AIFF breaks attendance records
The sixth Ashland Independent Film Festival held its Awards Celebration on Sunday Night at the Historic Ashland Armory.
By Sunday evening more than 15,000 tickets had been distributed, with a day of sales remaining. Last year's record total hit 14,000 tickets.
"We are overwhelmed by the community and visitor response," said Executive Director Tom Olbrich. "We have had sell out after sell out. Most of Saturday and Sunday shows were completely full. It is a great tribute to the work of the filmmakers."
The audience awards were tallied from each person who attended a film and filled out a ballot. In the three audience award categories there winners were:
"¢ John C. Schweiger Audience Award for Best Dramatic Feature (named for the owner of the Varsity Theatre and Coming Attractions Theatres) was "Wristcutters: A Love Story." From the moment Zia (Patrick Fugit) cuts his wrists and enters a bizarre afterlife reserved for suicides, this film becomes a strangely uplifting, darkly comic tale about a journey through the hereafter. This is a world where everyone still bears the scars earned from the manner in which they "offed" while the everyday reality is a twisted mirror image of our own mortal world.
"¢ The Rogue Creamery Audience Award Feature Documentary winner was "Beyond the Call." In an Indiana Jones meets Mother Teresa adventure, three middle-aged, former soldiers travel the world delivering life saving humanitarian aid directly into the hands of civilians and doctors in some of the most dangerous yet beautiful places on Earth, the front lines of war. Their personal convictions and courage drive them to places such as Afghanistan, Chechnya, and Burma, often when few if any other humanitarian aid organizations are around. The camera follows this trio as they take us on a journey into the heart of humanity and the soul of courage.
"¢ The Audience Award for Best Short Film went to "Full Disclosure." Tired of wasting time on relationships that break up when one person discovers something they can't stand about the other, Everett (Brett Sexton) decides to reveal every terrible habit, attitude, and hang-up on the first date. Shockingly, women don't respond as he'd hoped ... until he meets Brinn (Judy Greer), who's willing to play his game
The Ashland Independent Film Festival's juries were panels of local and regional film critics and professionals, including representatives from Southern Oregon University (including a student in the Film And Video Concentration), the Oregonian, the Sacramento Bee and the San Francisco Chronicle news papers and others.
The Best Cinematography Award — The Gerald Hirschfeld A.S.C. Award, named for and chosen by the local American Society of Cinematographers veteran — went to the feature film "Expiration Date." Hirschfeld chose this award winner. "Expiration Date" revolves around Native American Charles Silvercloud III whose grandfather and father were both killed by milk trucks on their 25th birthdays. Charlie is about to turn 25 and, having accepted his fate, is responsibly going about preparing for his death.
For a complete list of awards, including winner of Best Feature, go to http:///special/aiff
As Best Feature the jurors chose the Australian film,Stranded and the panelists for Best Acting Ensemble (including, again and actor from the Oregon Shakespeare Festival, Shad Willingham, also chose Stranded as the winner. How long does it take before the abnormal seems normal? In Stranded death, love and family values are all up for re-negotiation in this dark and unusual black comedy about a girl trying to start a new life for herself after the loss of her mother. Stranded unveils the story.
The winner for Best Documentary, Feature Length was Our Daily Bread;. In a series of visually stunning, continuously tracking, wide-screen images that seem right out of a science-fiction movie, we see the places where food is cultivated and processed: surreal landscapes optimized for agricultural machinery, clean rooms in cool industrial buildings designed for maximum efficiency, and elaborate machines that operate on a "disassembly line" basis. Our Daily Bread unfolds on the screen like a disturbing dream: an endlessly fascinating flow of images, an insistent gaze, accompanied only by the persistent industrial soundtrack""whirring, clattering, booming, slurping""of the ingenious marvels of mechanization employed by agri-business.
Best Documentary Short Subject, Dear Talula; Lori Benson is diagnosed with breast cancer 14 months after the birth of her daughter Talula. With only ten days between diagnosis and surgery she must make critical medical decisions as well as deal with great emotional concerns. With humor and grace, Lori brings us along""as her camera, her support system, her inner circle""and shares her most intimate thoughts, discoveries and vulnerabilities. This profound experience leaves her to stand in the reflection of her own mortality, ultimately earning her a stronger connection to her true self. Benson attended the festival screenings.
Best Narrative Short Film, The Fan and the Flower An ill-fated and unconsummated romance between a fan and a flower magically creates a fairy tale ending. A film from well known animator Bill Plympton film; narrated by Paul Giamatti.
Best Student Film, Zombie Prom. Zombie Prom is a 1950s horror comic book brought to life as a musical comedy - a rollicking, romp through America's "Atomic Age" and the Golden Age of horror comic books. Set in the '50s, this is the musical tale of a sweet teenage girl named Toffee and her "rebel without a cause" boyfriend, Jonny. The two meet at Enrico Fermi High School and fall in love, but the principal (RuPaul) intervenes, persuading the indecisive young Toffee to break up with Jonny.
Les Blank was the recipient of the 2007 AIFF Artistic Achievement Award. The festival honored Blank with live and recorded tributes from his colleagues, including video sent by internationally renowned filmmaker Werner Herzog. Blank is best known for poetic films that led John Rockwell of The New York Times to say "Blank is a documentarian of folk cultures who transforms anthropology into art." He has been honored with retrospectives at major museums and festivals across the world and his Burden of Dreams was given a British Academy Award . The festival's presentation of Blank's work included a retrospective of his classic films and The Tea Film (working title), was given a rare "work in progress" screening after which Blank shared some insight into his creative process.
The AIFF also honored local resident and international movie icon Bruce Campbell with the first ever "Rogue Award" for his years of "filmmaking on the edge. His latest film, My Name is Bruce, was given a Sneak Preview screening to a sold out crowd of over 500 people on Friday night at the Armory. Shot in Ashland and other southern Oregon locations last summer with many local actors and crew, the film was produced by Dark Horse Entertainment, Portland, publishers of the graphic novel 300 a recent movie box office hit. Campbell took questions from the crowd after the screening.
Beyond the Call's filmmaker, Adrian Belic,was also presented a "Rogue Award" at the Awards Celebration.
940 filmmakers from Ashland to Romania, India and many other spots on the globe sent their latest work to the AIFF to be considered for the 2007 event. After 100 community volunteers and the festival's programming staff spent five months screening, 93 of those films were chosen as an official selection of the sixth annual festival. The festival's line-up includes a mixture of short and full length documentaries and feature films including three Academy Award winners and four Oscar nominees.
Regional Student Film Competition
The AIFF is collaborating with area middle and high schools to help their film and video programs have a lasting impact on young filmmakers. Programs for students during the festival include "The Launch", a regional student film competition; bringing filmmakers to the classrooms; bringing students to the films; and offering reduced price student tickets. For the second year the AIFF held a competition for the area's youngest filmmakers. "The Launch" encourages students to share their stories and inspires them to raise the level of their work and meet real world deadlines. The rules were simple: reside in Southern Oregon, attend school (K-12 or college), and create a new film under 5 minutes long..
Out of 46 entries, winners were chosen in four age categories:
K-5 Blender Blues directors: The Blenders (Ashland), Walker Elementary
School
6-8 Dragon's Lair director Rowan Heglie (Ashland), Willow Wind
9-12 Bound to Silence director Stacey Chamberlin (Sutherlin), Sutherlin High
School
College Bass Ackwards director Jacob Nelson (Phoenix), Loyola Marymount
University
