Jay Craven’s “Disappearances”
Posted on October 30, 2007
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The Southern Circuit Tour of Independent Filmmakers continues in Lake Charles this Saturday, November 3, with Jay Craven’s Disappearances, starring Kris Kristofferson and Geneviève Bujold. The screening will be held at the Central School Arts & Humanities Center, 809 Kirby Street, at 7:00 pm. After the screening there will be a discussion with award-winning writer, director, and producer Jay Craven, followed by a reception.
Filmmaker Jay Craven has received numerous awards and recognitions for his work, including two Film Production Grants from the National Endowment for the Arts for Where the Rivers Flow North and Disappearances. His films have played 345 U.S. cities and towns, 52 countries, and more than sixty international film festivals.
In 1975, Jay Craven founded and directed Catamount Arts in St. Johnsbury, Vermont, which grew into New England’s largest independent film and performing arts presenter. In 1991, Craven left Catamount Arts and founded Kingdom County Productions, a nonprofit media arts organization. He is currently a tenured professor of film studies at Marlboro College and continues to direct Kingdom County Productions in Barnet, Vermont, where, in addition to producing feature films, he oversees the Fledgling Films program for teen filmmakers.
Disappearances is based on the award-winning novel by Howard Frank Mosher. “I was attracted to Howard Mosher’s tall tale for its mix of hair-raising adventure, laugh-out-loud humor, compelling emotional drama, and magical realist whimsy,” Craven says. “The history and imagination of this outlaw legacy is deeply rooted in the North County — as much as any enterprise in the old west that triggered literally hundreds of movies about outlaws and the fading frontier.”
Disappearances completes Jay Craven’s trilogy of “Vermont frontier films.” Like many westerns, it explores characters and themes related to a fading frontier where an outlaw culture survives in the margins. In 2006, Disappearances was selected by the American Film Institute to be one of 8 US and 11 international films for its first ever AFI: Project 20/20 — a year long global and cultural exchange including workshops, seminars and appearances at film festivals, cultural centers, and museums.
From AFI:
DISAPPEARANCES is a powerfully mysterious film. The story is set deep in the rural Northeast and features excellent ensemble performances by legendary actor/songwriter Kris Kristofferson, Genevieve Bujold and newcomer Charlie McDermott.
Kristofferson stars as schemer and dreamer Quebec Bill Bonhomme in a spellbinding taleof smuggling, a family’s mysterious past, and a young boy’s rite of passage. Bill, desperate to raise money to preserve his endangered cattle herd through a long winter, resorts to whiskey smuggling, a traditional family occupation. He takes his son, Wild Bill, on an unforgettable trip that will long remain etched in the viewer’s mind.
Palpable, intimate and magical with the vivid textures of rural outback life, Craven’s delightfully simple narrative operates on powerful metaphorical levels.
Disappearances is presented by the Lake Area Film Group, in conjunction with the Arts and Humanities Council of Southwest Louisiana and the City of Lake Charles. The Southern Circuit Tour of Independent Filmmakers is a program of the Southern Arts Federation. Check out the Southern Circuit Tour Blog.
Cynthia Hill’s “The Guestworker”
Posted on September 13, 2007
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The Southern Circuit Tour of Independent Filmmakers continues in Lake Charles on October 13 with the screening of The Guestworker by Cynthia Hill. As usual, the screening is scheduled for 7:00 pm at the Central School Arts & Humanities Center (809 Kirby Street). After the screening there will be a Q&A session with Cynthia Hill about the film and her work as a filmmaker, followed by a reception.
Once a producer and editor for health education media in New York City, Cynthia Hill moved to Durham, North Carolina to develop her career as an independent filmmaker. The challenges faced by farmers and the community caught Hill’s eye as she filmed her first documentary, Tobacco Money Feeds My Family. Having grown up in a tobacco farming community, Hill brought a grounded perspective to her film. Her unique perspective and her subject’s relevance has carried her documentary The Guestworker around the world to screen at numerous festivals, including the Los Angeles Latino Film Festival, Full Frame International Documentary Film Festival, and the Globians Film Festival.
The Guestworker is a thought-provoking testament to the efficacy of the US government’s H-2A Certification for Temporary Agricultural Work Program. Hill features the perspective of both the farmers who turn to the contract employment program because of local labor shortages and the Mexican migrant workers who travel to the US to perform the backbreaking labor. The documentary focuses on the program’s oldest member, Don Candelario Gonzalez Moreno, a 66-year old Mexican farmer who has spent the last 40 years of his life harvesting crops. While the H-2A Certification guarantees safe passage into the US for ‘Don Cande,’ who in the past had to immigrate illegally, he still has no hope of citizenship due to his age; yet, ‘Don Cande’ returns year after year to work and provide for his family in Mexico.
The opening short for October 13 is the documentary Bowl Digger by Kristy Higby of Alexander, North Carolina. Bowl Digger is the loving story of octogenarians Maxie and Hilton Eades, rural South Carolinians who create wooden bowls and dough trays as durable as their creators.
Southern Circuit Tour: Eric Patrick
Posted on September 10, 2007
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Left to right: Devin Norris, Eric Patrick, Julie Fay, and Carol Anne Gayle
Ritual Etchings: The Experimental Shorts of Eric Patrick screened Saturday night at the Central School Arts & Humanities Center in Lake Charles as part of the Southern Circuit Tour of Independent Filmmakers. Here’s what guest filmmaker Eric Patrick had to say about it on the Southern Circuit blog:
- “The show though, was great. Beautiful place, great people. The woman from the Art and Humanities council drove 60 miles round trip to bring me shrimp gumbo and boudin (knowing I was from here). They sang happy birthday to me, and all was great. The local film group (that co-sponsored the show) was inspired. The Lake Area Film Group are a rag-tag group of filmmakers trying to make something happen in a town where there isn’t an awful lot going on. They’re very gutsy filmmakers and remind me of early Cinemaker Cooperative in Austin.”
Click here for more photos from the event (including one of Eric Patrick eating shrimp gumbo).
Yeon Choi’s “Sandstorm”
Posted on August 27, 2007
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Sandstorm is a two-minute animated short by Yeon Choi, an associate professor in the Visual Arts Department at the University of Louisiana in Lafayette. It will be screened at 7:00 pm on September 8, 2007 at the Central School Arts & Humanities Center in Lake Charles, Louisiana, as part of the Southern Circuit Tour of Independent Filmmakers.
What’s Sandstorm about? “In an imaginary land that lacks water and flesh, two skeleton figures find a pair of eyes in the sand. Their selfish minds start a fight over the eyes, and the fight leads to a bitter end.â€
Yeon Choi was born in Seoul, Korea, where she studied at Ewha University before moving to the United States to study Computer Arts at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. She began creating animated films for her Master’s Degree thesis and has been working with animation ever since. An accomplished digital artist, Choi currently teaches computer animation at the University of Louisiana in Lafayette.
Using the income from her teaching job to finance her short films, Choi handles every step of production herself, from animating to editing to sound design, which gives her the artistic control she prefers. “For my work process, everything is digital,” she says. “Everything is created on my PC and transferred to either DVD or Mini DV.”
Artistically, Yeon Choi started out as a painter, but once she witnessed computer animation she realized that she wanted to make her paintings move. After trying it for herself, she decided that computer animation is more challenging, and it became her true love. “I thought I was going to be a painter forever, but things changed. I feel more comfortable and satisfied with being a filmmaker.” Choi has utilized both stop-motion and computer animation in her short films, and is looking forward to expanding into animation mixed with live action, and animation that is interactive.
Choi created Sandstorm in 2004. Her previous short films include The Fly (2003), The Labyrinth (2002), Objects of My Obsessions (2002), and Confessions (1997). In 2006 she created Learning to Play How High the Moon and Ever After (pictured, left). About Ever After, Choi says: “As we grow up, especially girls, we all hear and learn about fairy tales that imply there is one Prince Charming who will complete your life.” Drawing from her own life experience, particularly her divorce, she created Ever After in an effort to disillusion girls, who she feels sometimes remain in bad relationships because of their belief in Hollywood-style fairy tales. Choi wants girls to understand that their mistakes will sometimes come with a huge cost, and that learning from those mistakes is part of the process of growing up.
“I think people learn and grow endlessly through their lives”, says Choi. “I learn from all people I know, all of those books I read, all of the movies I watched and so forth.”
Ritual Etchings: The Experimental Shorts of Eric Patrick
Posted on August 25, 2007
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Next month marks the beginning of the 2007-2008 Southern Circuit Tour of Independent Filmmakers, which opens with Ritual Etchings: The Experimental Shorts of Eric Patrick on September 8 at the Central School Arts and Humanities Center in Lake Charles. Director and producer Eric Patrick will be in attendance to discuss the film with the audience after the screening.
Ritual Etchings: The Experimental Shorts of Eric Patrick is a collection of short films that spans a decade of his highly acclaimed work, including his 2007 Delta International Film and Video Festival award-winning Startle Pattern. This collection represents not only ten years of Patrick’s work, but also a sort of general method that he uses in his work. “The films are a cohesive collection of a certain approach to filmmaking for me,†he says. “I was interested in finding innovative techniques to illustrate the concepts that I was dealing with.â€
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Above: An image from Eric Patrick’s Startle Pattern.
Those concepts include a variety of issues, such as the hectic pace of modern life explored through time lapse photography in Ablution, or the “changes in consciousness that happen during driving long distances,†explored through cinematic collage in Stark Film. In other shorts, Patrick’s use of stop-motion animation, hand-edited frames, and 16mm and 35mm film are on display. Of these methods, Patrick says, “They impose a certain amount of ritual into the process, thereby forcing me to ‘be’ the film for a certain amount of time. The small repetitive acts of creating the frames for [one of the short films] are like saying a rosary or even a form of alchemy.”
Patrick’s focus on low-tech, traditional, film-based techniques to explore these ideas results in films filled with eerily beautiful visuals. Their surreal, otherworldly feel is complemented by the absence of a traditional narrative throughout Patrick’s films. “One shouldn’t look for all the trappings of traditional narrative,†he says of his film, adding that, “Approaching films in this way also allows me to leave secret passageways and trap doors in the narrative so that viewers can come up with their own individual interpretation.â€
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Above: Another image from Startle Pattern.
Eric Patrick has been awarded grants from the Guggenheim Foundation, the Texas Filmmakers’ Production Fund of the Austin Film Society, and the Rooftop Filmmakers’ Fund among others. His films have screened extensively throughout Europe, Australia, Asia and the Americas, and have won numerous awards both domestically and internationally, including awards at The Black Maria Film Festival, The Humboldt International Film Festival, Semana de Cine Experimental de Madrid, South by Southwest Film Festival, The Ann Arbor Film Festival, U.S.A. Film Festival, Big Muddy Film Festival, and Festival de Cinema Independent de Barcelona. He is currently working on a film titled Retrocognition, and is on leave from his position as an Assistant Professor in the Radio/TV/Film program at Northwestern University.
Don’t miss this special opportunity! Come out to the Central School Arts & Humanities Center at 7:00 pm on September 8, 2007 for an exclusive screening of Ritual Etchings, followed by a Q&A session with independent filmmaker Eric Patrick. (In the meantime, an audio interview with Eric Patrick is available in MP3 format here). Opening for Ritual Etchings is the animated short Sandstorm by Yeon Choi of Lafayette, LA. “In an imaginary land that lacks water and flesh, two skeleton figures find a pair of eyes in the sand. Their selfish minds start a fight over the eyes, and the fight leads to a bitter end.” Click the thumbnail to the left to view the Southern Circuit Tour Poster for September 8, 2007.
Sixty Second Movie Hour
Posted on August 25, 2007
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This month’s film challenge from Scott Waldrop: Create a sixty-second movie.
The Rules: No dialogue. No copyrighted music. Sound effects and music are optional (Silent Films are welcome). And, obviously, you have to tell your story in 60 seconds. Use your cellphone, your digital camera, your camcorder… whatever’s handy. Need to borrow a camera? Email Scott at lafilmgroup@gmail.com.
These Sixty Second Movies will be screened at the next Lake Area Film Group meeting (September 4th at 7:00 pm at the Central Library in Lake Charles). Come and check out the results!
A lot can happen in 60 seconds. Are you up to the challenge?
Have questions or comments? Join the Sixty Second Movie Hour discussion on the LAFG Forum.
Southern Circuit Tour of Independent Filmmakers
Posted on August 24, 2007
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Southern Circuit Tour of Independent Filmmakers 2007-2008: Your ticket to exclusive screenings with today’s independent filmmakers!
The Lake Area Film Group in cooperation with the Arts and Humanities Council of Southwest Louisiana and the City of Lake Charles is proud to announce the Southern Circuit Tour of Independent Filmmakers is coming to Lake Charles, LA.
Click the thumbnail above to view the Southern Circuit Tour Poster.
The nation’s only regional tour of independent filmmakers, Southern Circuit provides communities with an interactive way of experiencing independent film. The tour takes the audience away from their televisions, DVD players, and computers to connect them with independent filmmakers, and encourages them to talk with one another about the films and their meanings. Southern Circuit transforms watching independent films from a solitary experience into a communal one.
Originated by the South Carolina Arts Commission in 1975, Southern Circuit provides communities across the South with a tour of highly talented independent filmmakers. Initially launched in three South Carolina cities, the film tour has visited over 30 communities across the Southern United States. Since its inception, Southern Circuit audiences have seen over 200 films and have engaged filmmakers in post-screening discussions of the subjects and themes portrayed in their works.
Accompanying the feature films being screened at the Southern Circuit events is the Short Circuit Traveling Film Festival. The Short Circuit Traveling Film Festival spotlights recent short films by filmmakers living and working in the Southeastern United States. Selected for their artistic merit by an esteemed panel of media arts professionals, these engaging short films will tour the South during the 2007-2008 season.
All screenings will take place at Central School Arts and Humanities Center, 809 Kirby Street, starting at 7:00pm. The touring schedule for 2007-2008 includes:
September 8, 2007
RITUAL ETCHINGS: THE SHORT FILMS OF ERIC PATRICK
by Eric Patrick of Austin, Texas
The interior space of a puppet becomes increasingly reflective, revealing the artifice of his own creation. Experimental
Opening Short: Sandstorm by Yeon Choi of Lafayette, LA. In an imaginary land that lacks water and flesh, two skeleton figures find a pair of eyes in the sand. Their selfish minds start a fight over the eyes, and the fight leads to a bitter end. Animation
October 13, 2007
THE GUESTWORKER
by Cynthia Hill of Durham, North Carolina
The Guestworker tells the story of Don Candelario Gonzalez Moreno, a 66-year old Mexican farmer, who has been coming to the United States for 40 years, harvesting our crops and trying to provide for his family. Without benefits, without retirement, he battles against the elements, his own age, and the backbreaking work, returning to this farm year after year. Documentary
Opening Short: Bowl Digger by Kristy Higby of Alexander, North Carolina. A loving story of octogenarians Maxie and Hilton Eades, rural South Carolinians who create wooden bowls and dough trays as durable as their creators. Documentary
November 3, 2007
DISAPPEARANCES
by Jay Craven of Barnet, Vermont
Disappearances is a North Country Prohibition era tale of high-stakes whiskey-smuggling, a family’s mysterious past, and a young boy’s rite of passage. Starring Kris Kristopherson and Genevieve Bujold. Fiction
Opening Short: Wood Diary by David Meyers of Henderson, Kentucky. Follow a less-than-ordinary man over the course of one day and discover what it takes most people a lifetime to learn. Experimental
February 9, 2008
NEW YEAR BABY
by Socheata Poeuv of New York, New York
New Year Baby is a personal documentary by Socheata Poeuv, who uncovers the story of how her family survived the Cambodian genocide. When Socheata learns a family secret her parents had kept from her for 25 years, she begins a quest to understand how her fractured family became whole during the turmoil of the Killing Fields. Throughout her journey to Cambodia, Socheata pushes her parents to tell her the truth, but it’s when she lets go that healing begins. Documentary
Opening Short: Flyaway by Danny Oakley of Winston-Salem, North Carolina. A little wooden plane, despite the price it must pay, does the impossible and joins a world it could only dream of. Animation
March 8, 2008
GUERRILLA RADIO: THE HIP-HOP STRUGGLE UNDER CASTRO
by Thomas Nybo & Simon Umlauf of Atlanta, Georgia
Facing threats of jail and censorship, four hip-hop groups struggle to reveal the boundary of artistic expression in Castro’s Cuba. Documentary
Opening Short: The Cole Nobody Knows by Clay Walker of Avondale Estates, Georgia. This documentary profiles Chicago-native Freddy Cole, the virtually unknown, yet equally talented younger brother of Nat “King” Cole. At age 75, Freddy Cole is, at last, finally being recognized for his amazing musical talent. Documentary
April 12, 2008
UNOCCUPIED ZONE: THE IMPOSSIBLE LIFE OF SIMONE WEIL
by Cathy Crane of Ithaca, New York
Philosopher, trade-unionist, mystic. Following the 1940 German occupation of Paris, Weil is forced to leave for the “unoccupied zone” of southern France. Under Vichy, she is denied the right to teach. For two years, she waits, she says, for God. We may never know Simone Weil. We must, however, contemplate her. Experimental/Fiction
Opening Short: Theodore by Jorge Moran of Nashville, Tennessee. Theodore knows loneliness, but the challenge of his life is knowing love. Fiction
For more information, check out the Southern Circuit blog.
2nd Annual Contraband Film Festival
Posted on August 23, 2006
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The Lake Area Film Group was founded in September 2004 by a group of passionate individuals interested in growing a film making community in Southwest Louisiana. That original group committed to this mission statement:
To create a network of people, ideas, and resources to be shared collectively, enabling the independent filmmaker in the Lake Area, and to host an annual film festival in Lake Charles, which would serve to both motivate and to inspire.
This year will be the 2nd such festival hosted by the LAFG. The event will take place Saturday, September 30th at 6:30PM and there is no admission charge. Central School Auditorium will be the site of the event once again.
Last years program included 10 short films and was well received by the community. This year, the program has been expanded to include the LAFG’s first feature length film, Mercy, directed by Patrick Roddy. The movie, which stars Gary Shannon, was shot in Lake Charles and DeRidder, Louisiana. Other notable cast includes Shelly Farrell, Charles McNeely, Julie Ann Fay, Mike Mayo and Carol Anne Gayle. DVDs will be on hand, for sale after the film’s screening. In conjunction with the premier of Mercy, set photographer, Hilary Gayle will be opening an exhibit featuring still images taken during the filming of the movie. The exhibit will be on display in the Black Heritage Gallery, located at Central School, across from the auditorium where the festival is held. The exhibit will remain on display through the month of October.
Another new element that has been added to the Contraband Film Festival this year is a Video Confessional. During the Art’s and Humanities Council’s Gallery Promenade, the LAFG will be filming volunteers on the third floor of the 1911 City Hall. Participants will have the opportunity to perform in front of the camera in any way they see fit, be it singing, reciting a monologue, dancing or they may choose to actually confess what’s on their mind. The footage will be collected and edited together so that it may be shown at the film festival. So if you have always wanted to be in a movie, this is your chance. The booth will operate from 6-9 pm on Thursday and Friday (September 7th and 8th) and 10-2 on Saturday, September 9.
Other films on the program include three short films produced during the LAFG 24-Hour Film Sprint, an event where filmmakers were all given the same generic script and were required to create a story to accompany the dialogue they were give. The teams would then shoot and edit their films with a 24-hour period.
Continuing from last year, student work from the Mass Communication’s department at McNeese will be screened at the festival. Through the Cracks, a documentary by Dan Robertson, takes a look at skateboarding in the Lake Area.
In addition, Single Malt is a short film shot at The Shamrock in Lake Charles and features performances by Carl Bergeron and Cade Chisholm. The short is written by Ken Henderson and directed by Scott Waldrop.
Eternal is another short film on the program that originates from Irony Coast Productions, a group who’s members span from Lake Area to Houston. The film found success at the 48-hour Film Project in Houston last May, where it was recognized by judges in six categories including: Best Director, Best Screenplay, Best Sound Design, Best Use of Line of Dialogue, Best Cinematography, and Best Editing.
The Lake Area Film Group meets monthly at the Central Library in Lake Charles. Meetings take place at 7:30PM on the first Tuesday of each month. The LAFG is open to anyone (18 and up) who is interested in making movies. For more information, visit www.lakeareafilmgroup.com or email us at lafilmgroup@gmail.com.
24 Hour Film Sprint!!
Posted on April 12, 2006
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The 24-Hour Film Sprint will take place on April 22nd. Participants will meet at the Historic City Hall in downtown Lake Charles at 9:00AM, April 22nd. Carol Anne has secured the location for us and assures me that there is plenty of room and seating for everyone. The building is on the corner of Ryan Street and Kirby Street with Iris Street to the South.
At that time, teams will be assigned, waivers signed, and scripts distributed. The films will be turned in on April 23rd at 9AM to Scott Waldrop at his home. Directions will be provided. If you are interested in participating, you may fill out an application online at the link below:
http://www.lakeareafilmgroup.com/forms/filmsprint.html
April Meeting
Posted on April 4, 2006
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The LAFG will meet this Tuesday, April 4th at 7:30 PM. The meeting will be held in the second floor meeting room of the Central Library on Ernest Street, near West Claude.
This will be the final meeting prior to the upcoming 24-Hour Film Sprint. If you have applied for, or wish to participate in the Sprint, it is strongly recommended that you attend. Final details for the Sprint will be discussed.
Hope to see you there.
For additional information or for updates, please visit our Discussion Forum or email us at LAFilmGroup@gmail.com
For future events and meetings, visit the Lake Area Film Group Calendar of Events.
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- Jay Craven’s “Disappearances”
- AFF: Corey’s Take
- AFF: Ken’s Take
- Spotlight On: Hilary Bronwyn Gayle
- Red 71
- “Mercy” Premiere in Boston
- “Little Chenier” Movie Is All That Remains
- Film Threat Selects “Mercy”
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