The Alamo Drafthouse has re-marketed their film competition branch as Filmmaking Frenzy and launched a website based on Brightcove. Morte dal Disegno is competing in their latest challenge, Rewind Kindly based on the upcoming Gondry flick, Be Kind, Rewind (with Mos Def and Jack Black.) The challenge was to “swede” a film, just like they do in Be Kind, Rewind, meaning remake a famous film using your own resources. We remade The Shining with ‘Topher behind the camera and me in front plus a few good friends filling in between. We are excited with the results and despite all the awesomeness from the other filmmakers, we think it’s the best.

Please, go sign up at the site for an account, peruse the films offered, find The Shining and give us the rating we deserve…which is a 10.

Seriously…since we’ve arrived in Oxford I’ve spelled out the state in my mind (and sometimes out loud) at least a hundred times.

So, we are finally visiting Amy and Marvin after 3 years of empty promises. Really, they only had to mention that there was a film festival and our tickets were bought within an hour. We arrived, after a really easy flight, Thursday afternoon. The weather is perfect and I was immediately hit with how “the South” it is. Oxford is a fantastic town – kind of like San Marcos, but with more of a ski resort town kind of feel – in a good way. The town is very serious about keeping things local…the former Mayor was voted out after allowing a Super Wal-Mart in. Restaurants have been fantastic, but service is pretty horrid across the board. I’ll write more as I talk about the festival…

Festival – Day 1

Opening night of the festival was simple, and pretty impressive. After a quick bite at the Blind Pig, Amy, Topher and I headed to the theater to watch a couple of films:

If the Year Were Only Three Months (5 min.)
Short video by local filmmakers. Two guys on horses singing about how if there were only three months in a year, football would be a year-round sport. Kind of cute, if not a little long.

Heist, The (5 min.)
Impressive short about a man planning a bank heist – with a twist. I really liked this one – save for the guys behind us loudly talking about how they didn’t “get it”. Sigh

Kabluey (90 min.)
The first feature of the night – introduced by Morgan Freeman. Filmed in Austin (oh, yeah it’s quite the Little Austin with many of the shorts and features either filmed in Austin or by Austinites) Lisa Kudrow plays a woman whose husband is in Iraq. In order to keep going, her loser brother-in-law moves in to assist with her satan spawn. A fun dark comedy with furries and Terri Garr – what more can you ask for? I belive it’s getting a wide-ish release in June.

Sorry, We’re Open (30 min.)
Short doc about the Hoka Theater – Think the Alamo Drafthouse with more hippies, less rules, more roaches, and midnight porn. This theater definitely holds a very special place in the hearts of Oxfordians who lived here in the late 70’s-90’s. The doc is well made and made me want to move to a small college town and open a theater. Since the screening, Topher and I have run into many of the film’s “stars” while walking around town…it IS a very small place.

After the shows, we went to an after party with all the local hipsters (mostly Ole Miss faculty and staff) as well as quite a few Texans. A great group of people and a lot of fun.