Johns Hopkins Film Festival 2001 · Screenings Schedule

Saturday, April 14, 2001

3:00 PM Shriver Hall Auditorium
"5 Alive on 35!"
TRT: 99 min.

Dirt
(dir: Chel White)
Running Time: 4:00
Exhibition Format: 35mm
Some people are drug addicts. Others are sex addicts. And others...others eat dirt. Think Invasion of the Body Snatchers, only with lots and lots of dirt.

Seraglio
(dir: Gail Lerner & Colin Campbell)
Running Time: 13:00
Exhibition Format: 35mm
Oscar Nominated Short
A tale of passion and adultery that begins with a cabbage.

Faust/The Lost Feminine
(dir: John Hansen)
Running Time: 16:00
Exhibition Format: 35mm
Slamdance 2001 Selection
An incredibly complete dramatization of Goethe's Faust in a mere 16 minutes.

The Last Drawing of Canaletto
(dir: Cameron McNall)
Running Time: 4:00
Exhibition Format: 35mm
The magic of 3D computer rendering allows you to dive into 18th century Venetian artist Canaletto's last drawing: an eerily beautiful cathedral choir, expressions frozen on their faces.

Quiero Morir
(dir: Toni Meca)
Running Time: 16:00
Exhibition Format: 35mm
Psycho rapes and kills woman. Cop is woman's husband. Years later, psycho is paralyzed, wants to die, and begs the cop to pull the plug. What would YOU do?

Moving Illustrations of Machines
(dir: Jeremy Solterbeck)
Running Time: 9:00
Exhibition Format: 35mm
Luscious, rich, computer animation brings the human machine to life, from the inside out, like a steel ballet.

The Chromium Hook
(dir: James Stanger)
Running Time: 37:00
Exhibition Format: 35mm
In an ordinary Midwestern town, the urban legend of a man with a hook for a hand stalking young lovers proves true...and snowballs into an irreversible domino effect that exposes all the not-so-ordinary quirks of the hapless townsfolk.

Midnight Shriver Hall Auditorium
Midnight Movie Mayhem! Free Show!
TRT: 92 min.

Dirt
(dir: Chel White)
Running Time: 4:00
Exhibition Format: 35mm
Some people are drug addicts. Others are sex addicts. And others...others eat dirt. Think Invasion of the Body Snatchers, only with lots and lots of dirt.

God Made Man
(dir: Peter Nelson)
Running Time: 88:00
Exhibition Format: 35 mm
This is the show that everyone will see. If you miss this movie you'd better be dead...or in jail, and if you're in jail, break out! Strictly BYOB. Imagine if Robert Altman had decided to make KENTUCKY FRIED MOVIE instead of SHORT CUTS. In a hip, swingin', tacky 70's TV world full of offensive humor, lame commercials and laugh tracks, a trendy corporation serves as the centerpiece in this "story" about a donut delivery boy with a crush and a deep-fried hand, a new flavor of coffee, a CEO in a rocky relationship with the devil, a glue-maker with a rodent fetish, a diaper-clad Blaxploitation superhero called The Baby, swinging couples on a double date, and their radio-addicted catatonic children.
Presented by the Maryland Film Festival and sponsored by Microcinefest.

1:00 PM Gilman 110

Mental Hygiene - "Manners, Menstruation, and The American Way"
The MENTAL HYGIENE film series is hosted by KEN SMITH, author of Mental Hygiene: Classroom Films 1945-1970. Ken will field questions from the audience and screen some of the most mind-boggling educational films of all time, including Are You Popular?, Seduction Of The Innocent, and Last Date.
Sponsored by the Johns Hopkins Medical Institutions Office of Cultural Affairs. For more information, call 410-955-3363.

3:00 PM Gilman 110

Mental Hygiene - "Dating, Delinquency, and Diversity"
The MENTAL HYGIENE film series is hosted by KEN SMITH, author of Mental Hygiene: Classroom Films 1945-1970. Ken will field questions from the audience and screen some of the most mind-boggling educational films of all time, including Are You Popular?, Seduction Of The Innocent, and Last Date.
Sponsored by the Johns Hopkins Medical Institutions Office of Cultural Affairs. For more information, call 410-955-3363.

5:00 PM Gilman 110
TRT: 95 min.

Divinity
(dir: Christopher Llwellyn Reed)
Running Time: 6:30
Exhibition Format: 16mm
Reed builds a poem of tone and texture from the work of one man carving the statues of a cathedral.

Losing It
(dir: Sharon Greytak)
Running Time: 89:00
Exhibition Format: VHS
"Even then, as a child, I wondered: did other people with disabilities battle for their identity like this? Was it simply human nature to stare, and discount someone as weaker? Like a broken chip from Darwin's cup? Yet in those years I had tremendous freedom to dream. To dream and observe..."
—Sharon Greytak

7:00 PM Gilman 110
"Short Films for Short People"
TRT: 100 min.

Chips
(dir: Augustine Ma)
Running Time: 13:00
Exhibition Format: 16mm
It looks like just a convenience store employee eating some chips on the side, but then...

Schrödinger's Cat
(dir: Nova Jacobs & John Sinclair)
Running Time: 26:00
Exhibition Format: VHS
A college physics professor tries to escape the slow descent into madness as he confronts the mind-boggling implications of quantum mechanics. If an infinite number of realities exist simultaneously, in which one will he get to sleep with that hot freshman chick?

Elvis Doesn't Sing Anymore
(dir: Nick Simpson)
Running Time: 11:00
Exhibition Format: 16mm
Imagine for a moment that you are a young girl in a small British town where nothing ever happens. You're bored, right? Only until Elvis shows up and you start robbing banks!

Odessa or Bust
(dir: Brian Herskowitz)
Running Time: 16:00
Exhibition Format: VHS
Where is the center of the moviemaking world in the year 2067? Hollywood? No! Odessa, Texas! An aged actor reminisces about his missed chances in Tinseltown, and makes peace with his fate. With Jason Schwartzmann and Jason Alexander.

Concerto in F
(dir: Tony Petrossian)
Running Time: 16:00
Exhibition Format: VHS
Time has no meaning when remorse persecutes the guilty— and neither does reality. A journey through a broken young man's experience will leave you glancing over your shoulder looking for your past.

Plot Fever
(dir: Adam Fontenault)
Running Time: 18:00
Exhibition Format: VHS
Some say prostitution is the oldest profession, but it's not true— it's selling grave plots. Behold the rise and tragic fall of the world's most beloved plot seller.

9:00 PM Gilman 110
"Experimental Showcase"
TRT: 74 min.

Mesheen
(dir: Tony Youngblood)
Running Time: 6:00
Exhibition Format: 16mm
This puppy flies, whirls, spins, and jives! An experiment is camera motion, where too fast is never fast enough!

Be Careful What You Wish For
(dir: James Dingle)
Running Time: 4:00
Exhibition Format: VHS

Faust/The Lost Feminine
(dir: John Hansen)
Running Time: 17:00
Exhibition Format: VHS
Slamdance 2001 Selection
An incredibly complete dramatization of Goethe's Faust in a mere 16 minutes.

Nocturne
(dir: Michael Crochetiere)
Running Time: 6:00
Exhibition Format: 16mm
A train passes by, a boy with a sparkler in his hand leads us into the world of night. A dark, haunting portrait of the urban landscape in a nocturnal fog.

Luce. Tempo. Roma
(dir: Cameron McNall)
Running Time: 9:00
Exhibition Format: 16mm
Time-lapse photography exposes the secret life of shadows in Rome: watch shadows roll, fly, and play as days are compressed into seconds, like God blinking.

Quarry
(dir: Kate Sobol)
Running Time: 13:00
Exhibition Format: 16mm
A mute girl willfully separates herself from the outside world and plunges into the depths of her fantasies of sacrifice and disintegration, to eventually convalesce and rise to the higher plane of selfhood, out of reach of the corruptible physical existence.

Escapades of Madame X
(dir: Kerry A. Laitala)
Running Time: 11:00
Exhibition Format: 16mm
Madame X explores the myths of female passivity in classical Hollywood by seizing an active visual role in this experimental meditation.

K.I.L.L. - Kinetic Image Laboratory/Lobotomy
(dir: Thorsten Fleisch)
Running Time: 3:30
Exhibition Format: VHS
80,000 views of a Frankfurt bank in 3 minutes.

Chrysalis
(dir: Jeff Johnson)
Running Time: 5:00
Exhibition Format: VHS
Reminisce with this lyrical, experimental collage: a small girl, daisies, and playground equipment.

1:00 PM Mudd Auditorium
"Range of Human Emotions" Half-hour Documentaries
TRT: 87 min.

Techies, Trashers, and Tightwads
(dir: Zach Weddington)
Running Time: 26:00
Exhibition Format: DVD
This is more than just recycling— this is spending your weekends sifting through dumpsters and trashcans...and making a profit.

Grandma Fern
(dir: Brent Notbohm)
Running Time: 35:00
Exhibition Format: 16mm
A deeply personal portrait of the filmmaker's eighty-one year old grandmother.

Screw Your Courage
(dir: Zsuzsanna Varga)
Running Time: 26:00
Exhibition Format: DVD
This documentary follows the highs and lows of a productions of Shakespeare's Macbeth...starring a group of young high-school dropouts in Oakland trying to put their life back on track. The high drama behind high drama.

3:00 PM Mudd Auditorium
"Dime Bag O'Docs" Documentary Program -16mm and Video
TRT: 72 min.

Coleslaw Wrestling
(dir: Hayley K. Downs)
Running Time: 3:00
Exhibition Format: VHS
Definitive proof that the South will never rise again.

Panic Attack
(dir: Brett Ingram)
Running Time: 13:00
Exhibition Format: VHS
Feel a panic attack for yourself, in excruciating detail. You will know the meaning of fear and the torture of the human mind. This documentary puts you in the grip of a real panic attack&151; its onset, its symptoms, and its devastating personal repercussions.

Techies, Trashers, and Tightwads
(dir: Zach Weddington)
Running Time: 26:00
Exhibition Format: DVD
This is more than just recycling&151; this is spending your weekends sifting through dumpsters and trashcans...and making a profit.

Last Pack
(dir: Jim Haverkamp)
Running Time: 4:30
Exhibition Format: VHS
Ever tried to quit smoking? If it's anything like this, you have our deepest sympathies.

Divinity
(dir: Christopher Llwellyn Reed)
Running Time: 6:30
Exhibition Format: 16mm
See the nitty, gritty, hands-on work required to turn simple stone into an elegant, spiraling cathedral. A poem of contrasts: manual labor and the airy temple of God.

Luce. Tempo. Roma
(dir: Cameron McNall)
Running Time: 9:00
Exhibition Format: 16mm
Time-lapse photography exposes the secret life of shadows in Rome: watch shadows roll, fly, and play as days are compressed into seconds, like God blinking.

K.I.L.L. - Kinetic Image Laboratory/Lobotomy
(dir: Thorsten Fleisch)
Running Time: 3:30
Exhibition Format: VHS
80,000 views of a Frankfurt bank in 3 minutes.

Indian Cars
(dir: Laurie Raisch)
Running Time: 5:00
Exhibition Format: VHS
A short documentary by 20 year-old Laurie Raisch about the role "Indian Cars" play in the economy, lifestyles, and resourcefulness of people living on Leech Lake Reservation.

Mind/Body/Control
(dir: Lupe Puentes)
Running Time: 2:00
Exhibition Format: VHS
A video study by 19 year-old Lupe Puentes of the relationships between dancing, movement, music, and the media.

4:30 PM Mudd Auditorium
"Death by Animation!" Animation Program (Free show!)
TRT: 46 min.

Last Drawing of Canaletto
(dir: Cameron McNall)
Running Time: 3:30
Exhibition Format: VHS
The magic of 3D computer rendering allows you to dive into 18th century Venetian artist Canaletto's last drawing: an eerily beautiful cathedral choir, expressions frozen on their faces.

Ornaments
(dir. Aaron Erimez)
Running time: 6:00
Exhibition Format: VHS
A mischievous Christmas decoration hungers for cookies and milk.

Be Careful What You Wish For
(dir: James Dingle)
Running Time: 4:00
Exhibition Format: VHS

Naropa
(dir: Cameron Baity)
Running Time: 4:00
Exhibition Format: 16mm
Stop-motion animation is sooooo cool. Naropa manipulates and controls his environment, but who is master and who is servant, and what can God do when his world changes without his consent?

Split
(dir: Ya-Nan Chou)
Running Time: 2:00
Exhibition Format: 16
Grand Jury Best Animated Film, Microcinefest 2000
Fabric Animation made mostly with embroidery, fabric collage and paint on fabric. "Split" is about a heartbroken woman who splits herself from the relationship she used to live on.

Values
(dir: Van Phan)
Running Time: 5:00
Exhibition Format: VHS
A computer animated film inspired by the director's relationship with his late father.

Moving Illustrations of Machines
(dir: Jeremy Solterbeck)
Running Time: 9:30
Exhibition Format: VHS
Luscious, rich, computer animation brings the human machine to life, from the inside out, like a steel ballet.

Luce. Tempo. Roma
(dir: Cameron McNall)
Running Time: 9:00
Exhibition Format: 16mm
Time-lapse photography exposes the secret life of shadows in Rome: watch shadows roll, fly, and play as days are compressed into seconds, like God blinking.

K.I.L.L. - Kinetic Image Laboratory/Lobotomy
(dir: Thorsten Fleisch)
Running Time: 3:30
Exhibition Format: VHS
80,000 views of a Frankfurt bank in 3 minutes.

Decomposition in A Flat Minor
(dir: Jack Rene Perkins)
Running Time: 6:00
Exhibition Format: 16mm
Music brings the dead to life. The dead are angry. Boy is caught in the middle. Killer animation + killer soundtrack = killer flick.

5:30 PM Mudd Auditorium
"Charlie's in the Trees"
TRT: 60 min.

Beyond the Frame: Images From the War in Vietnam
(dir: Karen Rodriguez)
Running Time: 26:00
Exhibition Format: VHS
Karen Rodriguez delves into her father's memories, Super 8 film, and photographs to reconstruct an on-the-ground view of Vietnam with a personal touch. Hey, it wasn't always like Platoon.

Riding the Tiger
(dir: John Haptas & Kristine Samuelson)
Running Time: 34:00
Exhibition Format: 16mm
Combining incredible footage from the war and haunting interviews with soldiers, journalists, and Vietnamese villagers. Riding the Tiger is "an artful reminiscence that makes eloquent sense of a dark and troubling time."

6:30 PM Mudd Auditorium

DISCHARGE.NWO
(dir: Deni Blaise)
Running Time: 61:00
Exhibition Format: Mini-DV
Shot illegally in Serbia and at great risk to the filmmaker, DISCHARGE.NWO shows the human impact of the Balkan conflict in the daily lives of a mother and son. Living in fear and on the edge of losing hope, they must deal with the United States destructive practice of bombing nonmilitary targets. A vision of the conflict and U.S. foreign policy never seen in the mass media.

8:00 PM Mudd Auditorium
TRT: 76 min.

Decomposition in A Flat Minor
(dir: Jack Rene Perkins)
Running Time: 6:00
Exhibition Format: 16mm
Music brings the dead to life. The dead are angry. Boy is caught in the middle. Killer animation + killer soundtrack = killer flick.

Lethal Force
(dir: Alvin Ecarma)
Running Time: 70:00
Exhibition Format: VHS
In this town, two wrongs don't make you right- THEY MAKE YOU EVEN! Action star Cash Flagg, Jr. teams up with director Alvin Ecarma once again for a fast-paced, spine-tingling, mind-blowing, white-knuckle martial arts extravaganza!

10:00 PM Mudd Auditorium

23 Hours
(dir: Eric Thornett)
Running Time: 90:00
Exhibition Format: VHS
Imagine that you lose 1 hour of every day— you just blink, and it's gone. Then imagine you're being chased by gangs of gun-toting martial arts masters! Put it all together, and you have this action-packed thriller from local filmmaker Eric Thornett.

3:00 PM MICA Station Building Three

Bookwars
(dir: JRosette)
Running Time: 80:00
Exhibition Format: VHS
An incredible glimpse into the world of New York City street booksellers as their lives come into conflict with the Mayor's controversial vision of the future of NYC.

4:30 PM MICA Station Building Three
FREE SHOW!

Odessa or Bust
(dir: Brian Herskowitz)
Running Time: 16:00
Exhibition Format: VHS
Where is the center of the moviemaking world in the year 2067? Hollywood? No! Odessa, Texas! An aged actor reminisces about his missed chances in Tinseltown, and makes peace with his fate. With Jason Schwartzmann and Jason Alexander.

5:00 PM MICA Station Building Three

23 Hours
(dir: Eric Thornett)
Running Time: 90:00
Exhibition Format: VHS
Imagine that you lose 1 hour of every day— you just blink, and it's gone. Then imagine you're being chased by gangs of gun-toting martial arts masters! Put it all together, and you have this action-packed thriller from local filmmaker Eric Thornett.

6:45 PM MICA Station Building Three
"Chuckle Machine 3000"

John: One Way
(dir: Alex Johnson)
Running Time: 3:00
Exhibition Format: DVD
Will John ever reach the top of the stairs? He just keeps walking and walking! At least he seems happy.

Your First Date
(dir: Ken Perko)
Running Time: 7:00
Exhibition Format: 16mm
Fear not, young man. With this helpful film from the Utah Board of Education you will learn how to impress with success. Another twisted gem from Ken Perko.

Mega Rat
(dir: Drage Vukcevich)
Running Time: 20:00
Exhibition Format: VHS
An Adventure in Anti-Cinema!

7:20 PM MICA Station Building Three
"Chuckle Machine 6000"

A Day in the Life
(dir: Ken Perko)
Running Time: 3:00
Exhibition Format: 16mm
Ken Perko comes up with another twisted gem, this time traveling back to the silent era of film to show us what title cards really meant.

Reversal of Power and a Bear
(dir: Nick Simpson)
Running Time: 8:00
Exhibition Format: VHS
Who will win the war of the sexes? Who is that man in the bear suit? What does he want with us? Why won't he leave us alone?

Plot Fever
(dir: Adam Fontenault)
Running Time: 18:00
Exhibition Format: VHS
Some say prostitution is the oldest profession, but it's not true— it's selling grave plots. Behold the rise and tragic fall of the world's most beloved plot seller.

8:00 PM MICA Station Building Three

Prozac Daze, Nodoze Nights
(dir. JHU Film Society)
Running Time: 40:00
Exhibition Format: VHS
Winner! Best Screenplay Adapted From Other Material - Catonsville Community College Film and Video Fest 1998.
Enter the wild and wacky world of Gert the Republican lesbian, Jasper the Jeff-Gordon-lovin' redneck, Erica the compulsive dancing anorexic, Ms. Applebee the hot old bitch on the third floor, and Seth the schizophrenic super. Followed by Q&A!

9:15 PM MICA Station Building Three

The Chromium Hook
(dir: James Stanger)
Running Time: 37:00
Exhibition Format: 35mm
In an ordinary Midwestern town, the urban legend of a man with a hook for a hand stalking young lovers proves true...and snowballs into an irreversible domino effect that exposes all the not-so-ordinary quirks of the hapless townsfolk.

10:00 PM MICA Station Building Three

DISCHARGE.NWO
(dir: Deni Blaise)
Running Time: 61:00
Exhibition Format: Mini-DV
Shot illegally in Serbia and at great risk to the filmmaker, DISCHARGE.NWO shows the human impact of the Balkan conflict in the daily lives of a mother and son. Living in fear and on the edge of losing hope, they must deal with the United States destructive practice of bombing nonmilitary targets. A vision of the conflict and U.S. foreign policy never seen in the mass media.