86 films to run in four competition categories
The Slamdance Film Festival has selected 86 short films in four competition categories: documentary, narrative/experimental, animation and the new musicvideo classification.
The entries, announced Monday, will be eligible for a grand jury award. All entries were chosen by the shorts programming committee, comprised primarily of Slamdance alumni filmmakers.
Notable alumni from Slamdance's shorts include Gina Prince-Bythewood ("The Secret Life of Bees"), Mike Mitchell ("Shrek Goes Fourth"), Seth Gordon ("Four Christmases"), Jared Hess ("Napoleon Dynamite"), Matt Nix ("Burn Notice") and Rian Johnson ("The Brothers Bloom").
Slamdance will run concurrently with the Sundance Film Festival. In addition to the four jury competitions, Slamdance also has two out-of-competition shorts categories -- the Anarchy Online Film Competition and $99 Specials, produced by Slamdance and directed by Slamdance alumni for $99.
The festival has also formed a venture with Indieroad.net to stream films throughout the festival. Each online viewing of a Slamdance film or shorts will cost $9, and one third of that will go directly to the filmmakers.
The documentary short competition includes "Circles of Confusion" by Phoebe Tooke; "The First Kid to Learn English from Mexico," Peter Jordan; "Grand Teton," Julia Kim Smith; "King Surfer," Nadia Hallgren; "Rare Chicken Rescue," Randall Wood; and "Theo," Georgi Banks-Davies.
The narrative/experimental category includes "City Girls," Jon Rafman; "The Covenant of Mr. Kasch," Joshua Beahan and Ruwan De Silver; "Cute Couple," Courtney Moorhead Balaker; "Dish," Brian H. Krinksy; "Diversions," Peggy Bruen; "El Ladroncito," Yamin Segal; "An Evening With Emery Long," Brad DeMarea; "Feelings and Stuff," Samuli Valkama; "Funny Guy," Frank Rinaldi; "Happy Rabbit," Patrick Jackson; and Francois Gamaury; "Hatemail," Frazer Churchill; "Hold Your Fire," Wes Benscoter; "Horsefingers 3: Starfucker," Kirsten Kearse; "I Don't Sleep I Dream," J.P. Chan; "I Think It's Love," Susan Hippen; "Immersion," Richard Levien; "Imminent," Randall Good; "It Shines and Shakes and Laughs," Matthew Wade; "Let's Go," Maxim Kuphal; "A Little Mouth to Feed," Jack Daniel Stanley; "The Maid," Heidi Saman; "Milbe," Karl Tebbe; "Moon Lady," Sulyn Zan; "One-Half World," Daniel Berube; "The Pond," Sonja Phillips; "Princess Margaret Blvd.," Kazik Radwanski; "The Rapture of the Athlete Assumed into Heaven," Keith Bogart and Don DeLillo; "River," Guinness Rider; "Sapsucker," Christopher Holmes; "Shor," Raj Nidimoru and Krishna DK, "A Short Ride (Scurta Plimbare Na Masina), Paul Negoescu and Simona Ghita; "Six and a Half," Ana Lily Amirpour; "The Skooks," Norwood Cheek; "Tony Zoreil," Valentin Potier: "Una y Otra Vez," Antonio Mendez; "Vapid Lovelies," Frank Feldman, David Luna and Chris Lemon; "Vodka & Women," Xavier Tatarkiewicz.
Animation includes, "5," Graeme Hawkins; "The Adventures of Ledo and Ix," Emily Carmichael, "Alice's Attic," Robyn Yannoukos and Brian LoSchiavo; "Dear Fatty," Hsin-I Tseng; "ELA, In Love at First Byte," Fernando Sarmiento, Alejandro Sarmiento and J.F. Mackeprang; "Flute Babies," Gretta Johnson, "Forestry," Woodpecker; "Kanizsa Hill," Evelyn Lee; "Seeking You," Jean-Julien Pous; "Swimming Moon," Nahomi Maki, "Suncrow," Martin Falconer; "Trepan Hole," Andy Cahill; "Undone," Hayley Morris, "An Unquiet Mind," Chihwen Lo.
By DAVE MCNARY - VARIETY
