Early Start

Getting a little earlier start this year than last. Looking at venues. Trying to find money. You know how it goes.

This year we’re emphasising collaboration and co-sponsoring. In recent years, there’s been a lot of duplication of efforts in our little community and we believe our mission can be better served at this point not by trying to go it alone but by adding our strengths to other projects when our strengths can be utilized in a mutually beneficial manner. We’ll see how it goes. I have to believe in the strength of our community to work together?

Anyway, we’ve been talking with several other existing non-profit groups and other local businesses around town to try to pull off some interesting shows this year. It means letting go of some control of the entire presentation. We hope and believe it will be worth it.

Stay tuned!

2013 February Festival Schedule is Up

We have a collection of 9 titles showing over 4 days (February 7, 8, 9 & 10). Some show once. Some show twice. Some show three times. But they’re all noteworthy films!

JCRD-Logo_smWe’re pricing tickets at $5.00 each this year because we received a micro-grant from the Johnson County Recreation District which makes it much easier for us to plan films (especially around Oscar Season).

Speaking of the Oscars. Have you seen the nominations? We’ll be showing the Live Action and Animated Shorts that have been nominated. If you look at our Full Schedule you can see if any other nominees will be showing up on our screen this winter.

You can look at titles by day (see links up there, below our banner) or by viewing the entire list sorted alphabetically. Click on a title to view more info about a title and to buy tickets. Once you buy tickets we should be able to send you a printable PDF of a voucher that you can then bring to the movie. This is beta software. A test. Let’s see how it goes, okay? If you try it out and have any questions, feel free to contact us.

Hotmail, MSN, etc Blocking eMail from Us

It would seem that Microsoft is blocking emails originating at our new host. I’ll be contacting Dreamhost.com about this and hopefully hotmail and msn users will contact their people and we can have our people talk to their people and all the people will send and receive emails. And love.

2013 Spring Festival

We’re putting together a little something different this spring. I’ve made a deal with Bill Cooley to use his space again. This year we’re going to show movies a little earlier. February 7, 8 & 9 are the dates. We’ll have the Oscar Nominated Shorts again, both Live Action as well as Animated. So, instead of running for several weeks, we’re going to program several films to show a few times each over those three days.

We’re still negotiating titles (and the terms for those) but hope to have an ad in the paper, a newsletter sent out soon, and a schedule here as soon as possible.

Stay tuned!

Spring Series of Six Sewed Up

We’re all finished with our series this spring. Once again we had a good range of responses to the films and good discussions and thoughts were provoked.

Weather and inertia were not in our favor this spring, but we persevered and all in all, it was good.

Thanks so much to Bill Cooley for sharing his studio with us. What a great space! If you have any photography work you’ve been meaning to take care of, give Bill a call. World class portaiture (is that a word?) right here in Buffalo.

Also thank you to Gordie, Tim, Susi and Heather for all your help and support. And to our committed audience members who shared such terrific eats six Saturdays in a row!

Now…on to the future!

2012’s Oscar Nominated Shorts – Animated

7:00PM Sat, March 31st, 2012
(PG, approx 80 min.)
28 S. Main St., Buffalo, WY
(Bring-n-Share Munchies at 6:00PM)
$36 season tickets or $9.00 at the door

Previews can be found on shorts.tv‘s website. (Possible spoilers, especially if you still don’t know who the winners are.)

A Morning Stroll
UK / 7 MINS
Director(s): Grant Orchard
Producer(s): Sue Goffe

When a New Yorker walks past a chicken on his morning stroll, we are left to wonder which one is the real city slicker.

Dimanche/Sunday
CANADA / 9 MINS
Director(s): Patrick Doyon
Producer(s): Marc Bertrand

Every Sunday, it’s the same old routine! The train clatters through the village and almost shakes the pictures off the wall. In the church, Dad dreams about his toolbox. And of course later Grandma will get a visit and the animals will meet their fate.

LA LUNA
USA / 7 MINS
Director(s): Enrico Casarosa
Producer(s): Kevin Reher – John Lasseter (Executive Producer)

“La Luna” is the timeless fable of a young boy who is coming of age in the most peculiar of circumstances. Tonight is the very first time his Papa and Grandpa are taking him to work. In an old wooden boat they row far out to sea, and with no land in sight, they stop and wait. A big surprise awaits the little boy as he discovers his family’s most unusual line of work. Should he follow the example of his Papa, or his Grandpa? Will he be able to find his own way in the midst of their conflicting opinions and timeworn traditions?

The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore
USA / 17 MINS
Director(s): William Joyce & Brandon Oldenburg
Producer(s): Lampton Enochs Jr., Trish Farnsworth-Smith, Alissa M. Kantrow

Inspired, in equal measures, by Hurricane Katrina, Buster Keaton, The Wizard of Oz, and a love for books, The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore is a poignant, humorous allegory about the curative powers of story. Using a variety of techniques (miniatures, computer animation, 2D animation) co-directors William Joyce and Brandon Oldenburg present a hybrid style of animation that harkens back to silent films and MGM Technicolor musicals. Morris Lessmore is old fashioned and cutting edge at the same time.

Wild Life
CANADA / 14 MINS
Director(s): Amanda Forbis, Wendy Tilby
Producer(s): Marcy Page, Bonnie Thompson

Calgary, 1909. An Englishman moves to the Canadian frontier, but is singularly unsuited to it. His letters home are much sunnier than the reality. Intertitles compare his fate to that of a comet.

Extra Films
  • Skylight
  • The Hybrid Union
  • Nullarbor
  • Amazonia

2012’s Oscar Shorts – Live Action

7:00PM Sat, March 24th, 2012
(PG-13, approx 110 min.)
28 S. Main St., Buffalo, WY
(Bring-n-Share Munchies at 6:00PM)
$36 season tickets or $9.00 at the door

Previews can be found on shorts.tv‘s website. (Possible spoilers, especially if you still don’t know who the winners are.)

Pentecost
IRELAND / 11 MINS
Director(s): Peter McDonald
Producer(s): Eimear O’Kane

When Damian is forced to serve as an altar boy at an important mass in his local parish he faces a difficult choice: conform to the status quo or serve an extended ban from his passion in life, football.

Raju
GERMANY / INDIA / 24 MINS
Director(s): Max Zähle
Producer(s): Stefan Gieren

A German couple adopts in Kolkata an Indian orphan. Their child suddenly disappears and they realize that they are part of the problem.

The Shore
NORTHERN IRELAND / 30 MINS
Director(s): Terry George
Producer(s): Oorlagh George

THE SHORE is the uplifting story of two boyhood best friends – Joe (Ciarán Hinds) and Paddy (Conleth Hill) divided for 25 years by the tumult of “The Troubles”. When Joe returns home to Northern Ireland, his daughter Patricia brings the two men together for a reunion, with unexpected results. What happened all those years ago? Can old wounds be healed? The answer is both hilarious and moving. THE SHORE is about one of the small personal reconciliations that coincide with a national reconciliation.

Time Freak
USA / 11 MINS
Director(s): Andrew Bowler
Producer(s): Gigi Causey

A neurotic inventor creates a time machine, only to get caught up traveling around yesterday.

Tuba Atlantic
NORWAY / 25 MINS
Director(s): Hallvar Witzø
Producer(s): Gudrun Austli

When seventy-year-old Oskar is told that he has only six days left to live, he wants to put things right with his brother who lives in New Jersey. Inger, a public “death angel” is sent out to help Oscar through his remaining days. A huge horn stands at the edge of the sea, built by the brothers when they were kids. Will its sound cross the Atlantic?