Thursday, May 22, 2008

Mr. Evan Sauce has your movie synopses right here

Mr. Evan Sauce — the angry guy on the right — was kind enough to provide these synopses for the upcoming Moviesauce schedule.

What's Moviesauce? While it goes well with a sandwich, its founders — Mr. Evan Sauce and Mr. Hunter Sauce, who cracked my camera lens with his anger — would like you to think of it as Shreveport's only sauce-friendly film festival. It runs May 30-31.

If you go
WHAT:
Moviesauce Film Festival.
WHEN: May 30-31.
WHERE: Robinson Film Center, 617 Texas St.
COST: $7, per program. $30, festival pass. Available at the door or online at www.brownpapertickets.com/event/31994.
INFO: http://www.moviesauce.org/ or http://www.robinsonfilmcenter.org/.

FESTIVAL SCHEDULE
May 30

7 p.m.: Program 1 (“American Deluxe,” “Monster Camp”).
9:30 p.m.: Program 2 (“Equal Opportunity,” “Commit”).

May 31
1 p.m.: Program 3 (“The Outhouse,” “The Summer in Winter”).
4 p.m.: Program 4, all shorts (“The Lonely Lights, The Color of Lemons,” “Love Pills,” “20q,” “Vanished Acres”).
7 p.m.: Program 5 (“The Golden Samovar,” “Fix”).
10 p.m.: awards announcement.

MONSTER CAMP
(Documentary, USA, 79 min.)

For 48 consecutive hours — there are no breaks, not even for sleep — immerse yourself in a world completely unlike our own. A world built upon fantasy, chivalry, and imagination; a place where you can dress how you want, wield almost any power imaginable, and live as you choose: as hero, healer, or villain. It’s a place that lets you transform yourself, perhaps into the person you wish you really were. Welcome to Monster Camp, the true story of NERO Seattle.

Monster Camp meticulously examines the lives of die-hard gamers at NERO Seattle. The devoted group congregates at a secluded state park where they act out battles complete with magic potions, evil spells, and legendary sword fights. On the outside, these people are software engineers, department store managers, and high school students, but for one weekend they seamlessly transform into dwarves, dragons, and green lizard people.

Director: Cullen Hoback
Screening: Program 1, Fri, 7:00 pm

COMMIT
(Narrative, USA, 91 min.)

Two strangers meet at a coffee shop for what seems like a blind date. But as the conversation progresses, it becomes clear that this couple, who have never seen each other face to face and who met on the Internet, have actually formed a suicide pact. Problems arise when the two realize that they may have finally found something worth living for. Comprised of three continuous takes — one take for each act — and shot over the course of two days, Commit is witty and disturbing, as well as an inspirational achievement in independent filmmaking.

Director: Mickey Blaine
Screening: Program 2, Fri, 9:30 pm

L’ESTATE D’INVERNO (THE SUMMER IN WINTER)
(Narrative, Italy, 70 min.)

Deep night. In a motel on the outskirts of Copenhagen, a young man has just finished having sex with an older prostitute. He holds her and asks her to stay one hour more, just to talk with him. As the dialogue proceeds, their demons and their regrets emerge. They find that they are each bound to a desperate story of abandon, and that they may have more in common than they think.

Director: Davide Sibaldi
Screening: Program 3, Sat, 1:00 pm

FIX
(Narrative, USA, 90 min.)

Racing across Los Angeles in one unwieldy day, documentary filmmakers Bella and Milo race from Beverly Hills to Watts and places in between to get Milo’s brother Leo from jail to rehab before 8pm, or Leo goes to prison for three years.

A story inspired by true events, the trio documents their trip from a suburban police station in Calabasas through mansions in Beverly Hills, East LA chop-shops, rural wastelands, and housing projects in Watts as they attempt to raise the $5,000 required to get Leo into the rehab clinic.

Along the way they encounter dozens of colorful characters, each with their own anomalous perspective on Leo’s larger than life personality and style, and each with their own excuse for why they cannot help out. In the end, it may take a drug deal to get the funds needed for the rehab clinic.

Director: Tao Ruspoli
Screening: Program 5, Sat, 7:00 pm

AMERICAN DELUXE
(Narrative, USA, 15 min.)

“The concept for this film stems from a mix of ideas that I had been gathering. I have always had this main character in the back of my head; the smarmy advertising executive that is at the top of his game and wants more from it. By placing this character in such obsequious surroundings — i.e. gorgeous home, job, car, wife — I was trying to paint this life of a commercial you would see in a glossy print mag or on television. Everything that’s being sold to you looks appealing; yet upon closer inspection, it’s just an empty shell. Now although the plot of ‘man-at-the-top-of-his-game-is-unsatisfied-and-wants-a-better-life’ has been done to death, I thought it would be funny if the solution to his problem were as easy and hollow as the problem itself: just walk away. And with an ironic sense of self-accomplishment, he does just that.”

Director: Aaron Brownlee
Screening: Program 1,Fri, 7:00 pm

EQUAL OPPORTUNITY
(Narrative, USA, 7 min.)

Diverse co-workers share their true feelings about one another in the break room in this award-winning short recommended by The Toronto Star — "if you happen to be a racist misogynist with a mild form of Tourette’s." It recently premiered at the U.S. Comedy Arts Film Festival in Aspen and South by Southwest, and won ‘Best Film’ at the first annual NBC Comedy Shortcuts Film Festival along with a $25,000 grant and development deal. It also won ‘Best Comedy’ in the first annual Show off Your Shorts Festival, and received Honorable Mention for ‘Audience Choice Award’ at the World of Comedy Film Festival in Toronto.

Director: Howard Duy Vu
Screening: Program 2, Fri, 9:30 pm

THE OUTHOUSE
(Documentary, USA, 5 min.)

The story of a 60-something woman and her backyard outhouse.

Director: Jack Truman
Screening: Program 3, Sat, 1:00 pm

THE LONELY LIGHTS, THE COLOR OF LEMONS
(Narrative, USA, 16 min.)

A visual study of a young jogger who is shown a series of inkblot paintings that propel him into a collection of stories and memories centered on childhood, questions of sexuality, and an enigmatic girl. The film is structured around eight of these paintings, each paired with a single word. It is based on a similar structure around which filmmaker Su Friedrich built her film “Sink or Swim.” In this, she took words starting with the backwards alphabet — (Z)ygote, (Y)Chromosome, (X)Chromosome, (W)itness, etc. This led the film into a relationship with her father that after viewing was completely real and understandable, but indescribable. “The Lonely Lights...” is the study of a character that has no discernable arch or event which changes him dramatically, but rather a series of experiences that has created a person from nothing. The form of cinema is false, but this character is real. It works with the theme, ‘who we are is who we were.’

Director: Benjamin M Piety
Screening: Program 4, Sat, 4:00 pm

LOVE PILLS
(Animation, USA, 3 min.)

There’s a goddess of love living on the clouds, and she looks down at the forest and drops her love pills to make the creatures fall in love with each other. She doesn’t care about matching them; all she wants are the pretty stars that she gets when they fall in love. One day, she is looking down at the forest, and sees a guy she likes. She decides to leave the clouds to go down and use her pills on him to make him love her.

Director: (April) Seojin Lee
Screening: Program 4, Sat, 4:00 pm

20Q
(Narrative/Mocumentary, USA, 35 min.)

The Twenty Questions Association of America is growing slowly, but to an odd group of devoted fans, the world is focused on little else. Set in the hills of Tennessee, this new mockumentary directed by Benjamin Keith follows Lolita Dorchuck (“Saturday Night Live” alum Victoria Jackson), a stressed out mother of three and aspiring Twenty Questioner, Fritzgerald McDermott Doubet (Ron Chastain), the leader of the local Twenty Questions chapter, Martin Miller (Jerry Bowman), the 2002 National Twenty Questions Champion, and the other members as they strive to win and advance to the national Twenty Questions competition.

Director: Benjamin Keith
Screening: Program 4, Sat, 4:00 pm
VANISHED ACRES
(Narrative, USA, 31 min.)

In this surreal tale, an old farmer discovers his deceased wife had an affair with his scarecrow, revealing a haunted past.

Director: Adam Bolt
Screening: Program 4, Sat, 4:00 pm

THE GOLDEN SAMOVAR
(Narrative/Musical, USA, 7 min.)

The three daughters of a Russian mapmaker venture off into a perilous forest where raging bears and magical cats are commonplace. They must rely on the wisdom of a choir of singing owls to guide them in this musical journey through the enchanted forests of Mother Russia.

Director: Phillip Chernyak
Screening: Program 5, Sat, 7:00 pm

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