Archives > 2005 > Features
- First Features
- Hank Williams First Nation
- Ocean Front Property
- Straight Line
- Harvest Time
- The Life and Hard Times of Guy Terrifico
- My Brother's Summer
- The Puffy Chair
- Sweet Sixties
- Tempus Fugit
First Features
It is now conventional wisdom to say that the digital revolution has given entry into filmmaking to anyone who wants to make a movie. (And who doesn't?) All you need is a video camera, very little money, and some longsuffering friends. And now those films are beginning to emerge. This year the Port Townsend Film Festival presents three filmmakers who are offering their feature-length narrative films.
Moderating discussions about these films will be Warren Etheredge, founder of TheWarrenReport, a blog dedicated to the empowering notion: Smarter audiences make better movies! TheWarrenReport also stages three year-round film series in Seattle, in addition to regularly hosting free screenings and special events. Warren is also the Curator of the 1 Reel Film Festival (at Bumbershoot) the nation's best attended celebration of short films.
HANK WILLIAMS FIRST NATION
with Director Aaron J. Sorensen
Canada/2004/92 min.
Life goes on and nothing much happens in snowy Woodland Cree, where the Fox family lives as part of the wintry community. Things change, however, when 75-year-old Martin suddenly decides to travel to Nashville in search of evidence that Hank Williams, his longtime hero, has really died. Martin sets out on his journey accompanied by his teenage nephew. While the family tries to understand his decision, news of the trip gathers human interest in the press. HANK WILLIAMS FIRST NATION deals with the universal issues of family, tradition and values, and what one generation can learn from another.
Director, Aaron James Sorensen.
Cast: Gordon Tootoosis, Jimmy Herman, Stacy Da Silva, Colin Vanloon, Stephanie Dixon.
SPONSORS: Holly's Fine Flowers and Maestrale
OCEAN FRONT PROPERTY
USA/2004/110 min.
Rick Noonson is returning to the beach house where he had spent many summers with his ex-fiance. That is, before she dumped him a month before their wedding to marry instead a men's underwear model. Still nursing his wounds, Rick is hoping that a week in their old stomping grounds will help him douse the torch he has been carrying for her. Unfortunately, things only get worse. He is haunted by her memory and sees her everywhere he looks. Then, she shows up. With her new husband. And the fun begins.
Director/Producer/Writer/Editor, Joe Scott; Cinematographer, Vincent Wrenn; Production Designer, Jana McGill; Costume Designer, Linda Hamblin.
Cast: Joe Scott, Thad Newton, Lizzie Lander, Erin McGrew, John Frazier, Eryn Brooke.
SPONSOR: Mimi's Sun Spa
STRAIGHT LINE
with Director/Producer/ Editor/Actor Sean Ackerman
USA/2004/80 min.
West Coast Premiere
The storyline is simple: Chicago Boy (Bobby) moves to Montana after his mother dies. Chicago Boy meets Montana Girl (Sophie) and falls in love. Montana Girl, with a yearning for Panama, leaves one day. Chicago Boy drives 8,000 miles in his dirty old Buick to bring her back. In STRAIGHT LINE, the filmmakers use eighteen months of real time and three photographic formats to portray the touching story that seems to move desperately forward even as it stays in the same place. Which is the exact state of mind in which Bobby has found himself. As he explains to his best friend who accompanies him to Panama, "Since she did something crazy, I have to do something crazier to get her back."
Director/Producer/Editor, Sean Ackerman; Producer, Jane Kelly Kosek; Cinematographer, Michael Akman; Music, Amy Marie Beauchamp.
Cast: Sean Ackerman, Shannon Shultz, Monika Franzen, Sam Baker, Chuck Sperry, Joaquin Lizano.
SPONSORS: Lehani's Deli and Coffee House
HARVEST TIME
Russia/2004/68 min.
In Russian with English subtitles.
Harking back lovingly but truthfully to the '50s and the era of Soviet realism, HARVEST TIMES is the story of Antonia, champion combine operator on a collective farm. She lives to drive; she drives by night. The commemorative flag she has been awarded is her pride. Antonia's husband is another kind of hero: returning from World War II without legs, vodka slowly consumes his life. Director Marina Razbezhkina has set their story in the fullness of a naturalist aesthetic that has been likened to the pantheism of 1930s director Dovzhenko (EARTH) who transcended polemics with filmed poetry.
Director/Screenwriter, Marina Razbezhkina; Producer, Natalya Zheltukhina; Cinematographer, Irina Uralskaya; Editor, Tanya Naidenova; Music, Anton Silaev.
Cast: Ludmila Motornaya, Vyacheslov Batrakov, Dima Yakovlev, Dima Ermakov.
And
FACING THE DEAD
Im Angesicht des Todes
Germany/2004/52 min.
In English and Russian with English subtitles.
In Stalin's Soviet Union, 20 million "enemies of the state" were killed or died in labor camps. To even own a photograph of one of them was to risk death. What happens when a whole generation is stripped of images of their loved ones and all visual record of their existence? This film is a search across today's Russia - and through the vast Soviet image archive - by David King for lost faces and stories of a generation.
Director/Screenwriter/Editor, Gabrielle Pfeiffer; Producer, Carl-Ludwig Rettinger; Cinematographer, Valentin Savenker.
SPONSOR: Jefferson County Democrats
THE LIFE AND HARD TIMES OF GUY TERRIFICO
Canada/2004/86 min.
West Coast Premiere
Who is Guy Terrifico? In the words of Kris Kristofferson, "he's a
walkin' contradiction, partly truth and partly fiction," and the star
of this comic homage to outlaw country. With tongue firmly in cheek,
THE LIFE AND HARD TIMES OF GUY TERRIFICO is a poignant commentary about
the perils of pop fame. Appearances by Kristofferson, Merle Haggard,
and Stephen Bruton lend the film an eerie quality of realism. An
amalgam of a Dylan-like folk artist and a cowboy poet, Guy Terrifico
fumbles through his heyday like an insane Bacchus bent on
self-destruction.
A word for the wary: It's a romp; nothing off putting.
Director, Michael Mabbott; Producer, Nicholas Tabarrok; Writer, Michael Mabbott; Cinematographer, Adam Swica; Editor, Gareth Scales; Music, Matt Murphy.
Cast: Kris Kristofferson, Matt Murphy, Natalie Radford, Phil Kaufman, Rob Bowman, Donnie Fritts.
SPONSORS: BaDd Habit and Homer Smith Insurance
MY BROTHER'S SUMMER
L'estate di mio fratello
Italy/2005/82 min.
In Italian with English subtitles.
West Coast Premiere (shared with BendFilm Festival)
A frequent and inventive daydreamer, little Sergio learns from his parents that he will soon have a baby brother. With the help of his active imagination, he reenacts playtime with fictional siblings - a potential brother and a sister - and during a moment of anger imagines burning his little brother on the family barbecue. But when his mother suffers a miscarriage, little Sergio is overwhelmed with feelings of guilt, because he truly believes that his thoughts have killed his unborn brother. The film received a special jury mention at the 2005 Tribeca Film Festival in Manhattan.
Director, Pietro Reggiani; Cinematographers: Luca Coassin, Werther Germondari; Editors, Valentina Girodo, Alessandro Corradi; Art Director, Luisa Taravella in co-operation with Piccardo di Montereale; Sound: Filippo Porcari, Corrado Azzariti.
Cast: Davide Veronese, Tommaso Ferro, Maria Paiato, Pietro Bontempo.
SPONSORS: Olympic Energy Systems and Gray Wolf Ranch
THE PUFFY CHAIR
with Producer/Actor Mark Duplass
USA/2004/84 min.
West Coast Premiere
THE PUFFY CHAIR comically portrays the trials and tribulations a young couple must face amid the mind-numbing clamor of the information superhighway. An ill-advised cross-country road trip, to retrieve a "puffy chair" recliner purchased on eBay, touches off a series of unfortunate events during which considerable strain is placed upon the already precarious relationship between Josh and Emily. All bets are off when Josh's brother unexpectedly joins the fray, eventually becoming the film's de facto shaman as he mystically guides the story toward its incendiary climax. A word for the wary: Come prepared to laugh.
Director/Screenwriter/Cinematographer, Jay Duplass; Screenwriter/Producer, Mark Duplass; Producers, Larry Duplass, Cindy Duplass, Kathryn Aselton, Jen Tracy; Editor, Jay Deuby.
Cast: Mark Duplass, Kathryn Aselton, Rhett Wilkins, Julie Fischer, Bari Hyman, Gerald Finnegan.
Preceded by:
THIS IS JOHN
with Producer/Actor Mark Duplass
USA/2002/8 min.
Man versus his message machine, reprise screening, first shown at the 2003 Port Townsend Film Festival.
By Mark and Jay Duplass.
SPONSORS: Max Grover Gallery and Lehani's Deli and Coffee House
SWEET SIXTIES
South Korea/2004/105 min.
Korean with English subtitles.
West Coast Premiere
This South Korean film focuses on a group of men in their sixties, living in a small rural town on the southern coast. Joongdal owns an ostrich farm and can't understand why his brother - now pushing fifty - is still unmarried, so he tries to play matchmaker. Joong-dal's neighbor, the comically cantankerous Jin-bong, is at constant war with Joong-dal. The quiet Pil-gook takes care of his young granddaughter and the henpecked Chan-kyung runs the local grocery store. All of their lives are amusingly shaken by the sudden arrival of Injoo, an elegant, beautiful woman in her sixties who has come to town on mysterious business.
Director, Lee Su-in; Producer, Oh Ki-min; Screenwriter, Lee Su-in; Cinematographer, Bak Ki-ung; Editor, Kim Sun-min.
Cast: Joo Hyun, Song jae-ho, Yang Taik-jo, Kim Moo-saeng, Sunwoo Young-rye.
SPONSORS: Hanazono Asian Noodle and Brent Shirley & Associates
TEMPUS FUGIT
with Director Enric Folch
Spain/2004/90 min.
Northwest Premiere
Spanish with English subtitles.
Andros, a young man from the future, has come to present-day Barcelona
in search of Ramon, whom Andros has chosen to help save the world from
an imminent apocalypse. At first glance the self-effacing Ramon seems
ill-suited for such a role; he can't even muster the courage to
approach Angie, the woman he worships from afar. To make matters worse
and comically better, Andros accidentally drops a box of Tempus Fugit
pills that allow limited time travel and thus begins a series of events
that make saving the world a more complicated task than Andros had
anticipated. Originally created for Spanish television (ah! that we had
such writers), TEMPUS FUGIT warps and mingles the present, the past,
and the future to deliver a timeless and universal message.
A word for the wary: Love conquers all.
Director: Enric Folch; Producers, Tom Roca, Elisa Plaza, Paco Poch; Screenwriter, Enric Folch, Albert Espinosa; Cinematographer, Andreu Rebes; Editor, Ferran Roig; Music, Alex Martinez.
Cast: Xavi Mira, Neus Asensi, Irene Montola, William Miller, Xavier Bertran, Ferran Frauca.
SPONSORS: Ty's Computers and Don's Pharmacy