Favorite Short Films featured at CAIFF, opening tomorrow
By Derek Zemrak
Short film feature from 2013, "God Don't Like Ugly" Lamorinda Weekly archive
In celebration of our 20th film festival, I personally selected some of my favorite short films that have screened at the California Independent Film Festival in previous years. Several of the past filmmakers will be attending the screenings.
Director John Murphy, whose short film "Flowers on a Muumuu," won Best Short Film at the very first film festival. It is a film noir parody of private detective Maurice Pomerance's quest to find the owner of a mysterious glass eye. Director John Murphy will be flying in from Texas to attend his screening at 2:30 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 9 at the Orinda Theatre.
Director Michael Fallavollita from Los Angeles will be introducing his first 24-minute short film that screened at CAIFF in 2003, "String of the Kite." In this short film, most people dismiss Lucky Santucci's stories as pure imagination but his grandson Kevin believes them wholeheartedly. With his new kite ready for flight, Kevin will discover that the truth lies somewhere between the moon and the earth. "String of the Kite" will be showing at the Orinda Theatre at 2:30 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 9 at the Orinda Theatre.
Michael also has his last short film project in the film festival entitled "Tale of the Kite," which is a sequel to his previous short "String of the Kite." What is so interesting is Michael used the same actors in the both films. Now 11 years later the "Tale of the Kite" description is: "His dream of flight began with a kite. A young test pilot finds himself in a mysterious desert region out of contact with his airbase and with little hope of survival. But childhood memories of his grandfather may provide the key to his ultimate destiny." An 11-year filmmaking journey, the film is shot on Super 16mm film and RED digital. "Tale of the Kite" will be screening at the Orinda Theatre at 10 a.m. Saturday, Sept. 9. Actor Kevin DeSimone will be in attendance at both screenings.
CAIFF Alumni Director Suny Behar from Los Angeles will be attending his screening of his short film, "Chaos Theory," at the Orinda Theatre at 2:30 p.m. Sunday, Sept. 10. "Chaos Theory" is a 30-minute short film that tells the tale of an outrageous misadventure of a meteorologist desperate to stop the endless cycle of disorder that is ruling his life.
I hope you will go down memory lane with me at this year's film festival. You will laugh out loud and shed a few tears.
See you at the festival.
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