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 . 510.843.3699www.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
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.
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.
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.
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.
9:58 p.m. To Lay the Table — Chiara Scarfo
Mobile devices. Italy. 2 minutes.
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.
1:20 p.m. Thomas Comma — Ken Kimmelman
Animation. 24 minutes.
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 Dianna J. 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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Starring Danny Trejo and Mark Borchardt (of American Movie fame), Modus Operandi takes the viewer on a sleazy retro tour of 1970s underworld blaxpoitation 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 Crackasm — 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 — 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 404 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.
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 — Hayden Baptiste
Feature. 88 minutes.
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.
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.
BERKELEY VIDEO & FILM FESTIVAL 2009 An Independent Cinematic Marathon
BV+FF’s two day event this year, features outstanding and challenging independent new cinema from Italy, Cuba, Germany, Venezuela, Great Britain, and the USA, as well as, 15 local San Francisco Bay Area Filmmakers being represented.
Since our previous BV+FF, we have witnessed a regime change in Washington, and a global economic collapse, however, the spirit of indie cinema prevails, as witnessed by this years remarkable filmmakers and their substantive creative endeavors.
Our screening selections in 2009, reflect the very best works of over one hundred and fifty submissions. Sit back, relax, and let these filmmakers inform, shock and entertain you. - Mel Vapour, Director BV+FF
“Cinema is the most beautiful fraud in the world.” - Jean-Luc Godard
THE 19th 2010 BERKELEY VIDEO + FILM FESTIVAL
Founded by award winning independent filmmakers who were involved with
the "independent underground cinema revolution" in the early and mid-1960's, THE BERKELEY VIDEO + FILM FESTIVAL was created in 1990 to provide a venue for independent film and videomakers
creating works that challenge and confront our notions of "Electronic
Cinema."
BV&FF
programs and screens original works, all which have been juried by a screening
committee of professional media makers at mainstream film theaters in
Berkeley, California, home of the free speech movement. The festival issues
awards in each category and promotes the individual filmmakers by insuring
that their works receive media attention, press reviews and screen presence.
The rapid growth of THE BERKELEY VIDEO +
FILM FESTIVAL in the past decade reflects the increased
interest in independent electronic cinematography, locally and globally.
BV+FF continues to provide
a context for everyone interested in independent media making today.
Copyright 1991 - 2010
- East Bay Media Center - Berkeley Video + Film Festivals
