I have been able to watch John Hanshaw’s Guerrilla Film Fest
grow from a wee stripling to what it was last Saturday: a major event set in a serious venue.
I was unable to attend the Guerrilla Film Fest 7PM showing, but Maggie, David, Cheryl, Wendy, and I sat rapt by the quality of the short films presented in Guerrilla Film Fest 6 showing at 9:30PM. The two seatings — 7PM and 9:30PM — presented different films and I feel bad about missing any of them.
Although I agree with David Gelles’s article, Guerilla Film Fest a Blast, “I was particularly taken by LA VIE D’UN CHIEN a fable about a Parisian scientist who turns himself, and a great swath of the population, into happy canines,” I was very satisfied with the film Cashback because I appreciate Sean Ellis’ vision.
As a photographer, I have always feared that I was the only man who appreciated the female form so fervorently and with such an eye for line and grace. No friend of mine has ever seen me sketch anything but the female nude. Any other subject is a waste of charcoal or carbon. I would consider it a waste of film, too, but I get paid to burn film!
It was such a pleasure to discover that Sean Ellis comes from the world of photography and is a photographer:
Cashback, written and directed by photographer Sean Ellis, has been awarded the Gold Hugo and Best Short Film Award by the 40th Chicago International Film Festival (7-21 October). As part of the Short Narrative Competition, it was chosen from over 1,000 entrants. Its success in Chicago makes it eligible for the 2006 Academy Awards.
Part ensemble comedy, part visual monologue and starring Sean Biggerstaff and Emilia Fox, Cashback focuses on the characters who work the late-night shift at a local supermarket. Selected for worldwide festival support by the British Council, the film received its world premiere at the prestigious Sao Paulo International Short Film Festival in Brazil in September. Sales are handled by the British Film Institute.
La Vie d’un Chien is charming and endearing, Cashback is brilliant.
David was right about the rest of the night, “The reception was also a hoot, with a gaggle of DC’s brightest mingling as the weather beat against large glass panes looking onto Foggy Bottom streets.” We were mostly able to avoid the torrential storm and got to catch up with all of our “DC’s brightest” friends before retiring back to suburban Virginia. David got it wrong in one regard, they were also DC’s most beautiful.
John and the rest of the Guerrilla Film Fest gang for all of your hard work. I will almost forgive you all for subjecting me to that most appalling, muddy, poorly-photographed, talentless, and inspiration-free underwater film that taunted us both before the 9:30PM showing and then mercilessly followed us to the reception. I almost topped myself right there.
