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The 2007 FFF Winners:
Congratulations to the 2007 FFF Winners
• Best Filmstock Film: Swimming, directed by Diane Lisa Johnson
• Best Digital Film: Last Stop For Paul, directed by Neil Mandt
• Best Documentary: Wally, directed by Bob Fink
• Best Short Documentary: Facing the Habit, directed by Magnolia Martin
• Best Student Director: Bullet Proof Vest, directed by May Lin Au Yong
• Best First Time Director: Landscape in a Portrait, directed by Dustin
Thompson
• Best Animation: Everything Will Be Okay, directed by Don Hertzfeldt
• Best Skate Video: Pray For Me, The Jason Jessee Film, directed by Steve
Nemsick and David Rogerson
• Audience Award: Rural Rock, directed by Jensen Rufe
2007 Film Festival Highlights, Part 1
2007 Film Festival Highlights, Part 2
Time
Genre
Director
Synopsis
Friday, July 13th, 2007 Link to Printable Program PDF
5:50-7:15
Feature Documentary
Steve Gatlin
Beauty
24
On September 1, 2005, photographer Steve Gatlin embarked on a challenge
to travel around the country for 24 days, each day visiting a new state
to take just one photograph until he filled a single roll of film. To complicate
matters each photograph was taken at night, outdoors, using time-lapse
settings, and the models were all in the nude. Follow Gatlin on his epic
journey and witness first hand the models’ candid interviews after
each shoot as they examine his interpretation of beauty, and also how issues
of self-esteem, confidence and more are defined in American culture today.
7:30-8:45
African Films
Avie Luthra
LUCKY is a South African
AIDS orphan who learns about life through an unlikely bond with a racist
Indian woman.
“In the film, Lucky, a young boy, is moving from rural Zululand to Durban
to live with his uncle. He is very excited until his uncle refuses to send
him to school and instead gives him a tape of his mother's last message made
just before she died.
The boy struggles to play this however, and manages to do so on the tape-deck of a racist old Indian woman (Padma). The message upsets Lucky so much that he runs away from home and becomes a street-child for a night. On his return Padma feels sorry for him and they bond as an unlikely mother and son.
Luthra says the aim of the film was to dramatize the effects of HIV on children in South Africa whilst looking at African / Indian relationships.
The film was shot in and around Durban in Natal, where HIV is estimated
at around 40%. The story is taken from real life accounts and research
of AIDS orphans and the difficulties they face. The tape idea, he says,
comes from the practice of dying mothers creating memory boxes for their
children.”(AIM Magizeen Media & Current Affairs, see: http://www.asiansinmedia.org/news/article.php/television/1183)
Paolo Quaregna
Le Bon Eleve: Le Mali et Nous
The images of Bancoumana, a small village in Mali, introduce the debate
on the process of economic globalization in some African countries
and the risks that this brings with it. The privatization of the only
existing railway, the price of cotton and the ownership of the land,
GM agriculture, parliamentary democracy and “traditional” democracy
are some of the issues at the centre of attention.
9:00-10:11
Skate Film
Steve Nemsick, David Rogerson
Pray For Me: The Jason Jessee Film
Pray For Me, Jason Jessee' is a documentary stunt ride with
legendary former skateboard pro, custom chopper builder, and full-time
low-rider Jason Jessee.
Jason's family, friends (many of whom are living legends in diverse fields) and
associates weave a riveting narrative on a truly fascinating, self-invented man.
Jason's halting language and dozens of interviews from those who know him best
and worst unveil themes of suicide, Jesus, success, failure, natural birthing,
chicken make-up, esthetics, excommunication, bankruptcy, and love. The diversity
and status of the interviewees in the film is staggering, as is their contribution
to modern California culture - Jason's true love. The settings for most interviews
is the shop, garage, studio or workspace that each of theses artisans uses, bathing
them with eye candy. Juxtaposed against these are raw walking and talking scenes
of Jason, enhancing the concept of dichotomy that is so rich in his life. Professional
photography and page stopping quotes from dozens of skateboard and biker magazines,
as well as scenes from skate films, television, and the Jessee family home movies
(Super 8) round out a visually alluring story.
Some of the players featured are Skip Engblom (Dogtown/Z-Boys), world champion
skateboarder Christian Hosoi, Hollywood tattooer Mark Mahoney, famed custom car
builder Cole Foster, and world renowned surf pioneer Christian Fletcher.
The pace is often frantic, covering disparate topics like a train wreck...telling
Jason's story in the same manner he lives it.
10:25-11:50
Animated Shorts
The 2007 lineup of Best Animated Shorts includes the Sundance-Film Festival’s Award winning existential mediation “Everything Will Be Okay”, various computer animation, claymation, stop-motion, hilarious, subversive, touching, sad, and innovative animation. From dealing with death (“Oso”), to Clerks-bad-drug trips (“Two in the AM/PM”), this lineup features 13 short films crafted by true artists and will not be screened anywhere else! Do not miss these animated films- from the U.S., South Korea, and beyond- you won’t see them anywhere else.
Everything Will Be Okay, various computer animation,
claymation, stop-motion, hilarious, subversive, touching, sad, and
innovative animation. From dealing with death ("Oso"),
to Clerks-bad-drug trips ("Two in the AM/PM"), this lineup
features 13 short films crafted by true artists and will not be screened
anywhere else! Do not miss these animated films- from
the U.S., South Korea, and beyond- you won't see them anywhere else.
Marina Budovsky
Dear Alphabet
Inspired by all things absurd, "Dear Alphabet," is an experimental
cartoon, which tells the story of one girl and what happens after a monster eats
her mother. When our hero still cannot escape the depths of chaos, a magnificent
storm washes her sadness away. (7min. 13 sec., Stop-motion & multi-media
Animation).
Vanessa Woods
The Touch is a meditation on Anne Sexton’s poem of the same name. The film examines melodies within spoken, written and visual language and how they can interact. By juxtaposing text, image and sound, the viewer is asked to contemplate disparate forms of human response and emotion regarding language and imagery. In The Touch, the text from the poem is first given life through single-frame animation, then through layered audio recording and finally through visuals that reinterpret it. Language and image investigate feelings of disembodiment, isolation and absence punctuated by sound and silence. Because the subject of the poem deals specifically with the idea of touch, the film sustains a highly tactile, textural quality wherein the filmmaker’s hand is an overt presence.
Jaeyoon Park
Evocation is a visual ode influenced by the poem “evocation(??)” written by Kim So Wol. The poem “evocation” consists of strong emotional conflicts that occur from losing a loved one. And these develop Han, ironic or paradoxical emotions, which I try to illustrate in my work.
Evocation is including the concepts of the endless wheel of rebirth by connecting the beginning to the ending of the animation. Also Chrysanthemum, apricot, magnolia, and lotus symbolize fall, winter, spring, and summer respectively.There are three characters such as a fish, a bird and the moon. The fish, which is representing the soul, try to approach the moon, a symbol of Transcendence or God, and transforms into the bird. The transformation suggests the spiritual growth of soul
Jody Kramer
Pinch
The story of a woman and the ferociously adorable monster who clings to her arm.
An exploration of the emotional turmoil of a rather vicious cycle, using cartoon
humor and horror.
Pinch
Brian Blasiak
Scaling Up
To cover his affair, Jimmy's father takes him to a local jazz club so Jimmy
can practice his trumpet. With his father in another room, Jimmy sits
on the stage and reads his comic book. Suddenly, his father's voice
booms through the room. After a few moments of lackluster practice,
Jimmy hears a muffled sound coming from a pile of old instruments.
Tentatively, he investigates the noise, eventually picking up an old
trumpet. As the trumpet meets his lips, something magical happens.
While Jimmy gets lost in this experience, his father opens the door
and reality comes crashing back. Now, Jimmy is faced with which trumpet
to take home: the new uninspiring one or the old magical one?
Scaling Up
12:00 AM
Feature
Jay Edwards
Stomp! Shout! Scream!
The beach party rock and roll monster movie Stomp! Shout! Scream! is
set in 1966 and intertwines the adventures of an all-girl garage
rock band with the legend of the Skunk Ape (the
Florida Everglades’ version of Bigfoot). Theodora, Jody and Carol,
collectively known as The Violas, are on tour when their van breaks
down in a small southern beach town. Meanwhile, the local police are
investigating the disappearance of the parents of a little girl who
was found walking the beach in a state of shock. But they are also
trying to determine the origins of a strange pile of pungent debris
that has washed up on the beach. Scientist John Patterson is called
in to help investigate. Both John and a local mechanic, Hector Garcia,
fall for The Violas’ lead singer, Theodora. She initially shows
little interest in them, however, and seems to be harboring a mysterious
past. Hector convinces the girls to stay in town when he offers to
repair their van in exchange for playing at his party, but a strange
and menacing creature appears to be on the loose…
Stomp! Shout! Scream!
Saturday, July 14th, 2007
1:20-3:00
Feature Documentary
Paul La Blanc
Millions (WORLD PREMIERE)
For many Americans, winning the lottery represents the ultimate dream come true. Rags to riches stories and their sordid flip side - tales of millions wasted by undisciplined winners - are common fodder for the tabloids and talk shows. But the public is rarely, if ever allowed more than a superficial glimpse into the world of instant, unexpected wealth. Millions (a lottery story) follows the lives of six different big money winners to show just how dramatically a life-changing experience can affect the average person.
From the farms of the Midwest and the heart of the Bible belt to the
hurricane riddled retirement communities of South Florida, Millions documents
the true stories of people as rich in personality as they are (or once
were) in material wealth.
Rather than focusing solely on the subjects? Lottery winnings, the film
also uses the everyday lives of its subjects to gain insights into such
diverse subjects as fame, growing old, the plight of the small farmer,
and the role of evangelical Christianity in contemporary society. By
comparing the experiences of very different people who share a common
link, Millions paints a vivid picture of how exceptional circumstances
can deeply affect one’s identity, and tells a poignant story
Millions
3:15-4:39
Best Comedic and Experimental Short Films
The 2007 lineup of Best Comedic and Experimental Short Films is a hilarious mixture of comedy and innovation. From love triangle-heavy metal bands (“I’m in the band”), to wind-up Nuns, the perils of quitting smoking, the films include playing chess as therapy, an office-race among mail delivery boys, and an Eastern European vision of music and image sure to provoke. Hilarious, silly, creative fun- it’s 8 different short films for the price of one!
Pieces
4:55-6:47
Best Dramatic and Thrilling Short Films
The 2007 lineup of Best Dramatic and Thrilling Short Films includes
an Australian film about the true story of a man who freezes to death
in a refrigerated train car, told in flashback ("Absolute Zero"),
and the wildly weird and wonderful Delicatessan-esque "Existence." These
six short movies include gangsters, women dealing with mid-thirty crises,
and the dangers of picking up hitchhikers. These films are not available
in this lineup anywhere else, and are from the U.S., England, and beyond.
A must see."
Swimming
A shy mailroom clerk's life is sent plunging into the deep end when she
rescues an abandoned love letter from the trash can of a mean female
executive... and decides to reply. Inter-office cat-fighting, deception
and romance ensue in this entertaining comedy about the distance between
the life you have and the life you want.
Swimming
7:00-8:15
Music Documentaries
Jensen Rufe
Rural Rock
While the rest of the music world operates oblivious to their existence,
the vibrant Humboldt County, CA underground scene makes do with limited
rock resources. Six hours north of the nearest big city, these colorful
scenesters pump out the catchiest tunes, for all the right reasons.
'Rural Rock' is a week-in-the-life of the best scene you've never heard
of.
Rural Rock
Gabriel Lamb
The New Grass:
In a world where pop culture dominates the music business, shining
gems still exist. Come on an adventure to the city by the Bay, where
Bluegrass and American Roots live and thrive. This documentary film
(with appearances by: Shelby Ash, The Pine Box Boys, Kemo Sabe, and
Shawn “Razor” Cymbalisty) takes a look at the current
state of Bluegrass and Roots, exploring its progression, while still
paying homage to those that led the way for The New Grass.
The New Grass
8:30-9:52
Dramatic Feature
Neil Mandt
Last Stop for Paul
Two guys travel around the world in search of answers only to discover
the world is full of wacky people and experiences.
Cliff and Charlie work together selling bathroom supplies. Charlie’s
the seasoned traveler, having been to over 50 countries before his
30th birthday. Cliff dreams of traveling but always finds an excuse
not to go. When Charlie asks Cliff to go to the Full Moon Party in
Thailand, it is no surprise to anyone when Charlie is rejected.
Things suddenly change when Cliff gets a phone call informing him that one of his childhood friends died unexpectedly. At the funeral, Cliff learns his buddy had been planning a trip around the world. Cliff decides to make sure his friend still makes that trip, even if it means carrying his ashes in a thermos to do it.
Together, all three embark on a trip of a lifetime.
Filmed all over the world, the award-winning Last Stop For Paul takes viewers on an around the world journey that is like nothing you've ever seen on the Discover channel!
Last Stop for Paul
10:10-11:57
Music Documentary
and
Creative Short
Rick Ernst
Get Thrashed: The Story of Thrash Metal
Get Thrashed traces the influence and evolution of thrash
metal, an extreme form of heavy metal popularized in the early 1980's
by bands like Metallica, Slayer, Exodus, Megadeath, Anthrax etc. The
film shows how these bands helped create a worldwide scene and style
of music that influenced bands that followed like Pantera, Slipknot,
System of a Down and many more.
Get Thrashed: The Story of Thrash Metal
Pillow Girl
Originally a sound-art work created for the Museum of Contemporary
Art Denver by musician/artist Ronnie Cramer, who scanned the covers
and inside pages of a number of lurid, vintage paperbacks, then ran
the collected image and text data through a variety of synthesizers.
The resulting sound files were then processed and remixed into the
soundtrack for Pillow Girl film; the visual portion of the film makes
use of the over 200 covers, with one illustrated figure morphing
into the next every two seconds.
Pillow Girl
Sunday, July 15th, 2007
2:00-3:33
Short Documentaries
Becky Baumgartner
Heart of a Soul Surfer
Bethany Hamilton, a 13-year-old girl destined for a successful
surfing career, lost her arm to a shark in 2003. The attack didn’t
cause this determined surfer to give up. Instead, it compelled her to discover
her purpose in life as she overcame her loss and got back on the board
just weeks later.
'Heart of a Soul Surfer' digs deep into the heart of Bethany's abiding faith in God, and tackles the difficult question 'Why does God allow bad things to happen in our lives?'
Heart of a Soul Surfer
Jeremy Kaller
The Recyclergy
San Francisco Bay Area recycling pioneers share their insightfully
hilarious thoughts and stories on garbage collection, treasure hunting,
Jack Benny, and the products we buy.
The Recyclergy
3:50-5:34
Feature Documentaries
Maryanne Galvin
What’s Going on UP There?
From hardworking scientists and environmentalists--even a college student
in Kuwait who wants to be the first Muslim woman in space--to Hollywood
filmmakers, entrepreneurs, psychiatrists, historians, lawyers and
preschoolers, this doc offers conversations with professionals and
ordinary citizens on all sides of the space debate. Introduced by
Leonard Nimoy (Star Trek), who once again asks us what Earthlings
will do with the final frontier.
What’s Going on UP There?
Eliza Hemenway
Uncommon Knowledge
A unique view of privatization, Uncommon Knowledge takes place inside
UC Berkeley Extension as plans unfold to shut-down its historic San
Francisco campus in favor of private development. A surprisingly
human story, Uncommon Knowledge is a revealing look into higher education
and a hauntingly beautiful portrait of a campus and the community
it served.
Uncommon Knowledge
6:00-7:42
HIV/AIDS Documentaries
Achim Voermanek
Running for Life
This movie portraits Robert Benavidez, the head of the San Francisco AIDS
Marathon Program. His personal struggle with HIV and AIDS has lasted
over 24 years and he is an active athlete. The Program has trained
over 17,000 runners to run a full marathon and raise millions of dollars
for AIDS research and care
Running for Life
Gary Null
AIDS Inc
What if everything we've been told about AIDS is wrong? What if HIV
is not the virus that causes AIDS? That the HIV antibody test were
completely flawed? That the drugs given for it cause symptoms indistinguishable
from AIDS? That many of the people working in the field of AIDS are
self serving opportunists? That AIDS is the most popular, profitable
disease ever? That tens of thousands of scientists and foundations
are lining up to feed at this endless through? That there has been
complete and total suppression of the dissident voices? That even
gay activists who have spoken out against the flawed war on AIDS
have been ostracized?
This is a documentary that shakes the AIDS tree to its foundation.
This is the in-depth, uncensored, unexpurgated documentary that lets
dozens of quality voices go on the record to share their views on AIDS.
AIDS Inc
8:00-9:34
Short Documentaries
May Lin Au Yong
Bullet Proof Vest
Welcome to Richmond California where children neither walk to school, nor
go to the park; not if they want to live past the age of 18. Fed up
with the gun violence decimating the city's young male population,
residents took over the four most dangerous parks; camping in 'Tent
Cities' in a desperate stand for peace. Let 9 year old twins Mustapha
and Jyeshria explain why kids are killing kids in Richmond.
Bullet Proof Vest
Magnolia Martin
Facing the Habit (WORLD
PREMIERE)
Can a root that grows in West Africa successfully treat heroin addicts
and break the cycle of addiction? Ibogaine is a derivative of the West
African root Iboga; its properties have recently been reported as an effective
treatment for drug addiction.
Dave is a former stockbroker whose life has spiraled out of control due to heroin addiction. A one-time millionaire, he is now reduced to petty theft as a means to supply his habit. Desperate to get help, Dave travels to Mexico for the Ibogaine treatment.
Facing the Habit is an intimate look into the struggle of addiction, as Dave's life is revealed before, during, and after the treatment.
Facing the Habit
Francesca Fini
Immortali
This is the story of a few hundred people who took arrangements
to have their bodies frozen after death in “cryogenic suspension,”
when dead bodies are immersed in liquid until the magic science of
the future is able to bring them back to life.
Immortali
9:50-11:46
Feature Documentaries
Bob Fink
Wally
This cinema verite style documentary explores issues of family
loyalty in modern society. The film follows the lives of a brother and
sister, tied together forever by his assumed profound disability, after
his overly caretaking parents die unexpectedly. The sister has to choose
between her husband and her brother. What would you do?
Wally
Amelia Kirby and Nick Szuberla
Up
the Ridge
Starting in the spring of 1999 on the opening day of Wallens Ridge State
Prison Up the Ridge offers viewers an in-depth look at the United States
prison industry and the social impact of moving hundreds of thousands of
inner-city minority offenders to distant rural outposts. Through the lens
of Wallens Ridge Prison, we explore competing political agendas that align
government policy with human rights violations, and political expediencies
that bring communities into racial and cultural conflict with tragic consequences.
Connections exist, in both practice and ideology, between human rights
violations in Abu Ghraib and physical and sexual abuse recorded in American
prisons with little public knowledge or concern.
Up the Ridge
FROZEN FILM FESTIVAL 2007 SCHEDULE
Friday 13th, 2007
5:50-7:15 Feature
Documentary: Beauty 24 (1:25)
7:30-8:45 Best
African Films: Lucky; Le Bon Eleve: Le Mali et Nous (1:15)
9:00-10:11 Best
Skate Video: Pray For Me, The Jason Jessee Film (1:21)
10:25-11:50 Best
Animated Short Films 2007 (1:27)
12:00am-1:17am Stomp!
Shout! Scream! (1:17)
Saturday 14th, 2007
1:20-3:00 Feature
Documentary: Millions (1:40)
3:15-4:39 Best
Comedic and Experimental Short Films 2007 (1:24)
4:55-6:37 Best
Dramatic and Thrilling Short Films 2007 (1:42)
7:00-8:15 Music
Documentaries: Rural Rock and Roll; The New Grass (1:15)
8:30-9:52 Dramatic
Feature: Last Stop For Paul (1:22)
10:10-11:57 Music
Documentary: Get Thrashed-Story of Thrash Metal w/ Creative Short: Pillow
Girl (1:47)
Sunday 15th, 2007
2:00-3:33 Short
Documentaries: Heart of a Soul Surfer; The Recylergy (1:33)
3:50-5:34 Feature
Documentaries: What’s Going On Up There?; Uncommon Knowledge (1:28)
6:00-7:42 HIV/AIDS
Documentaries: Running for Life; Aids Inc. (1:42)
8:00-9:34 Best
Short Documentaries 2007: Bullet Proof Vest; Facing the Habit; The Immortali
(1:34)
9:50-11:46 Feature
Documentaries: Wally; Up The Ridge (2:14)
SHORT FILM AND ANIMATED SCREENING ORDER DETAIL
Best Animated Short Films 2007
- The Dentist (11:50)
- Uh-oh (3:00)
- Everything Will be OK (17:00)
- Evocation (4:10)
- Dear Alphabet (6:00?)
- The touch (2:00)
- OSO (12:30)
- 2 in the AM PM (7:00)
- Scaling Up (7:47)
- Dear Life: A Look At My Knowledge At 18 (2:00)
- Sym-tales (3:11)
- The Virgin Voyage (4:00)
- Pinch (4:30)
*Running time is about 81 minutes.
Best Dramatic and Thrilling Short Films 2007
- Absolute Zero (27:00)
- Bully Rag (2:00)
- Swimming (18:00)
- Existence (26:00)
- Re: (12:00)
- Stranger (17:10)
*Running time is about 102 minutes.
Best Comedic and Experimental Short Films 2007
- American Deluxe (15:00)
- I’m in the Band (16:00)
- Landscapes In A Portrait (6:00)
- In Case of Emergency (7:24)
- Pieces (6:00)
- And Then There Were Nun (4:00)
- Agnieszka (12:00)
- The Cubicle (18:00)
*Running time is about 84 minutes.