MicroCinema Scene

MicroCinema Scene member Peter O’Keefe announced that his feature Infidel is now available for download at B-Side. Infidel has screened at film festivals all over the world and has garnered lots of positive reviews (read our review of Infidel here). The download is only $2.99 which leaves you very little excuse not to check it out. If you’d prefer to watch it on DVD, you can buy it on DVD at FilmBaby. The DVD includes 3 additional short films by O’Keefe (Lulu Takes A Lover, Bad Advice, and Race Memory).

Infidel Synopsis: A street preacher encounters a man in a greasy rib joint and becomes convinced that she has been chosen by God to bring this solitary stranger to Jesus. What she doesn’t realize is that he is a hired killer staking out the restaurant as he lies in wait for his intended victim. Both the preacher lady and the hit man are determined to carry out their mission. No matter what it takes.

This is just a quick reminder that the deadline to submit something for MicroCinema Fest 2007 is this Friday, July 27th.

If you are a low-to-no budget movie maker looking for a place to exhibit your work that isn’t shrouded in red tape and self-serving intentions, look no further. Formerly known as the REwind International Media Festival (Or “Camp REwind” for short,) this annual event will be held in Palatine, Illinois for the third year in a row.

Over the past seven years, the festival has acted as a showcase to low-to-no budget movie making. In 2004, founding organization REwind Video changed the name of the festival when they joined forces with fellow no-budget movie making site MicroCinemaScene. The merger helped to better promote and expand the reach of the festival to the ever-growing community of MicroCinema movie makers.

Here’s an interesting video that documents the efforts of Fish Kill Flea directors Aaron, Brian, and Jennifer as they promote their documentary at SXSW2007. This originally appeared on IFC. (via Matt Dentler)

Here’s a new internet series for you to keep an eye on: The West Side. This one looks like it has serious potential and I am excited about watching it unfold.

The West Side is an urban western, created by Ryan Bilsborrow-Koo and Zachary Lieberman. Set in a unique, alternate universe, it melds together elements of two disparate film genres: the grit of an urban setting with the tradition of the American Western. The show is presented free on the internet as a contemporary version of the serial novel; new chapters in the dozen-episode storyline will be posted as quickly as they can be produced.

A comedian with a hot online following is served up a dish of cold reality when an old girlfriend appears in Knock Knock, the latest dramatic short from director Amir Motlagh.

I am a fan of Motlagh’s work, and believe he is one of a group of talented young microcinema directors (S. Tyler Wilson and Matt Meindl among them) whose artistic vision will hopefully eventually be brought to a wider audience, perhaps through the completion of a first feature.

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Coming to microcinema at the end of a long trail that included involvement in comix and minicomics and ‘zines, it has always struck me as odd that there has not been more crossover between these two aspects of DIY culture.  Microcosm Publishing’s Joe Biel takes a stab at correcting that oversight with A Hundred Dollars and a T-shirt, his engaging documentary of the ‘zine movement.

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Here’s a first look at the poster for Amit Tripuraneni’s new movie: FIVE. Rumors are circulating that FIVE might be screening at this years MicroCinemaFest. Click here to check out the opening scene.

Start a guerrilla drive-in. This is awesome! And I may seriously do it. This “instructable” gives step by step instructions.

Wages of Sin hits the iPhone. Director Nathyn Masters has been aggressive about making his movie available via new formats (it was the first indie released for Apple TV) and now he is going after the iPhone audience. iPhone downloads are now available at the bargain price of 99 cents.

Eric Stanze’s DEADWOOD PARK, will be released on October 9th, 2007. The movie is being distributed by Cinema Epoch in partnership with Koch Entertainment.

Steven Soderbergh goes apeshit over the RED ONE. ”This is the camera I’ve been waiting for my whole career: jaw-dropping imagery recorded onboard a camera light enough to hold with one hand. I don’t know how Jim and the RED team did it–and they won’t tell me–but I know this: RED is going to change everything.”

Cinema Tech’s Scott Kirsner sat down with animator M dot Strange (director of We Are The Strange) and conducted this interview which ranges from building an on-line audience to the iTunes store to a new vision for digital multiplex theaters. “He’s based in San Jose—and he is what you’d call a dyed-in-the-wool indie,” writes Kirsner.

R.I.P. Edward Yang. The director of Yi-Yi (A One and a Two) has passed away due to complications from colon cancer.

SXSW Click Finalists have been announced. Check them out and cast your vote for the Popularity Contest Award. Winners will be announced August 1.

1,000 Indie HD-DVDs Project. Microsoft and Amazon (Customflix) team up to bring 1,000 independent movies to the HD-DVD format. Sundance Channel will be reviewing the titles for possible broadcast.

Indie filmmakers are going apeshit over the Canon HV20 and Film Flap has a roundup of all kinds of gadgets and techniques for this unassuming little camera.

Adobe CS3 Production Premium is now shipping! To celebrate, Bob Donlon shows you how to make CGI fireworks in After Effects. Have a great 4th of July!