Blog-o-STIFF

STIFF Nights May - Big City Dick

Impaler

On Friday, January the 13th, 2006 Jonathon Sharkey became a candidate for the Governor of Minnesota. Jonathon is a Satanic Dark Priest, Sanguinarian Vampyre and a Hecate Witch. The announcement of his candidacy marked the beginning of the largest amount of media coverage ever given to an unknown third party candidate for Governor in our nation's history. Mr. Sharkey has been featured on television, radio, and in print not only nationwide, but worldwide. "The Impaler" is one of his many names and the namesake of this documentary film about Jonathon and his run for Governor.  STIFF 2007 Grand Jury Award Winner

"The final scene in which the star, just released from prison, kicks back in a room crammed to the rafters with cigars, knives, guns, and Jim Beam feels like a true anything-can-happen moment." by Andrew Wright, The Stranger

For those of you who missed last Thursday's STIFF Nights encore screening of Impaler, I talked to W. Tray White a little while back and he mentioned that a distribution deal has been signed and a DVD will be released soon.  He also mentioned a forthcoming project from another filmmaker that features Jonathon Sharkey being put through an elaborate practical joke where he takes part in one strange task after another (American Idol tryout?).  Sounds like it could be worth checking out.

Rolling... Thursday, February 28th

STIFF Nights February

Rolling Thursday, February 28th  7PM @ Central Cinema $10 or FREE with STIFF 2007 Badge   Utilizing the form of a docudrama, cinema verite style footage entwines with personal testimonials rendering a fictional chronicle, which captures the appeal of the drug Ecstasy. The film follows a diverse group of users as they cross paths in Los Angeles. At its core, Rolling is an investigation into a generation's drug of choice. It is a dramatized expose of the current state of a cultural phenomenon that has grown tremendously over the past two decades. Rolling simultaneously authenticates a specifically twisted consciousness while relating to a broad audience with an eye for detail and human behavior. The film uses a variety of formats (35mm, super 16mm and DV) giving it an unusual texture while maintaining an overall gritty and realistic tone. In doing so, the filmmakers have carefully constructed a new style that hopes to stimulate discussion while regaling the senses. It provides the viewer direct access to the roller coaster of incidents that often occur to an Ecstasy user. Rolling is an engrossing, provocative, and poignant cinematic manifestation of the journey one has while on the drug. It is a bold and visceral experience that brings to light one of the most prolific drug phenomena of our time.

Swamper Screening Tonight!!!!

This month's STIFF Nights screening will feature the film, Swamper.  Some people might say that it would be classless for a festival director to screen his own film.  They might even be right.  But, this December marks the 5 year anniversary of when we began the film and I thought it would be fun to get some folks together and watch it.  You should come join us for what is probably the last ever theatrical screening.  I believe that a few cast and crew members will be there too. In this week’s Seattle Weekly, Brian Miller essentially says that the pacing of the film doesn’t quite live up to the excitement level of the source material and there may be something to that assessment.  He also calls it a mumblecore movie.  For those who haven’t heard the term before, it is a name for dialogue heavy movies that focus on the day to day minutia of personal relationships.  I briefly met Joe Swanberg and a few of the other filmmakers at the forefront of the mumblecore movement at SXSW last year and I am honored for Swamper to be mentioned in the same breath.   

Swamper

If Jack and the Beanstalk was set in Seattle and mixed with heavy doses of drugs, strippers, snowboarding, masturbation, skateboarding, animation fireballs and set to a badass hip-hop soundtrack, it would be Swamper - a dark comedy about a week in the life of a jizz-mopper.

Follow Jared (JP Moore) for a week at Christmas time as he navigates the underground trades.  The characters you meet along the way include his crazy old ex-truck driving pot dealer (Billy St. John, Mr. Deeds), his burned out dotcom millionaire roommate turned MMPORG Blacksmith (Cam Buckenberger), and a hot new dancer named Sinimun (Jacqui Olivas) that catches his eye.  Jared eventually meets a snowboarding thug (Kevin Gilbert, The Last Stand) who turns him into the speed king of

Seattle - for a minute.

Swamper features an incredible Northwest soundtrack featuring tracks from THC, Blue Scholars, Boom Bap Project, Pale Soul, Drop-6, Cancer Rising, Mista Ock, Sleep, Snafu and the whole Oldominion crew.  Swamper's underscore features award-winning composers Mark Petrie, Alan Haskel and THC.

Brian Miller’s review in this week’s

Seattle Weekly:

Casual sex and drugs should be a lot more fun than they are in director Clint Berquist’s low-budget local indie, which premiered at his Seattle’s True Independent Film Festival (STIFF) two years ago. His slacker hero works at the Lusty Lady, mopping the floor of what customers leave behind—hence the movie’s title. Young Jared (J.P. Moore) also dates one of the workers there, making Swamper something of a cautionary tale about dating coke-fiend strippers. It takes about 91 minutes for Jared to see the limitations of said stripper (Jacqui Olivas) and, by implication, those of his aimless, drug-seeking life. Musical interludes and a snowboarding sequence don’t really make the time pass any more quickly. Despite the surface appeal of peep shows, crystal meth, and murder, Swamper’s energy level seems awfully close to Mumblecore. (NR) BRIAN MILLER.

Central Cinema 

$10. Thu., December 27, 7:00pm