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 Declaring Their Independence

The Second Annual Rainy States Film Festival Showcases Northwest Independent Filmmakers

with reviews as noted by Paul D. Goetz
Free Press contributor



The Rainy States Film Festival

February 15 - 18, at Seattle's Broadway Performance Hall (1625 Broadway), is the indispensable showcase for a flourishing community of Northwest independent filmmakers. Director Chip Phillips and her board have selected 29 films from more than 70 submitted. Films were accepted from Oregon, Washington, British Columbia, and Alaska.
Nearly 1,500 attended last year's festival and Phillips expects to sell out this year, demonstrating a healthy interest in local artists and a demand for alternatives to the cookie cutter product Hollywood provides. Phillips emphasizes the commitment to providing exposure for autonomous filmmakers who have not had to compromise their vision due to pressure from investors. Phillips' goal is to remain small and selective, emphasizing quality over quantity, yet this selectivity has in no way diminished diversity.
Each screening is $6.00. Tickets are available in advance or at the door. Festival passes are $25.00. Most films are either world or Seattle premieres, and many filmmakers will attend. For information, call (206) 322-3572.



Thursday, February 15 - 8:00 PM: Opening Night

Bloody Mary (directed by James Westby, 97 minutes, 16mm). Westby's quirky crime cocktail is bloody, indeed. But it also features some of the wittiest dialogue and some of the most memorably obtuse miscreants since "Pulp Fiction." A young couple's plan to run over a man during his evening jog goes disastrously awry when the car's license plate comes off on impact. That's only the first in an impressive array of unexpected twists that leaves a trail of unintended victims. Mona is a viperous woman whose attempts to extricate herself from middle-aged Max are continually frustrated by her cruel reckless boyfriend, Val. He fancies himself a smooth sharpie, and Melik Malkasian has created a genuinely memorable bad-ass who wouldn't be so dangerous if he could keep his feverish brain in check. Equally indelible is Max's Germanic manservant, Roman (Marty Ryan), who provides needed balance with child-like enthusiasm and a puppy-dog devotion to his master and friend. Westby provides abundant visual wit including a punctuation of his scenes with fades to red. -PDG

Love the One You're With (directed by Kelley Baker, eight minutes, 16mm). Prolific filmmaker Kelley Baker narrates his latest about his high school dating experiences in the 1970s.



Friday, February 16 - 8:00 PM: The Short Shorts

Greetings from Nowhere (directed by John Jeffcoat, 10 minutes, 16mm). Two aimless young men hit the road to nowhere and help a dead girl achieve her intended destination. Flirting with tedium, *Greetings from Nowhere* is a meditative road movie in which arrival for the living is looked for in the process of movement. -PDG

Decisions II (directed by David Russo, one minute, shot on 16mm, shown on BetaSP). Disembodied heads held floating in a shimmering sea of discontent repeatedly cry, "yes," then "no," providing a satirical commentary on the disfiguring power of inflexibility. -PDG

American Fish (directed by Jesse Wine, 10 minutes, 16mm). Embarrassment, when two Asian-American women cannot remember each other's names in a grocery store, shifts toward poignancy as they share memories of World War II internment. Not as compelling as it might have been, but a terrific ending. -PDG

Lost Momentum (directed by Scott Sona Snibbe, six minutes, shot in 35mm, shown on BetaSP). This piece of animation concerns a father and mother's self-absorption leading to panic and violence when their child turns up missing. Snibbe exposes their flat, see-through home using thin expressive lines and a melancholy though lyrical tone reminiscent of the work of Edward Gorey. -PDG

Strange Life (directed by John Jeffcoat, 12 minutes, 16mm). A wry coming-of-age film that locates the alien in alienation. Paul (Blake Sheppard) becomes convinced he's the only normal human on the planet. "...they can't possibly be my parents," he says in voice over as he spies on his family. A budding romance with a school-mate may be his only salvation. -PDG

Ode to Crude (directed by David Russo, two minutes, 16mm). Russo vertically divides the screen with dark horizon and the brilliant blue of a twilight sky, then puts us on the back of a speeding enigma of twisted steel, blown glass, and dazzling lights, all revolving to the ethereal sounds of yodeler Annaleze Capreze. A true sense of wonder. -PDG

Eggs and Soup (directed by David Russo, three minutes, 16mm). Films this stylistically adventurous are rarely this emotionally engaging. Russo provides a poetic voice over a kaleidoscopic series of spellbinding images concerning a girl in a crib whose cries go unheard. -PDG

The Gods Looked Down and Laughed (directed by Matt Wilkins, eight minutes, 8mm). A very amusing black & white slapstick comedy that Buster Keaton would have enjoyed about a family who suffers at the hands of its own ineptitude while camping in the Cascade Mountains. -PDG

Double Lowfat Latte Love (directed by Jonas Batt, eight minutes, 16mm). A mildly humorous comedy about a barista looking for love and finding a guy with "an intimacy problem." -PDG

The evening will also feature shorts from Gerald Donahoe (From Afar), Doug Aberle (Fluffy), Mark Simon (Freak), Stacey J. Warner (The Wailing Room), Norbert Caoili and Robert Portman (Coup De Grace), and Stephen Youel (Wrong Answer).



Saturday, February 17 - 5:00 PM: Alaskan Documentaries

More Than Words (directed by Laura Bliss Spaan, 60 minutes, shot on 16mm, shown on BetaSP). A poignant portrait following 77 year-old Marie Smith, the last surviving Eyak Native American to speak the language of her tribe, to her home in Cordova, Alaska, where she presides over a spiritually unifying potlatch. An exposŽ of annihilation and a plea for preservation of a culture on the brink of extinction. -PDG

Bush Pilots of Alaska (directed by Mark Dionne, 47 minutes, shot on 16mm, shown on BetaSP). Photography that puts you in the cockpit highlights this history of the pilots who fly through some of the most unpredictable weather and land on some of the most rugged terrain in the world. It gains resonance as the considerable dangers are revealed. -PDG



Saturday, February 17 - 8:00 PM: Bermuda Shorts - Part One

The Last Supper (directed by Gabriel Judet-Weinshel, 25 minutes, 16mm). An exploration of a man examining his life on a day he believes will be his last on earth.

Threshold (directed by Nikki Appino, 18 minutes, 16mm). A dream-like, symbolic, noirishly lighted psychodrama about a woman disturbed by the apparent loss of a key that may unlock the door to her sexual identity. -PDG

Scratch Merchants (directed by Patrick Phillips, 30 minutes, shot on 35mm, shown on BetaSP). The audacious premise is the highlight of this dark comedy about a group of unskilled tattoo artists in need of practice skin who take to murdering vagrants. -PDG

November Stranger (directed by Andy Tobias, 15 minutes, 16mm). Eerie film about a man who sees a woman in a coffee shop and follows her home.

Pie Eater (directed by Michael Walker, 25 minutes, shot on Super 16mm, shown on BetaSP). A family is nearly torn apart by a compulsive pie eating mother (Krishna Fairchild) who develops diabetes, and her teenage daughter (Tracy Tomas) who has troubles of her own. Walker's execution of the mother's hallucinatory comas, complete with romantic pop standards and a pie-faced man, juxtapose the sweet and the sour, the enchantment and repulsion of human nature in a way that recalls the work of David Lynch. -PDG



Sunday, February 18 - 5:00 PM: Bermuda Shorts - Part Two

Immaculate Perceptions (directed by Alec Carlin, 22 minutes, 16mm). A vagabond, a prostitute, a couple, and their host meet over dinner to discuss what might have been a holy encounter in a downtown alley.

Skin (directed by Steven R. Barron, 29 minutes, 16mm). This film explores the breakdown of two roommates' close-yet-muddled three year friendship during which they role-played a twisted version of husband and wife.

The Transcendental Slave (directed by Mike Wiese, 28 minutes, shot on 16mm, shown on BetaSP). A dark comedy about an aspiring novelist who quits his job as a telemarketer and moves out of his parents house into a grimy urban apartment shared with a part-time stripper and a homicidal TV junkie.

Slow Traffic Keep Right (directed by Paul Birkett, 24 minutes, 16mm). A young street hood proves himself to a local mobster by performing a "hit" after which he is double-crossed by the "enforcer" who hired him.



Sunday, February 18 - 8:00 PM: Closing Night

The Longest Day of the Century (written by Andy Hansen and J.D. Kiggins, directed by J.D. Kiggins, 111 minutes, shot in Super 16mm, shown on BetaSP). A man, debilitated by his daughter's death, is unaware that his ineffectual brother, in the company of a dangerous opportunist, is en route to wrest control of a trust fund. Their paths cross violently with a wealthy eccentric veering toward psychopathy on a day when the earth hits "a gravitational pothole in space." What starts out promisingly as a fascinating, multi-case study of deteriorating minds is ultimately overwhelmed and trivialized by pointless mayhem. Often funny, with high production values and competent acting, it only becomes disappointing when Kiggins starts dispatching characters left and right. -PDG



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Contents on this page were published in the February/March, 1996 edition of the Washington Free Press.
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