Misfit Movies Ready to Roll this Saturday

May 3, 2000

After some delays, the short movies entered by various film/video-makers
(both local and abroad) to be shown at the Misfit Short Film & Video
Festival were finalized last weekend. A total of twelve short movies,
selected by a panel of judges, will be shown for Misfit this Saturday,
May 6th at the U of A's Humanities Centre
(111 street & Saskatchewan
Drive) starting at 7:00PM

"We have quite the batch of entries this year. Some very professional,
some not pro-quality but still quite excellent content-wise, and a few
are just plain wacky and weird," said Gregory Pang, president of the
U of A Film Zone and organizer of the Misfit Festival after reviewing
all thirty entries.

Prizes will be awarded to the entries that best fit the following
categories as selected by the judges: Best Editing, Most Experimental,
Best Sound, Best Cinematography, Most Experimental, and Best Director.
These "winners" along with the other entries to be screened, were selected
by a panel of judges who were the following: Mark Betz, Assistant Professor
of Film and Media Studies at the U of A; Mari Sasano, movie critic at
See Magazine and FAVA employee; and Randy Atamaniuk, writer/producer/director
at Stainless Steel Productions. The Executive at Film Zone selected
the entry to receive the Misfit Award to recognize and reward risk-taking
in short movie-making, according to Pang.

Below is are one-liner descriptions of each of the short movies
to be screened and some comments by the judges:

· AAAARGH! by Martijn Gerfin 
Coming all the way from Amsterdam, this entry may prove to be the strangest
short of the festival featuring Frankenstein-looking people making strange
sounds for an entire five minutes. You have to see it to understand
it.
"Image and sound in time--the essence of film as a medium. In Dutch
without subtitles, but who needs them?" - Mark Betz

· Line of Taxis by James Beatie Morison 

A quiet and suspense-filled short about the anxiety felt in loosing one's
job in the corporate world. This one came from Calgary.
"Corporate downsizing looks ugly - and it should" - Mari Sasano
"As spare and incisive an analysis of the slow boil that is
contemporary office workaday existence as one could bear to watch, let
alone live." - Mark Betz



· The Rat by Jimmy Bustos 

Stereotypical thug characters where one thug "rats" on his buddies -
made the Alberta background look quite south California… or almost.
"Gorgeous" - Mari Sasano

· Why Can't I Have Some? by Stephen Philipson 

Sugar-mommy bakes cookies and little son tries to steal some - awe come
on, haven't we all tried at least once? 
"Because Mom said you can't, that's why. Or does she? At the level
of sound, at any rate, you can have it all." - Mark Betz

· Extreme Crutching by Colin Landry and Dave Alexander 

So you want extreme, huh? Hell yeah! As if the UFC and suspension-bridge
bungee jumping aren't radical enough, here comes Extreme Crutching. 
"Brilliant spoof of skateboard movies" - Mari Sasano
"Replaces speed golf as my favored example for the future of sport."
- Mark Betz

· In Response to the Dumbest Question of the Twentieth Century
by Marcel Fayant

It is a dumb question: Do you see the bottle of water half full or half
empty? But not too dumb of a way of answering it using cardboard-coloured
backgrounds, toy wind-up horses, and one dub-over voice.
"Flat/deep, dumb/smart. A dialectical comedy for the next millenium."
- Mark Betz

· La Fenetre by Kelly Service 

Women, guns, affairs, assassins, and in french. This movie's so… French.
"Spot-on parody/homage to faux-French film noir." - Mari Sasano

· SMEAR by Zhauna Alexander 

Truly an artsy flick. So artsy in fact that I can't say anything.
"A succinct argument for the importance of autobiographical imagemaking,
insofar as identity is always a product of an interrogation of received
images." - Mark Betz
"A visceral commentary on beauty standards and its effects on the female
psyche." - Mari Sasano

· Howard Hughes (1905-1976) by Dennis Pozniak
A quick but beautifully done biography of some guy… without one moving
sequence in the entire thing.
"Who says you need a camera to make a video?" - Mark Betz

· Any Day Now by Rielly Lievers

Intended to give those who find that the world has forgotten about them
a little hope. Especially for newly graduated students trying to find
jobs in the cruel and unforgiving real world.
"Beautifully done music video." - Mari Sasano

· The Jackie & Jackie Show by Jackson and John Davidge
Five episodes of about almost nothing in particular. Will not be screened
all at once but broken up throughout the evening into individual episodes.
"Best taken in small doses…" - Mark Betz
"Too weird to be true." - Mari Sasano

· Dance Party 2000 by Nik Gauthier
When one man mocks another's dancing one night, the offended takes revenge
in the strangest fashion possible. 
"A walking punchline." - Mari Sasano
"Boys will be boys." - Mark Betz


The festivities will be on Saturday May 6th beginning at 7:00PM at the
U of A's Humanities Centre L-1. Admission is $3 and the event is tentatively
rated at 14A subject to verification by the provincial Film Classification.

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