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Knoxville's independent film festival returns
by Jesse Fox Mayshark
The third annual Valleyfest film festival hits town this weekend, with 68 entries showing over the next four days. You can get a festival pass for $50 that will get you into everything, or you can buy passes for single days ($11) or individual blocks of films ($6).
All films are on a single screen at Regal Cinemas' Downtown West theater. A complete schedule follows. Note the two blocks of Tennessee-based offerings, on Thursday afternoon and Thursday evening. They include the directing debut of favorite local actress Jayne Morgan (The Sleep Seeker) and a showing of local director Paul Harrill's Sundance Festival award winner Gina, An Actress, Age 29 (starring Amy Hubbard of Actors Co-op). Many of the movies will be accompanied by short question-and-answer sessions with the filmmakers (denoted below as "q&a").
The films are identified as follows: feature (F), documentary (D), short (S), experimental (E) and animation (A).
Thursday, March 15
1 p.m. All The Wrong Places (F)—A woman tries to step out of her mother's shadow.
3 p.m. Tennessee documentaries, all with q&a: Blood Brothers (D)—An exploration of concerns about the safety of our national blood supply; Free Base (D)—The exhilaration of skydiving from airplanes and hot air balloons; Invasion of the Chip Mills (D)—The devastating environmental impact of chip mill operations across the Southeast.
7:45 p.m. East Tennessee Night! All with q&a: Tradition (D)—Local filmmaker Scott Colthorp's impressions of UT football; The Sleep Seeker (S)—A film about a woman who can't sleep because of her crying baby; Gina, an Actress, Age 29 (S)—The Sundance winner about an actress hired as a union buster; PinMonkeys (S)—Learning to be happy in whatever you do—including working at a bowling alley; Bottle Rocket Wars (E)—Children at play, or maybe at war; who can tell?; Of God and Man (E)—Moody light play in black and white; Giving Up the Ghost (D)—The decimation of Fort Sanders' historic homes, by James Henry of the Knoxville Film and Video Co-op.
Friday, March 16
10 a.m. Documentaries: Kathryn and Her Daughters (D, q&a)—The changing roles of rural women; The Nazi Drawings (D)—An artist's passionate portrayal of man's inhumanity.
11:40 a.m. Experimental films: It Did It (E)—Better living through chemistry?; Journey Swiftly Passing (E)—A son reflects on his father's life; Moves (E)—Techno sounds and body motion; Single Moments (E)—Sex and the single girl; Passing Figure (E)—Woman in motion, never finished; The Wish (E)—A young woman's wish for happiness is granted; The XYZ Says N About Y (E)—How to communicate when language fails.
1:15 p.m. Shorts: Collision (S)—When fate drops your ex back in your lap; Venice (S)—The beauty of Venice hides many flaws; I Love Mickey (S)—A high-tech gamble; In the Refrigerator (S)—Four generations of women linked through blood and history.
2:45 p.m. The Girls' Room (F, q&a)—Marriage and modern women, directed by Irene Turner.
4:20 p.m. Sunshine Hotel (D)—Fascinating tales from a Bowery flophouse.
8 p.m. The Home Boy (F, q&a)—Hip hop just got a lot less hip. A comedy.
10 p.m. One Hit Wonder (S, q&a)—Dark comedy about a struggling actor who turns to a new agent for help. The catch is, the agent only represents high-profile murderers. Is fame worth killing for?; Looking Through Lillian (F, q&a)—An L.A. call girl lives the Gen X lifestyle, with a twist.
Saturday, March 17
10 a.m. Saturday morning cartoons: Sfumato #1 (A)—Experimental high-tech animation; Left (A)—What happens when a member of the household is left behind; Lint People (A)—A laundromat lint baby stands up to dad (also showed at Sundance); A Dog's Job (A)—A day in the canine life; The Little Lemming That Could (A)—What happens when you follow the herd?; The Bear Necessities (A)—A bear tries to break out of the zoo; Split (A)—Fabric animation about a break-up; Angry Chair (A)—Good furniture goes bad; Boy in a Box (A)—Be careful what you wish for.
11 a.m. Cinema en Espanol: El Guajolote (E)—Love, magic and legends come to life; Dia de los Muertos (S)—The last Day of the Dead celebration of the 20th century; Boundaries (S)—A woman is pursued by a mute trombonist; Ships of Hope (D)—Jewish refugees flee to Venezuela.
12:30 p.m. Shorts: Game Day (S)—A look at beer-league softball; Beauty (S, q&a)—A reminder of how elusive true beauty can be; The Quarry (S)—Three hot women, four empty bottles, and a half-naked dead guy; Smoke Rings (S)—Perceptions of permanence are a matter of perspective; Night on the Town (S)—A parents' night out changes the family forever.
2:25 p.m. Good for Nothing (F)—An actor foolishly pursues his lifelong dream.
4:30 p.m. Oracle of Omaha (D)—Warren Buffett is a simple man who happens to be worth $31 billion; The ABCs of Football (D)—That's "football" as in futbol, "soccer" for you Americans.
7:35 p.m. 75 Degrees in July (F)—Everyone's an outsider in this complex family.
9:25 p.m. The Darker the Berry (S, q&a)—A search for love and identity in a post-industrial world; The Pig Farm (F, q&a)—A hick, a hitman and the other white meat.
Sunday, March 18
10 a.m. Artists and Orphans: A True Drama (D, q&a)—A New York theatrical troupe on a cultural exchange ends up working to save a Russian orphanage. The film just won the audience award for best documentary at the Santa Barbara Film Festival; The Return of Paul Jarrett (D)—A World War I veteran returns to France.
11:50 a.m. Shorts: A Sense of Entitlement (S)—What would you do to maintain your glamorous Manhattan lifestyle?; The Great American Office Worker (S)—A "wildlife show" tracks this quarry to its lair; Flowers and Freckles Cream (S)—There are all kinds of flowers...; The Last Gunshot (S)—South African Apartheid survivors are reunited in Los Angeles
1:30 p.m. Shorts: The Great Spectator (S)—Sometimes life makes you do a double-take; Stuck in My Head (S, q&a)—What is that song?; Nothing Rhymes With Farm (S, q&a); Karl's in a Coma (S)—Or is he?; Plot Fever (S)—The wild world of cemetery real estate; Odessa or Bust (S)—An actor in the future reminisces about the past; bigLove (S, q&a)—A sci-fi fairy tale about letting go; Spa-tel (S)—A desert fable for girls who don't wear panties; Dreamer (S)—A Native American vision from 1629.
March 15, 2001 * Vol. 11, No. 11
© 2000 Metro Pulse
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