Downtown Film Festival - Los Angeles 2009

3-DIY: Do It Yourself 3-D Movies Short Films of the Desktop 3-D Revolution A program of short digital 3-D movies Curated by John E. Hart, Chairman of the Los Angeles 3-D Club Movie Division (Stereo Club of Southern California) Emerging digital toolsets are driving a wave of independent production of stereoscopic motion pictures. New 3-D movies in every conceivable genre, from documentaries and avant-garde experiments, to dramatic and humorous narratives, are being made by fiercely individual filmmakers all around the world. In their hands, the 3-D film is evolving a new visual grammar for the motion picture screen. This program, a stereoscopic showcase of short films curated by John Hart of the Stereo Club of Southern California, presents award-winning entries from the 6 international 3-D movie contests held by the LA 3-D Club Movie Division. Dedicated to independent production and the exhibition of stereoscopic movies, the LA 3-D Club unites both amateur and professional filmmakers by providing a platform for desktop 3-D movies. Learn how to make your own 3-D movies without the backing of a Hollywood studio as a panel of the filmmakers convene after the screening to discuss the new stereoscopic toolsets and their availability. Tuesday, August 18 7:30 – 11 pm Screenings followed by panel discussion The Program: (listed alphabetically by director’s last name) Moving Still (2008) Colombia, 3 min. Dir: Santiago Caicedo Come Coco (2009) Colombia, 5 min. Dir: Santiago Caicedo Skydiving (2008) USA, 3 min. Dir: Eric Deren Ztring Theory (2008) Netherlands, 5 min. Dir: Jo Eldøen Ghost Car (2008), USA, 5 min. Dir: John E. Hart Doggone (2009), USA, 11 min. Dir: John E. Hart Wanderlust (Bjork video) (2008) USA, 7 min. Dir: Sean Hellfritsch & Isaiah Saxon Towers of Simon Rodia (2007) USA, 14 min. Dir: Tom Koester Ennis House (2008) USA, 6 min. Dir: Tom Koester Elevation (2009), USA, 3 min. Dir: Eric Kurland A Better Mousetrap (2005) USA, 2 min. Dir: Ron Labbe Pump Action (2006) USA, 3 min. Dir: Phil McNally Fireworks Symphony (2008) Japan, 4 min. Dir: Takashi Sekitani Reminiscence (2007) France, 6 min. Dir: Celine Tricart Slow Glass (2007), USA, 14 min. Dir: Ray Zone Panel: Making Your Own 3-D Movies Moderated by Ray Zone Panelists: Eric Kurland, Tom Koester, and Jeff Amaral The moderator and all of the panelists have directed or produced award-winning short 3-D movies that have been shown in a variety of exhibition venues.

Aimé Césaire introduces American audiences to the celebrated Martinican author who coined the term negritude and launched the movement called the "Great Black Cry." Euzhan Palcy, the internationally acclaimed director of Sugarcane Alley and A Dry White Season, weaves Césaire's life and poetry into a vast study featuring many of the most important artistic and intellectual figures of the 20th century. André Breton, the high priest of surrealism, described Césaire as “a black man who embodies not simply the black race but all mankind, who will remain for me the prototype of human dignity." Césaire moves to Paris and, with Leopold Senghor, first president of Senegal and the French Guyanese poet Léon Damas, develops the concept of negritude - a worldwide re-vindication of African values. John Henrik Clarke and Howard Dodson of the Schomburg Center discuss the profound impact of black American authors like Langston Hughes, Richard Wright and Claude McKay as well as jazz and the Harlem Renaissance on this primarily Francophone movement.

THE BAG is three, two minute comedy vignettes based on the contents of a woman's handbag. Romance Novel follows to lovers at the beach, till the man has eyes only for the hunk working out at the lifeguard stand. Lipstick is every woman’s revenge and fantasy. The end of a first date does not turn out as Don Juan expected it to. Condom let’s us know that roommate issues can be solved in very creative ways. A condom has many uses.

Eric LaBudde (Henry Dittman) is a junkie nurse who finds himself caring for the old folks at the St. Joseph’s Convalescent Home. He strikes up an unlikely alliance with a surly jazz saxophonist Tharin Sanders (Conrad Roberts). They enable each other through drugs and the illusion of freedom. This darkly humorous tale waxes on about growing old, dying, poor elderly care and the joys of narcotic abuse without ever sermonizing or proselytizing. Writer-director Jeff Orgill creates an amazing head space that jostles between a druggy slur and a jazzy be-bop bounce.

Earthship is a style of home where the bulk of the building materials are from recyclables such as BOTTLES, CANS and TIRES.

Ben committed suicide fourteen years ago. Peter, his older brother, is now 39 and returns to their hometown of Karlsbad (Karlovy Vary). Still obsessed with his younger brother, he finds that the only solution to the nightmares of his past is confrontation.... A poetic and melancholic short film about two brothers with different intentions. A personal struggle involving obsession, abuse, and guilt.

Butch (Paul Newman) and Sundance (Robert Redford) are the two leaders of the Hole-in-the-Wall Gang. Butch is all ideas; Sundance is all action and skill. The West is becoming civilized and when Butch and Sundance rob a train once too often, a special posse begins trailing them no matter where they run. Over rock, through towns, across rivers, the group is always just behind them. When they finally escape through sheer luck, Butch has another idea, "Let's go to Bolivia.” A revisionist Western in its day, it mixes violence with humor and bends the classic genre in the same way that Bonnie and Clyde did two years earlier. Winner of four Oscars (two to composer Bacharach, one to writer Goldman and one to cinematographer Hall) and the number one box office hit of 1969. This special screening includes an appearance by Oscar-winning (Best Supporting Actress, “The Last Picture Show), Emmy award-winning (she holds the record for an actor with 8) actress Cloris Leachman, who played the role of "Agnes".

What is wrong with filmmaker Mike Frost? This experimental cut-up marries two films from the 70s to form one of the most disturbing depictions of child birth ever committed to tape (those images, by the way, are all too real). A sensory assault with a loud, propulsive score and nerve-wracking sound design. Brilliant and creepy (and very funny for those with a cracked sense of humor).

Two strangers meet at a coffee shop for what seems like a blind date. But as the conversation progresses, it becomes clear that this couple, who have never seen each other face to face and who met on the Internet, have actually formed a suicide pact. Problems arise when the couple realizes that they may have finally found something worth living for. Comprised of three continuous takes—one take for each act—and shot over the course of two days, Mickey Blaine manages to keep the film exciting and unnerving, with sharp and witty dialogue and dark humor. The two lead performances are flawless.