hi/lo Film Festival: Retrospective 1997-2007 April 14, 2007

Hear ye, Hear ye… Lovers of D.I.Y. filmmaking, comedic shorts, expansive animations, and great adventures in cinematic narrative, Killing My Lobster’s Hi/Lo Film Festival is back. Our high-concept, low-budget film festival turns ten this year, and we are very proud to bring you 4 diverse programs of shorts that champion big ideas over fat wallets.

Retrospective Program, 1997-2007

Space Chocolate - Brian Perkins & Paul Charney, San Francisco - 6min, video, The homecoming of an intergalactic hero: a piece of chocolate, a pizza box, and a story for an infinitely expanding universe. The first Killing My Lobster film, Space Chocolate, was shot in one 19 hour saturday in DP Juliet Gray's kichen in the Mission.

Metal-Emma Dewing, London - 4 min, 16mm, A microscopic examination of common surfaces are rendered to appear positively extra-terrestrial.

Stir- Marc Lepson, Brooklyn - 3 min, 16mm, Does time expand when our expectations of narrative fulfillment are cruelly dashed? A study in anticlimax, Lepson's three-minute close up everyday activity makes us question our most basic cinematic assumptions.


dear xxx - Daniel Cavey, San Francisco - 9min, 16mm, One man alone in his house with his record collection. Technically speaking he feels fine, but if the lighting and soundtrack to his life are any clue maybe we shouldn't be so sure.

Election Collectibles- Bryan Boyce, San Francisco - 4min, beta sp, He appropriates footage from Al Gore and George Dubya speeches overdubbing their canned scripts with the crass hawking of two Home Shopping Network sports memorabilia blowhards. As they try to sucker us into buying their hot new item "Campaign 2000," the candidates' mannered gestures mesh perfectly with the obnoxious, monotonous paid programming mantras. Boyce deftly mixes these elements for maximum laugh-out-loud effect. Fuckin' hilarious!


Lesson One- Courtney Booker & Greg Rozum , San Francisco - 2 min, beta, One boy's about to get even and if he has to spend the summer in the dojo smashing snack foods to bits so be it.


Three Legged- Paul Harrison & John Wood - 3 min, video, THREE LEGGED was a real crowd pleaser. The formula's simple: bind two clumsy limeys together at the leg, aim a tennis ball cannon pointblank at 'em and voila!

Scooter 8th- Robert Watts, San Francisco - 3 min, dv, American Gothic updated for the video age. With musical accompaniment provided by the middle school band a filmmaker captures his nephew's 8th grade graduation with nary a frame of his nephew.
Smackers- Tara Miele, Los Angeles - 2 min, animaton, In less than 120 seconds Tara Miele tells you everything you need to know about junior high.
Crack Baby - Keith Wilson, San Francisco - 2 min, dv, The Folsom Street Fair and an Idaho National Park are very different places when seen through the starry eyes of an armless, naked, squeaky-voiced baby doll.

Fast Forward I - Alec Joler, Lawrence - 3 min, dv, A $250 million dollar Jerry Bruckheimer action-adventure told in 180 seconds, scored by a human beat box, and made for the price of a box of Legos.

Making Love (Out of Nothing At All)- Michelle Dean, San Francisco - 1.5 min, dv, Animated hot dogs fly through the universe singing along to Air Supply.

Pop Song 1- Meesoo Lee, Vancouver, Canada - 5 min, video A remix of the final scene from King Vidor's 1949 The Fountainhead that transforms the ascent of the world's greatest architectural achievement into the world's most doleful elevator ride.

Banana Muffin - Reuben Maness, San Francisco - 4 min, dv, If you missed last night's local news never fear, it's rebroadcast here --- and, for that matter, it's tonight's broadcast too.

Inside the Insider- Philippe Vendrolini, San Francisco - 4min, dv, A digital collage stripping Entertainment Tonight down to its base elements--and then chucking it in the closet.

Pay Roll- Noah Klersfeld, New York - 13 min, dv, Is it for real? Is it fake? Is this the mother of all multi-camera shoots or the insane inner monolog of an archetypal director who wishes he controlled it all.

SPRINGTIME FOR EVA- Russ Forster, Chicago - 5 min, 16mm, To the seductive sounds of Nico a collage of found footage situates one happy go lucky Austrian woman in bygone happy go lucky times.

Financial Advice- Fritz Donnelly, New York - 5 min, mini dv, Wall Street Journal never tells it like it is. But alone in his apartment, Fritz breaks down all you need to know about taking stock of your assets, inventorying your friends, and hiding your cash in your closet.

Papillon D'Amour- Nicolas Provost, Brussels, Belgium - 4 min, dv, A scene from Akira Kurosawa's Rashoman is turned on its side as a depiction of violence becomes mesmerizingly beautiful.

Spam-ku: I won a haiku contest about spam- Steven Tsuchida, Los Angeles - 5 min, 35mm If the X-files had a penchant for Japanese poetry (and for a certain Hormel meat-based product) you might get a metaphysical comedy like this.

Fumi and the Bad Luck Foot- David Chai, San Jose - 7 min, animation, A 60 second crash course in how to make lemonade out of lemons, or, in this case, how to repurpose clumsiness for good and not evil.

Lift off- Terri Timely, Berkeley - 50 seconds, 16mm, An interstellar flip-book adventure takes off and travels the universe without ever leaving a restaurant counter.

Pretty Things - "Straight for a minute"- Michael Lucid, Hollywood - 3 min, dv, For those times when gay guys need to go undercover it's handy to have this instructional music video.