2005 Rural Route Film Festival:
| |
| Rural
Route staff clad in this year's stylish green tees (except
Mike) |
| |
The
crowd licks their lips for the start of "Barbecue
is a Noun"
|
| |
| Zeke
Healey plays the Appalachian autoharp |
Yee-haw,
it’s a wrap! – Film fans, intelligent hicks, mountaineers,
desert rats, and city folk came from far and near to take in four
days of independent rural film and video for the 3rd annual Rural
Route Film Festival at Anthology Film Archives in New York City.
We watched a bear hunter’s emotional struggle, headphoned
couples listen to Bright Eyes, Carolinian barbecues get rained
out, a Dutch bird dance in the woods, Swiss cows head up the Alps
with bells around their necks, and raver kids make for the Mojave.
We saw the pioneering regional indie classic, “Spring Night,
Summer Night”, for the first time in 35 years! Feature filmmakers
came from blue states and red to give Q&A discussions after
each screening.
Our
opening night was amazing, thanks to a crisp 35mm print of “Dead
Man” and the stellar freak folk performance by Akron/Family.
In fact, the entire festival was full of music! We partied with
good ‘ol boy Earl Pickens and The Trail of Tears, and music
coordinator Tianna Kennedy lined up acts before each shorts program
and webcasted them live on Free 103.9FM.
Our
guests included filmmakers from Iowa City, Baltimore, Los Angeles,
Kentucky, Boston, Nijmegen (The Netherlands), and Alberta (Canada).
Brookie Williams (aka Faking/Brave) made the trek from Amsterdam
to play some emo folk songs. We thank everyone for coming and
for being a part of Rural Route 2005. We also want to thank all
of our generous volunteers and our wondrous sponsors: The National
Development Council, Heavy Light Digital, Horizon Organic, The
Iowa Film Office, Kino International, Magno Sound & Video,
Nature’s Path Foods, Pabst Blue Ribbon, Production Hub,
and Free 103.9FM.
2005
WINNERS:
Best
Narrative – Philip Dolin’s “B Movie”
Best
Documentary – Mary Robertson’s “The Bear Hunter”
Best
Experimental – Montieth McCollum’s “Lawn”
“SPRING NIGHT, SUMMER NIGHT is maybe the missing link between
SHADOWS and THE LAST PICTURE SHOW… Rural Route has this
ambivalent Minnesotan longing for New York.”
-Rob Nelson, Village
Voice
“With beards back in and folk experiencing a new revival,
we figure the sticks are the new city – which is what makes
Rural Route Film’s pumped up 2005 programming more essential
than ever.”
-Flavorpill.net
“A New Yorker…noted that she feels so many people
are disconnected from places outside the city. And it’s
not just American rural areas that are being explored in the festival’s
films, but rural life worldwide.”
-Christina M. Hinke, NewYorkCool.com
“If sticky days in the city are starting to make you
feel a little claustrophobic, head over to the Rural Route Film
Festival, which is dedicated to all things country.”
-Elizabeth Weitzman, NY Daily News
Indiewire
gives a nice summary HERE
2005
RURAL ROUTE FILM FESTIVAL
Thursday,
July 21– Sunday, July 24
Dead
Man (preceeded by Neil Young's "Big Time" music
video
Rain
Stranger with a Camera
Spring Night, Summer Night
B Movie preceeded by Dangerous Animal
Barbecue is a Noun - preceeded
by Bonnie, Prince Billy "Horses" Music Video
SHORTS PROGRAM
Changin' Old Ways
Euro Route
They Walk the Line
Hens, Drugs, n' Techno
Akron/Family + Faking Brave - opening night
concert
Four Ford Farming Films - between programs
& projected behind band
Dead Man
Directed by Jim Jarmusch
( 35mm print! )
To be preceded by Jarmusch’s 1996 music video for Neil Young’s
Big Time
Following
the success of winning the Grand Prix at this spring’s Cannes
Film Festival for “Broken Flowers”, the Rural Route
Film Festival is proud to present Jim Jarmusch’s neo-classic
“Dead Man” upon the tenth anniversary of its premiere
at Cannes in 1995.
While Mr. Jarmusch has normally stuck to urban subjects in his
accomplished career, “Dead Man” marked a departure
from films like “Night on Earth” and “Stranger
than Paradise” which were predominately set in metropolitan
areas. Undoubtedly original, “Dead Man” is an ‘Acid
Western’ set in Jarmusch’s existential version of
the Old West, filmed in the deserts and forests of Arizona, Nevada,
Colorado and Oregon.
“The
Western as a genre doesn’t interest me,” Jarmusch
has often been quoted as saying. “I don’t like John
Ford, for instance, because he idealizes his characters and uses
Westerns to enforce some kind of moral code. It seems as if he’s
telling nice American stories but his films actually reinforce
all the worst things about America, and I don’t like that
subterfuge.”
While
most of John Ford’s movies are rooted in family drama, Jarmusch
takes Johnny Depp’s William Blake character through an individual
journey towards death. While both filmmakers do justice to the
Western genre with beautiful, expansive shots of the natural American
West and employ clover mise-en-scene storytelling, it is the ideas
expressed within the genre that put the filmmakers on different
sides of the Western coin. Ford’s movies tend to showcase
traditional masculinity and violence. Jarmusch, on the other hand,
presents a ‘hero’ who is clumsy and constantly surprised
upon his journey. William Blake more or less takes things as they
come, instead of self-induced traditional male missions such as
‘saving the town’ or ‘rescuing the girl.’
There is a definite awkwardness with the violence that occurs
in “Dead Man”. Jarmusch’s use of violence is
funny, not glamorous, yet serious because of how pitiful it cam
come off.
The
complex personality given to “Dead Man”’s Native
American star—Nobody, played by Gary Farmer—is also
a refreshing change. During casting, Jarmusch made his way to
the rural area between Toronto and Montreal, in the bush where
Farmer lives, to spend a few days walking through the hills, telling
him about the story and Nobody’s character in traditional
storyteller fashion. Nobody is intelligent and philosophical,
unlike the typical one-dimensional cartoon Indians that populate
most Westerns. “Dead Man” shows the White man as the
bad guy, contrary to the sensationalized version of history that
is all too often portrayed.
The Iowa Film Office Presents
Rain
Katherine Lindberg, 2001, 93 min., narr.
State Center, Iowa
American
Gothic country serves as the backdrop for this tragic tale of
lust, murder and redemption. Bound by a bevy of secrets, an isolated
town begins to unravel when Tom, the prodigal sheriff, returns
home after seventeen years to run for mayor, bringing with him
his adulterous wife and juvenile son. Tom’s homecoming is
not welcome by Audrey, with whom he shares a confidence, and Audrey’s
daughter Ellen, with whom he shares a mysterious past. Ellen is
stifled by her mother’s safekeeping and desperately seeks
a way to cleanse herself from the decaying marriage that dominates
her thoughts. The close-knit community becomes increasingly ensnared
as its citizens try to steer themselves, and one another, off
fate’s path, only finding they have landed more directly
in harm’s way. The impending clouds, which ominously hang
in the gray Iowa skies, ultimately give way, and a long-buried
secret surfaces, bringing the film to its inescapable denouement.
Executive produced by Martin Scorsese, the film features Melora
Walters, Jamey Sheridan and Diane Ladd.
A
discussion with director Katherine Lindberg will follow the screening.
Stranger With a Camera
Elizabeth Barret, 2000, 58 min., doc.
Jeremiah, Kentucky
In
1967 Canadian filmmaker Hugh O'Connor visited the mountains of
Central Appalachia to document poverty. While filming, a local
landlord shot and killed O'Connor, resenting the presence of the
filmmaker on his property and angry over the media images of Appalachia
that had become icons in the nation's War on Poverty. Kentucky
native Elizabeth Barret uses O'Connor's death as a lens to explore
the complex relationship between those who make films to promote
social change and the people whose lives are represented in those
productions. Her film combines archival news coverage, O’Connor’s
own footage, as well as interviews with eyewitnesses, family members
and columnist Calvin Trillin, who originally covered the tragedy
for The New Yorker in 1969. Through first-person accounts of the
killing and the perspective of three decades of reflection, Stranger
With A Camera leads viewers on a quest for understanding—a
quest that ultimately leads Barret to examine her own role as
both a filmmaker and a member of the Appalachian community she
portrays.
Stranger
With a Camera serves as an introduction to the 7:30 PM film,
Spring Night Summer Night, which was shot in Appalachia during
the period described in the Barret’s documentary.
Stranger with a Camera director Elizabeth Barret and
producer Judi Jennings will be on hand for a discussion after
their screening on Saturday.
Spring Night, Summer Night
UNSEEN
IN 35 YEARS!
J. L. Anderson, 1968, 83 min., narr.
Southeastern Ohio
Originally
released under the unfortunate title Miss Jessica is Pregnant,
this portrait of poverty-stricken Appalachia represents a unique
moment in the history of the American Independent Film. Shot entirely
on location in Southern Ohio, the story of a young couple, who
may or may not share a father, marks the start of a movement in
regional cinema that became increasingly popular through the 1970’s
and 1980’s as filmmakers took up the task of exploring an
America outside of Hollywood. Today the film allows viewers a
unique glimpse back in time, to witness the concerns and constraints
of the “New American Cinema” when it was first taking
shape. That the film bravely confronts incest—the most taboo
of all rural stereotypes—without prejudice makes it all
the more singular.
A
discussion with director J. L. Anderson and producer Franklin
Miller will follow the screening.
B Movie
NEW YORK PREMIERE
Philip Dolin, 2004, 74 min., narr.
Narrowsburg, New York
Two
overly dedicated park rangers take a fantastic journey into utopian
society in this wildly witty spoof wrapped in a shoe-string mise-en-scene.
After a couple of sexy sirens seduce the stranded rangers into
joining their commune, our heroes have little hope of escaping
back to their normal lives, at least, not without singing! That’s
all well and good for the commune’s charismatic leader,
The Professor, who’s creating a society with a new set of
rules. Structured like the low budget sci-fi pictures of the 50’s
and 60’s, B Movie successfully–with a healthy dose
of irony and camp–makes some grand criticisms of modern
media, law and order, and environmentalism. Featuring James Urbaniak,
Dave Simonds and Missy Yager.
The feature presentation will be preceded by 
German director Thomas Frick’s Dangerous Animal
(shot in Tunisia).
Taboo! Down in the wadi, in a wooden box, as the bedouins
told, is a dangerous animal. Superstition, the tourist says: we
must catch it! Oh no, the bedouins cry: dangerous! If you are
so afraid about it, why don´t you take a handgranate? And
fate takes its way...
A discussion with B Movie director
Philip Dolin will follow the screening.
Barbecue is a Noun
NEW YORK PREMIERE
Hawes Bostic & Austin McKenna, 2004, 75 min., doc.
North & South Carolina
The
sauces are as varied and regional as the sides, but all of these
open fire auteurs agree that barbecue is a pig roasted long and
slow on an open wood fire. As one chef puts it, “If you
use it as a verb, you can barbecue anything, but… barbecue
is… roast pork.” This is the story of some very particular
men who have their very particular types of barbecue. Their stories
unfold in the small towns, strip malls, back yards, and farms
of the Carolinas. Reputations are made, dreams are dashed and
new legends are born from the fat-drenched embers of the blackened
pit. Among the film’s subjects, Paul Long is something of
a New York legend, making an annual appearance at the Big Apple
Barbecue annual block party, and having made pit appearances in
Williamsburg. His most noted fan is famous barbecue connoisseur
and world renown tenor Luciano Pavarotti.
The
feature presentation will be preceded by Braden King's music video
for Bonnie, Prince Billy’s "Horses".
King has directed music videos and / or visual live concert accompaniments
for Tortoise, Dirty Three, Low, Brokeback, Sparklehorse, Ken Vandermark
and Paul Lytton, Tren Brothers and Giant Sand, among others. He
has also directed several short-subject documentary films on the
the Jungle Brothers, Steve Malkmus, Roni Size, Yo La Tengo, Cee-Lo
and Super Furry Animals for Atomic Pop, Sony Online Entertainment
and CIRCUIT DVD magazine. His works have been screened by the
BBC, The Sundance Channel, MTV, and the U.K's Channel 4, among
others.
A
discussion with Barbecue is a Noun director
Hawes Bostic will follow the screening.
Changin’ Old Ways – Shorts Program
#1
Sometimes small as a speck of dirt, sometimes big as a boulder,
change is an ever present, inevitable part of life that we all
need to deal with. Technology and civilization move into the countryside
in Corn Cam, Fenceliners, and Rotation. A reunification and rebirth
of love take place in the videos of Bonnie, Prince Billy and Bright
Eyes. My Scarlet Letter’s teenagers rebel against stale
small town traditions. A son resists the sale of his inherited
family farm in Shifting Ground. Whether welcomed or resisted,
change is abounding in Rural Route’s first shorts program
of 2005.
Corn
Cam
NEW YORK PREMIERE
Producers - Nancy Heather, Marlin Schram, Chris Gourley,
2003, 3 min., doc.
Prairieburg, IA
A short segment from Iowa Public Television’s Side Roads
series, which features fun and unusual places to visit in Iowa.
Host Paul Berge ventures out on a virtual Side Road where cameras
record the corn growing in Prarieburg, IA for your internet viewing
pleasure. www.corncam.com.
Fenceliners
NEW YORK PREMIERE
Chelsea Walton, 2002, 11 min., narr.
New Providence, IA and Sonoma County, CA
Move over cows, here come the Bradleys. Fenceliners unveils superficial
attitudes of city folks moving to the "ideal" countryside
as suburban developments devour farmland. The film combines director
Chelsea Walton’s great grandmother's original 1950s 16mm
Kodachrome farm footage with modern day footage to create a hybrid
mockumentary/personal film addressing the transformation of land
space. www.chelseawalton.net
Bonnie, Prince Billy “Agnes, Queen of Sorrow”
(Drag City Records)
David Shrigley, 2004, 3.5 min., music video
Glasgow, Scotland
David Shrigley’s animation sets the Bonnie, Prince Billy
Nashville-ized tune to the story of a disconnected man and woman,
who through time and patience find love again. www.davidshrigley.com
Rotation
Erin Hudson, 2004, 3 min., exp. doc.
Mountain House, CA
As suburban development encroaches upon the rural hills of the
California Bay Area, farmers Marianne and Gordon Griffith reflect
on the changing landscape they call home. Rotation explores this
couples' resilient relationship to the land and to the wind. Director
Erin Hudson just won a Silver Medal at the 2005 Student Academy
Awards for her film, “Unhitched”.
My Scarlet Letter
Karen Carpenter, 2004, 10 min., narr.
New Bloomfield, PA
Marked as teen outsiders, Emily and her friends are searching
for a quick escape from their small town on Friday night. The
idyllic landscape that surrounds them serves as a thin disguise
for the closed-minded oppression that pervades their community.
A backwoods boy and his car finally provide a way out but as the
night wears on, Emily realizes that no matter where she goes,
she will always be from here.
The Endangered P-Money Bird
WORLD
PREMIERE
Erik Nelson, 2004, 3 min., exp.
Hoge Veluwe National Park, The Netherlands
The Endangered P-Money Bird was originally conceived as a dance
by RR Award-Winning Alum/Dutch professional basketball player
Erik Nelson and his wife, Priscilla. Erik shouted direction while
Priscilla jumped up and down all afternoon in the middle of a
Richard Serra sculpture. Flight was then achieved in the editing,
where Erik clipped her at the peak of each jump, reversed it,
copied and pasted it, peak to peak, ad infinitum. www.bottomunion.com
Bright Eyes “First Day of My Life” (Saddle Creek
Records)
John Cameron Mitchell, 2005, 4 min., music video
New York, NY
John Cameron Mitchell was so overwhelmed when he heard Bright
Eyes’ song about love and rebirth that he wondered what
he looked like while listening to it. That’s how he came
up with the idea of interviewing couples (friends and people he
found through Craig’s List) about their relationships and
then filmed them while they listened to the song for the first
time. Mitchell, well known for his widely-acclaimed film, “Hedwig
and the Angry Inch”, is currently wrapping production on
a new movie in NYC.
www.saddle-creek.com
Pretty
Ladies, Fast Horses: Cowgirls of the 21st Century
U.S.
PREMIERE
Lorna Thomas, Terry Wynnyk, Lisa Miller, 13 min., 2002,
doc.
Alberta, Canada
Introducing trick rider, 21-year old, Niki Cammaert, from Strathmore,
Alberta who follows a long line of cowgirls that streches far
back to the days of Annie Oakley and the Wild West Show. Niki
makes her living traveling the rodeo circuit, and performing trick
rides with her horse, Willy. She races around arenas, dangling
precariously from the stirrups and standing straight up atop her
horse as it careens around the course. Despite a recent accident
that left her jaw broken and face in stitches, Niki is now back
on the rodeo circuit. Rural Route presents one segment from the
hour-long documentary available at: www.lornathomasproductions.com
Joanna
Newsom “Sprout and the Bean” (Drag City Records)
Terri Timely, 5 min., 2004, music video
Berkeley Hills, CA
Raised in the tiny gold-rush town of Nevada City, California,
Joanna Newsom began playing harp at the age of eight. She studied
Celtic, Senegalese, Venezuelan, and Western Classical harp techniques.
She sings about whalebones, sleep, grammar, mollusks, bridges
and balloons. Terri Timely is Ian Kibbey and Corey Creasey. www.dragcity.com
Stitch
NEW YORK PREMIERE
Meghann Artes, 2 min., 2003, exp.
Los Angeles, CA
Meghann Artes experiments with cross stitching under the camera.
After building a holder out of a wooden frame that would register
into place after each stitch was made, she started stitching away,
creating a seamless, abstract, colorful and upbeat film: folk
art for the big screen…
Lawn
Montieth McCollum, 11 min , 2004, exp.
Barton, NY
Lawn explores our relationship with nature and our desire to control
it. Filmed over a period of months it depicts an untamed yard
living and dying. Throughout the film the voice of Sarah Little
recounts stories and reveals the logic behind our desire to make
lawns into a homogeneous bug-less plot. Lawn premiered this past
winter at Slamdance, followed by a screening at New York’s
Museum of Modern Art. Montieth McCollum is the director of Hybrid,
winner of numerous awards, and screened at last year’s Rural
Route Festival.
Shifting Ground
U.S. PREMIERE
Desmond Connellan, 19 min., 2003
Balranald, New South Wales - Australian Outback
‘Down Under,’ a son who has inherited the family farm
struggles against its repossession by the bank. In doing so, he
faces the question of his relationship to the land in the light
of its expropriation through the process of white settlement.
Shifting Ground was awarded the Cinevex Script writing Award and
Erwin Rado Scholarship for outstanding achievement.
Euro Route
Route Route = En tur på landet (Swedish), Matka maale (Finnish),
Vias Champestras (Rumantsch)
Thanks
in part to tour screenings this past winter in Holland, along
with a friendship made with the director of the Film Festival
of the Whole of Sweden, Rural Route is seeing more classy, smart
and innovative yet often Old World European work than ever. Over
the past year we’ve discovered other rural film festivals
in Austria (Festival der Neue Heimat Film) and the South of France
(Festival Européen du Cinéma et du Monde Rural),
and one (rural in location) on the Aland Islands off the southwest
coast of Finland.
Like
many other places around the world, the small family farm is fast
becoming a thing of the past. Northern Europe is no exception,
no thanks to new regulations imposed on small farmers by the recently
formed European Union. The Yellow Tag studies the contrast between
traditional pastoral idyll and the brutal requirements of contemporary
meat production. The Happy Cow covers similar territory, albeit
from a very different perspective. Pizzet explores the decades-long
connection to the land that smalltime farmers develop, both physical
and emotional. All three documentaries in this program manage
to find a unique vision for bringing to light the sad and beautiful
world of the European farmer in the modern era.
The
Yellow Tag
U.S. PREMIERE
Jan Troell, 2004, 5 min., doc.
Sweden
In 1999, six cows were shot and killed as they grazed peacefully
in a meadow. These cows were not suspected of having Mad Cow Disease
or anything so sinister. Their only crime was not being marked
with official EU ear tags.
The Happy Cow
U.S. PREMIERE
Per-Ove Högnäs, 2003, 29 min., doc.
Bergö, Aland Islands - Finland
The Happy Cow tells the tale of Rune Jansson, seventy years old,
bachelor and the only year-round human inhabitant on Bergö,
a small island in Finland. Standing firmly outside the rules of
the EU, Rune makes the lives of his cows as pleasant as possible
and in turn finds companionship and happiness in this isolated
land.
Pizzet (Maybe the Last Year)
U.S. PREMIERE
Ivo Zen, 2004, 52 min., doc.
Val Müstair, Grison - Switzerland
The toponym Pizzet means “neither too big nor too small,”
it is a mountain farm with five and a half hectares of land, located
in Val Müstair, in Switzerland’s canton Graubünden.
Through four seasons we follow husband and wife Tumasch and Antonetta
as they reflect on the changing world of farming within the European
Union and the complicated relationships we all have with the places
of our origins. A daughter and grandchildren come to visit, but
the old couple remains without successors. The children have chosen
to set up a farm in Canada. Siblings drop in, songs are sung together,
and everyone gathers for a family photograph in front of the imposing
farmhouse.
To
deal with the quietness of the isolated valleys of the Alps, one
must have freely decided to experience it. Cameraman Milivoj Ivkovic’s
stunning, precisely composed images of landscapes, farms and people
cannot endure loud sounds. Director Ivo Zen (nephew of Tumasch
and Antonetta) is guided by curiosity, precision and honesty in
his quest to explore his family roots.
They Walk the Line – Shorts Program #2
The spirit of individuality is alive and well in this funny and
moving batch of short films. From the one-man-band of Mole in
the Ground to the vengeful geek in The Reasonable Man to the emotional
tug-of-war experienced by a lifelong hunter in The Bear Hunter.
These films feature people living life on their own terms with
little regard for the expectations laid upon them by the outside
world.
Two
or Three Things I Know about Ohio
NEW YORK PREMIERE
Dan Boord and Luis Valdovino, 2002, 2 min., exp. doc.
Ohio
Two or Three Things I Know about Ohio is a charming parody of
travel documentary and a quick funny American satire that pays
homage to this Great Lakes state.
The Bear Hunter
Mary Robertson, 2004, 14 min., doc.
Wilkes-Barre, PA
Each November for 44 years Bob Chase has cleaned his gun, donned
an orange cap, and set out into the Pennsylvania woods hot on
the trail of the black bear. Each year he’s come home empty-handed,
until now. The Bear Hunter is an intimate portrait of one man
and the complications that come with success. www.thebearhuntermovie.com
I Ran with a Gray Ghost
Levi Abrino, 2005, 5 min., narr.
Curwensville, PA
An odd tale of a 10-year-old superhero and a stolen dog, I Ran
with a Gray Ghost won the award for Best Student Film at the Magnolia
Independent Film Festival. Director Levi Abrino is currently working
on an MFA in Film from NYU.
Mole in the Ground: The Story of Phillip Roebuck and His One Man
Band
Charles Cohen, 2004, 12 min., doc.
New York, NY
New York is filled with street musicians, but Phillip Roebuck
and his one man band stand out with his pure country-cured voice,
a fierce attack on his banjo and the drum on his back. Director/producer
Charles Cohen is a Baltimore based freelance journalist
who occasionally gets a piece in the New York Times. www.philliproebuck.com
Lightyear - A Trip Around the Sun
NEW YORK PREMIERE
Dan Sokolowski, 2001, 3 min., exp.
South Gower (Kemptville), Ontario, Canada
A trip around the sun, as seen from 45° 1' N, 75° 38'
W. In a world where our lives are seemingly controlled by exterior
political and economic forces, it is easy to forget that we exist
only because of a ball of fire 92.9 million miles away. http://sokcinema.ca
Tractor Promenade
NEW YORK PREMIERE
Producer - Chris Gourley, 6.5 min., doc.
Nemaha, IA
In the small town of Nemaha, Iowa a new dance craze has emerged.
All you need is a shiny red tractor with power steering. www.iptv.org
Bo Ramsey “Living in a Cornfield” (Trailer Records)
NEW
YORK PREMIERE
Sandy Dyas, 2000, 5 min., music video
Iowa City, IA
Iowa highways lined by eternal cornfields, small town bars, rows
of tiny tin trailers, colored lights, cowboy boots and beer. Since
the 1970's, Bo Ramsey has been recognized as one of the Midwest’s
most honest, hard-working musical gems. Aside from work with his
own razor-sharp band, The Backsliders, Ramsey has been collaborator,
sideman, producer and all-around co-conspirator to world-renowned
singer/songwriters Greg Brown, Lucinda Williams, R.B. Morris,
Kevin Gordon, Kate Campbell, Ani DiFranco, Teddy Morgan and Larry
Long. Life on the road, working hard, making music --- “Serving
it up” as Bo would say. www.sandydyas.com
Perro Negro
U.S. PREMIERE
Maria Florencia Alvarez, 2004, 20 min., narr.
Santa Anita, Entre Rios, Argentina
A rosary, a road, and a black dog help a country girl say goodbye
to her recently departed Grandma. Perro Negro recently screened
at the Buenos Aires 7th International Film Festival of Independent
Cinema where it received “First Mention.” In addition,
director Maria Florencia Alvarez’s short film Sobre la Tierra
won Best Narrative Short award at the 2004 Rural Route Festival.
Beep Beep “Executive Foliage” (Saddle Creek Records)
Jason Kulbel, 2004, 3 min., music video
Omaha, NE
An office grunt finds refuge in the only natural thing in the
sterile workplace – a plant. www.saddle-creek.com
The Reasonable Man
WORLD PREMIERE
Colin Marshall, 2004, 14 min., narr.
Kennett Square, PA
A young man struggles to get his 1977 Plymouth Horizon back from
a crooked small town mechanic... Getting ripped-off never felt
so good. Director Colin Marshall is currently working towards
an MFA in Film from Columbia University.
Hens, Drugs, ‘n Techno
- Shorts Program #3
“Hens, Drugs, ‘n Techno” consists of three rural/urban
crossover films. You’ll find San Franciscan chicken owners,
a graffiti artist who tags the rural “colonia” areas
along the south Texas/Mexican border, and a dramatic raver party
in the Mojave desert. ‘Rurban’ or ‘ural’,
they movies are unique intersections where stereotypes of city
and country are cast aside. Heck – next thing ya’
know, they’ll be trying to grow corn in the Empire State
Building!
Chickens
in the City
NEW YORK PREMIERE
Christie Herring, 2004, 8 min., doc.
San Francisco, CA
Somewhere beyond the Golden Gate Bridge, the cable cars and the
coffee bars, San Francisco is teeming with chickens, but are they
pets or are they food? “Chickens in the City” is a
chicken-level view of two backyard coops in San Francisco. Allison
adopted Miss MoneyHenny from her neighbor who purchased the chicken
to star in his audition tape for “Survivor”. Across
town, Shawn tends Wacko and Kathryn-not to mention two ducks-in
a high-tech chicken coop in his tiny backyard. The film playfully
explores the ways in which keeping chickens has shaped the philosophies
behind what and how urban chicken owners eat.
Television
NEW YORK PREMIERE
Sabrina Rubin & Keith Adler, 2004, 22 min., narr.
Trona Pinnacles, CA
Trevor joins his friends on a trip to the Trona Pinnacles area
of the Mojave Desert to test out an experiment – creating
algorithmic rave music from the earth’s seismic activity.
The only cloud is the unexpected presence of his ex-girlfriend,
Haley. The fragmented strands of his life hang about him and he
focuses on one thing as being an escape: a secret new government-created
drug called T19 that is supposed to make people connect. As the
sun sets, the music surges to life and the party starts. That
night, the drug’s effect is more powerful than Trevor or
Haley could ever imagine.
Scribble’s Creations
Kathy Huang, 2004, 45 min., doc.
La Joya, TX
Fernando Paez, better known as “Scribble’s Creations,”
heralded from a tagging crew named “Meant to Control”
(M2C), is highly regarded among local graffiti artists for his
lightning fast work and keen sense of color. 18-year old Fernando
lives in a Texas colonia, an unincorporated settlement along the
U.S.-Mexico border. A recent high school dropout and a father-to-be,
Fernando must struggle to balance old habits with new responsibilities.
Through
the travails of her former student Fernando, teacher-turned-director
Kathy Huang reveals the world of the colonias to its fullest—from
leaky ceilings and family squabbles to young love and unflagging
optimism. The personal problems of Fernando and his girlfriend
Janie sometimes compelled Ms. Huang to put her camera down and
take up the role of counselor and friend.
Vintage
Ford tractor commercials from the 1950s come to us by the way
of Dan Powley in upstate New York, who got them from a man in
Nova Scotia he met through ebay whose father was once a Ford dealer.
In case you didn’t know it, antique tractor collecting is
a worldwide phenomenon, along with all the literature, videos,
and toys that go with it! Enjoy tise retro treat during Akron/Family’s
performance, and before & between 2005 Rural Route programs.