BENDFILM TURNS EIGHT; ANNOUNCES JURORS AND LINEUP FOR 2011 FESTIVAL

BendFilm, now in its eighth year, has announced it lineup for the October 6-9, 2011 event, as well as the jurors on award-duty for the fest. From the official press release:

BendFilm announced today its 2011 film selections and juror panel for the festival set to take place October 6-9, 2011. This year marks the first time that the festival has fallen on the popular First Friday Gallery Walk, October 7. The town will be buzzing as over 50% of the films in this year’s official selection will be represented by writers, directors, actors and crew from the films.

“We are very fortunate to have so many filmmakers and others coming to town. And, we celebrate many Pacific Northwest premieres in this year’s festival,” said Orit Schwartz, Artistic Director of BendFilm. There will be 85 films in the festival.

The opening night film will be A Beginner’s Guide to Endings, showing Thursday, October 6 at 5:30 pm at the Tower Theater. The comedy by writer/director Jonathan Sobol stars Harvey Keitel and tells the story of how Duke White (Keitel) enrolled his three sons in risky pharmaceutical tests for cash, and how the meds involved proved to be lethal. This is the story of how these men with little to lose decide to spend their last days.

A new relationship the festival has forged with National Geographic brings The Wildest Dream: Conquest of Everest, featuring Conrad Anker who follows George Mallory’s path and story. Narrated by Liam Neeseon and accompanied by Natasha Richardson as the voice of Mallory’s wife and Ralph Fiennes as Mallory, this is a showcase documentary appropriate for the whole family. The film will be shown at the Tower Theater on Saturday at 3:30 pm.

Kinyarwanda is a narrative weaving six inspiring stories that developed during the 1994 Rwandan genocide. This film was the winner of the 2011 Sundance Film Festival World Cinema Dramatic Audience Award.

The 2011 Jurors
“We are honored to have such an esteemed panel of jurors – true industry veterans – joining us for this year’s festival,” said Schwartz. The six jurors include:

Sharon Badal is head short film programmer for the Tribeca Film Festival. She has been with the festival since its inception and has produced special projects for various Tribeca entities since 1999. She is the author of Swimming Upstream – A Lifesaving Guide to Short Film Distribution. Badal is on the faculty at NYU Tisch School of the Arts Kanbar Institute of Film & Television. She previously held executive positions in motion picture distribution and marketing for United Artists/MGM, Warner Brothers, and Orion Pictures.

Audrey Chang manages the Golden Gate Awards competition and programs feature documentaries and short films for the San Francisco International Film Festival. Before joining the San Francisco Film Society in 2006, she worked as assistant editor and visual effects editor on documentary and narrative feature films in Boston, New York and Los Angeles for over 20 years. Chang began her career in post-production at WGBH Boston in 1984 and worked as an apprentice editor on Eyes on The Prize before moving to New York in 1986. Selected film credits include Barbara Kopple’s Oscar-winning documentary American Dream and Vincent Ward’s What Dreams May Come, which won an Oscar for Best Visual Effects in 1999.

Christian Gaines is at the Withoutabox division of IMDb.com, where he focuses on festival strategy and business development. In 1988, he joined the American Pavilion at the Cannes Film Festival, serving as its Administrative Director for six years.  In 1994, Gaines was appointed Film Programmer at the Sundance Film Festival, programming the 1995 and 1996 festivals.  From 1996 to 2000, he served as Festival Director and Director of Programming for the Hawaii International Film Festival.  From 2000 to 2008, Gaines served as Director of Festivals at the American Film Institute.

Dana Harris is the Los Angeles-based editor-in-chief and general manager of indieWIRE. She spent nearly eleven years at Variety in roles that included film reporter, creating lifestyle section Variety Weekend, serving as editor of Variety.com and developing new products for the publication’s website. She has covered virtually all of the world’s major film festivals and has participated as a moderator and panelist at SXSW, Digital Hollywood and the DGA, among others. She also had a life as a sous-chef, a restaurant critic and an editor for Fine Cooking.

Animator Bill Plympton is returning to BendFilm in 2011 as a juror. Plympton is considered the King of Indie Animation and is the only person to hand draw an entire animated feature film. Born and raised in Portland, he moved to New York City in 1968. He began his career creating cartoons for publications such as The New York Times, National Lampoon, Playboy and Screw.  In 1987 he was nominated for an Oscar® for his animated short, Your Face.  In 2005, Plympton received another Oscar® nomination, this time for a short film Guard Dog. Since 1991 he’s made nine feature films, six of them animated: The Tune, Mondo Plympton, I Married A Strange Person, Mutant Aliens, Hair High and Idiots and Angels.

Ondi Timoner is the only director to win the Grand Jury Prize at the Sundance Film Festival twice. Both features documentaries, DIG! (2004), exploring the collision of art & commerce through the lives of two bands, and WE LIVE IN PUBLIC (2009), about an internet visionary & the loss of privacy in the Internet age are in MOMA’s permanent collection. She also directed the socio-political feature documentaries, JOIN US (2007), about the cult epidemic in the U.S. and COOL IT (2010) – about the polarizing logjam of the climate change debate. Timoner is currently filming a documentary series about tech startups and is slated to direct MAPPLETHORPE, about controversial photographer Robert Mapplethorpe, starring James Franco, set for early 2012.

Tickets for the 2011 festival will go on sale soon. The festival guide will be in distribution as of September 26. Festival-goers should keep an eye on the website, www.bendfilm.org for ticket, preview and schedule information. For previews of movies, follow BendFilm on Facebook.

OPENING NIGHT FILM

A Beginner’s Guide to Endings
Pacific Northwest Premiere
Jonathan Sobol, writer/director
(92m, USA/CANADA)

SHOWCASE DOCUMENTARY
Presented by National Geographic

The Wildest Dream: Conquest of Everest
Mark Halliley, writer; Anthony Geffen, director
(94m, USA/UK)

Narratives

An Ordinary Family
Pacific Northwest Premiere/BendFilm Alum
Matthew Patterson, writer; Mike Akel, writer/director
(92m, USA)

Bucksville
World Premiere/BendFilm Alum
Laura McGie, writer; Chel White, writer/director
(104m, USA)

The Color Wheel
Pacific Northwest Premiere
Carlen Altman, writer; Alex Ross Perry, writer/director
(83m, USA)

The Dish & The Spoon
Pacific Northwest Premiere
Alison Bagnall & Andrew Lewis, writers; Alison Bagnall, director
(92m, USA)

East Fifth Bliss
Oregon Premiere
Douglas Light, writer; Michael Knowles, writer/director
(97m, USA)

Face To Face
Pacific Northwest Premiere
Michael Rymer writer, director; Adapted from a play by David Williamson
(85m, AUSTRALIA)

Fanny, Annie & Danny
Oregon Premiere
Chris Brown writer/director
(82m, USA)

How to Cheat
Pacific Northwest Premiere
Amber Sealey, writer/director
(87m, USA)

Kinyarwanda
2011 Sundance Film Festival World Cinema Dramatic Audience Award Winner
Alrick Brown, writer/director
(100m, USA/Rwanda)

Pig
Pacific Northwest Premiere
Henry Barrial, writer/director
(89m, USA)

Rid Of Me
Pacific Northwest Premiere
James Westby, writer/director
(89m, USA)

Sawdust City
Pacific Northwest Premiere
David Nordstrom, writer/director
(97m, USA)

Some Guy Who Kills People
Pacific Northwest Premiere/BendFilm Alum
Ryan Levin, writer; Jack Perez, director
(97m, USA)

Stranger Things
Eleanor Burke and Ron Eyal, writers/directors
(77m, USA/UK)

This Narrow Place
Kadouh, writer/director
(97m, USA)

Docs

7 Years Underground: A 60’s Tale
West Coast Premiere
Jason M. Solomon, director
(95m, USA)

Adventures in Plymptoons!
Pacific Northwest Premiere
Alexia Anastasio, director
(85m, USA)

Band Together
Pacific Northwest Premiere/BendFilm Alum
Kurt Kolaja, director
(69m, USA)

Beatles Stories
Pacific Northwest Premiere
Seth Swirsky, director
(86m, USA)

Boom Varietal: The Rise of Malbec
World Premiere/Bend Filmmakers
Tim Cash, writer; Sky Pinnick, writer/director
(72m, USA)

The Boy Mir – Ten Years in Afghanistan
Pacific Northwest Premiere
Phil Grabsky, director
(90m, United Kingdom)

Connected: An Autoblogography about Love, Death & Technology
Carlton Evans, Ken Goldberg, Sawyer Steele, writers; Tiffany Shlain, writer/director
(80m, USA)

Darwin
Pacific Northwest Premiere
Nick Brandestini, director
(88m, Switzerland)

Defining Beauty: Ms. Wheelchair America
Pacific Northwest Premiere
Chuck Hayward, narration writer; Alexis Ostrander, director
(79m, USA)

Fambul Tok
Pacific Northwest Premiere
Sara Terry, director
(82m, USA)

A Journey to Golf’s Past: Creating Old Macdonald
World Premiere
Michael M. Robin, director
(73m, USA)

More To Live For
Pacific Northwest Premiere
James Chippendale & Susan Brecker, writers; Noah Hutton, writer/director
(83m, USA)

My So-Called Enemy
Oregon Premiere
Lisa Gossels, director
(89m, USA)

This Way of Life
Oregon Premiere
Thom Burstyn, director
(84m, New Zealand)

Where Soldiers Come From
Pacific Northwest Premiere
Heather Courtney, director
(91m, USA)

Wild Horse, Wild Ride
Pacific Northwest Premiere
Alex Dawson & Greg Gricus, director
(106m, USA)

Conservation

The Clean Bin Project
Pacific Northwest Premiere
Jenny Rustemeyer, writer; Grant Baldwin, writer/director
(76m, CANADA)

In the Spirit of Laxmi
Pacific Northwest Premiere/BendFilm Alum
Meghan Shea & Michael Rogers, directors
(30m, India/Singapore/USA)

Marion Stoddart: The Work of 1000
Oregon Premiere
Susan Edwards & Dorie Clark, directors
(30m, U S A)

PEDAL-DRIVEN: a bike-umentary
Oregon Premiere
Jamie Howell, director
(63m, USA)

Stepping into the Stream
Barbara Klutinis, director; poetry by Judith Brown
(30m, U S A)

Shorts

38:50
World Premiere
Chris Capel, writer/director
(19m, USA)

Arthur
Oregon Premiere
Joshua Bourland, writer; John Jacobsen, director
(9m, USA)

Blind eyes (Ojos que no ven)
USA Premiere
Regina García Solórzano, writer/director
(13m, Mexico)

Cataplexy
Oregon Premiere
Stacia Black & Matt Ferrone, writers; John Salcido, director
(8m, USA)

Certified
Pacific Northwest Premiere
Luke Asa Guidici, writer/director
(9m, USA)

Challenging Impossibility
Pacific Northwest Premiere
Natabara Rollosson & Sanjay Rawal, directors
(30m, USA)

Cold Sore
Pacific Northwest Premiere
Matt Bird, writer/director
(18m, Australia)

Crazy Beats Strong Every Time
Pacific Northwest Premiere/BendFilm Alum
Moon Molson, writer/director
(27m, USA)

Deep Blue Breath
Pacific Northwest Premiere
Clay Beabout, writer (wrote it when he was 11); Patricia Cardoso, director
(19m, USA)

Free World
Bend Filmmaker
Ashley Michael Karitis, director
(39m, USA)

Guard Dog Global Jam
Pacific Northwest Premiere
Bill Plympton, director
(5m, USA)

God and Vodka
Pacific Northwest Premiere
Daniel Stine, writer/director
(28m, USA)

Hollow
Pacific Northwest Premiere
Lee Thomas, writer; Rob Sorrenti, writer/director
(20m, United Kingdom)

Ingrid Pitt: Beyond The Forest
Pacific Northwest Premiere
Ingrid Pitt, writer; Kevin Sean Michaels, director.
A film by Perry Chen, Kevin Sean Michaels & Bill Plympton
(6m, U S A)

The Interview
Pacific Northwest Premiere
Jacob Givens & Jason Philip Thompson, writers; Michelle Steffes, director
(12m, U S A)

Katya
Pacific Northwest Premiere
Mako Kamitsuna, writer/director
(23m, U S A)

Library Of Dust
Ondi Timoner & Robert James, directors
(17m, U S A)

Little Larry
Pacific Northwest Premiere
Elliot V. Kotek, writer; Jill Carter, director
(6m, Canada)

Old Oak
Pacific Northwest Premiere
Kevin M. Jones, writer/director
(15m, U S A)

The Orderly
Pacific Northwest Premiere
Daniel Campbell, writer/director
(11m, U S A)

Pillow
Oregon Premiere
Miles B. Miller & Joshua H. Miller, writers/directors
(19m, U S A)

Pioneer
David Lowery, writer/director
(16m, U S A)

The Pond
Pacific Northwest Premiere
Dan Hannon, writer/director
(22m, U S A)

Protect The Nation
Pacific Northwest Premiere
C. R. Reisser, writer/director
(16m, Germany, South Africa)

Relationships
World Premiere/Bend Filmmaker
Jesse Locke, writer/director
(20m, U S A)

Revolution
Pacific Northwest Premiere
Abdi Nazemian, writer/director
(16m, U S A)

Small Town Doc
World Premiere
Virginia Williams, director
(12m, U S A)

Sold
Pacific Northwest Premiere
John Irwin, writer/director
(13m, U S A)

Two Friendly Ghosts
Oregon Premiere
Parker Ellerman, writer/director
(8m, Germany, U S A)

Will
World Premiere
Kevin Curry, writer; Devon Lyon, director
(7m, U S A)

Student Shorts

Allegiance
World Premiere/Bend Filmmakers/Winners of First BendFilm Future Filmmaker Award
Ian Dalesky, writer; Patrick Dawn, director
Chapman University
(25m, U S A)

Benny
Pacific Northwest Premiere
Evan Ho, writer; Huay-Bing Law, writer/director
University of Texas at Austin
(16m, U S A)

Broken Cycle
Pacific Northwest Premiere
James F. Clark, writer; Clifton Archuleta, writer/director
Regis University
(12m, U S A)

The Candidate
Pacific Northwest Premiere
Marcus Dunstan & Patrick Melton, writers; David Karlak, director
The Savannah College of Art and Design
(19m, U S A)

Commerce
Pacific Northwest Premiere
Lisa Robertson, writer/director
AFI Directing Workshop for Women
(18m, U S A)

Girls Named Pinky
Pacific Northwest Premiere
Jonathan Jon, writer; Alex Lubliner, director
Columbia University
(17m, U S A)

Goldenbox
Pacific Northwest Premiere
Robin Phillips, writer; Matt MacDonald, writer/director
University of Southern California
(19m, U S A)

Homecoming
Pacific Northwest Premiere
Gursimran Sandhu, writer/director
Chapman University
(26m, U S A)

Kids For Kidnapping
West Coast Premiere
Justin Zimmerman, writer; Torrance Maurer, writer/director
UCLA
(14m, U S A)

My First Claire
Pacific Northwest Premiere
Lou Howe, writer/director
American Film Institute Conservatory
(18m, U S A)

Salar
Pacific Northwest Premiere
Nicholas Greene, writer/director
Columbia University
(21m, Bolivia, U S A, United Kingdom)

A Salton Soul
Pacific Northwest Premiere
Mike Agnew, Greg Balkin, Tim Kressin, directors
Chapman University
(13m, U S A)

A Scene at the Sea (GU YEO-RUM-EUI BA-DA)
Pacific Northwest Premiere
Jaehee Lee, writer/director
Syracuse University
(22m, South Korea, U S A)

See Red
World Premiere
Nick Snyder, writer/director
Chapman University
(12m, U S A)

Terrebonne
Oregon Premiere
Jeremy Craig, writer/director
Columbia University
(15m, U S A)

Thief
Pacific Northwest Premiere
Matthew Wieland, writer; Julian Higgins, writer/director
American Film Institute
(25m, U S A)