The Berkeley Video & Film Festival 2005

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Berkeley Video & Film Festival 2005

AWARDS
Official Selections

*****Grand Festival Special Recognition Award
"Soldier of God" - Mir Bahmanyar - Feature - 94:00 - World Premiere

A Knight Templar finds himself alone and hallucinating in the desert - separated from his army. He meets a mysterious stranger - and together they journey to a tragic fate.
Sat, Oct 29 - 9:08pm

"Apartment 202" - Kelleth Chinn - Feature - 86:00 - Premiere

Two American roommates have their lives changed by a pair of beautiful foreigners in this romantic comedy with an international perspective.
Fri, Oct 28 - 9:39pm

*****Grand Festival Special Recognition Disc Makers Award
"Winning the Peace" - Eli Akira Kaufman - Student Filmmaker - 18:00 - Premiere

An Iraqi-American Marine returns to Iraq to redeem his place of birth only to destroy the People he hoped to save.
Fri, Oct 28 - 9:21pm

*****Grand Festival Special Recognition Avid Award
"Weights and Measures" - Tom Toro - Student Filmmaker - 7:00 - Premiere

A Building inspector brought to investigate a Japanese restaurant becomes embroiled in a blackmail plot by the owner and his wife.
Sat, Oct 29 - 9:01pm

*****Grand Festival Special Recognition Gorilla Awards
"V.O." - Peter Bolte - Short Feature -14:00 - Premiere

Coincidence proves ironic when Sonny Di Luzzia succumbs to a twist in fate.
Sun, Oct 30 - 9:49pm

"Carhenge: Genius or Junk" - David Liban - Short Documentary - 29:00 - Premiere

Carhenge is a to-scale replica of Stonehenge made out of junked cars. This is the story of how it came to be and what obstacles the creator, Jim Reinders, faced along the way.
Sat, Oct 29 - 8:12pm

"One Man's Treasure" - R.G. Shalhoub - Ethnographic - 30:00 - Premiere

"One Man's Treasure" examines Syrian-American peddlers in Boston as junque passion becomes obsession becomes demolition. Sanford & Son redux Middle Eastern.
Sat, Oct 29 - 7:16pm

*****Grand Festival Awards
SHORT FEATURE
"Winter Sea" - Erika Tasini - Short Feature - 25:00 - Premiere

A secretive woman's intimate relationship to her brother is threatened when an unexpected guest shows up for dinner at their eccentric mother's house.
Sat, Oct 29 - 11:02pm

"OSANPO (Strolling Along)" - Akira Matsuda - JAPAN - Short Feature - 49:00 - U.S. Premiere

A young couple of Tokyo is "strolling along" in their neighborhood. In modern days, young people are afraid to get into serious relationships. This is a vivid film about a focus that modern Japanese society possesses within and is a fanciful love story in new and realistic Docudrama style.
Sun, Oct 30 - 7:22pm

"Sun After Darkness" - Tomoe Umeda - Short Feature - 15:00 - Premiere

A self-centered journalist, who thinks he can do everything by himself, starts to see something important in life when he is sent to San Francisco. It is a film about trust and hope.
Sun, Oct 30 - 7:07pm

STUDENT FILMMAKER
"Contend" - Gerson Sanginitto - Student Filmmaker - 11:00 - Premiere
"Contend" is about a man who fights no-holds-barred events and has to overcome his own fears in order to become the best fighter. Parallel to it, he goes through a difficult relationship with his wife because of his unusual profession.
Sat, Oct 29 - 7:58pm

"Interlude" - Christopher Hlas - Student Filmmaker - 12:00 - Premiere

A woman's near death experience results in her life flashing before her eyes in a rhythmic and musical sequence, which chronologically connects simple past experiences to her present encounter with danger.
Sat, Oct 29 - 10:42pm

"Induction" - Elan Glasser - Student Filmmaker - 13:00 - Premiere

In 1970, Zack and Rico are called in for the Vietnam draft and must choose between serving and a hilarious plan to fail their physicals.
Sat, Oct 29 - 8:48pm

"Snafu" - Brett Weiner - Student Filmmaker - 24:00 - Premiere
"Snafu" is a dark comedy about a college student who tries to be a hero by saving peers from his own fatal traps.
Sun, Oct 30 - 6:43pm

DOCUMENTARY
"From a Silk Cocoon" - Satsuki Ina - Documentary - 59:00
The story of a Japanese American couple whose shattered dreams and forsaken loyalties lead them to renounce their American citizenship while held in separate American prison camps during World War II.
Sat, Oct 29 - 2:25pm

"Homeland: Four Portraits of Native Action" - Roberta Grossman - Documentary - 88:00

Five remarkable Native American activists dedicated to protecting their lands against environmental hazards, preserving their sovereignty and ensuring the cultural survival of their people.
Sun, Oct 30 - 4:06pm

"Video Out" - Paul Vlachos / Meredith Finkelstein - Documentary - 83:00

Avant-Garde artists and clubland VJ's tell the story of live video art over the last 30 years.
Sun, Oct 30 - 2:43pm

"Oakland Raider Parking Lot" - Jason Blalock - Documentary - 23:00

The Oakland Raiders fans have a reputation of being as violent and dangerous as the football team they love.
Fri, Oct 28 - 8:58pm

"Beyond the Wall" - Gorham Kindem - Documentary - 60:00 - West Coast Premiere

"Beyond the Wall" explores important parallels between infringements upon own civil liberties in the 1960s and today; examining the constitutionality of the USA PATRIOT ACT.
Sat, Oct 29 - 6:03pm

ARTS
"Hot Afternoons have been in Montana" - Ken Kimmelman - Arts - 15:30 - West Coast Premiere
Based on the 1925 "Nation" prize-winning poem by Eli Siegel, this dramatic montage shows how a hot afternoon in Montana is related to the whole world.
Sun, Oct 30 - 5:55pm

"Musica Dos Mestres Vol.1" - Bira Almeida - Arts - 40:00
The glimpse into the personalities, colors and moods of sound that comprise the deep but elusive essence that is Capoeira, experienced through its music.
Sun, Oct 30 - 2:03pm

MUSIC VIDEO
"The Good The Bad and The Beautiful" - Matt Knudsen - Music Video - 5:45
A western-themed, sepia-toned embellishment on Los Angeles based quintet "You Me and Iowa's" single, highlighted by a single, continuous, uninterrupted steadicam shot.
Fri, Oct 28 - 8:48pm

"Arts of Forgetting" - Carol Vernallis - Music Video - 6:00
This video aims at subtle connections between music and image: one goal is to bring new improvised music to a wider audience.
Sat, Oct 29 - 11:27pm

ANIMATION
"Zoom Suit" - John Taddeo - Animation -9:00 - West Coast Premiere
Clothes make the man - or in this case - the boy, in this superhero Cinderella story.
Sun, Oct 30 - 8:11pm

"Vitiligo" - James Stranahan - Animation - 20:00 - West Coast Premiere
A lone puppet descends into a fantastical nightmare world where inorganic manifestations rule supreme.
Sat, Oct 29 - 4:12pm

"Learning to Try" - Diane Jones - Animation - 3:45
This animated short produced in MAYA features a bee finding his wings among a colorful landscape of bubbles & flowering plants.
Fri, Oct 28 - 8:54pm

"Integrated Presence" - Geer DuBois - Animation - 2:17
The city has a unique energy that surrounds everything within in it. As we move through the streets, the energy becomes a part of us just we become part of the urban environment.
Sat, Oct 29 - 8:09pm

EXPERIMENTAL
"Dell Hell" - Neil Ira Needleman - Experimental - 17:00 - West Coast Premiere
My battle with Dell as the world went to hell.
Sun, Oct 29 - 6:26pm

"Soshi" - Caz McIntee - Experimental - 19:00
Based on The Pillow Book of Sei Shonagon written in Japan in the 10th century, the juxtaposition of the ancient Japanese text and culture with the contemporary provides striking parallels between the ancient and modern human condition.
Sat, Oct 29 - 3:53pm

"Hello, Goodbye" - Jerry Sangiuliano - Experimental- 7:23

Experimental movie created in After Effects with hundreds of talking heads.
Sat, Oct 29 - 10:54pm

COMEDY
"The Tip" - Sage Drake & John Westernoff - Comedy - 13:30
Spirit of Chaplin & Keaton movies, a young man follows a business woman who accidentally left ninety dollars in his restaurant.
Sat, Oct 29 - 5:22pm

EDUCATIONAL
"Polar Bears of the Canadian Arctic" - Fred Heiman - Educational - 25:00
Today, the major threat to the polar bear is global warming. Arctic ice is receding at an alarming rate, reducing the hunting season of the world's largest land predator.
Sat, Oct 29 - 1:03pm

YOUNG PRODUCER
"Anthony in the Key of B" - Ethan Kuperberg - Young Producer - 20:00 - West Coast Premiere
After receiving his first "B", Harvard-set Anthony is forced to question his priorities as his dreams literally go up in flames. And everyone sings.
Sat, Oct 29 - 3:30pm

"Rain" - Rachel Weiler - Young Producer - 2:48
Non-narrative visual poetry about rain.
Fri, Oct 28 - 8:45pm

****Best of Festival Awards
FEATURE
"Welcome to September" - Pattie Kelly - Feature - 89:00

A young man's obsession for a woman in a painting turns his world upside down forcing him to choose between fantasy, reality, obsession and love.
Sun, Oct 30 - 8:20pm

"Night of the Chupacabra" - Ted Rivera - Feature - 89:00
When an alien being crash lands on the remote location of the latest "reality" show, sinister agents from the Project Blue Book arrive to restore order by any means necessary. This film is an action packed, thrill ride parody of the sci-fi/action film genre.
Sun, Oct 30 - 10:03pm

SHORT FEATURE
"What is Funny?" - Teo Guardino - Short Feature - 7:00
A lonely king forces Jesters to dance before him and finds the key to laughter is locked within a forbidden chest.
Sat, Oct 29 - 8:41pm

"Before I Go" - Heiko Hahn - GERMANY - Short Feature - 22:00 - U.S. Premiere
Walter has decided to put his ailing wife in a nursing home. On the day she is leaving, he must make her understand his actions.
Sat, Oct 29 - 4:32pm

STUDENT FILMMAKER
"Bee Goldin" - Ryan Silveira - Student Filmmaker - 3:51
The disconnected nature of American society and the beauty of connection. Inspired by photography artist Nen Goldin and performance artist Vanessa Beecroft.
Sat, Oct 29 - 3:34pm

"Jogo Perigoso" - Diallo Jeffery - Student Filmmaker - 5:35
A rhythmic piece featuring a capoeira performance by "The Capoeira Arts Cafe" of Berkeley.
Sun, Oct 30 - 1:57pm

DOCUMENTARY
"Fountain of Youth" - Luis "Fountain of Youth" Ramos Louie, Louie - Short Documentary - 6:00 - West Coast Premiere

A ringside capsule of "club boxing" at a famous NY gym, featuring a bout with Louie Louie and a boxing champion. Luckily, Louie Louie survives.
Sat, Oct 29 - 7:52pm

"The Pursuit of Pleasure" - Maryanne Galvin - Documentary - 52:00 - West Coast Premiere

Seven diverse women explore the evolution of female sexuality and pleasure since the U.S. Women's Movement over 40 years ago.
Sat, Oct 29 - 1:33pm

"Long Live Tai O" - Chan Wai Tong - HONG KONG - Documentary - 22:00 - U.S. Premiere
This film aims at encouraging elderly people in Hong Kong to treasure their lives and live bountifully.
Sun, Oct 30 - 1:35pm

"Dear Mr. President: Republican National Convention Protests in NYC" - Phil Gorn - Documentary - 8:00
Joe Esteves (brother of Martin Sheen) interviews protesters during the Republican Convention in NYC.
Sat, Oct 29 - 5:55pm

ARTS
"Street-Game" - Jessica Iapino - ITALY - Arts - 3:20 - U.S. Premiere
The camera in movement, shooting from above, black and white images which run with the same energetic rhythm of the music, busy following someone barefoot playing "innocently" a game with a grid drawn on the ground with chalk. But instead of the traditional grid, the chalk traces the shape of a molecule: the heroin molecule.
Sun, Oct 30 - 6:11pm

ANIMATION
"America The Beautiful" - John Cannizzaro - Animation - 7:15 - West Coast Premiere

The latest animated short from director John Cannizzaro ("50 Feet That Shook The World" 2004) is a dark satire of the history of the United States of America.
Sat. Oct 29 - 7:03pm

"How The Elephant Got Big Ears" - Richard Randell - Animation - 7:30 - Premiere
African man, Kenya, tells a traditional Sonbura story followed by his account of going to primary school in Boragoi, Kenya.
Sun, Oct 30 - 1:27pm

"Jack and Middy Retire" - Chelsea Walton - Animation - 4:30
A cautionary tale about staying connected to the surrounding environment despite everyday distractions of modern technology.
Sat, Oct 29 - 1:28pm

EXPERIMENTAL
"Liver-Colored Dew" - Peter Bolte - Experimental - 6:00 - West Coast Premiere
Obsessive layering and stylized video reversals come together to present everyday images of aesthetic beauty juxtaposed against images of a sometimes compromised and haunting nature.
Sat, Oct 29 - 7:46pm

"A Tour of Bruce's Colon" - Bruce Bortin - Experimental - 10:35 - Premiere
A personal record of one person's experience of a rather invasive medical procedure, and it's not always pretty. Mr. Bortin approaches this middle-aged rite passage with unblinking honesty, tempered with humor.
Sun, Oct 30 - 6:15pm

"Earth and Moon in Love" - David Finkelstein - Experimental - 21:00 - West Coast Premiere
Shelley's interplanetary romance, in a musical setting for two countertenors, with animated illustrations.
Sat, Oct 29 - 5:01pm

"Subway" - Mark Mamalakis - Experimental - 6:12 - West Coast Premiere
"Subway" turns the public transportation experience into an expression of instinct, imagination & personal freedom.
Sat, Oct 29 - 4:54pm

ETHNOGRAPHIC
"Bwiti" - Joel Lawrence Holzman - Ethnographic - 5:00
A short visual glimpse into an all night Bwiti ancestral worship ceremony of the Masango tribe in Southern Gabon Central Africa.
Sat, Oct 29 - 7:11pm

EDUCATIONAL
"The Stand-Up Physicist: Why Quantum Mechanics is Weird" - Douglas B. Sweetser - Educational - 27:00 - West Coast Premiere
Part of the Stand-Up Physicist series, half hour chats by Doug Sweeter about his theoretical physics research. This show tries to explain why quantum mechanics has to be the way that it is.
Sun, Oct 30 - 1:00pm

YOUNG PRODUCER
"Girl with Bad Luck" - Mischa Minkler-Green - Young Producer - 4:30
A short film about a girl always trying to look good and be good, and always receiving bad luck... until she makes a realization.
Sat, Oct 29 - 3:24pm

"Infrared" - Alan Ransil - Young Producer - 2:30
A package comes to the door containing a TV remote controller that can be used to control people. What would you do?
Sat, Oct 29 - 1:00pm

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ADDITIONAL AWARDS
Following Award Winners will be considered for future screenings.

*****Grand Festival Awards
DOCUMENTARY
"Outside In" - Buff & Cynthia Whitman-Bradley - Documentary

"Beyond Treason" - William Lewis & Joyce Riley - Documentary

EXPERIMENTAL
"Cellular Activity: Animation" - Neil Ira Needleman - Experimental

****Best of Festival Awards
FEATURE
"Close Encounters of the 4th Kind - Infestation from Mars" - Elliott Haimoff - Feature

"Soulmates" - Ralph Groemping/Jean Sugerman - Feature

"Talkers Are No Good Doers" - Julian Hoeber - Feature

SHORT FEATURE
"Jack & Jill" - Josh Ergas - Short Feature

"The Chessmen" - Kenneth S. Kokka - Short Feature

STUDENT FILMMAKER
"Pure Malice" - Ann Pirvu - Student Filmmaker

"Vom O Rama" - Rachel Wolther - Student Filmmaker

"Final Blues" - Carlos Dorsey - Student Filmmaker

"So Here I Am" - Jean Andrews - Student Filmmaker

"Left Behind" - Bryan McKown - Student Filmmaker

"The Exchange" - Byron Karabatsos - Student Filmmaker

DOCUMENTARY
"A Good Strong Roof" - Tony Gault - Documentary

"Call me Malcolm" - Joseph Parlagreco - Documentary

"Corridor of Shame" - Charles T. "Bud" Ferillo - Documentary

"Georgeva" - Doug Harris - Documentary

"Healing Our Spirits" - Lexie Tom & Michael Shepard - Documentary

"Homecoming" - Vivian Wong - Documentary

"Pipe Dreams: people of the Cameroon pipeline" - Terri Hathaway - Documentary

"The Galapagos Island" - Steven Willoughby - Documentary

"The Mpassa: A Second Chance" - Joel Lawrence Holzman - Documentary

"Romania: Paint the Door Open" - Elizabeth Upton - Documentary

ARTS
"Pas de Deux" - Barbara Grandvoinet - Arts

"Three" - LaDonna Witmer & Michelle Brown - Arts

MUSIC VIDEO
"Love Song" - Maria Davis-Angelina Productions - Music Video

EXPERIMENTAL
"Consenting Adults" - Neil Ira Needleman - Experimental

"Mission Statement" - Shalom Gorewitz - Experimental

"No Signal" - Neil Ira Needleman - Experimental

ETHNOGRAPHIC
"Niger: Magic& Ecstasy in the Sahei" - Hisham Mayet - Ethnographic

EDUCATIONAL
"Ecogeomorphology" - Elizabeth Upton - Educational

"Masters of Capoeira Vol.1" - Bira Almeida - Educational

"Butterfly Metamorphosis" - Chan Wai Tong - Educational

YOUNG PRODUCER
"Shades of Grey" - Alan Ransil - Young Producer

"Morituri" - Rachel Weiler - Young Producer

"Pre$idency" - Stefan Popescu / Zack Weinberg - Young Producer

"The Dance" - Jennifer Lim - Young Producer

"The Mean, Lean, Green Bean" - Denali Anne Wilson - Young Producer

"Ocean's First" - Laheeb Quddusi - Young Producer

"Listen" - Mischa Minkler-Green - Young Producer

MOCUMENTARY
"Lost in the Thinking" - Damon Packard - Mocumentary

"Mondo Packard Revisited" - Damon Packard - Mocumentary

***Awards of Excellence
FEATURE
"Friends Like These" - Sebastian Moreira - Feature

"The Big Muddy" - Steven Willoughby - Feature

"The Church of Fat Tony the Archangel" - Roberta Kenyon - Feature

"Starslyderz" - Garrin Vincent Hajeian - Feature

"The Barren Pine" - John Boggi - Feature

SHORT FEATURE
"Bodox Detox" - Eddie Yaroch - Short Feature

"Houston" - Matt Jenkins - Short Feature

"In the Sunset" - Melinda Busch & Jean-Pierre Duboucheron - Short Feature

"WORK" - Emio Tomeoni - Short Feature

"Lessons Lost" - Mercury Bar Productions - Short Feature

"Room 666" - Gabriel Foley - Short Feature

"Eternal Prophecy" - Psych Stevens - Short Feature

"Market Penetration" - Eric Innocent & Andy Wang - Short Feature

"Come Sunshine" - Chan Wai Tong - Short Feature

"Forgetting Who I Am" - Chan Wai Tong - Short Feature

STUDENT FILMMAKER
"Alter Ego" - Brian J. Kim - Student Filmmaker

"A Twenty-First Century Tale" - Ashley Triffletti - Student Filmmaker

"Don't Worry - I'm a Rap Star" - Rachel Wolther - Student Filmmaker

"Eracesure" - Justin Lenoy - Student Filmmaker

"The List" - Annarose Foley - Student Filmmaker

"The Package" - Carlos Dorsey - Student Filmmaker

"Soft Skeleton" - Patrick Cunningham - Student Filmmaker

"Gravity" - Seth Camillo - Student Filmmaker

"22 Feet" - Seth Camillo - Student Filmmaker

"Between" - Seongho Heo - Student Filmmaker

"Lost Cause" - Bryan McKown - Student Filmmaker

DOCUMENTARY
"Dick Ho: Asian Male Porn Star" - Jeffrey Lei - Documentary

"Saving Newburgh" - Merle Becker - Documentary

"You Bet We're Going Back to Sea! The S.S. John W. Brown" - Matt Jenkins - Documentary

"Yucatan Diary" - Robert Lee Leach - Documentary

"It's Not Something We Talk About" - Melanie Parker - Documentary

"As Is: A Downsized Life" - Maryanne Galvin - Documentary

"Parallel Worlds" - Dave Puls - Documentary

"Memorial Day Salute" - Luis Ramos - Documentary

"Sideshow: My Day at the Kobe Bryant Rape Trial" - Shiela E. Schroeder - Documentary

"The Great Race" - Stephen Gregory - Documentary

ARTS
"Thomas" - Richard Randell - Arts

MUSIC VIDEO
"'Sahara' Music Video" - Jarmo Siimento - Music Video

"Why Don't You Love Me" - Joel Lawrence Holzman - Music Video

"Sugar in Wartime" - David Presley - Music Video

"Arise" - Marc Edwards Minor - Music Video

"Long Shadow" - Dean DeBlois - Music Video

EXPERIMENTAL
"CHICKENanonymous" - Dave Burns - Experimental

ETHNOGRAPHIC
"Capital: Impressions of Early Empire" - Leigh & Jason Morfoot - Ethnographic / Experimental

EDUCATIONAL
"Seeking Hearth" - The Movie - Ken Moshesh - Educational

"Best of Magic Key" - Luis "Fountain of Youth" Ramos Louie, Louie & Magic Key Production - Educational

 

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