Browsing: deadCenter 2013

deadCenter 2013 Paul-Avellino
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If you followed my coverage of the deadCenter Film Festival, you know that one of my favorite short films was Paul Avellino’s Un Regalo (A Gift), a gory shock comedy with real chops and dry wit. Mr. Avellino happened to be at the showing, so I had a chance to talk to him for a few minutes afterwards. My curiosity was piqued enough by our discussion that I wanted to follow up with a proper interview. Thanks to the power of the Internet, we were able to have a good discussion about the film.

deadCenter 2013 Thinking-Of-You_2013_1
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Immediately after watching the comedy shorts at deadCenter (you can see my review of those here), I stuck around for a showing of the “Cutting Edge” short films, a group of more experimental films. As the name suggests, these films take risks, both narrative and visual, that a standard film would not dream of taking. The nature of risk taking, of course, entails opening yourself up for failure as well as success. That’s the sort of mixed bag the Cutting Edge shorts presented. On the whole it was a weaker group of films than the comedy shorts, with a wild variation in quality and lacking a true standout film. Still, even the failures here were for the most part interesting failures. It is good to have a venue for filmmakers to show off their experiments, even when those experiments blow up in their faces.

deadCenter 2013 Girl-Clown_2013
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On June 6th I had the opportunity, thanks to Next Projection, to attend the opening night of the deadCenter film festival in downtown Oklahoma City. Due to some schedule conflicts I unfortunately did not get to stay for anymore of what promises to be a stellar festival lineup. The showings were a little sparse on opening night: only one feature length narrative film, one documentary, and two sets of short films. Since I wanted to get the most bang for my (technically nonexistent, since I got a press pass) buck, and since they were showing in the same theater back to back, I saddled up for a night of short film potpourri. In this column I will tackle the first compendium, the comedy shorts.