Our own films editor, Catherine Marquis-Homeyer, has screened all five of the films. Here you will find a brief synopsis of each film, along with several interviews with the people responsible for making these films.

by Catherine Marquis-Homeyer
staff editor

Park City is the Utah town where the Sundance film festival takes place, the biggest festival for independent filmmakers in the United State. "Road to Park City" (R2PC) is a very funny movie about a first-time filmmaker with very little knowledge or experience who sets out to not only get in the festival but to win it. As he says, "How hard could it be?" Well, as a hint, only about 16 films are chosen for the festival, out of about 900 entries. The film follows him documentary-style as he looks at the various aspects and steps in low-budget filmmaking, learning with us along the way in a very entertaining manner about all the myriad facets of the filmmaking process. Nearly every filmgoer is curious about the process of making movies, and this film is an entertaining and informative quick-tour of independent filmmaking. This very clever, well-paced semi-documentary is light enough for the complete novice yet has enough information that budding filmmakers would benefit from it, and it is still funny enough that nearly anyone would enjoy it.

When I spoke to writer/cinematographer/director Bret Stern, he said that the film started out as a more serious instructional film about independent filmmaking to accompany his recently published book, and grew more comic as they went along. A New York comedian was cast as the filmmaker whose experience we follow, and as they shot, humor kept coming up. Rather than having a pre-written script, scenes were written the day before or even on the way to the shoot, based on the previous day's footage, allowing the project to evolve in the process. Part of the inspiration for the film, according to Stern, was his experience as a cinematographer and director of photography, where he often encountered beginning filmmakers on a shoestring budget with big expectations for their film (of course, he could work for nothing, since the film was going to make it big). While Stern, with a long list of credits as a director of photography, sympathized with these beginning filmmakers, the reoccurrence of this theme prompted him to make a film describing all the steps involved in small-scale filmmaking. Stern said that response to the film has been very positive and it may go to Sundance. When I asked about his favorite films and his inspirations, he said that his favorite film was "Terminator 2," and he was a big fan of James Cameron (director of the just-mentioned "T2" and "Titanic"). He also said that he encouraged young filmmakers to stop talking about their film and just shoot it.

This film is the second feature by director Andrew Shea. It premiered at the 1999 Sundance Festival. The director's previous work also appeared at Sundance, and he has done award-winning work in theater as well. "Corndog Man" is about Ace Barker, a redneck, bigoted boat-salesman in the south. Ace receives a phone call from a mysterious person who at first pretends to want to buy a boat, but as the calls continue it becomes clear that the caller is bent on harassment and exacting revenge for Ace's past of betrayal and prejudice. The film is a dark, moody story with powerful acting as its primary focus. The use of extreme close-ups and other unusual camera techniques- like a bluesy, slightly eerie score- help set the tone of the film. There are a few plot weaknesses, but the superb acting compensates for any flaws in story logic.

Directed and written by Eric Mandelbaum, this film tells the story of an obsession. A young professional, who has just inherited some money and is starting up his own business, has a chance encounter with a streetwalker who he believes he knew when they were both children. Roberta was the daughter of his family's housekeeper, and this encounter inspires him to try to help the streetwalker change her life. This generous impulse soon becomes an obsession that takes over his life. Unlike the expected cliche, this is not a sexual obsession with Roberta herself, but an obsession with the attempt to do this good deed. The obsession moves into every aspect of his life and affects everyone around him. The filmmaker follows this gripping decay through all its steps instead of stopping at the dramatically conventional points, and he also forces the audience to attempt to understand the characters through their actions without explicit explanation of their behavior. The choice of spare sets, an approach to the photography that avoids emotionally revealing close-ups, and excellent restrained acting all contribute effectively to the tone of the film. The result is a dramatically powerful film, with realistic portrayals that avoid the conventions expected for these characters and a story that will make you think about who benefits from altruism and what is defined as "self destructiveness."

Eric Mandelbaum, when I spoke to him, mentioned that casting against type was important to the success of his film. Kevin Corrigan, who usually plays light juvenile roles, plays the successful businessman who sets out to rescue Roberta, and Daisy Rojas, who had no previous acting experience, plays Roberta. Mandelbaum thought that it was especially crucial to avoid any of the cliches of movie prostitutes for the role of Roberta, and he wanted an actress who would be unaffected by those preconceptions. According to Mandelbaum, the character of Roberta was based on actual prostitutes who worked in the industrial area of New York where the movie was filmed. While this is his first feature film, the director has an extensive background in theater and numerous writing credits, as well as a variety of film experience. He said that care was taken in the photography not to get too close in shots of the actors and that characterization was done through actions rather than dialogue, so that the audience is forced to participate in guessing about the character's motivations.

This film has an unusual and interesting story: a young woman is stopped in a small Texas town after she runs over a snake--an endangered species called an Indigo Snake. She is taken before a judge and given two minutes to tell her story. But like Scheherazade in 1001 Arabian Nights, as her story unfolds, the judge is so caught up in it and eager to hear what happens next that each time she reaches her time limit, he keeps extending the time. Her story starts out like a fairy tale and leads to a character who starts another story, and so forth. At first, the stories seem unconnected and unrelated to the death of the snake, but eventually all comes together. The story is revealed as serpentine and circular, like a snake. The idea of the nested stories is the greatest strength of the film, with the pacing a bit too slow and some of the dialogue and acting a bit weak. The filmmaker does a nice job of keeping all the characters in the stories straight by placing the tales in different locations--a challenging task in a low-budget film. The film is fantasy-like and often has a lightly humorous and even romantic touch.

I spoke to director Francesca Talenti by phone. In addition to directing the film, she also wrote and produced it. Her previous filmwork includes short films and commercials, which she said gave her the technical and practical experience needed to do this project. At present, she teaches filmmaking at University of Texas in Austin, and this position led to a number of unique features in this production. While professionals did the principle artistic and technical roles in the production, such as acting, cinematography, and editing, a lot of the supporting work was done by students in the filmmaking program as part of a summer project. Talenti said that while working with students in this way was risky, she was surprised at how resourceful, enthusiastic, and dependable her crew was, and she felt that both the students and the project benefited from the collaboration. Talenti also drew on the variety of natural features in the surrounding Texas landscape in designing her overlapping stories, as well as incorporating Texas folklore and local issues, such as the conflict between Anglos and Latinos.

The performance of the actors are the crucial focus of this tale about a man who returns to the small town he had left eight years before. A smooth and charming conman, he returns to find that his now-grown son is eager to find a way out of town, and the conman pairs up with his son to achieve his goal of obtaining $16000. Several other town's people are drawn into the plans of this charming but ruthless man, as the son slowly realizes that he's inherited some of his father's skill at manipulating people, and has to think about what he will do in order to escape this small town. Fine performances and skillful framing of shots help draw the viewer into this story about choices in life. The film runs a little long, but is overall effective in telling this tale of one's own effect on the lives around us.