Thursday, May 15, 2003
Copyright © Las Vegas Mercury

Film: The soul of wit

Mercury Short Film Festival offers eclectic showcase of movies

By Anthony Allison

The submissions are in. The selection agony is over. And the final lineup for the inaugural Mercury Short Film Festival boasts an eclectic selection of films (from sci-fi and animation to family flicks, comedies and intense dramas) whose overall quality is remarkably high.

[Disclosure: Though we enthusiastically support this totally cool venture, the Mercury's editorial staff was not involved in the festival's organization, movie selection or judging.]

This one-day event, May 31 at the Brenden Palms, is on a more manageable scale than larger festivals with their overstuffed programs of unfamiliar titles. And as program director Kai Murphy explains, short film festivals beat feature film events in two important respects. "The beauty of a short film is, if you don't like it, very soon it's going to be over. And you get to see a variety of films in a very short space of time."

Filmmakers benefit too. "A lot of regular festivals don't do anything for the short filmmaker," says Murphy. "You can work deals if you have a feature in your hand. But you go to Sundance with a short, and basically you're not going to get anything out of it."

By contrast, filmmakers in the Las Vegas event may hit a lucrative jackpot. The competitive program is being judged by a panel of five industry professionals who'll award prizes in five categories (narrative, alternative, animation, documentary, music video) and designate the best of fest and best local filmmaker. They'll also present a Future Filmmaker Award, which includes $25,000 worth of in-kind services (from Kodak, Panavision and others) with the aim of helping some budding Spielberg shoot a film locally.

"If there's a promising filmmaker who shows talent and creativity," Murphy says, "that person is going to get this prize to make a short film here in Nevada--and it'll premiere in next year's festival."

Meanwhile, all the prize-winning films will be presented at Hollywood's Egyptian Theatre and, with the filmmakers' permission, featured on the iFilm.com website. "It's my goal to give the short filmmaker as much shelf life as possible," Murphy says. "Hopefully someone will buy their film, or their film will be seen enough to get the next job, or proceed to [making] a feature. It also exposes local filmmakers, gives them a place to have their films screened."

Doug Shutte warmly welcomes that exposure. "Every opportunity is an opportunity you can't afford to miss when you're trying to be a director," enthuses the UNLV graduate. His Vegas-shot film, One Dollar Difference, inspired by an anonymous e-mail story about a kid (Dakota Whidden) and a bowl of ice cream, is a two-minute gem with a truly heartwarming payoff.

Another local filmmaker happy to be included is Patrick Kerby, whose witty Star Wars spoof Essence of the Force was a highlight of last summer's CineVegas festival. Kerby and producer Barry Green aimed to spotlight the wealth of filmmaking talent in the valley. "The reason I did this film was to promote the local film industry," Kerby recalls. "So I'm really excited about getting it out so more locals see it, and [perhaps] getting the opportunity to get the community behind another project using all locals."

Other Vegas filmmakers featured in the program include Chad Simmons with his take on pop culture, Who Makes Your Reality?; Stan Armstrong (interviewed in the March 13 Mercury) with his documentary Native Americans of the Civil War; Franco Carranza and Leonardo Portillo (a.k.a. the Maldito Brothers) whose Barry Goes to the Cabaret, another CineVegas fave, is a daffy comedy about a naive student learning that "gentlemen's clubs" aren't for toffs in top hats; and Brian Mills' The Zombie Project, which Murphy calls "a spoofy B-movie that made me laugh out loud."

Out-of-town standouts include Bring Me Your Love, David Hartstein's searing adaptation of a Charles Bukowski short story, and Fueling the Fire, which offers an inventive, Rashomon-style look at a crime from three differing perspectives. Tanja Mairitsch won a Directors Guild student filmmaker award with this intense drama that questions the veracity of eyewitness accounts and exposes thinly veiled prejudices.

Another notable offering is Phoenix, an ingenious, almost-wordless sci-fi thriller, about a kid with telekinetic powers escaping from a sinister research facility, that boasts exceptionally good sound and visual effects. Director Steven Bordelon explains why festivals are so important to makers of short films: "Festivals are really where you get your film out there to be seen by people. It's good to interact with the audience, to see people enjoy your film and see their reaction."

And Bordelon's initial reaction to the Mercury-sponsored event? "It looks like it could be a great festival," he enthuses. "It's good to see these festivals that just start out, but have so much support initially. That means it's probably going to be a great thing."

Further program details: Mercury, May 29. Advance tickets are on sale at the Brenden box office. Info: 224-5544.