Friday, March 27th and Saturday, March 28th at 10:00 p.m. Admission: $5.00
LATE NIGHT CULT CLASSIC PRESENTED BY BOOKMANS http://www.bookmans.com THE GREATEST CULT MOVIES OF ALL-TIME ARE BACK ON THE BIG SCREEN IN 35 MM!
"Great performances, clever concept, deft direction, lotsa laughs, and some real heart & soul. A true Popcorn Classic." - Scott Weinberg, EFILMCRITIC.COM
Alex P. Keaton lept to the big-screen in 1985's BACK TO THE FUTURE, Robert Zemeckis' beloved comedy/sci-fi blockbuster that gave us Crispin Glover as a loveable nerd, Huey Lewis' inescapable hit song The Power of Love, and Michael J. Fox in his silver screen breaththrough. Marty McFly (Fox) is a teenager from 1985 who commandeers the time-traveling DeLorean invented by wacky scientist Dr. Emmett Brown (Christopher Llyod), and is accidentally sent back in time to the 1950s. But the real problems start after he inadvertently disrupts the first meeting between his future parents (Glover and Lea Thompson)--and his mom ends up falling for him instead. Eliciting help from the inventor of the time-machine (who is now thirty years younger), the young man must untangle the reverse Oedipal knot he's created, or he will never be born. If he can't influence them to fall in love, he might never exist! And if he somehow manages to succeed, he must then find a way to get "back to the future." (Robert Zemekis, 1985, 118 mins., rated PG) -- I don't usually link to The Loft's 'Cult Classics' since the production of these films don't really have anything to do with the Tucson filmmaking community (on the surface, at least)... but BTTF is the film that inspired me to make movies, so, I'M POSTING IT!! Go see it on Friday. I'll see you there. Butthead.
Last Friday at The Loft Cinema's monthly short film showdown, there was a contest first: a tie. Party host, Max Cannon, declared that the audience was split equally between two films (counting exactly 182 individual clappers in the audience - not an easy feat using only one's ears!). The two winning films were Joel Lopez's "Condom" and Phillip Lybrand's (that's me!) "Batman Versus Superman: A Duel to the Death." Max wasn't going to settle for a tie, though. No, this sort of thing called for creative thinking.
Max asked the audience what they thought should be done, and in the spirit of 'Batman vs. Superman,' the first response was "duel to the death!" And Max obliged... kinda. It was decided that the two winning filmmakers would do battle on the stage in front of the rabid audience like two Roman gladiators, but only without the bizarre historically inaccurate British accents. The game? Ro. Sham. Bo. The prize? The $200 monthly prize.
There were two awards handed out on Friday night, and both of them went to current undergrads in the University of Arizona's Media Arts program. The first award was The Loft Cinema's first ever Emerging Filmmaker award, and it was present to Tom Erickson, a senior in the BFA program. Tom was recognized for his work by a panel of UA faculty members that cited his passion, outside internship experience, and drive (he complted 5 treatments for his senior project; most seniors only completed 1). Tom was given a check for $1,000, which he graciously accepted saying, "Starving filmmakers can always use some extra cash!"
The audience for November's First Friday Shorts contest was treated a short film from Mr. Erickson before the show kicked off. His film was a smooth montage consisting of nighttime shots of University Boulevard on 16mm film. The non-dialogue piece was set to a soft jazzy music bed and read as a 'portrait of---' through beer goggles. While the film was pleasant, it certainly would have not done well in the FFS competition. Not on this night, for sure.
No, Friday's FFS crowd was verrrrrrrrry gong-happy. And there was certainly enough gonging to send everybody home happy. Several films throughout the night felt the wrath of the antsy crowd, including two other films that were almost non-dialogue. There wasn't really a pattern, though, because my film had a TON of dialogue and it almost got gonged, too.
There was one film, though, that was able to escape the diminishing attention span of the audience and continue to entertain even after the red spotlight came on. Still Hungry is a film produced by two current University of Arizona Media Arts students, Tom Smith and Kelli Horan - a film that was made a part of last month's 48 Hour Film Shootout where it also won the prize for 'best actor'. Smith is a former winner, but Horan was entering the monthly contest for only the second time.
There was some stiff competition coming from a Stephen Colbert-like lampooning of right-wing loudmoths entitled "Liberals Are Evil," and a Videodrone-inspired advertisement for an apple farm that featured gratuitous nudity, but Still Hungry was able to win over the audience through the simple act of cooking and eating my dog, Bagel. Write Comment (0 comments)
The Fall 2008 48-Hour Shootout contest came to a close tonight as the 12 films produced for this year's Fall Classic were screening to a lively audience at The Loft Cinema. You may be wondering why there's a photo of the novel, Thank You For Smoking above... Well, in an odd twist, almost every film submitted to the contest had at least one character smoking a cigarette on screen. My own film, Extinction Level Event, is guilty of this as well. It wasn't a requirement for the contest, in case you were wondering... just sorta happened. I thought it was worth mentioning since I heard several people around me mention the coincidence throughout the night.
Dr. Phillip 
Friday, March 27th and Saturday, March 28th at 10:00 p.m.
There were two awards handed out on Friday night, and both of them went to current undergrads in the University of Arizona's Media Arts program. The first award was The Loft Cinema's first ever Emerging Filmmaker award, and it was present to Tom Erickson, a senior in the BFA program. Tom was recognized for his work by a panel of UA faculty members that cited his passion, outside internship experience, and drive (he complted 5 treatments for his senior project; most seniors only completed 1). Tom was given a check for $1,000, which he graciously accepted saying, "Starving filmmakers can always use some extra cash!"
