Here is the short film selection for Front Yard Fest 2011! The films are wide-ranging in scope, all hand-selected for your after-dark viewing enjoyment. Click the little pictures to jump down and read about a specific film …
The Corner
The Corner is a boxing film masterfully shot in one 7-minute take, directed by Bret Zausmer.
Zausmer is from Austin, Texas, and graduated from The University of Texas in 2007. He subsequently started a visual effects company, foci Studios, with his UT professor, Arie Stavchansky. In 2010, Zausmer was accepted into the Broadcast/Cinema program at Art Center College of Design, with a focus on directing.
More info: foci.tv
The Sandwich Movie
The Sandwich Movie is a sweet, funny 4-minute-long animated documentary about filial love, by filmmaker Sean David Christensen. Christensen is the founder of Square One Cinema, a production coalition devoted to creating unique films with evocative imagery and emotional storytelling.
Christensen’s work has screened worldwide at art museums & film festivals, including the 60th Festival de Cannes, and online to wide audiences around the world. He is the recipient of the 2009 “AZ Award,” an annual recognition given by the ASU Art Museum for outstanding achievements in filmmaking and video art, as well as Grand Prize winner of the Cave Creek Film & Arts Festival for The Sandwich Movie. A proud Arizona native, Christensen now lives and works in Los Angeles.
More info: squareonecinema.com
Too Sunny For Santa
Too Sunny For Santa is a beautifully acted, deeply touching 17-minute film by Erica Tachoir.
Tachoir is an award-winning filmmaker, editor, and a graduate of New York Universityʼs Tisch School of the Arts. Her work as a director has been screened at many film festivals including Nashville, Malibu, San Diego, and the Ohio Independent Film Festival, as well as garnering recognition and support from the AmericanLife TV Network. As a director, she has studied at the prestigious FAMU in Prague and in New York with the Atlantic Theater Company. As an editor, her work spans numerous films, commercials, and corporate campaigns for organizations such as the Love/Avon Foundation, Ann Taylor Loft, and the Connecticut Historical Society. Tachoir is a co-founder of Buffalo Picture House.
More info: buffalopicturehouse.com
Dada
Dada is a laugh-out-loud-funny absurdist period film that chronicles two brothers who are obsessed with stealing Marcel Duchamp’s shovel back from their arch-nemesis. Written and directed by B.C. Jones, Dada was shot on film and runs about 12 minutes.
B.C. Jones is an award-winning filmmaker who graduated with a BFA
in Film from Watkins College of Art and Design. After working in post
production for the Sci-Fi Channel, Hallmark Hall of Fame and American
Idol, he moved into producing music videos. B.C.’s music video
work includes the breakout video for the song “Shut Me Up” performed
by Mindless Self Indulgence, which was directed by famed comic book
artist Jhonen Vasquez and spent three months at number one on the
MySpace video charts. In addition to his producer credits, B.C. has also
directed numerous short films and music videos. His short film Dada
won the Platinum Reel Award at the Nevada film festival and screened
at San Diego Comic Con, the Director’s Guild of America and the LA
Comedy Shorts Film Festival.
More info: cinester.com
Write of Passage
It’s a B. C. Jones two-fer! Write of Passage is a 9-minute black-and-white film about a down and out writer, struggling with a case of writer’s block, who must face his greatest nemesis — his own typewriter. Directed in Jones’s characteristically whimsical fashion, this is a largely silent film, with the exception of three profanities. Perfect.
More info: cinester.com
Soldiers Under Command
Stryper was the first Christian metal band to successfully cross over from church basements to the Sunset Strip. Throughout the eighties, they sold millions of records worldwide with hits such as “Honestly,” “Free,” and “To Hell with the Devil.”
Stryper broke up in 1992. Eleven years later, they agreed to reunite for a one-time show at a Christian university outside Pasadena, California.
Directed by Greg Fiering and Matt Luem, and produced by Ian Christe and James Reid, Soldiers Under Command is more or less a non-fictional, 18-minute-long, Christian Spinal Tap. Utterly amazing.
More info: letfuryhavethehour.com
Caleb Couldn’t Love
Caleb Couldn’t Love is a warm 16-minute heartstring-tugger from Kieran Thompson, about a boy who grows up thinking that love can kill you.
Thompson is a director, producer, and writer from Tempe, Arizona. He earned his Associates Degree from Scottsdale Community College with an emphasis in film production and graduated from the Los Angeles Film School with a double major in directing and producing, where he wrote, produced, and directed Caleb Couldn’t Love as his thesis film.
Most recently Thompson directed and produced RED, a short thriller set in 1954. RED has screened in Los Angeles, London, Fort Lauderdale, Phoenix, and at the Garden State and Hoboken Film Festivals.
More info: kieranthompson.com
The Eater
The Eater is an 11-minute-long comedy, by Niko Hronopoulos, that takes you just a little way inside the guy-eats-dogs world of competitive eating.
Hronopoulos is a filmmaker who is based in Los Angeles currently, but has spent many years living in Greece. The Eater is his first stab at comedy. Next up is a drama, set to film in July.
