DOCUMENTARY
"Being In The World" - Tao Ruspoli - Doc - 80:00 -
Winner: *Grand Festival Best Documentary Award
Ruspoli interviews philosophers, jazz musicians, artists and craftsmen in an examination of the nature of self-expression, art, and the effort to find oneself in an increasingly fractured world.
Screens Saturday at 8:45pm - Q & A with Tao Ruspoli follows the screening
"Hawaii A Voice For Sovereignty" - Catherine Bauknight - 84:00 - *Bay Area Premiere.
Winner: *Allen Willis Documentary Award.
In 1893, American businessmen, backed by the U.S. Marines, overthrew the reigning monarchy of the Kingdom of Hawaii, and over the years staked their claim to lands deeded to the native people by their exiled government. A growing sovereignty movement seeks to restore the Hawaiian nation and to educate the world about the truth behind the unwanted absorption of the archipelago by the United States of America. Screens Sunday 4:30pm
"What If Cannabis Cured Cancer" - Len Richmond - 60:00
Winner: *Peace Reel Award
Peter Coyote narrates this eye-opening film that challenges the conventional wisdom regarding marijuana’s alleged dangers and documented and potential medicinal properties.
Screens Saturday 6:30pm
"Virtuoso - The Olga Samaroff Story" - Sylvan Kline & Donna S. Kline - 60:00
Winner: *Grand Festival Award
In a time when Americans — especially women — weren’t taken seriously as classical musicians, the unknown 25-year-old Olga Samaroff adopted a new name, boldly staged an outrageously ambitious concert at Carnegie Hall, and virtually forced America and Europe to recognize her prodigious talent. She used her powers of persuasion and media savvy to launch the career of her second husband, Leopold Stokowski, before becoming, in her later years, an inspirational teacher and mentor to a generation of American classical musicians. Screens Saturday - 4:00pm
"The Oak Park Story" - Valerie Soe - 22:00
Residents of a decaying low-income housing complex in Oakland take matters into their owns and sue their negligent landlord. But though the settlement brings much needed cash to its residents and long-overdue repairs to its apartments, can the restored Oak Park retain its vibrant, communal spirit once the battle has been won? Screens Saturday 6:00pm
"Nisei Soldier:Standard Bearer for an Exiled People" - Loni Ding - 30:00
A Tribute Screening to the late Loni Ding
Loni Ding’s 1983 PBS documentary looks at the lives and sacrifices of Japanese Americans during World War II. After having been rounded up and sent to internment camps, young Japanese American men were compelled to demonstrate their loyalty to America by serving in the military, and did so emphatically, the 442 becoming the army’s most decorated regiment. Screens Sunday - 2pm
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"Fledgling" - Tony Gault and Elizabeth Henry - 7:00 - Screens Saturday 11:50pm
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FEATURES
"Modus Operandi" - Frankie Latina - Feature - 76 minutes - *Bay Area Premiere.
Winner: *Grand Festival Feature Award
Starring Danny Trejo, Mark Borchardt, Mark Metcalf, Nicole Johnson & Randy Russell
"Blaxploitation meets Art-House. A mondo B-movie that holds nothing back..Modus Operandi is a movie utterly content with its own insanity"- indieWIRE - Screens Saturday 10:30pm
8:30 p.m. "Kick Me Down" — Matthew Bennett, Director, Hayden Baptiste, Producer
Feature. 88 minutes. Canada - *World Premiere. Winner: *Grand Festival Award
Estranged stepbrothers clash when a death in the family brings them back into each other’s lives. A love triangle only further complicates the twisted family dynamics.Screens Sunday 8:30pm
"Turbulence" - Nitzan Ben Shaul and Daphna Cohen Ben Shaul - Israel. Premiere.
Experimental Hyper Narrative Interactive Feature
Winner: *Grand Festival Experimental Feature Award
A romantic drama about the lives of Israelis in Israel and New York that invites viewer participation in selecting narrative developments at dramatic crossroads in the story
A Turbulent Event at the BVFF
On September 26, 2010 at 10 pm the movie Turbulence made its US premiere screening at the Berkeley Video and Film Festival held at the Landmark Shattuck Theaters in downtown Berkeley. The movie, which was awarded the festival's Grand Award for an Experimental Feature, was interactively screened before the audience. In this unique screening sporadically chosen members of the audience were asked to make choices at dramatic crossroads thus shifting the course of the story. The movies' unique patented player allows for seamless transitions among the optional narrative tracks thus maintaining the movie flow. Also, the interactions are guided by dramatic rather than gaming considerations and there are no menus but a sudden glow that suggests interaction. This forking path interactive movie tells a dramatic, sweeping and suspenseful story about three friends that meet by chance in Manhattan 20 years after an event that led to their dispersion. In this renewed meeting they reassess their past and change their future. During the screening viewers helped the protagonists make choices that led to different endings to the story. "It's all about optional thinking" said the director, Nitzan Ben Shaul to an enthralled audience. "Regular movies tell you one story with one end, Turbulence tells several optional versions of the story with several endings, plus, you guide the course taken by the characters so you have some responsibility for where your choices lead them?:
Screens Sunday Evening - 10:00pm
"A Foundling" - Carly Lyn and Colin Barton - 90:00
Two sisters, adrift in a desert amid the vast American West, come upon an alien baby.
Screens Sunday at 6:55pm
SHORT FEATURES
SPOTLIGHT: 4 Short, Very Disturbing Films, with a Premiere of "HELP WANTED"
by Bay Area Filmmaker Waylon Bacon
"Help Wanted" - Waylon Bacon - *Premiere
"My Worst Nightmare" - Waylon Bacon
"BOB" - Waylon Bacon
"Poster Boy" - Waylon Bacon
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"Here's Herbie" - Mary Wickliffe - 11:00
When a reticent teenager encounters a man who pretends to drive the subway train with a toy steering wheel, he sheds his inhibitions and realizes that his own life is not beyond his control.
http://www.easy-share.com/1912230313/HerbieTrailer640x360Full16x9.mov
Screens Friday 8:33pm
"Jesus Comes to Town" - Kamal John Iskander - 12:31
Like a bored rock star slumming it among the great unwashed, the son of God drops in on a card game and drives up the stakes in this noir-tinged tale.
Screens Friday at 11:17pm
"Running Away with Blackie" - Lucas Cody Garcia - 18:00
A surreal visit to dusty motel finally clears the air for a suicidal teenager and his dog looking to escape the past by traversing a lonely western landscape.
Screens Friday at 8:45pm
"The Greims" - Peter Bolte - 14:00
Two estranged brothers reunite for a comically tense meeting to bid adieu to their deceased cat, as per their late mother’s wishes. Screens Saturday at 7:35pm
"Two Birds" - Francesco Saviano - 14:00
One friend (Paul Calderon) drags another (Michael Buscemi) ever deeper into an underworld of corruption and deceit.
Screens Friday at 8:15pm
STUDENT FILMMAKERS
Selections from the USC School of Cinematic Arts and
Student Industry Relations - Short Films - "First Look 2010" - *See Schedule on Home Page
"The Absent Mind of Nico Soto" - Nico Sotomayor - Screens Saturday at 5:50pm
Desperate for an idea for a film, Nico Soto seeks the help of his musician friend and a shrink.
"Ionic Order" - Ryan Silveira
"Bleach" - Priya Singh
"Under the Grate" - Zachary Hobesh
ANIMATION
"A World Without Numbers" - Mitchell Rose - 3:00
A half-century in the making, this film brings to life a story the director wrote at the age of 9 for a fourth-grade math class. Screens Saturday at 8:03pm
Selections from the USC School of Cinematic Arts & John C. Hench Animation and Digital Arts "Adobe First Frame 2010" * See Schedule on Home Page
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"The Hollywood Adventures of Freedom the Polar Bear" - Barry Levy - 2:00
Winner:*Grand Festival Short Animation Award
The first brush strokes odf an animated series for children, in which Freedom, no longer able to survive in the Arctic, makes his way to Hollywood to pursue his dream of becoming an actor.
Screens Friday at 7:55pm
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"Thomas Comma" - Ken Kimmelman - 24:00 Winner *Grand Festival Animation Award
Based on a story by poet Martha Baird,Thomas Comma is the charming and humorous adventure of a lonely comma looking for the right sentence. Screens Saturday at 1:20pm
ARTS
"Wow! Ted Joans Lives!" - Kurt Hemmer and Tom Knoff - 30:00
Winner: *Grand Festival Arts Award
This documentary about Ted Joans uses the poet’s own jazz-inflected rhythms to tell the story of his life and career.
Screens Saturday at 5:00pm
"Homogeneous" - LaDonna Wittmer and Michelle M. Brown - 7:00
Winner* Cine Poem Arts Award
A cinepoem in triplicate, with one poem recited three times by three people amid the urbanscape of San Francisco. Screens Friday at 7:48pm
EXPERIMENTAL
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"Advance" - Mitchell Rose - 3:00
Winner: *Grand Festival Award
Two determined dancers travel the globe without missing a step. Screens Friday at 7:45pm
"Woman in the Baths" - Gerald Varney - 20:00
Foreboding premonitions foretell dire consequences when a female dancer uses the abandoned Sutro Baths as a rehearsal studio. Screens Saturday at 5:30pm.
"Terrifying Blankness" - David Finkelstein - 30:00
Are we trapped by desire? Do we evade choice by blanking everything out? Or can we find an inner guiding voice? Screens Sunday at 1:30pm
EDUCATIONAL
"Across The Waves, Voices from the Asian-Pacific American Community" - Randy Rice - 100:00This series of stirring portraits of Asian Americans explores the obstacles that they and generations of their families have overcome en route to successful lives in the western world.
Winner: *Grand Festival Educational Award - Screens Sunday 2:30pm
"ASL Tales Rapunzel" - Laurie Meyer - 12:00
YOUNG PRODUCERS
"Selections from the Summer Teen Media Camp 2010" - East Bay Media Center - 35:00
Four films from the East Bay Media Center’s Summer Teen Media Camp: Taylor Weller’s Disastrous Love; Gabriel Perko-Engel’s Tri-Dental Inferno; Abbi Torres’ Hidden Talent Show; and Eric Slack’s 19.
20 minutes. Winner: *Young Producers Grand Festival Award
Screens Saturday 1pm
Four films from the East Bay Media Center’s Teen Media Camp: Spencer Lymburn’s The Spencer Show; Evan Clark and Spencer Lymburn’s The Circle and E-Taks; and EBMC News Reports, a group effort.
15 minutes. Screens Sunday 1pm
"The Stand" - Oliva Chuba - Harvard Westlake School - North Hollywood - 9:00
"Omer" - Emma Strebel - 6:00
COMEDY
"Wigband-Stimulus Spa"- Barbara Golden and Johanna Poethig - 10:00
A satiric look look at a seven-day health spa. Screens Saturday at 2:35pm
"Cam Stryker in the Warehouse of Doom" - Ed Sharpe - 3:00
Sharpe amps up the ante with shimmering film noire flash light lighting techniques, reminiscent of the Blair Witch Project. This episodic self clip approach, reinforces his one man band style of cinema. The story lines are always incidental, his iconic face and Speed Graphic '50's camera prop, reveal his yarn spinning tales are always tongue and chic, this latest version is a mouthful. Screens Sunday at 1:15pm
Winner: * Grand Festival Award
MOBILE DEVICES
"To Lay The Table" - Chiara Scarfo - 2:00 - Italia - Screens Friday at 9:58pm
Fleeting,ethereal glimpses of the artist laying a table in her garden.
Winner: *Grand Festival Mobile Devices Award
"To Lay - To Lay - Assenta" - Chiara Scarfo - 2:00 - Italia
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Underground and Under-Appreciated
The East Bay hosts the Berkeley Video and Film Festival this weekend. Edited version BVFF
By Ellen Cushing East Bay Express 9.22.2010In the nineteen years Mel Vapour has been producing the Berkeley Video and Film Festival, he's seen the East Bay's vibrant film scene go all but unnoticed, even as San Francisco and Marin County hold innumerable high-profile festivals highlighting every demographic niche and creative genre imaginable. "There's sort of a stigma about the East Bay — we've always been in the shadow of the bridge and the Transamerica tower," he said. "But there's a real appetite for film here." Indeed, while San Francisco may always be the place for name-brand, star-studded festivals, this weekend the East Bay plays host to two full-scale film festivals of its own. Vapour's, now in its nineteenth year, is an East Bay institution., "I think there's less pomp and pretense and more delivery of content in some respects over here," Vapour said.
And Vapour is very serious about content. He has surrounded himself with movies for decades — first as a young cinephile screening Andy Warhol films wherever he could in the Midwest, and more recently as the vice president of the East Bay Media Center, an equipment-rental service and production studio. This year, he's curated a festival that includes films both award-winning and completely experimental in a wide range of genres. He can hardly contain his film-geek excitement as he ticks off some of his personal favorites out of the festival's 68 short and feature-length offerings: Turbulence, a "hyper-interactive" Israeli feature that allows viewers to dictate the plot, Choose Your Own Adventure-style; Modus Operandi, which Vapour describes as blaxploitation-meets-art-house and which stars Danny Trejo, most recently of Machete; and a full slate of documentaries about subjects including Hawaiian sovereignty, Japanese-American soldiers in WWII, and a decaying Oakland housing development. The festival also favors young filmmakers, including students from the University of Southern California's film department, as well as kids as young as twelve who made films through the Media Center's summer camps.
September 24.25.26. 2010
Friday . September 24. 2010 Screenings 7:30pm
Saturday . September 25. 2010 Screenings 1pm - Midnite
Sunday . September 26. 2010 Screenings 1pm - 11pm
Landmark Shattuck Cinemas . 2230 Shattuck Avenue in Downtown Berkeley
TICKETS
Tickets. $13. General Admission. $10. Students . Elders.
All tickets are valid for the entire day and evening.
Tickets available at the Landmark Shattuck Cinemas Box Office
2230 Shattuck Avenue . Downtown Berkeley . Box Office . 510.464.5980
Festival Info . 510.843.3699 www.berkeleyvideofilmfest.org
3 Day Event Pass: $27.50 available from East Bay Media Center only.
BV+FF Ticket holders and attendees: Please plan to arrive at least ten minutes prior to any listed film(s) during our marathon continuous screening schedule, to insure seating and to allow for programming offsets.
Hotels for Filmmakers and Festival attendees:
Hotel Shattuck Plaza
2086 Allston Way - Downtown Berkeley - 510-845-7300
www.hotelshattuckplaza.com
Downtown Berkeley Inn
2001 Bancroft Way - Downtown Berkeley - 510- 843-4043
www.downtownberkeleyinn.com
An Independent Cinematic Marathon
BVFF’s 19th edition screens 68 outstanding independent filmmakers.
Highlights of the three-day event include a spotlight on short films and
animation from the students of the USC School of Cinematic Arts;
a tribute screening of Nisei Soldier by the late Berkeley documentarian Loni Ding; Bay Area filmmaker Waylon Bacon’s world premiere of Help Wanted, in addition to a selection of his past work; a special presentation of Tao Ruspoli’s documentary Being in the World; a premiere of a “hyper narrative interactive feature film,”
Turbulence, by Nitzan Ben Shaul and Daphne Cohen Ben Shaul from Israel; the world premiere of Canadian filmmaker Mathew Bennett's new feature, Kick Me Down; and Frankie Latina’s blaxploitation-meets-arthouse feature, Modus Operandi, is really what made Milwaukee famous.
This is our biggest festival yet. We received nearly 200 submissions and we’re screening more films than ever before. Sit back, relax, and let this extraordinary lineup of compelling filmmakers inform, shock, challenge and entertain you.
— Mel Vapour, Director BVFF
Friday Nights Awards and Screenings were Great!
Saturday Night - Tao Ruspoli's "Being in the World" Sold Out - Standing Room Only! Thanks Tao & Berkeley!
Sunday we had a great venue, great docs, great features, and a great ending with "Turbulence".
THANK YOU FILMMAKERS & BERKELEY!
Onward to our 20th Annual 2011 Festival.
“Hollywood is like being nowhere and talking to nobody about nothing.” - Michelangelo Antonioni
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Examiner Interview BVFF 2010 - by Jason-Louise Graham:
Berkeley Daily Planet Preview of BVFF 2010 - by Justin De Freitas:
San Francisco Sentinel - BVFF 2010by Justin De Freitas:
http://www.sanfranciscosentinel.com/?p=89380
"Turbulence" reviews from Israel:
Ed Sharpe's Award from Glendale Arizona:
http://www.glendalestar.com/news/article_cbc8c37e-d6da-11df-a7cd-001cc4c03286.html
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2010 PROGRAM
FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 24
6:00 p.m. Filmmakers’ reception - Invitation Only
6:30 p.m. Awards presentation - Invitation Only
7:30 p.m. Meanwhile... — Jerome Sable and Mike Montgomery
USC student film. 2 minutes.
Ever wonder what the movie theater concession’s employees do while you’re inside watching the movie?
7:33 p.m. Oona’s Story — Sara Bencivenga
USC student film. 12 minutes.
Can Oona find a way out of her story?
7:45 p.m. Advance — Mitchell Rose
Experimental. 3 minutes. Winner:*Grand Festival Award
Two determined dancers travel the globe without missing a step.
7:48 p.m. Homogeneous — La Donna Wittmer and Michelle M. Brown
Arts. 7 minutes.Winner:*Cine Poem Arts Award.
A cinepoem in triplicate, with one poem recited three times by three people amid the urbanscape of San Francisco.
7:55 p.m. The Hollywood Adventures of Freedom the Polar Bear — Barry Levy -
Animation. 2 minutes.Winner:*Grand Festival Short Animation Award.
The first brush strokes of an animated series for children, in which Freedom, no longer able to survive in the Arctic, makes his way to Hollywood to pursue his dream of becoming an actor.
7:58 p.m. The Godmother — Lior Chefetz
USC student film. 15 minutes.
You can get what you want with a kind word, but you’ll get more with a kind word and a gun.
8:13 p.m. Tokyo/Jitensha - Steven Day
USC student film. Animation. 1 minute.
Bicycling through Tokyo at the speed of light.
8:15 p.m. Two Birds — Francesco Saviano
Short feature. 14 minutes.
One friend (Paul Calderon) drags another (Michael Buscemi) ever deeper into an underworld of corruption and deceit.
8:30 p.m. Projections — Kendra Ryan
USC student film. Experimental animation. 2 minutes.
One motion over multiple spaces as an exploration of memory: at once present and past.
8:33 p.m. Here’s Herbie — Mary Wickliffe
Short feature. 11 minutes.
When a reticent teenager encounters a man who pretends to drive the subway train with a toy steering wheel, he sheds his inhibitions and realizes that his own life is not beyond his control.
8:45 p.m. Running Away with Blackie — Lucas Cody Garcia
Short feature. 18 minutes.
A surreal visit to dusty motel finally clears the air for a suicidal teenager and his dog looking to escape the past by traversing a lonely western landscape.
9:05 p.m. A Son’s War — Steven Edell
USC student film. 26 minutes.
Prague, 1939: The true story of a boy and his mother who are torn apart at the outset of Nazi occupation during World War II.
9:31 Intermission
9:45 p.m. Last Meal — Mark Stern and Jake Avnet
USC student film. Short fiction. 12 minutes.
Killers never ever eat salad.Winner:*Grand Festival Student Award
9:58 p.m. To Lay the Table — Chiara Scarfo
Mobile devices. Italy. 2 minutes.Winner:Grand Festival Award Mobile Devices.
Fleeting, ethereal glimpses of the artist in laying a table in a garden.
10:00 p.m. A Moment of Silence — Diana Jo Reichenbach
USC student film. Animation. 4 minutes.
A whimsical journey into the visions, memories and dreams of half sleep.
10:05 p.m. King of the Road — Monica Surrena
USC student film. Short fiction. 20 minutes.
An old-school biker fights to win back his favorite bar, the last vestige of his faded glory.
10:21 p.m. Magellan — Sebastian Davis
USC student film. Short fiction. 18 minutes.
Magellan, a scrawny Atlanta seventh-grader, must work up the foolhardy courage to ask his popular latch-key classmate to the spring dance.
10:40 p.m. Set in Solitude — Malak Quota
USC student film. Animation. 4 minutes.
An old woman living inside a fish is lonely and miserable until things get shaken up.
10:45 p.m. Passed Over — Alex Burunova
USC student film. 13 minutes.
Two families, one meal, many problems.
11:00 p.m. The Ambassador’s Wife — Sara Akteh
USC student film. 17 minutes.
In 1946, a young bride relocates with her ambassador husband to South America. Disconnected from her homeland, she finds that liberation from her homeland’s mores comes at a price.
11:17 p.m. Jesus Comes to Town — Kamal John Iskander
Short feature. 12 minutes.
Like a bored rock star slumming it among the great unwashed, the son of God drops in on a card game and drives up the stakes in this noir-tinged tale.
SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 25
1:00 p.m. Four films from the East Bay Media Center’s Summer Teen Media Camp: Taylor Weller’s Diastrous Love; Gabriel Perko-Engel’s Tri-Dental Inferno; Abbi Torres’ Hidden Talent Show; and Eric Slack’s 19.
20 minutes.Winner:*Grand Festival Young Producers Award
1:20 p.m. Thomas Comma — Ken Kimmelman
Animation. 24 minutes.Winner* Grand Festival Animation Award
Based on a story by poet Martha Baird, Thomas Comma is the charming and humorous adventure of a lonely comma looking for the right sentence.
1:45 p.m. If Cell Phones Ruled the World — Alex Siegel
Student film. Harvard Westlake School, North Hollywood. 7 minutes.
Famous movie scenes change dramatically when cell phones are thrown into the mix.
1:52 p.m. The Stand — Oliva Chuba
Student film. Harvard Westlake School, North Hollywood. 9 minutes.
A mockumentary about two old friends, a free spirit and a control freak, whose friendship is put to the test when a boy opens a competing lemonade stand next door.
2:02 p.m. Under the Grate — Zachary Hobesh
Student film. 7 minutes.
A sleep-deprived little boy tracks down his tormentor, the villainous Ursula from Disney’s The Little Mermaid, in an effort to silence her for good.
2:10 p.m. Omer — Emma Strebel
Young producer. 6 minutes.
A short portrait of an erstwhile homeless man living in San Francisco’s Mission District.
2:16 p.m. We the Divided — Ryan Chen
USC student film. Animation. 14 minutes.
A civil war erupts and divides the people.
2:30 p.m. Bleach — Priya Singh
Student film. 5 minutes.
A young woman struggles to maintain her cultural beliefs while living a free and active lifestyle in the western world.
2:35 p.m. Wigband-Stimulus Spa — Barbara Golden and Johanna Poethig
Comedy. 10 minutes.
A satiric look at a seven days’ health spa.
2:45 p.m. How the Themersons Walked Backward — Wiktoria Szymanska- Documentary. 70 minutes.Winner*Grand Festival Euro Documentary Award. This film about avant garde artists Stefan and Franciszka Themerson uses the couple’s own aesthetic — their cartoons, films, words, imagery — to create a documentary in their image.
4:00 p.m. Virtuoso: The Olga Samaroff Story — Donna S. Kline
Documentary. 60 minutes.Winner:*Grand Festival Award.
In a time when Americans — especially women — weren’t taken seriously as classical musicians, the unknown 25-year-old Olga Samaroff adopted a new name, boldly staged an outrageously ambitious concert at Carnegie Hall, and virtually forced America and Europe to recognize her prodigious talent. She used her powers of persuasion and media savvy to launch the career of her second husband, Leopold Stokowski, before becoming, in her later years, an inspirational teacher and mentor to a generation of American classical musicians.
5:00 p.m. Wow! Ted Joans Lives! — Kurt Hemmer and Tom Knoff
Documentary. 30 minutes.Winner*Grand Festival Arts Award.
This documentary about Ted Joans uses the poet’s own jazz-inflected rhythms to tell the story of his life and career.
5:30 p.m. Woman in the Baths — Gerald Varney
Experimental. 20 minutes.
Foreboding premonitions foretell dire consequences when a female dancer uses the abandoned Sutro Baths as a rehearsal studio.
5:50 p.m. The Absent Mind of Nico Soto — Nico Sotomayor
Student film. 8 minutes.
Desperate for an idea for a film, Nico Soto seeks the help of his musician friend and a shrink.
6:00 p.m. The Oak Park Story — Valerie Soe
Documentary. 22 minutes.
Residents of a decaying low-income housing complex in Oakland take matters into their owns and sue their negligent landlord. But though the settlement brings much needed cash to its residents and long-overdue repairs to its apartments, can the restored Oak Park retain its vibrant, communal spirit once the battle has been won?
6:30 p.m. Intermission
6:30 p.m. What if Cannibas Cured Cancer? — Len Richmond.
Documentary. 60 minutes.Winner:*Peace Reel Award.
Peter Coyote narrates this eye-opening film that challenges the conventional wisdom regarding marijuana’s alleged dangers and documented and potential medicinal properties.
7:35 p.m. The Greims — Peter Bolte
Short feature. 14 minutes.
Two estranged brothers reunite for a comically tense meeting to bid adieu to their deceased cat, as per their late mother’s wishes.
7:50 p.m. Boychik — Benji White
USC student film. 9 minutes.
Death and taxes — tonight, Shelly will try to dodge both.
8:00 p.m. To Lay-To Lay-Assenta — Chiara Scarfo
Mobile devices. Italy. 2 minutes.
Another of the Italian filmmaker’s “self clips.”
8:03 p.m. A World Without Numbers — Mitchell Rose
Animation. 3 minutes.
A half-century in the making, this film brings to life a story the director wrote at the age of 9 for a fourth-grade math class.
8:07 p.m. Nebraska — Benjamin Hurwitz and Philip Hodges
USC student film. Animation. 13 minutes.
In a wold where hourly check-ups and bingo reign supreme, three feisty seniors dare to defy authority, escape their nursing home, and bring our hearts along for the ride.
8:21 p.m. The Marked Man — Hyunjung Rhee
USC student film. Animation. 6 minutes.
By prejudging, we may harass our innocent neighbors; it is an unspoken crime.
8:27 p.m. Intermission
8:45 p.m. Being in the World — Tao Ruspoli
Documentary. 80 minutes. Winner:*Grand Festival Best Documentary Award.
Ruspoli interviews philosophers, jazz musicians, artists and craftsmen in an examination of the nature of self-expression, art, and the effort to find oneself in an increasingly fractured world.
10:05 p.m. Q&A with director Tao Ruspoli.
10:30 p.m. Modus Operandi — Frankie Latina
Feature. 76 minutes.Winner:*Grand Festival Feature Award.
Starring Danny Trejo and Mark Borchardt (of American Movie fame), Modus Operandi takes the viewer on a sleazy retro tour of 1970s underworld blaxploitation chic by way of the back alleys, swimming pools and abandoned industrial wastelands of Milwaukee in a sort of post-modern James Blond flick, complete with dangerous beauties flashing dangerous guns, metallic and otherwise.
11:47 p.m Crackmasm — Kendra Ryan
USC student film. Animation. 2 minutes.
Inspired by an old commercial found on the Internet, this film strives to embody the shimmering phenomenon that is Christmas.
11:50 p.m. A Fledgling — Tony Gault and Elizabeth Henry
Documentary. 7 minutes.
Narrated home-movie images track a family’s efforts to nurse a baby crow back to health.
SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 26
1:00 p.m. Four films from the East Bay Media Center’s Teen Media Camp: Spencer Lymburn’s The Spencer Show; Evan Clark and Spencer Lymburn’s The Circle and E-Taks; and EBMC News Reports, a group effort.
15 minutes.
1:15 p.m. Cam Stryker in the Warehouse of Doom — Ed Sharpe
3 minutes.
Intrepid explorer Cam Stryker spins a yarn.
1:18 p.m. ASL Tales Rapunzel — Laurie Meyer
Educational. 12 minutes.
Multi-cultural tales told with artistic American Sign Language, written English and voices in various languages, giving literacy to hearing-impaired and deaf children across many cultures.
1:30 p.m. Terrifying Blankness — David Finkelstein
Experimental. 30 minutes.
Are we trapped by desire? Do we evade choice by blanking everything out? Or can we find an inner guiding voice?
2:00 p.m. Nisei Soldier: Standard Bearer for an Exiled People - Loni Ding.
Tribute screening. 30 minutes.
Loni Ding’s 1983 PBS documentary looks at the lives and sacrifices of Japanese Americans during World War II. After having been rounded up and sent to internment camps, young Japanese American men were compelled to demonstrate their loyalty to America by serving in the military, and did so emphatically, the 442 becoming the army’s most decorated regiment.
2:30 p.m. Across the Waves — Randy Rice
Educational. 100 minutes.
This series of stirring portraits of Asian Americans explores the obstacles that they and generations of their families have overcome en route to successful lives in the western world.
4:15 p.m. Ionic Order — Ryan Silveira
Student film. 12 minutes.
Traditional American ideology and iconography collide on the cathedral stage, melding excess, black matter, neoclassical architecture and blood.
4:30 p.m. Hawaii: A Voice for Sovereignty — Catherine Bauknight
Documentary. 84 minutes.Winner:*Allen Willis Documentary Award.
In 1893, American businessmen, backed by the U.S. Marines, overthrew the reigning monarchy of the Kingdom of Hawaii, and over the years staked their claim to lands deeded to the native people by their exiled government. A growing sovereignty movement seeks to restore the Hawaiian nation and to educate the world about the truth behind the unwanted absorption of the archipelago by the United States of America.
5:55 p.m. Intermission
6:10 p.m. Spotlight: The Disturbing Short Films of Waylon Bacon
A selection of films from Bay Area filmmaker Waylon Bacon, including Poster Boy (11 minutes), Bob (2 minutes), My Worst Nightmare (7 minutes), and his latest, Help Wanted (20 minutes), in which Jim gets a disturbing — and graphic — tour of his prospective workplace, a warehouse of human remains where employees are required to murder homeless, hookers and minorities in order to supply inventory. A grim and graphic satire of the dehumanizing aspects of the modern job market.
6:55 p.m. A Foundling — Carly Lyn and Colin Barton
Feature. 90 minutes.
Two sisters, adrift in a desert amid the vast American West, come upon an alien baby.
8:25 p.m. Thirty-One Thousand Feet Above — Imran Shafi
USC student film. 1 minute.
Through the lens of poetry, this animated short examines a man’s emotional struggle before dropping the atomic bomb, capturing a single dramatic moment of time.
8:30 p.m. Kick Me Down — Matthew Bennett, Director. Hayden Baptiste, Producer.
Feature. 88 minutes.Winner:*Grand Festival Award
Estranged stepbrothers clash when a death in the family brings them back into each other’s lives. A love triangle only further complicates the twisted family dynamics.
10:00 Turbulence — Nitzan Ben Shaul and Daphna Cohen Ben Shaul
Experimental interactive feature. 83 minutes plus.Winner:*Grand Festival Experimental Award.
A romantic drama about the lives of Israelis in Israel and New York that invites viewer participation in selecting narrative developments at dramatic crossroads in the story.
finis
BVFF 2010 Program Page - Berkeley Video & Film Festivals 2010