unhinged man isolated from reality and trapped in an infinite loop of perverse fantasy, murderous intent, and worthless therapy.

Deeper Than Yesterday
Directed By: Ariel Kleiman
Australia, 2010, 20 min
After three months submerged underwater, the men have become savages. Oleg fears that losing perspective may mean losing himself.

Protect The Nation
Directed By: C. R. Reisser
Germany , South Africa, 2010, 17 min
When faced with the unexpected kindness of a stranger, a young boy begins to question himself. Does he have the courage to do what’s right.

Director Candice Reisser completed a DIFF film survey and here are some of her responses.

“62 people were murdered and 90,000 foreigners were displaced from their homes during a wave of xenophobic rioting in South Africa in 2008. How was this possible? How can we prevent this from ever happening again?”

“Our film was shot on exactly the same grounds where the xenophobic attacks took place only two years earlier. This is still an extremely controversial topic in South Africa, and to recreate scenes of rioting and looting did create quite a stir in the community. Amazingly we received many messages of support for what we were doing. A lot of people thanked us for bringing a difficult and uncomfortable subject out into the open.”

Worst Enemy
Directed By: Lake Bell
USA, 2010, 13 min
A comedy about a female misanthrope who gets herself stuck in a full-body girdle.

A Seizure By Nathan Jones
Directed By: Charles Son
USA, 2010, 8 min
Drawn from the fragmented memories of one man, this film is the reconstruction of a seizure from beginning to end.

A film that deals with the horrible effects epilepsy can have on a person.  The screenwriter Nathan Jones took part in a survey for DIFF and had some awesome insight into epilepsy and more.  He started off by explaining his fun connection to Dallas.

“My father grew up in Dallas so I frequently made trips as a kid. I also worked as an extra in Friday Night Lights in Austin for a bit. Love Texas! And Sonny’s BBQ.”

Nathan talked about epilepsy in more detail.

“People used to think that those who were affected by epilepsy were also affected by the devil. In fact, Canon Law used to cite that anyone with epilepsy could not become a priest. A friend and advocate Tony Coelho is credited for swaying the pope to reverse canon law and allowing people who have epilepsy to join the seminary. Tony Coelho was also the primary sponsor of the American with Disabilities Act, resulting from the hardships brought upon by living with epilepsy.”

“This film was made to enable others to empathize with people who have seizures.  Nine seizures later and hundreds of conversations about what epilepsy is and isn’t, a passion project as an artist became clear as day. If people are going to understand what a seizure is then people need to experience what it is like to have a seizure from my point of view. They need to be on that gurney and in that ambulance for themselves-seeing, hearing and feeling what I have during these convulsions. Come live in my shoes for a second.”

Behind the Scenes shot of BAD DADS which stars Michael Cera.

Bad Dads
Directed By: Derek Westerman
USA, 2011, 14 min
This is a look into the life of a man (who should not have procreated) and his son. It deals with oftentimes inappropriate situations.

Another PSD favorite, Director Michael Mohan brings his short film Ex-Sex to DIFF.

Ex-Sex
Directed By: Michael Mohan
USA, 2011, 8 min
A one night stand between two people who used to be in love (or so they thought).

Michael shared his thoughts with DIFF and he began by explaining how this film is a very personal tale.

“I once dated this girl. She was too good for me. She was smart. She was pretty. She laughed at my dumb jokes. I knew that I wanted to marry her.  The only problem with that, I hadn’t dated that many people up to that point. I was afraid that I’d marry her, and like on my 40th birthday or something, way down the road, I’d start to wonder if there was someone else out there that was even more perfect for me. I know, it was dumb. I just didn’t have that much experience at relationships.  So in the months that followed, as she and I would get together and secretly continue to hook up, I went on dates with a handful of people. All of which paled in comparison. She started going on dates too, and I got intensely jealous.  It was rough, but I quickly learned my lesson, she took me back, and we are now happily married.  Every once in a while, I wonder what would have happened if during that time we were broken up she decided to move on. This is that version of the story.”

Some other awesome tidbits of info from Mike.  How about his connection to a past DIFF STAR AWARD recipient.

“I currently live in Los Angeles, in the same exact apartment where Robert Towne wrote Chinatown.  Chinatown was written within the same four walls that Ex-Sex (and all of my work) was written.”

And how about a little shout out to Facebook?

“We pretty much cast the movie via Facebook. Jacob was introduced to us via another director friend of mine, and Kristen had acted in a music video we made a year prior. I reached out to them via FB and we were off and running.”

Wednesday April 6th at 7pm at the Angelika Film Center # 6

Thursday April 7th at 10:15pm at the Angelika Film Center # 7

Documentary Shorts
Program Running Time is 65 min

Tussilago Directed By: Jonas Odell Sweden, 2010, 14 min  In 1977, West German terrorist Norbert Kröcher, along with his former girlfriend, “A,” was arrested for planning to kidnap the Swedish politician Anna-Greta Leijon.

Grandpa’s Wet Dream Directed By: Chihiro Amemiya Japan , USA, 2010, 16 min  A 75-year-old Japanese man has been acting in adult videos for 15 years without telling his family.

39-A: A Travel Tale of Interminable Directed By: Evan Mather USA, 2010, 8 min  In this insightful autobiographical mash-up of Super-8 home movies, vibrant animated cartography, and Dutch pidgin-speak, a family’s 1981 vacation to the Kennedy Space Center is chronicled in exquisite detail.

Just About Famous Directed By: Matt Mamula, Jason Kovacsev USA, 2010, 15 min  A film about famous people…well, almost.

Closed for Storm: Six Flags New Orleans Directed By: Teddy Smith USA, 2010, 7 min  Six Flags New Orleans was closed for Hurricane Katrina in 2005. It never reopened. This video takes us on a tour of the park as it stands 5 years later.

The High Level Bridge Directed By: Trevor Anderson Canada, 2010, 5 min  Trevor drops his camera from Edmonton’s High Level Bridge in memory of those who have jumped.

Sunday April 3rd at 7pm at the Angelika Film Center # 7

Monday April 4th at 9:45pm at the Angelika Film Center # 8

Animation Shorts

Program Running Time is 75 min

Lipsett Diaries Directed By: Theodore Ushev Canada, 2010, 14 min  A descent into the maelstrom of anguish that tormented Arthur Lipsett, a famed Canadian experimental filmmaker who died at 49.

Love Patate Directed By: Gilles Cuvelier France, 2010, 13 min  Some french fries, a love triangle, a potato with a scar, a huge nose, North of France and a bunny…

Paths of Hate Directed By: Damian Nenow Poland, 2010, 10 min  A short tale about the demons that slumber deep in the human soul and have the power to push people into the abyss of blind hate, fury and rage.

The Boy Who Wanted to Be A Lion Directed By: Alois Di Leo United Kingdom, 2010, 9 min  Max is a seven-year-old deaf boy growing up in the 1960s. One day he goes on a school trip to the zoo, where he sees a lion for the first time. A feeling begins to grow inside him that will change his life forever.

Stanley Pickle Directed By: Vicky Mather United Kingdom, 2010, 12 min  Stanley never goes outside. He likes to play with his clockworktoys and every night his mother kisses him goodnight.

Something Left, Something Taken Directed By: Ru Kuwahata, Max Porter USA, 2010, 11 min  A vacationing couple encounters a man they believe to be the Zodiac Killer.

Jupiter Elicius Directed By: Kelly Sears USA, 2010, 6 min  A haunted meteorologist dreams of storms that are a lot closer and farther away than he thought.

Monday April 4th at 7:15pm at the Angelika Film Center # 7

Tuesday April 5th at 10:00pm at the Angelika Film Center #6

DALLAS IFF 2011 kicks off TOMORROW!!!