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FIVE FANTASTIC FESTS fROM

ElIJaH WOOD aND AlaMO DRafTHOUSE PROGRaMMER GREG MacLENNaN aT THE MUScUlaR FaNTaSTIc FEST (SEE PG. 24)

SUMMER TO FALL

WOOD GETTING INkED wITH a DRINk aND a DOZEN fEMalE faNS; IS THERE aNY OTHER waY?

LOS ANGElES FIlM FESTIValFIlM CaMP fOR ADUlTS

MOVIEmAKERS FORm CLANS IN CALIFORNIA
You might think at rst, as I did, that it was odd to be ying to San Francisco with two dozen or so other lmmakers, seeing that we had all been recently accepted into the Los Angeles Film Festival. It was my rst fest and the veteran in the seat next to me suggested, Dont get used to this, kid. And he was rightit was to be a totally unique experience. We were en route to the Los Angeles Film Festival signature Filmmaker Retreat at the storied Skywalker Ranch in Marin County, which, on top of being entirely and generously paid for, transformed the festival experience in one fell swoop from a collection of lms to a collection of friends, all rooting for each other. It was an amazing weekend where hikes, barbecues and even cannonball contests quickly prioritized our diverse collection of lms as secondary to the common goals and struggles we all face as moviemakers. The festival itself is smartly centered these days in downtown Los Angeles and here the community theme continues. To combat the sprawl of L.A., the theater venue, event locations and hotel accommodations are all in the same complex. An extra bonus is the state-of-the-art theater-come-palace the Los Angeles Film Festival takes over as the sole screening multiplex. Our lms beneted from the best projection

and sound gear in the business, but the real treat was in the conjoining hallways and lobbies beneath the stadium seating. I remember texting other lmmakers during my own screenings, and sneaking out for a bit to nd them outside of their own (the not-so hidden agenda: a quick pass around of a ask or two before the Q&As). The Los Angeles Film Festival is produced by Film Independent. The festival is glaring evidence that while the independent lm community is all around us, we just dont pause and realize it enough. Now anytime I walk into a Starbucks in L.A. I note that it is effectively a writers room, albeit a cold one. The Los Angeles Film Festival delivers the next step, making us all jump in George Lucas pool; we emerge as a community thrilled to acknowledge each other. Ryan McGarry Ryan McGarry, director of Code Black, was the winner of the 2013 Jury Award for Best Documentary at the Los Angeles Film Festival.

Photograph by Jack Plunkett

DEaDCENTER FIlM FESTIVal: All FEaRS PUT TO REST

A FESTIVAL THATS REASSURINGLY ON POINT IN OKLAHOmA CITY
I hadnt heard of the deadCENTER Film Festival before 2013, but when I got an email from Lance McDaniel, the executive director, with the subject line, We want Some Girl(s) and then, We just got back from SXSW and all of our programmers cant stop talking about your lm, wellthey had me at hello I arrived at the Oklahoma City airport just a couple weeks after the devastating Moore tornado. The festival had arranged for a hotel and it was lovelya historic (supposedly haunted) hotel which was a happy cross between The Shining and Somewhereand while the streets seemed to be empty (is there a tornado coming that I dont know about?), I was hopeful that our rst nights screening would be a good one.

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As a lmmaker, my biggest fears when attending a festival are two-fold: 1) Will the festival be able to properly project our lm? 2) Will anyone come to the theater?! When I arrived at festival headquarters, my rst fear was alleviated. The festival staff walked me into our theater a beautiful new facility in the Oklahoma City Museum of Artand introduced me to the projectionist. Not only was he jazzed about Some Girl(s), but he also had rented equipment to properly play our HDCAM with Dolby E (a specic need). He gave us time to do a sound-and-tech check and responded to all of our requests. My second fear was alleviated when people started to ock into the theater. Out of the deserted streets came hordes of independent lm fans and Neil LaBute lovers! I was particularly comforted when I noticed that they were all grabbing a drink at the makeshift bar that was set up in the entryway. When the lights went down on the packed theater and (drinks in hand) the audience started laughing, I knew I liked this city. After a screening that rivaled our enthusiastic world premiere, a handful of lm-loving early 20-somethings relentlessly asked us questions. They were so excited and while I would normally keep to myself or go back to the hotel, I was somehow drawn to go out with these kids, Chase and Holly, and talk movies. They showed my producing partner, Chris, and I everything they loved about the cityfrom the Devon Tower to their favorite grilled cheese restaurant.

THE TORONTO INTERNaTIONal FIlM FESTIVal NEVER DISaPPOINTS

A BEHEmOTH OF THE CIRCUIT ENTHRALLS AS USUAL WITH ITS JAm-PACKED LINE-UP
A day before the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) was ready to kick into gear, the town was already bustling with red carpet events and industry types exchanging pleasantries. Somehow, the festival felt even bigger this year. Some red-eyed critics worked particularly hard to set records, scrambling to see as many of the 289 features (147 of which were world premieres) as they possibly could. Competition was erce. Amidst the impressive selection were gems such as Gravitybest described as Cast Away, but in space. The P&I (press and industry, for uninitiated readers) screening line alone was one of the longest Id ever witnessed. For those who got to see the movie (in IMAX 3D), the wait was worth itwe now see Sandra Bullock in a whole new light. Speaking of acting chops, Matthew McConaughey was a revelation in Jean-Marc Valles Dallas Buyers Club, as was Jared Leto, who donned high-heels and lipstick for his role. Especially noticeable was the abundance of Canadians, who, like Valle, were helming U.S.-centric lms at TIFF. Denis Villeneuves Prisoners, starring Hugh Jackman and Jake Gyllenhaal, was a hot ticket; Atom Egoyan revisited the West Memphis Three case with Devils Knot (Colin Firth, Reese Witherspoon); Jason Reitman returned to TIFF with Labor Day, as did Paul Haggis with his star-studded drama Third Person. Mike Myers made his directorial debut to a very warm reception with a doc, Supermensch: the Legend of Shep Gordon, as did Keanu Reeves with a China/U.S. co-production, Man of Tai Chi. In the midst of the usual ood of Oscar contenders, there were some surprises too, such as Godfrey Reggios experimental lm, Visitors. Presented by Steven Soderbergh, Visitors was truly a one-of-a-kind cinematic experience: a series of meditative images set to a live orchestra and a score by Philip Glass. Of course, the most buzzed about movie of all was Steve McQueens 12 Years a Slave, which took the Blackberry Peoples Choice Award. In addition to lms, there were industry panels with moguls like Dede Gardner and Alison Thompson, along with IMAXs Rich Gelfond and Greg Foster; a master class with John Turturro; an Art of the Deal session with Submarines Josh Braun, and many others. The Asian Film Summit returned for its second year at the ultra-posh Shangri-La Hotel, and featured high-prole speakers like Keanu Reeves and Hong Kong director Johnnie To. As the festival began to wind down, Toronto seemed to turn into a bit of a ghost town. The few industry folks who remained whined about how everyone else had skipped town and there were no more parties to go to, P&I screenings to sneak into, nor panels to seebut theres always next year. Katherine Brodsky

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Photograph by Jack Plunkett

For a weekend, I felt young again and I was grateful. By the time of our second screening on Sunday, I was wearing a deadCENTER t-shirt and wanted to move to Oklahoma. deadCENTER was a hip festival, lled with eager and kind audiences and I loved every minute of it. From hospitality to technicalities, A+. Patty West Patty Wests rst feature lm, Some Girl(s) (based on the Neil LaBute play of the same name), premiered at SXSW in 2013 and went on to screen at several other festivals before being released in theaters and Vimeo On Demand worldwide.

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WElcOME TO THE NEIGHBORHOOD, SaMO INDIE

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FaNTaSTIc FEST: OH, aND SOME FIlMS wERE ScREENED

SHIRT-EATING CRITICS, RAPPING NERDS, DRUNK TATTOOS AND REFRESHmENTS COURTESY OF KOOL-AID: ITS FANTASTIC FEST 2013
The beer-and-BBQ utopia of Austin, Texas is home to the largest genre lm festival in the U.S., which isnt to say Fantastic Fest only plays horror, sci- and action moviesthis September showcased an eclectic mix of lowercase-f fantastic fare skewing towards the bold, outlandish, and irreverent. From artful revenge thrillers (Jeremy Saulniers Cannes-vetted Blue Ruin and the darkly comic Israeli fave Big Bad Wolves) to British civil-war psychedelia (Ben Wheatleys mind-melting A Field in England) and dryly absurdist Japanese bondage comedies (Hitoshi Matsumotos R100, the title a ridiculous riff on the countrys rating system, meaning viewers should be 100 years old to watch), the ninth annual edition of the festival was never dull. On the contrary, Fantastic Fest prides itself on being a singularly rowdy and communal spectacle, in part because all screenings take place at the Alamo Drafthouse Cinema, an internationally beloved chain where lmgoers may order dinner and booze from their seats. Twenty minutes before the end of Ti Wests religious-cult chiller, The Sacrament, a terric slowburner inspired by the 1978 Jonestown Massacre, Alamo staffers handed out paper cups full of Kool-Aid to all attendees. West later claimed he had reservations about how offensive the stunt might be perceived, but he also knew that within this passionate community of freaks and geeks, all boundaries of good taste are shattered. Speaking of tastelessness, programmer and Twitch critic Todd Brown introduced R100 with shades of regret: having lost a bet with Fantastic Fest founder Tim League over the audaciousness of the lm, he was forced to publicly eat his own shirtwhich had been stewing with vegetables over the previous 24 hours. (Brown is in great company, as Werner Herzog once notoriously ate his own shoe for similar reasons, as documented in a Les Blank short.) At the premiere of E. L. Katzs Cheap Thrillsa gleefully nasty psychodrama in which an out-of-work father (Pat Healy) and his high-school bud (Ethan Embry) are dared into increasingly desperate wagers by a wealthy couple (Sara Paxton and Anchormans David Koechner)real-life challenges were accepted by audience volunteers. Egged on by vague prize offers and a belligerently drunken Koechner, a popsicle covered in live bugs was eaten, a martini stirred by Embrys penis was downed, and a Cheap Thrills tattoo was inked on a poor young mans naked bum. More tattoos were freely given during the closing-night party (in case youre wondering why Lord of the Rings star Elijah Wood now has a stick of dynamite on his bicep) amidst a stunt show of exploding cars and men literally on re leaping from a tower in the Alamo parking lot. There were also daytime expeditions to shoot shotguns and machine guns, a live heavy-metal karaoke party featuring two members of Metallica, a nerd rap competition (which this writer took part in), a ve-course Indian meal served at an outdoor screening of the Bollywood actioner Commando, and the Fantastic Debatesin which League debated Man of Tai Chi director Keanu Reeves over Tae Kwon Dos superiority before stepping into a boxing ring to get bloodied by the lms star, martial-arts master Tiger Chen. Sundance had better step up their game! Aaron Hillis MM

Its 6:59 p.m. and Im in the drivers seat of my car in the 24 darkened parking lot of Bergamot Station, scarng down a

THE INAUGURAL SANTA MONICA INDEPENDENT FILm FESTIVAL LIGHTS UP MMS HOmE TURF

salmon rice bowl I picked up before the Opening Night of Santa Monica Independent Film Festival. Theres a bar set up inside TAG Gallery, the venue of the festivals rst and second nights, but no food in sight, so Im storing up on emergency dinner rations. Its a blue September evening in Los Angeles and as the festival is about to come to its inaugural start, a few stragglers making their way in while we hurriedly stow our empty bowls under the dashboard. Rows of ceramic heads laugh at us gaudily on shelves lining the gallerys anteroom and impressionistic landscapes form an unusually colorful backdrop to the screen set up against the spaces main wall. Upon entry, we are presented with both rafe tickets and a box of mood rings to pick from. Where are we, Venice? The quirk is endearing. As is the handful of rst-night festival jitters: audio difculties (not helped by the gallerys echo-y interior) and the unfortunate misplacing of a short lm (eventually re-programmed to the following night). It isnt Sundance, says co-founder Daniel White to the MovieMaker delegation by way of apologetic introduction. Truebut then again, Sundance isnt in our backyard (MovieMakers headquarters is also located within Bergamot Stations truck-depot-come-arts-haven). That homey sense pervades the event, casting everything in an affable air, as when the team from Narrative Feature winner Technically Crazy closes out their screening with heartfelt thanks. SaMo Indie moves to the Santa Monica Playhouse in its third night, which means plushier chairs and better sound quality, though the whimsicalityand the mood ringsremain. Tonights shorts block is especially strong, with a documentary on the U.S. Armys 1950s helicopter square dancing team (DoSi-Do in the Sky, dir. Cameron Tucker) and a lovingly rendered Australian stop-motion lm (Sleight of Hand, dir. Michael Cusack) both winning top prizes. The latter, about a puppeteer who nds himself subject to mysterious larger forces, is hairraisingly existential, causing many a shiver in a cushiony seat. All in all, this small fests rst year, with its cheerful intimacy (our mood rings can attest to our satisfaction) is a success. Were happy to trade in some grandeur for a little coziness once in a while. And hey, even Park City has sound issues sometimes. Kelly Leow

THE VISUal aRTS cOllIDE IN TAG GallERY wITH SaMO INDIE

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Courtesy of SaMo Indie Film Festival