CineVegas Blog

ETIENNE!, which world premiered at CineVegas 2009, will have screenings at film festivals across the country this fall. Directed by Jeff Mizushima (who won the Filmmaker to Watch Award at the 2009 fest), the film tells the story of Richard, who spends his days taking care of his best and only friend, a dwarf hamster named Etienne. When Etienne is diagnosed with terminal cancer, Richard decides to take him on a bicycle road trip up the California coast to show him the world before he must put him to sleep.

Click here to get the full list of screenings and to see if ETIENNE! will be coming to a theater near you!

For the most transgressive double-feature of the year, I caught the new Harmony Korine and Gaspar Noe films back-to-back in Toronto. I didn’t expect each film’s hopeful enthusiasm for innocent youth. read all »

HUMPDAY, which screened in the Sure Bets section at CineVegas 2009, opens in Vegas today at Regal Village Square. From director Lynn Shelton, and starring indie favorites Mark Duplass and Josh Leonard, HUMPDAY is a buddy movie gone wild.

It’s been a decade since Ben (Duplass) and Andrew (Leonard) were the bad boys of their college campus. Ben has settled down and found a job, wife, and home. Andrew took the alternate route as a vagabond artist, skipping the globe from Chiapas to Cambodia. When Andrew shows up unannounced on Ben’s doorstep, they easily fall back into their old dynamic of macho one-upmanship. Late into the night at a wild party, the two find themselves locked in a mutual dare: to enter an amateur porn contest together. But what kind of boundary-breaking, envelope pushing porn can two straight dudes make? After the booze and “big talk” run out, only one idea remains—they will have sex together…on camera. It’s not gay; it’s beyond gay. It’s not porn; it’s art. But how exactly will it work? And more importantly, who will tell Ben’s wife?

Regal Village Square is located at 9400 W. Sahara. Showtimes are 1:15, 3:45, 6:45 and 9:15. For more info on HUMPDAY, visit the film’s website here.

Video games, like films, always starts with story. Or at least the games that get it right. A Penny Arcade Expo 2009 panel, entitled “Media is the Massage,” hoped to address this notion with an all-star team consisting of Denis Dyack (President, Silicon Knights), Joseph Staten (Bungie, Creative Director), Tim Schafer (Founder, Double Fine), Greg Zeschuk (Group Creative Officer, RPG/MMO Group of EA and Co-Founder, BioWare) and moderator Adam Sessler (Editor-In-Chief, G4). My quick and dirty notes after the jump. read all »

HARMONY AND ME, which screened at the 2009 CineVegas Film Festival, will return to the Museum of Modern Art in New York – where it premiered in April at New Directors/New Films – for a series of screenings from September 18-24. Director Bob Byington will be present at the September 18 and 19 screenings to introduce the film and participate in a post-screening Q&A session.

HARMONY AND ME takes place in Austin, TX, where a melancholy young lyricist named Harmony refuses to let go of the heartbreak caused by a crushing breakup with his girlfriend. He remains stubbornly unhappy, reducing his story of lost love to a broken-record spiel that he repeats to friends, family and anyone else who will listen. Although his depression annoys his tough mom, Harmony’s friends, as oddball and eccentric as he, seem largely unaffected by his cultivation of misery.

For show times and additional information on HARMONY AND ME, visit the film’s website here.

Seems like no art form is without the argument of “what is indie?” I got a glimpse of this argument in the context of video games at a lively panel at Penny Arcade Expo 2009 moderated by N’Gai Croal (Consultant, Writer, Columnist, Hit Detection LLC). Below are my quick and dirty notes. So what is an indie game to you? read all »

Cory McAbee’s STINGRAY SAM, a breakout hit from both Sundance and CineVegas this year, is coming to screens of all sizes on September 15. To celebrate this event, STINGRAY SAM will premiere simultaneously in the theater and for free online!

The film will have its theater premiere in Los Angeles at the Downtown Independent, but if you can’t make it, just visit McAbee’s blog where you will see a billboard announcing the event.  At 7PM PST on the 15th, the billboard will turn into a live broadcast of the premiere from the theater. Following the event, if you have a question you would like to ask, feel free to join the conversation by entering the chat. The video chat option will allow you to be projected onto the theater’s silver screen.

September 15th also marks the date that STINGRAY SAM will be available for purchase exclusively from their website, which will offer iPod compatible digital downloads, DVD’s, STINGRAY SAM T-shirts, and the film’s soundtrack.

The film will have screenings all across the world this fall, so be sure to check out the film’s website for the upcoming schedule so that you can see STINGRAY SAM in your city!

Click here to watch HAPPY BIRTHDAY, HARRIS MALDEN for free!

A world premiere from the 2008 CineVegas Film Festival, the film is the debut feature from a group of filmmakers known as Sweaty Robot. Harris Malden fakes his facial hair, and as far as he’s concerned, nobody can tell. Everything is fine in Harris’ world – until Paul brings an outsider to his 25th birthday party who immediately calls out Harris’ hairy imposter, leaving the young man and his friends to deal with the fallout of his open secret.

As the 2009 Summer Series winds down, a severe gap in Rooftop Films’ budget threatens to drastically shrink their future programming. They must raise $70,000 by October to ensure that they can continue without compromise in 2010. Donations from supporters – whether it’s $1,000 or $100 or $10 – is crucial to that effort.

Bringing independent film to the diverse communities of New York City is central to their mission, which is why their 2009 Summer Series has gone ahead as planned despite major budget cuts behind the scenes. In fact, this has been a banner year for Rooftop – more premieres than ever before, groundbreaking partnerships with organizations like International Film Festival Rotterdam and Reel 13, and record audiences. By the end of the season, they will have presented more than 40 nights of incredible films in incredible locations.

Visit Rooftop Films’ website to read more about the programs your donations will support.

YOUTH KNOWS NO PAIN, which played in the Pioneer Documentaries section at the 2009 fest, will have its television premiere on HBO this Monday, August 31 at 9pm. 

In the film, an age-obsessed daughter of a plastic surgeon (filmmaker Mitch McCabe) takes a journey through America’s $60 billion a year anti-aging world. McCabe spends 2 years traveling across America visiting doctors, experts and lives with a cross-section of characters from Minnesota to Texas who’ve gone to varying lengths to “beat the clock,” to paint a funny, thought-provoking and event disturbing portrait of a country that desperately needs to stay forever young. 

Click here for additional information on the film, as well as future air dates.