2010 Official Film Selections

Learn more about the 2010 Official Film Selections for the Eugene International Film Festival and the winners of that year.

Winners

Best Short Short Animation
A Complex Villainelle
Producers: Howard Cook (Ex.), Tripp Vroman
Directors: Bart Ovaitt, Nathan Billington, Rebecca Forth, Ryan Porter, Howard Cook
Writer: Jonathan Goldstein

Best Action Narrative
A Lonely Place for Dying
Producer: Justin Evans
Director: Justin Evans
Writer: Justin Evans

Best Short Short Narrative
Beans
Producers: Marly Reed, Dan Pierce (Co.)
Director: Marly Reed
Writer: Marly Reed

Most Socially Engaging Feature
Behind The Door of a Secret Girl
Producer: Jack Kohler
Director: Janessa Starkey
Writers: Janessa Starkey, Jack Kohler

Best Short Short Comedy
Blackstar Warrior
Producers: Matt Haley, Jordan Weisman, Tim Whitcomb (Ex.)
Director: Matt Haley
Writer: David Walker

Best Narrative Feature by a Pacific Northwest Filmmaker
Calvin Marshall
Producers: Anne Lundgren, Michael Matondi, Gary Kout (Line), Mark Cunningham (Ex.)
Director: Gary Lundgren
Writer: Gary Lundgren

Best Art/Experimental Short
Carmen
Producers: Paola Marino, Benedetta Marassi (Co.), Neil Travis Bailey (Co.)
Director: Paolo Marino
Writer: Paolo Marino

Most Original
Cesar’s World
Producer: Yanet Candelario
Director: Mark Sanders
Writer: Yanet Candelario

Best Horror Short
Clemency
Producer: Doug Thagard
Director: Joseph Albanese
Writers: Charlie Frazier (Co.), Chris Frazier (Co.), Joseph Albanese (Co.)

Best Sci-Fi Short
Cockpit: The Rule of Engagement
Producer: Charles Danek
Director: Jesse Griffith
Writer: Jesse Griffith

Best Youth Theme Short Short
Decklin and the Dentist
Producers: Gerard Roxburgh, Lance Durmais (Ex.)
Director: Lance Dumais
Writer: Lance Dumais

Best Behind the Scenes, Making Of
Hot Toxic Love: The Making of The Toxic Avenger Musical
Producer: Laura McLeod (Assoc.)

Best Documentary Feature by a Pacific Northwest Filmmaker
Imagining Home
Producers: Richard Wilhelm, Sue Arbuthnot
Directors: Richard Wilheilm, Sue Arbuthnot

Most Memorable
In The Footsteps of Elie Wiesel
Producers: Paul Barrett, Bert Hesse (Ex.), Stephanie Ansaldo (Ex.)
Director: Stephanie Ansaldo
Writer: Mark DeCastrique

Best Pilot
Kilo
Producers: Colin Ducey, Aaron Owen (ex.), Ben Scantlin (Ex.), Keil Murray (Ex.), Phil Lorin (Ex.)
Directors: Keil Murray, Phil Lorin
Writers: Keil Murrary, Phil Lorin

Best Short Narrative
Monkeywrench
Producers: Myna Joseph, Trevor Sagan (Ex.)
Director: Chris Teague
Writer: Chris Teague

Best Comedy Short
Mother of the Year
Producers: Adrienne Zi, Jeremy Cunningham Green (Co.) Jonathan Sidy (Ex.,) Steve Garret (Ex.)
Director: Adrienne Zi
Writer: Adrienne Zi

Most Socially Engaging Feature by a Pacific Northwest Filmmaker
Multiracial Identity
Producer: Brian Chinhema
Director: Brian Chinhema
Writer: Brian Chinhema

Best Family Issue FeatureBest Cinematography
The Presence
Producers: Brandon Blake, Tom Rice, Dan Myrick (Ex.)
Director: Tom Provost
Writer: Tom Provost

Biggest Bang for the Buck
Redux
Producers: Christopher Moro, Michael P. Tedford (Assoc.), Sean Moro (Ex.)
Director: Sean Moro
Writer: Sean Moro

Most Socially Engaging Short
Resuscitate
Producer: Ken Gregg
Director: Ken Gregg
Writer: Dave Jenkins

The Sandwich Days
Best Comedy Short by a Pacific Northwest Filmmaker
Producer: Phil Vaira
Director: Phil Vaira
Writers: Matthew Dressel, Andrea Walters (Co.) Phil Vaira (Co.)

Board Choice Award
Santorini Blue
Producers: Deirdre Lorenz, Matthew D. Panepinto (Ex.), Richard Belzer (Ex.)
Director: Matthew D. Panepinto
Writer: Matthew D. Panepinto

Best Feature Documentary
Schooling the World, The White Man’s Last Burden
Producers: Jim Hurst, Mark Grossan, Neal Marlens
Director: Carol Black

Best Narrative Feature
Seducing Charlie Barker
Producers: Lynn Webb, Maurice Kanbar (Ex.), Owen Seitel (Co.), Daphne Zuniga (Assoc.)
Director: Amy Glazer
Writer: Theresa Rebeck

Best Animation Short
Slap Back Jack “High Five Master”
Producer: Mark Newell
Director: Mark Newell
Writer: Mark Newell

Best International Subject
Streetball
Producers: Michael L. Smith, Christina Ghubril (Co.), Demetrius Wren (Co.), Mike Mastrocinque (Assoc.), Taryn Aveley (Assoc.)
Director: Demetrius Wren

Best Family Issue Feature by a Pacific Northwest Filmmaker
What Happened, Dad?
Producer: Ralph Conradt
Director: Ralph Conradt
Writer: Ralph Conradt

Best Feature Comedy
X’s & O’s
Producers: Kedar Korde, George Themelis (Co.)
Director: Kedar Korde
Writer: Kedar Korde

2010 Selections

100 Miles to 40
Follow Michelle as she runs 100 miles in a single day, through the night, heat, cold and the occasional river to forge. The track is an old Sierra Nevada miners trail. This is the Western States Endurance Run with 18,000 feet of elevation and temperatures of up to 106 degrees.

A Complex Villainelle
The man known as the Penguin is a poet and a dandy. Though popular because he throws lavish parties, recites complex villanelles and is an authority on umbrella flight, he is nevertheless alone. When he is introduced to a lovely nanny named Mary Poppins, who happens to share his affinity for umbrella flight, could love be in the air?

A Lonely Place for Dying
KGB mole Nikolai Dzerzhinsky is set to meet a reporter at an abandoned Mexican prison in the Chihuahua Desert. He is determined to reveal explosive evidence against the CIA. It’s 1972 and Special Agent Robert Harper must destroy the evidence and kill Dzerzhinsky to preserve his CIA career.

A Simple Question: The Story of STRAW

In 1992 a fourth grade class project became the educational program now called STRAW, “Students and Teachers Restoring a Watershed.” Scores of children empowered and inspired by working with ranchers, scientists and government agencies have restored over 20 miles of a watershed 20 miles north of San Francisco.

A Temporary Life
With a pocket full of sunshine, small town Maggie Brunk throws her youthful self into the stress of big city work and office relationships as a temp. Is this life to be her calling?

Alex and The Ghosts (Alex et les fantômes)
Young Alex was captivated by the stories his grandfather had told him about the old legends of hockey and how they became the ghosts of the Montreal Canadiens. Now that his grandfather is gone he longs to share the enchanted world his grandfather created through his stories with his overworked father, also a great hockey fan.

Arcadia Lost
Step-siblings Charlotte and Sye swim between life and death in a submerging car. They enter a surreal world set in Greece where they are guided through life-changing experiences by vagabond philosopher Benerji (Nick Nolte). To survive they must imagine what it means to be family, grow up and live.

The Baja Wave Document
Under threat of mega development, an unlikely alliance of surfers and fishermen fight to protect the unspoiled beauty and life-sustaining bounty of Baja, California.

Beans
Charlie’s mother gives her a coin for the candy machine while they are shopping. She enjoys her disappearing handful of jelly beans until a single black one remains. Contemplating its destiny, she hatches a plan to grow her very own jelly bean tree in the backyard.

Behind the Door of A Secret Girl
Sammy is a teenage cutter living with her meth addict mother on the Indian Ridge Reservation. Her mother’s lover is a drug dealer using the reservation as a cover to avoid federal law. David, Sammy’s best friend, is a foster youth living nearby. He helps her escape the dysfunctional life she’s had to endure since her father died.

BlackStar Warrior
What if Lando Calrissian were the hero of “Star Wars?” “Blackstar Warrior” is a parody trailer celebrating the 30th Anniversary of “The Empire Strikes Back.” Starring Leonard Roberts of “Heroes” fame, Directed by Superman comic artist Matt Haley and Written by film historian and critic David Walker. The “Glam Troopers” and other cast members will be attending.

Calvin Marshall
Calvin Marshall’s childhood dream of playing Major League Baseball is in serious jeopardy. For three years he has tried unsuccessfully to make the Bayford Bisons Junior College team. Could a new calling be on deck? An acclaimed coming-of-age comedy filmed in Ashland and Medford, OR.

Carmen
Inspired by the sensual and free-spirited character of Bizet’s “Carmen.” In this four-minute short, Carmen dictates erotic games by engaging in an interaction of control and submission. Contemporary scenes unfold through live action to the luring tempo of the aria “Habanera.”

Cesar’s World
Young Cesar has an innocent crush on his teacher. She, however, fancies the Principal. Cesar seeks advice from his father regarding his new and unfamiliar interest. Assuming Cesar’s blossoming interest is directed at a classmate, his father recommends flowers. Let the petals fall where they may.

Chickens of the Sea
…a sea of grass, that is. Most of the native prairie in North America is gone. The Prairie chicken has become rare. But, if you are lucky enough to find them, they are fun to watch.

Clemency
This chilling drama with a superb cast presents the story of a sadistic killer, Arthur Poe, who is granted clemency days before his execution. Presenting herself as a newspaper reporter the victim’s sister is granted an interview with Poe. It becomes an interview that will give you lasting goose bumps.

Cockpit: The Rule of Engagement
In 2103, only one rule of spaceship combat prevents a mind controlling alien race away from Earth’s doorstep.

Death in Charge
Death is making the rounds. Mom answers the door expecting to see the babysitter. Assuming the person standing there is just another young Goth she gives instructions, introduces her daughter and dashes out the door. The child and Death have an amusing evening, until mom returns.

Decklin and The Dentist
Young Master Decklin and his sister must see the dentist. Decklin imagines a gauntlet of overstated fears as he waits in the office and later as he walks to the chair. He battles his fears and struggles to discern fantasy from reality. Will he survive his own imagination? Will he comfort his sister after his experiences?

Do No Harm
Hospital corruption and the plight of the uninsured are exposed in “Do No Harm.” Whistleblowers Dr. John Bagnato and Charles Rehberg endured relentless attacks in order to draw national attention to predatory hospital corruption in this sinister story.

Extraordinary Service
An anonymous helping hand from a cleaning woman helps a struggling young co-worker.

Father and Sister
A series of coincidences events brought about by a bee and a flower arrangement at a church result in unintended temptation.

Finding My Magic
An animated program created to help young children discover the magic within them to be positive, happy and successful. They are introduced to the “little black box” within and the “me messages” they can place inside to build self-esteem, assertiveness and confidence.

Fluorescent Gray
Midnight blue gossamer adds its patina to a bedtime conversation that defines the meaning of “love knows no bounds.”

The Hot Toxic Love: The Making of The Toxic Avenger Musical
This documentary presents the trials and tribulations of the actors and creative team involved in the making of a musical. The story follows Louise Pitre – the Grand Dame of Canadian theater and Evan Alexander Smith, a 21-year-old grad in his first legit production. They have to get their new production to the stage in four weeks.

Imagining Home
When nearly 400 low-income families in Portland, OR are displaced from their homes to make way for a “social experiment” in urban renewal, they must fight stereotypes of race and class. Residents struggle for empowerment, healing and community as they return to the redeveloped neighborhood.

In The Footsteps of Elie Weisel
Twelve American students follow the extraordinary life of Nobel Peace Prize winner Elie Wiesel from his birth place in the Transylvania Mountains, through the death camps of Hitler’s Third Reich and into the present.

The Incredible Space Adventures of V-33
V-33, a robot in space, is bored with his dull and lackluster mission. He decides to create a companion.

Into Darkness
Cavers take you on a journey few will ever experience first hand. The images are spectacular in the underworld of caves, one of the final mysterious frontiers on earth.

Island of the Gondoliers
“City of Lost Children” meets Fellini’s “La Strada” in this Venetian steampunk adventure about a bookish Italian historian named Leo Ghianti whose obsessive quest to find the last survivors of a forgotten genocide leads him into a frightening confrontation with a sinister circus.

Journey of a Paper Son
Dying from cancer, an elderly Chinese man shocks his family when he asks to be buried under his real name, a name unknown to the family. He was a victim of the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882, repealed in 1943.

Junebug
His parents were church leaders, he was a Gangster Disciple. This is the story of Luther McKinstry, “Junebug,” and his transition from a life of drugs and gang banging to the founding of Luther McKinstry Ministries after being ordained as a minister of the gospel. He will be attending the EIFF for the screening of “Junebug.”

Keep Dancing
Legendary dancers Marge Champion and Donald Saddler became friends while performing together in the Broadway Show Follies (2001). They are both 90 years old and when the show closed they decided to rent a private studio so they could continue to rehearse original dances. Champion was a dance model for “Snow White.”

Kidnap
A little chicken is late for school, but her excuse is too wild to believe: getting kidnapped on the way to school. Her excuse turns into a saga that enshrines her as a master storyteller.

Kilo
A female San Francisco officer, Min Lee, loses a kilo of cocaine during a foot chase. Desperate not to go back empty-handed, she enlists her arrestee to buy a second one.

Let’s Talk About Sex
The hyprocrisy surrounding sex and sexuality in America is creating havoc and young people are paying the price. The conversation engages six young people and expands to the Bible Belt, Oregon and The Netherlands. Working solutions are examined.

The Lift
An insensitive young woman pushes the “close” button as an elderly woman approaches the elevator. Oops!

The Macabre World of Lavender Williams
Eight-year-old Lavender Williams, who recently lost her mother to cancer, sets off on an epic journey to find her dad, whom she’s never met. Her only companion is Lester, her late pet who’s returned from the grave to help her. The journey won’t be easy for Lavender and her zombie dog as the evil presence of Sheriff Murdstone stalks them at every turn.

The Man With All The Marbles (“Mannen med kulorna”)
Two estranged brothers attempt to resolve their rivalry in a series of high-stakes games of marbles. One, Hâkan, is successfully running the family business, while the other, Martin, is homeless. Millions of dollars and pride are at risk for both.

Milking The Rhino
The Maasai of Kenya and Namibia’s Himba – two of the Earth’s oldest cattle cultures – are in the midst of upheaval. After a century of “white man conservation,” which has displaced them and fueled resentment towards wildlife, they are now vying to share the wildlife tourism pie and cope with deep cultural change.

Monkeywrench
A young environmental activist finds her ideology tested in a forest on the verge of being clearcut.

Mother of the Year
She’s raised her only son in the Catholic faith. On his 22nd birthday he tells the family he’s gay and moving in with his Jewish partner. Dad dares her to find a church that will marry the gay couple, and also raise half the money for the wedding. With the help of her crazy, 35 year old atheist sister the adventure begins.

Multiracial Identity
Multiracial people are the fastest-growing demographic in America, yet there is no official recognition for mixed-race people. “Multiracial Identity” lays bare the social, political, and religious impact of this emerging culture.

No Limit Kids: Much Ado About Middle School
First-year middle school students begin meeting in an old abandoned theater on Main St. Inside they find a piece of their town’s history, a kind homeless man, Charlie (Bill Cobbs), and mutual acceptance. United, the kids set out to save the theater from impending development and protect Charlie’s safe haven.

One Summer At Camp Winston
Camp Winston accepts children with complex neurological disorders. Filmed in an intimate cinéma vérité style the story is warm, sometimes funny and often challenging. Staff members, some of whom struggle with disorders of their own, help these children with Tourette Syndrome, Asperger’s Syndrome and autism build self-esteem.

Parables
A collection of short films, each drawn from a Biblical parable.
1. The Cafeteria
(Pilot episode shown last year)
2. The Coffee Shop
3. CupCakes
4. Show and Tell
5. Fashion Statement
6. Let it Shine

The Presence
A woman played by Academy Award Winner Mira Sorvino travels to an isolated cabin where she finds herself stalked by an apparition who has come to inhabit her space as his own. With the unexpected arrival of the woman’s boyfriend the dark spirit’s haunting grows more obsessive.

Redux
A mystical force allows a down on his luck businessman to relive the night he was murdered in order to fulfill his destiny and save someone else’s life.

Resuscitate
Kent, unemployed for two years, decides suicide is an attractive option. He chooses a local hardware store parking lot to undertake his mission. A teenage shopping cart retriever sensing something is wrong uses her quick wit and humor to drive this plot forward.

Ronan’s Escape
Set in the rural wheat belt of Western Australia, Ronan is bullied constantly at school. On his way home this day he seeks refuge where he has many times before, in the shade of a majestic Australian gum tree atop a gentle hill. The experiences that have brought him here are too common in real life.

Sally
Grief and remorse forge a collision course as a teenage girl’s father and her accidental killer grapple with their demons.

The Sandwich Days
Billiam, constantly tormented by a bully and airborne sandwiches because of his name, decides to ignore his mother’s advice and fight back with the help of his friend Tim and 100 sandwiches.

Santorini Blue
Alexandra and Felix, both writers, are a seemingly happy couple living in New York. She discovers that Felix is having an affair and retreats to Santorini, Greece to continue her writing. Felix learns of her whereabouts and, deeply regretting his behavior, follows after her. The island nurtures romance and temptation for both Felix and Alexandra.

Schooling the World: The White Man’s Last Burden
What happens when a traditional culture is re-educated? “Schooling the World” takes a challenging, sometimes entertaining and deeply disturbing look at the effects of modern education on the world’s last sustainable indigenous peoples.

Scottish Bob
The entire family is gathered together for a funeral, except for Bob. Typically absent, he rudely walks into the service and the day can only end in disaster. This comedy is a shell game of props. Nobody could imagine that hapless Bob would ever sink this low.

Seducing Charlie Barker
A gifted actor, Charlie Barker, begins his fall from grace as he encounters a chameleon-like social climber in the Manhattan entertainment industry. He is out of work, while his wife is a competent, assured television producer. His self-respect becomes surreal, then suddenly too real.

Slap Back Jack
Superstar baseball player Bub Stocky makes the winning hit, but flubs his high fives, loses out on his lows, and punks out on his pounds at the home plate celebration. The coach sends Bub to train with Slap Back Jack, the high five master.

Sowing the Seeds of Justice
Cruz Reynoso felt the sting of injustice as a child. Later as a lawyer, judge and counter-balance to intolerance for Constitutional rights he shaped history. Born into a Spanish-speaking farm family he became the first Latino justice of the California Supreme Court.

Streetball
Sixteen years after the end of apartheid there remains a generation that lives in extreme poverty. From this demographic a group of young men band together to fight for their place in the 2008 Homeless World Cup. The team consists of ex-convicts, former gangsters, orphans and recovering drug addicts that are set to prove that no one is beyond redemption.

Summer
Love is precious. “Summer” is an animated interpretation of Antonio Vivaldi’s “L’estate: Adagio.”

Taco Mary
An unmistakable image of the Virgin Mary appears in the taco of an atheist. What is he to do?

What Happened, Dad?
A student with a 3.95 GPA is permanently injured under the noses of coaching staff. The high school football industry is anything but safe, often played using sub-par equipment. Debilitating youth sports injuries are not uncommon across America. This is the chilling story behind Oregon’s “Max’s Law.”

Why Do You Have A Beard?
Inspired by an airport security question this short film presents the rich ethnic diversity of humanity as animated faces morph from one culture to the next.

X’s & O’s
Everyone needs a strategy to score. While it’s not smooth sailing for a group of young men and women seeking relationships, it is great entertainment.

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