The secret is out. Anyone can make a “film” these days. Granted, many of them bore the pants right off me after only ten seconds; but then as long as the pants are off, who cares? Have you tried your hand at video yet? Be brave and see what you can do in just 48 hours. (Who knows? It might even be a lesson in humility.) This year’s 48-Hour Film Project will take place from June 8th to the 10th. Attend an information session tonight to get more info on registering, watch past films, and talk to producer Ira Livingston in person.
6 p.m., IFP Minnesota, 2446 University Ave. W., St. Paul; 651-644-1912; free.
Yielding to the Great Filmmaking Abilities of Minnesotans
While the 48-Hour Film Festival might produce some amusing results, a film worth watching usually takes at least six days — or sometimes eight years. See what an accomplished filmmaker can do with his time. Wholecrue Productions invites you to an evening of art, cinema, drink, and song. The evening will begin with drinks, mingling, and an exhibition of works by local artists, followed by the premiere of writer/director Gregg Hortgrewe’s Unhinged. Hortgrewe shot this short thriller as a feature last summer, in just six days, and then cut it down in length. But the evening isn’t about this short. Not really. The main event awaits until after dinner. We can’t have our bellies growling during the movie, so fill them up to the music of Coach Said Not To. Once your belly is full, settle into your chair for the world premiere of Holtgrewe’s second feature film (yielding to) a willing breath. After eight years, Holtgrewe’s truly low-budget ($3,500) film is finally bringing local actors Paul Cram, Charles Brin, and T.Mychael Rambo to the forefront with this story about a man coming to terms with the death of his girlfriend. Enjoy the film, and stick around afterward for a question and answer session with Holtgrewe and producer Michael D. Howe.
6 p.m., Suburban World Theater, 3022 Hennepin Ave., Minneapolis; 612-822-9000; $20 with dinner.
READING AND FILM Yet Another Piece of the Puzzle
Clearly, most feature films are not a result of 48-hour projects. The screenwriting alone can seem to take an eternity (and often does). So imagine how frustrating it must be to finally complete the screenplay and still have to wait years to see it in action. Get a sneak peak of an upcoming film tonight, before it goes from paper to film. Minnesota actor John Carroll Lynch (Fargo,
Zodiac, and “The Drew Carey Show“) will direct a workshop reading of his next film, Remember Minnesota, a story about the 1987 University of Minnesota Crew team who came from their rusted corrugated tin hut on the Mississippi banks and, for the first time in their history, went all the way to the coveted rowing regatta championships to compete against the most powerful teams the Ivy League had to offer.
Of course, you could always just leave the whole film “thang” to the visually obsessed and go for something more malleable? Two great authors are in town tonight to read from their latest novels. Irvine Welsh, author of Trainspotting will read from The Bedroom Secrets of the Master Chefs, and Minneapolis native Arthur Phillips will discuss Angelica.
The Bedroom Secrets of the Master Chefs is the story of two men locked in a war of wills that threatens their very existence. Troubled restaurant inspector Danny Skinner sinks into alcoholism tortured by his mother’s refusal to reveal the identify of his father. Suspecting the answer may lie with celebrity chef Alan De Fretais, Skinner relocates to San Francisco, where he meets his nemesis, inspector Brian Kibby. Danny finds himself consumed by a seething hatred of his clean-living rival until, during a drunken and vitriolic interior rage, he enacts a hex. Now Danny can drink, fight and snort with abandon and Kibby’s body, not his, pays the physical toll. Welsh’s work is a defiant parable about the great obsessions of our time: food, sex, and celebrity.
Angelica follows a lowly London stationery clerk who senses the presence of supernatural evil in her house and turns to a spiritualist to help her. As she watches her domestic life deteriorate into disorder and perceived danger, Phillips offers four sections, each taking a different character’s point of view, that delivers a parallel and sometimes conflicting interpretation of her reality. Follow along and see how nothing is as it seems, but how everything fits together. Phillips will sign copies of his book following the discussion. (Read an excerpt from Angelica.)
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