2018 Film Festival Film Summaries
Friday October 7, 2018: Wine Walk 5:00 – 7:00pm
Open viewing in theatre during wine walk:
Previews, trailers, shorts.
Friday October 7, 2018: Showtime 7:30pm
Ragland: 20 min.
Paul Harris, director/producer
A colorful look into early American cinema life in Oregon’s once fastest growing city through fires, the Spanish Flu, and competing theater moguls, to a preservation of theater history now bringing worldwide arts and entertainment to Southern Oregon and Northern California.
The Green Bag Solution: 16:05 min.
Laney D’Aquino, filmmaker
…Hunger. To walk down the streets of Ashland, it is difficult to imagine hunger is an issue. And it is not just the homeless or displaced that are hungry. Hunger occurs at many levels. Single parents making minimum wage, retired people on fixed incomes, students struggling to pay rising tuition, couch-surfing adolescents; these are the faces of hunger in Ashland. Rather than ignoring the issue of hunger in Ashland, the community decided to band together to support those in need. Enter the Green Bag Solution.
Stand-in: 7:00 min.
Rollyn Stafford, Director
A beginner stand-in must face the challenges of his new job with the help of his veteran mentor. What does it take to be the perfect stand-in?
Writer Block Party: 11:14 min
Gabriella Sipe, Filmmaker
When an aspiring author struggles to conclude her first mystery novel, the characters decide to offer their own suggestions.
High Sierra Trail: 39:28 min.
Chris Smead, Director/Videographer/Editor
This exciting documentary bounces back and forth between the modern experience of hiking the High Sierra Trail, and the early 1900’s when the trail was created. Join Chris as he drives his friend John to insanity over 6 days in the Sierra Nevada. Together they have some close calls with lightning, climb the highest mountain in the continental US, and discover the history of the trail brought to life via 3d animations created from historic photos provided by the NPS.
The Sweetness of Spring: 4:50 min
Dick Jordan, Filmmaker
During a five-mile hike in the watershed of Beaver and Sweet creeks in the Oregon Coast Range with Altair Ski & Sports Club, filmmaker Dick Jordan used an iPhone 6s to record the video clips for “The Sweetness of Spring.”
Dear Kara: 12:25 min.
Darien Campo, Producer
After a recent breakup, lovelorn Kara realizes that she still has her ex-boyfriend’s autographed CD from his favorite band. With only 20 minutes left before he leaves the country forever, Kara must rush across her Fall-swept town in this quirky indie comedy.
Little Thing: 4:56 min.
Or Kan tor, Filmmaker/Animator
A tiny creature searches for companionship in an empty city.
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Saturday October 6, 2018: Showtime 4:00pm
The Beginning of the End (26:48 min)
This film tells the tragic and horrific story of the Modoc war and attempts to find out why so few people know of it today.
Mr. Tanimoto’s Journey (27:13 min)
After the Japanese bombing of Pearl Harbor in 1941, 120,000 American cities citizens of Japanese dissent were wrongfully imprisoned at the internment camps across the country. Jim Tonimoto, born in California, is the last living member of a group of men known as the block 42, who bravely protested the loss of their constitutional rights. This is his story.
Stolen Paradise (30:12 min)
“his project aims to tell if the Milyer story from the Nick perspective of native Californians. Their voices offer a poignant counterpoint to those of many urban Californians to have a little if any connection to the land upon which we all depend.” Jessie Dizard, Director
Saturday October 6, 2018: Showtime 7:00pm
Dawson City: Frozen Time (120 min)
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Sunday October 7, 2018: Showtime 2:00pm (75 minutes)
A River Film
Jiri Bakala, Director / Kelowna, British Columbia (38 min.)
“A River Film” is a story about people, and how they have, over many years, constructed a relationship with a river to support the needs and aspirations of many users, while working to maintain the environment that supports those differing priorities…
Best of the 44th Northwest Filmmakers Festival
Time Well Spent
Directed by Aaron Bourget / Seattle, Washington (1 min.)
A hard-working artist is unfairly critiqued.
Do We Leave This Here
Directed by Julia Hutchings / Vancouver, British Columbia (17 mins.)
A journalist travels to the Peace River Valley to speak with residents about their community, which will soon be erased after the completion of a dam downstream. (Judges Award: Best Drama)
Dinosaurs in the Hood
Directed by Long Tran & Nikkia Atkinson / Renton, Washington, (4 mins.)
A cinematic adaptation of a spoken-word poem about negative representations of African-American men perpetuated by mass media.
Vestibular Matching Soundtrack
Directed by McKenzie Blake / Beaverton, Oregon (9 mins.)
Advances in technology also create linguistic rifts. Having been born largely deaf, a cochlear implant has provided the director access to sound, but at what cost?
Float
Directed by Tristan Seniuk & Voleak Sip / Seattle, Washington (24 mins.)
Rocky Mang is a Cambodian hustler in 1990s Seattle who spends his day slinging cheap cologne at the corner store between persistent attempts to convince a local barista to go on a date with him.
Lost Winds
Directed by Caryn Cline / Seattle, Washington (3 mins.)
Plant materials taped directly onto the celluloid of 16mm film and optically printed create unique rhythms, patterns, and images.
CultureTrauma
Directed by Jodi Darby / Portland, Oregon (11 mins.)
A cinematic essay using clips from Hollywood cinema, religious films, newsreels, and home movies on what it means to have come of age in the 1970s in the United States.
(Judges Award: Best Essay)
A Mew Hope
Directed by David Koesters / Portland, Oregon (5 mins.)
A star fighter and her cat, who doubles as spaceship, must escape an army of soldiers in their own furry ships, or else face the wrath of pug planet.