KUDZU FILM FESTIVAL 2001 SCHEDULE
originally published October 10, 2001
Tickets Tickets for Tate Center events are on sale now at the Tate Center Cashier's Window or call 542-8074. Tickets for all other events are available at individual venues the night of the event.
Venues All films show in the Tate Student Center Theater on the University of Georgia campus. Morning Coffee with the judges is at Blue Sky Coffee, 128 College Avenue. Green Lantern Showcases play at the 40 Watt Club, 285 W. Washington St. and Flicker Theatre, 236 W. Washington St. EyeBall Music Video Showcase unwinds at the 40 Watt. The Kudzu Film Festival and EyeBall Awards winds up the week's events at the historic Morton Theatre, 195 W. Washington. St.
Judges The Kudzu judges this year includes Candice Bennett, Margret RR Echeverria, Stephen Les, W.I.Z. and Mark Wynns.
Prizes Awarded by Kudzu judges for "Best Short Film," "Best Feature Film" and other categories that the judges make up as they go along. Viewers will cast ballots for the Audience Choice Award. All prizes will be awarded at the ceremonies on Sunday night.
WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 10
7:00 p.m.-12:30 a.m. Kudzu Films In Competition (UGA Tate Student Center Theater) Admission: $8, $5 Students
THE SNOWMAN (Computer animation, 5 min.) Directed by Lane Nakamura. Evil aliens invade at Christmastime in this animated short. Who will foil their nefarious plans? An unlikely hero steps up to save the world.
BEYOND THE OCEAN (35 mm, 87 min.) Directed by Tony Pemberton. A strangely compelling feature-length film that follows Bitsee, a beautiful, pregnant Russian girl, as she travels to New York to find the father of her child. Flashbacks to her bizarre, dysfunctional childhood in Russia (shot in the former Soviet Union and in Russian with English subtitles) give the viewer strange insights into her character: As a toddler, she is neglected by her mother because of her loutish father and, as a teenager, she is loved "too much" by her suicidal uncle. Adult content.
CLOWN CAR (35 mm, 7 min.) Directed by David Garrett. Two clowns stranded in the desert when their car breaks down discuss life, death and cream pies.
SEX & DEATH (35 mm, 9 min.) Directed by Cat McKeirnen. The stylized story of a lonely woman, who after her lover dies in what can only be described as a sex accident, must overcome her feelings of being cursed. Will she love again?
BURIED (Super 8, 57 min.) Directed by Kathryn Bucher. Set in Montana in 1876, this grainy, fairy tale Western tells the story of two outlaws - a brother and sister - and their intense relationship. When a mysterious and alluring woman stumbles into their camp one night - both siblings are seduced by her charms. The situation really begins to unravel when the three discover bounty hunters are on their trail.
DISCHARGE, NWO (Digi-Beta, 60 min.) Directed by Deni Blaise. This short documentary features interviews with Tanja, Matt and Vuk - three people of different backgrounds. Filmed in Europe in 1999, the three are caught in a NATO air bombing campaign and the ensuing chaos. In the New World Order, each is forced to face the ultimately pointless question, "Which side am I on?"
9:30 p.m.-2:00 a.m. Green Lantern Showcase (40 Watt Club) Admission: $5, 18 & up. Featuring pH Balance, The Yum Yum Tree, Alastor, Spaceshot and DJ SUX. See story on p. 25.
THURSDAY, OCTOBER 11
10:00 a.m.-12:00 noon "Morning Coffee w/ Margret RR Echeverria & Candice Bennett" (Blue Sky Coffee) FREE! Presented by the Association of Independent Film and Video. Kudzu goers from last year will remember Echeverria from the award-winning Jigsaw Venus. Bennett is a mixed-media artist and independent curator residing in Atlanta. She currently curates exhibitions for Gallery eleven50.
7:00 p.m.-12:30 a.m. Kudzu Films In-Competition (UGA Tate Center Theater) Admission: $8, $5 Students
REVOLUTION OS (35mm, 85 min.) Directed by J.T.S. Moore. Although Moore's fascinating documentary may be a short history of "free software" and the "open-source" movement, computer geeks and casual audiences will be entertained as the film focuses on the group's more radical philosophical approach rather than on esoteric, technological gibberish. We meet such luminaries as Richard Stallman (the forefather of the "free-software" movement) and Linus Torvald (creator of the LINUX operating system). The movie well illustrates the enormous power of destruction that commerce wreaks art, even among the technological elite.
DODGEBALL (35mm, 20 min.) Directed by Donald Bull. Assuredly featuring one of the larger production budgets in this year's competition, Donald Bull's black comedy tells the story of Rose (Senta Moses), an employee whose new job is a gross caricature of a high school popularity contest. In this particular corporation, one either climbs up or slides down the ladder of success based on one's performance in inter-office dodgeball games.
BIKE RIDE (16mm, 7 min.) Directed by Tom Schroeder. Over a year's work - including 4,138 drawings - went into this inventive animated film. James Peterson's story of a man who bikes 50 miles to visit his girlfriend is accompanied by drummer Dave King's improvisational jazz track. Schroeder's pictures help blend narrative and score.
BREAKDOWN (mini DV, 15 min.) Directed by John Webb. A Kudzu veteran (remember his short, Goiter Boy?), Webb directs this mockumentary about the "lost art of breakdancing." After upstart, breakdancer Funky Monkey convinces legendary, guru Shabba Shoes to come out of retirement, the two hone their skills in front of less than enthusiastic audiences, before the mysterious Guy in the Gold Jacket "calls them out."
A CRISIS OF FAITH (BetaSP, 48 min.) Directed by D.J. Kadigian. While this documentary may be a Christian production, its perspective is remarkably objective. In a collage of cityscapes and interviews with various philosophers/theologians, the film poignantly illustrates the spiritual decline of western civilization and the aggrandizement of technology.
SEVEN STOREYS (16mm, 25 min.) Directed by Boris Ivanov. Russian director Ivanov adapted an Italian short story into this poetic look at an individual overwhelmed by the "efficiencies" of bureaucracy. When Mr. Corte checks himself into a seven-story hospital, the staff explains to him that the healthiest patients occupy the top floor and are moved down as their conditions worsen. As he moves closer to the bottom floor, Corte questions the doctors' motives and wonders whether his declining health is actual or psychosomatic. Strong performances and a remarkable professionalism distinguish this wry drama.
8:30 p.m. Green Lantern Music Showcase (Flicker Theatre & Bar) Admission: $5, 21 & up. Featuring Claire & Bain's Maple Yum Yum, Frangipane, Martyr & Pistol, Kate Simpkins and Kitty Snyder. See story on p. 25.
FRIDAY, OCTOBER 12
10:00 a.m.-12:00 noon "Morning Coffee with Mark Wynns & Stephen Les" (Blue Sky Coffee) FREE! Share a cup of joe with these two film festival circuit veterans. Wynns is the Atlanta-based outreach coordinator for the Independent Television Service (ITVS), a production arm of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, and he is also the former director of the IMAGE Film & Video Center in Atlanta. Les has written and directed several short films, including The Red Ball, which was featured at the Seattle International Film Festival.
7:00 p.m.-12:30 a.m. Kudzu Films In Competition (UGA Tate Center Theater) Admission: $8, $5 Students
JOSH W. (35mm, 2 min.) Directed by Johnnie Semerad. An off-kilter, animated short about young Josh, a bike-riding stick-figure with a frazzled smile who, while rolling down his street with his mouth wide open, develops a taste for bugs and flies. At home, Josh's Mom wonders why he won't eat his dinner. Directed and animated by Emmy-winner Semerad, whose daughter's experiences inspired the film.
LADY IN THE BOX (35mm, 105 min.) Directed by Christian Otjen. This tightly-twisted, complicated, blood-smeared crime-thriller rumbles along in a sketchy lakeside Milwaukee neighborhood. Jerry ("Northern Exposure's" Darren Burrows) is the straight-faced, unsuspecting bartender who somehow gets roped into an elaborate crime spree. Things quickly go from bad to worse after Jerry is set up by a creepy bar patron with pockets full of cash for the grisly murder of his own girlfriend. Is she the "lady in the box" at the bottom of Lake Michigan? Maybe. Maybe not. Some nice musical "suspense" touches in the soundtrack help set the tense mood between scenes.
THE PIRATES OF CENTRAL PARK (16mm, 34 min.) Directed by Rob Farber. Every imaginative little boy has fantasized about old pirate stories and adventures on the high seas. In this contemporary adaptation of Lord Dunsany's "The Pirate Of The Round Pond" story, three little kids actually embark on a short-lived career as "pirates" with remote control boats on the usually-calm pond waters in New York City's Central Park.
THE BALLAD OF LITTLE ROGER MEAD (16mm, 9 min.) Directed by Mark Carter. When 12-year-old Roger Mead walks on-stage during a small-town talent show armed with a guitar and a belly full of trouble, terribly funny things happen. His disapproving father and overly-protective mother react in severely different ways to little Roger's unusual and perhaps disgusting performance. A highly-amusing and darkly-comedic "coming of age" short.
I'M GOOD FOR IT (Super8, 4 min.) Directed by John Huba. This grim but visually stunning short looks at the swirling world of addiction through a sultry female junkie's (Alexa Sommer) eyes. Both disturbing and revealing, the film's stylized look captures the "yellow high" and sickness of the heroin user's daily routine.
FRISBEE FRENZY (Mini DV, 2 min.) Directed by Jon Riche. A jumble of crazy music (via synth band Bumble Puppy) and rapid action shots celebrating the freedom and movement of a solidly thrown Frisbee disc. This short follows a Frisbee's flight and the individuals chasing it back and forth, in flashes from busy urban scenes to rural landscapes to the ocean waves of a deserted beach. Strange, but exhilarating.
THE MAN WITH THE EMPTY ROOM (35mm, 20 min.) Directed by Todd Korgan. Kudzu-goers may remember Korgan's Johnny Bagpipes entry from two years ago. In this gentle, dryly-witty short, a lonely, bespectacled man living in isolation in a generic apartment steps up to the plate and takes a swing at human interaction. He steps outside of his meticulous, mundane routine when he rents his empty room to a peculiar, bespectacled woman.
9:30 p.m.-2:00 a.m. Green Lantern Music Showcase (40 Watt Club) Admission: $5, 18 & up. Featuring Flash To Bang Time, The Moto Litas, Diana Obscura, Goddess Perlman, American Dream with hostess Kitty Snyder, Uninsured Circus of the Bars.
SATURDAY, OCTOBER 13
10:00 a.m.-12:00 noon "Morning Coffee w/ W.I.Z." (Blue Sky Coffee) FREE! Come hang out (maybe have a cup o' tea instead of coffee?) with British music video icon and filmmaker W.I.Z. He has worked with the Smashing Pumpkins, Chemical Brothers, David Bowie and Marilyn Manson. His new short film Baby debuted at the 2001 Sundance Film Festival.
9:30 p.m.-2:00 a.m. EyeBall Music Video Showcase (40 Watt Club) Admission: $8, $5 Students, 18 & up. Hosted by the 8-Track Gorilla. See Box.
SUNDAY, OCTOBER 14
8:00 p.m. 2001 Kudzu Film Festival & EyeBall Music Video Showcase Awards (The Morton Theatre) FREE!
Schedule and Wednesday synopses by Margaret Moore, Thursday synopses by Michael Ziegler, Friday synopses by Ballard Lesemann.
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