Date: 21 August 2004
Venue
: Commodore Ballroom

Reviewer: Ed Farolan

 


Executive Producers Derick Cobden and Kathleen Duborg share a dance
This 48-hour film festival which is beginning to become a tradition here in Vancouver had another raucous affair in the same venue for the past few summers. Vancouver, the North Hollywood, is inspiring future filmmakers by encouraging them to participate in this competition whereby a 10-minute has to be produced in 48 hours.

79 teams participated this year. Each was given an 'inspiration package' consisting of a location, a photograph, a sound bite, a craft service donation and a surprise. In the gala screening and awards night last August 21st, 11 of the best films were screened.

It's amazing how much talent there is in Vancouver. The films shown came up with such creativity and humour inspired by Canadian actors and directors such as Ivan Reitman, Bill Murray, John Candy, Dan Aykroyd and many others.

The films which were screened in this gala showed how these up and coming actors and directors could come up with amazing storylines given 48 hours to do a 10-minute film. 'Cops Pinata Squad' is a take-off from the Cops series on TV, where a cop squad investigates, hunts and arrests people using pinatas.

 

 

 

 

It was a pity that there were technical difficulties with the DVD, and the film was cut short. 'WC' was a funny look at how public toilets in parks are used. 'Fist Full of Beans' was an attempt at animation, and '1974' was a kind of a soap opera melodrama.

Three films stood out, in my opinion: 'Road Kill', 'Super Anon', and 'A Very, Very Good Year'. 'Road Kill' is about three men on their way to meet three sexy hot dates. On their way, they kill a racoon which eventually haunts them as it continuously appears as they go through their love-making scenes with their dates. Even their dates start looking like racoons. This was funny and the audience enjoyed this film tremendously.

'Super Anon' was another film enjoyed by the audience. This film is about the children of superstars like Batman, Superman, Wonderwoman, etc. Their parents are high profiled while they remain anonymous, and so, they're all put in therapy. All the shenanigans they go through in therapy made this gala night audience laughing wildly.

The third 'A Very, Very Good Year' which I enjoyed was inspired by Sinatra's song. The scenario was a swimming pool where three aqua ballet dancers, two men and a woman, do their aqua ballet routine to the tune of the song.

As usual, as in the past two years that I've been reviewing this festival, the 'Reelfast' had almost a thousand participants who were all here celebrating after a weekend of hard work. And it was an enjoyable seeing them interact with each other, drinking, dancing and celebrating another aspect of what Vancouver has become in these past few years - another important film capital of the world.

© 2004, Ed Farolan

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