 |
 |
 |
||
|
||||
|
Oct. 30, 2009
HDSIFF on tap for Nov. 5-7 at the Nugget
By CHARLENE DEAN
Starting Thursday at the Pahrump Nugget will be the fourth annual High Desert Shorts International Film Festival. This year, Linda Kass, founder of the festival, said she's had to forgo financial help from the town in producing the event, but in lieu of that help has discovered viable exposure garnering film entries from all over the world. "We've got entries from every continent accept Antarctica," she said. All of the work to produce the festival has come from volunteers and the artwork selected for the event posters came from a local contest. The winner, Jennifer Sattelberg, is a student at Pahrump Valley High School. Kass credits this year's success to a paid Web site called withoutthebox.com, where the film festival here has gotten worldwide exposure. She said other free advertising outlets have been in the form of American Profile, the AAA publication "VIA" and RV Magazine. One of the attractions for filmmakers to enter their productions in this particular film festival is Kass' goal of marking the festival films for Oscar nominations. "It has been my goal from year one to meet the requirement and get the festival eligible for Oscars," she said. "This is year four. Among other things, it takes five years of holding a consecutive annual film festival to qualify, and next year we will have met all the requirements and will have reached that goal." She said the first film festival had 24 entries, the second had 50 entries, last year had 77 entries and this year there are 103. "We're just getting bigger and better." The 103 were selected from over 200 entries. Kass noted that 70 percent of other places holding film festivals in the past have dropped their efforts due to the economy and lack of grant funding for the projects. Included on the list is CineVegas, and Kass said there were some very big names on the Las Vegas film festival board of directors. "I won't allow this festival to fail," she said. "I'm dedicated and these filmmakers are like my kids. They deserve success." According to Kass, some of the films to be shown are already worthy of an Oscar. There are six film categories which will receive a $100 award. There will also be a people's choice award to be calculated by a tally of votes. Each person attending a screening will receive a "voting stone." After the screening, attendees will put the stone in a container labeled with their favorite film. At the end of screening on Saturday, the votes will be counted. Judging for the other awards will be done by "industry professionals" who are volunteering their time and expertise. Kass said there won't be any big-name actors appearing this year. In the past, those people have been compensated and the funds just weren't available. She did say there are some well-known actors starring in some of the films. Scouts from Los Angeles, Las Vegas and Florida have contacted Kass and expressed interest in coming here to check out the talent. Even though there are no comps this year, Kass said it doesn't seem to matter. Filmmakers are coming anyway even though there will be no comps for rooms and meals. Kass said even though no seed money was available to help provide the comps, she said the festival "wouldn't have come this far without the town to help in previous years." Tickets for the film festival screenings are $1 for children 5 or under, $2 for all others and $20 will buy an all-access pass. On Thursday and Friday nights, beginning at 11 p.m., the screenings will take on adult themes where language and nudity will limit attendance to those over 18. The late-night screenings will last until around 1 a.m. The festival winds down Saturday around 5:30 p.m. with the awards presentations. Kass said this year it's all about the films. She said there will be an after-party at Tommasino's. To see a complete list of category screenings, titles and times go to www.highdesertshortsiff.com. |
|
