Page 18 - the NOISE June 2014

The Illuminate Film Festival sponsored the Audience rd
FROM LEFT: Act Your Age took the Northern Arizona Student Film Festival by storm last month; Our Water is an impactful documentary from CCC.
munity College. There were several films and filmmakers who, because they’re mature professionals in other fields, brought a level of professionalism to their films. Their ‘first’ student film festival took place at CCC on May 4th.
One film, Our Water, a short documentary by Kiril Kirkov and Trevor Welker investigated the sacred mountains, the navaho-Hopi culture, and the relationship between water, land and people. This is one of those films that should be considered by the powers that be at sIFF for a screening at their festival. Maybe they can create an award for the Best Community College Film in northern Arizona? Just saying!
Thanks once again, to Sedona International Film Festival and their constant nurturing of next generation filmmakers. And don’t miss the chance to see innovative independent films, documentaries, foreign films and stage performances at the Mary D. Fisher Theater in sedona in June. Make a mini-film-festival-day out of it. Go for a hike, see a thought provoking film at 4 o’clock, go to dinner and see another unique film/play/live show at 7! Have a film festival vacation in your own backyard!
And don’t miss the diverse films sIFF brings up to Flagstaff, the second wednesday of each month. On May 13, the film Clouds of Sils Maria starring Juliette Binoche and Kristen stew- art, was well attended by the community. with a narrative re- volving around an aging actress who must deal with a young actress who reminds her of herself in an industry that makes you irrelevant at age thirty, this film is an intensely personal psychological study of the nature of growing old in ‘real’ life, versus growing old in a ‘play’ versus growing old in a fantasy industry like Hollywood.
The meta-levels of the writing just go deeper and deeper as life imitates art. Directed by Olivier Assayas, Clouds played at Toronto, new York and Cannes Film Festival where Kristen stewart won the first-ever Cesar acting award for an Ameri- can. Here are a couple of offerings in June to attend at the Mary D Fisher Theater in sedona: On June 1, a tribute to the blues legend who just passed away, BB King: The Life of Riley and at the end of the month, on June 28, Julie Taymor’s A Mid- summer’s Night Dream. Look at their website for other film offerings in June and plan on supporting independent film July 8 in Flagstaff at Harkins: SedonaFilmFestival.com
The Prescott Film Festival loads up for year number six. start making your reservations and plans for July 22-26. And don’t forget to check: PrescottFilmFestival.com for the latest on films, workshops, parties and hotel reservations.
Video Pick: An underground independent film not to be missed is Bronson, featuring the rising star Tom Brady. He’s the new Mad Max for the 21st century. His films Warriors and Locke show a multi-dimensional actor, reminiscent of the de- buts of Deniro in Taxi Drivers and Ryan Gosling in The Believer. Brady was ‘discovered’, as was the film Bronson at sundance in 2008. The story of Britain’s most notorious prisoner in history, recounts the tale of Michael Peterson, who changes his name to the American actor Charlie Bronson (known for Death Wish and the bare-knuckle movie Hard Times.)
Bronson is a work of art about an unconventional ‘prison’ artist, who beats up guards to make a name for himself. Di- rector nicholas winding Renf, shot mostly in a prison, just like steve McQueen’s brilliant prison film about Bobby sands, Hunger. Bronson is a charismatic figure with internal mono- logues, flashbacks with voice-over, his projections of ‘celeb- rity’ and his real autobiographical story splice together into an incomprehensible life. why would a man desire to stay in prison and become famous for fighting with guards? Thirty- four years in prison, thirty of those in solitary confinement, what makes his life a work of performance art?
Tom Hardy brings a stirring compassion to the character of Bronson, a sociopath and an artist, whose artistic form is as yet, misunderstood. Don’t miss the chance to see a ground- breaking independent film by a young filmmaker Renf (Driv- er) and an exploding new actor, Hardy. This film was nomi- nated for Grand Prize in narrative Film category at sundance, see why it was recognized and why festivals like sundance remain important.
Prescott’s Witch Child is in its final days of their Kickstarter fundraising campaign so help them reach their goal! The filmmakers are in the later stages of pre-production, still cast- ing this horror feature. Thirteen independent filmmakers from the Prescott area have formed an LLC to shoot a feature film in northern Arizona’s backyard. shooting begins in ear- nest in June and July around Congress, Arizona. If you want to be a part of a horror feature check out Facebook under the heading Witch Child. Or go to: kickstarter.com/projects/ andrewjohnson-schmit. Volunteer, help them out and learn something about making a feature film. Go for it! we will keep an eye on their progress throughout the summer. Break a leg ... Hell, break a couple of legs!
| bob Reynolds acts his age most of the time.
film@thenoise.us
Awards at the May 3 screenings of Northern Arizona’s Student Film Festival at the Orpheum in downtown Flag- staff. Ten winning students attended workshops, films, par- ties and panels with industry insiders in sedona the final weekend of May at IFF. They can see the possibility that
“consciousness cinema” offers to up-and-coming filmmakers. People have been changed in the process of expanding their consciousness, due to truly transformative cinema and IFF’s workshops and panels show filmmakers how they can make a viable career with unique distribution models.
Here are the winning films, actors, technicians and screen- plays from nAsFF and the two Grand Jury Prizes that will rep- resent Northern Arizona University at the Sedona Interna- tional Film Festival in February of 2016. All short films, the first grand prize went to the narrative Act Your Age and the next grand prize went to the documentary short Testimony: Returning to Glen Canyon. Audience choice awards went to Schwartz Weiss and The Star Wars Kid. Outstanding perfor- mance in a leading role was won by Zamar Massey and out- standing performance in a supporting role went to Austin Kennedy both featured in Act Your Age, which also won out- standing direction, Ryan Massey. The editing prize went to James Newman for The Lonely Projectionist. Cinematography, production design and sound design went to Conner Treude, William Churchill and Michael Adams respectively, all from the film Schwartz Weiss. Finally, my favorite award — congrats to Chris Binning, Paula Jones and Ryan Massey — for best screenplay, Act Your Age.
Bright futures remain ahead for many of these talented sto- rytellers. This is a great opportunity for students who plan on making a career in the industry. Rarely can a student get a leg up in the industry and these awards really help put a spotlight on students, as they build their resume. One film that stood out was Act Your Age which took home the grand prize as best narrative film picked by an eclectic jury of cine- philes. The story follows a 20-year old child actor, who won’t grow up or won’t give up on his dreams of making it as a child star. He’s willing to do almost anything (and they are all funny attempts) to regress into a child-like appearance through method acting. somewhere along the way he finally ‘gets it’ and awakens to his true nature. Act Your Age is a wonderful, modern fairy-tale with great production value that will be an awesome representative film at sIFF in 2016. Congrats all!
And speaking of sedona International Film Festival and its support for the underdog, they might want to take a look at Rachel Tso’s Digital 298 Filmmaking class at Coconino Com-
18 • JUNE 2015 • the NOISE arts & news • thenoise.us