Festival Program
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FESTIVAL PROGRAM ABOUT LAS VEGAS FILM FESTIVAL The Las Vegas Film Festival is a community of filmmakers and film lovers drawn to the unique, curious and cultivating environment that is Las Vegas. The LVFF pushes the boundaries of cinema, annually presenting work by passionate, rebellious, and wild storytellers to an audience of local and national filmmakers, film lovers, journalists, and film industry representatives. Festival leadership includes Mike Plante (Captain of Strategy), Milo Kostelecky (President), Robin Greenspun (CineVegas President) and West McDowell (Programming Director). For more information, please email [email protected], visit www.lvff.com and find the festival on Facebook. TABLE OF CONTENTS FREMONT STREET 10 SCHEDULE 17 LIVE EVENTS 23 FEATURES 34 SHORTS 40 FESTIVAL LABS 44 TEAM 46 VOLUNTEERS LAS VEGAS BLVD 47 SPECIAL THANKS FLAMINGO ROAD Theatre & Box Office Brenden Theatres, Palms Casino Resort 4321 W Flamingo Rd, Las Vegas, NV 89103 Phone: (702) 507-4849 Hours: Open 1 hour prior to first screening until 10pm daily FESTIVAL SPONSORS FESTIVAL AMBASSADORS Lance Johns Sean McClenahan Larry Spitler Sonja and Michael Saltman Marsha and Sam Schaul Sonny Ahuja Matthew Frazier Stacey Sam Michael Ursell Tarissa Tiberti Michele C. Quinn Tevis Holborow Puoy Premsrirut Tiffany Tiberti Robert Rueter Tony Hsieh Robin Greenspun Vida Chan Lin Ron Winchell Rory Reid Aaron Rosenthal Dan Coughlin Andy and Earl Henderson Daniel Tuntland Barbara and Mike Sloan Don Hamrick Beverly Rogers Donald Bowman Briana Tiberti Duy Nyguyen Camille Ruvo Fred Mossler Cari Marshall Frederic Apcar Chris Goyna Gloria Fine Katie O’Neil Jennifer Simich Chuck Akin Jonathan Fine Cindy Reid Joshua Wolf Schenk Clarence Gilyard KJ Howe BOBCAT PRESENTS Live Event, Comedy Veteran film director Bobcat Goldthwait first came to CineVegas with Windy City Heat in 2004 and brought his first film Shakes the Clown to the Las Vegas Film Festival two years ago. Now he returns to the stage in Vegas for some much-needed comedy. 11:00 PM FRIDAY, JUNE 8 Fremont Street Country Club LIVE EVENTS 17 CHRISTINE VACHON AN EVENING WITH DON HERTZFELDT Live Event Black Mountain Institute presents a live discussion with Christine Vachon The highly anticipated follow-up to Don Hertzfeldt’s “World of Tomorrow” onstage, moderated by Mary Ann Marino. finds Emily Prime swept inside the brain of an incomplete back-up clone of Christine Vachon co-founded Killer Films with Pamela Koffler in 1995. Since her future self, who’s on a mission to reboot her broken mind. Continuing then, they have produced over 100 films including: CAROL (nominated for the tradition of the first film, “World of Tomorrow Episode Two” was six Academy Awards), FAR FROM HEAVEN (nominated for four Academy written entirely around candid audio recordings of Hertzfeldt’s five year Awards), STILL ALICE (Academy Award winner), BOYS DON’T CRY old niece. (Academy Award winner), and I’M NOT THERE (Academy Award nominated). Killer produced Z: THE BEGINNING OF EVERYTHING for Amazon Studios, as well as Todd Haynes’ latest film, WONDERSTRUCK. 5:00 PM FRIDAY, JUNE 8 5:30 PM SATURDAY, JUNE 9 Brenden Theatres at Palms, House 2 Brenden Theatres at Palms, House 2 18 19 RUDY CASONI BOOZEBAG REVIEW Live Event, Comedy Director: The Rudy Casoni Boozebag Revue returns to Las Vegas. Sinatra’s Singing Toby Huss Bastard brings his drunken and dangerous lounge act to Fremont Street. See him croon the standards and selected punk covers with his swing band as his show of comedians and low rent, dumdum, variety acts, careens off the rails and slams headfirst into a rat pack nightmare. Starring Toby Huss, Mark Fite, Billy the Mime, Pat Healy, and the Dago5 Band and featuring mostly nude dancers who are mostly women. Musicians: Rudy Casoni Andy Paley, Keyboards Jordan Katz, Trumpet Mark Fite, Gary 11:00 PM SATURDAY, JUNE 9 Mark Sanfilippo, Drums Fremont Street Country Club Mike Bolger, Trombone Ryan Reves, Bass Phil Small, Piano Stephen Banks, Billy the Mime Pat Healey, A nut Ben Jaffe, Saxophone 20 CLARA’S GHOST Feature Film, 93min. Ted Reynolds, an aging comedian, copes with his fading fame by living a Director: quiet life away from the spotlight with his wife Clara in rural New England. Bridey Elliott When they invite their two daughters —a pair of former child stars—home Cast: Paula Niedert Elliott to celebrate the family dog’s birthday, the vodka-loving clan devolves into Chris Elliott a drunken mess. While Ted and his daughters rehash old wounds, Clara Abby Elliott finds herself face to face with a supernatural spirit that only she can see. Bridey Elliott Haley Joel Osment Writer: Bridey Elliott FEATURES Producer: Sarah Winshall Editor: 7:00 PM THURSDAY, JUNE 7 Patrick Lawrence Brenden Theatres at Palms, House 2 Composer: 3:00 PM SATURDAY, JUNE 9 Stella Mozgawa Brenden Theatres at Palms, House 2 Cinematographer: Markuz Mentzer 23 DAMSEL I AM NOT A WITCH Feature Film, 113min. Feature Film, 93min. Director: Samuel Alabaster (Robert Pattinson), an affluent pioneer, ventures When eight-year-old Shula turns up alone and unannounced in a rural Director: David Zellner across the American Frontier to marry the love of his life, Penelope (Mia Zambian village, the locals are suspicious. A minor incident escalates to Rungano Nyoni Cast: Wasikowska). As Samuel traverses the Wild West with a drunkard named a full-blown witch trial, where she is found guilty and sentenced to life on Robert Pattinson Parson Henry (David Zellner) and a miniature horse called Butterscotch, a state-run witch camp. There, she is tethered to a long white ribbon and Mia Wasikowska their once-simple journey grows treacherous, blurring the lines between told that if she ever tries to run away, she will be transformed into a goat. hero, villain and damsel. A loving reinvention of the western genre from the As the days pass, Shula begins to settle into her new community, but a Zellner brothers (Kumiko, the Treasure Hunter), DAMSEL showcases their threat looms on the horizon. Soon she is forced to make a difficult decision trademark unpredictability, off-kilter sense of humor, and unique brand of – whether to resign herself to life on the camp, or take a risk for freedom. Writers: David Zellner humanism. Nathan Zellner Producers: Nathan Zellner 9:30 PM WEDNESDAY, JUNE 6 5:15 PM THURSDAY, JUNE 7 Chris Ohlson Brenden Theatres at Palms, House 2 Brenden Theatres at Palms, House 9 Editor: 7:30 PM SATURDAY, JUNE 9 5:00 PM SUNDAY, JUNE 10 Melba Robichaux Brenden Theatres at Palms, House 2 Brenden Theatres at Palms, House 9 Director of Photography: Adam Stone 24 25 JOHN MCENROE: IN THE REALM OF MINDING THE GAP PERFECTION Documentary Feature, 109min. Documentary Feature, 93min. Director: Written and directed by Faraut and narrated by Mathieu Amalric, JOHN First-time filmmaker Bing Liu’s documentary MINDING THE GAP is a coming-of- Director: Julien Faraut MCENROE: IN THE REALM OF PERFECTION revisits the rich bounty of 16-mm- age saga of three skateboarding friends in their Rust Belt hometown hit hard by Bing Liu shot footage of the left-handed tennis star John McEnroe, at the time the decades of recession. In his quest to understand why he and his friends all ran away Cast: Zack Mulligan world’s top-ranked player, as he competes in the French Open at Paris’s Roland from home when they were younger, Bing follows 23-year-old Zack as he becomes Keire Johnson Garros Stadium. Close-ups and slow motion sequences of McEnroe competing, a father and 17-year-old Keire as he gets his first job. As the film unfolds, Bing is Bing Liu as well as instances of his notorious temper tantrums, highlight a ”man who thrust into the middle of Zack’s tumultuous relationship with his girlfriend and Nina Bowgren played on the edge of his senses.” Far from a traditional documentary, Faraut Keire’s inner struggles with racial identity and his deceased father. While navigating Kent Abernathy probes the archival film to unpack both McEnroe’s attention to the sport and a complex relationship between his camera and his friends, Bing explores the gap Producers: Producers: William Jehannin the footage itself, creating a lively and immersive look at a driven athlete, a between fathers and sons, between discipline and domestic abuse, and ultimately Bing Liu Raphaelle Delauch study on the sport of tennis and the human body and movement, and finally that precarious chasm between childhood and becoming an adult. Diane Quon how these all intersect with cinema itself. Editors: Joshua Altman 6:00 PM SUNDAY, JUNE 10 9:00 PM WEDNESDAY, JUNE 6 Bing Liu Brenden Theatres at Palms, House 2 Brenden Theatres at Palms, House 9 Director of Photography: 2:00 PM SUNDAY, JUNE 10 Bing Liu Brenden Theatres at Palms, House 9 Original Music: Nathan Halpern Chris Ruggiero 26 27 NANCY NARCISSISTER ORGAN PLAYER Feature Film, 87min. Documentary Feature, 91min. Director: NANCY is a provocative psychological thriller about love, intimacy, and NARCISSISTER ORGAN PLAYER is a hybrid personal documentary/ Director: Christina Choe trust – and what happens when lies become truth. Craving connection with performance film that is a vibrant portrait of a family, a radical artistic Narcissister Cast: others, Nancy creates elaborate identities and hoaxes under pseudonyms practice, and an exploration of how ancestral data is stored in our bodies, Cast: Andrea Riseborough Narcissister on the internet. When she meets a couple whose daughter went missing impacting the lives we lead. J. Smith-Cameron Sarah Benzaquen Lumpkin Steve Buscemi thirty years ago, fact and fiction begin to blur in Nancy’s mind, and she Oscar James Lumpkin Jr. Ann Dowd becomes increasingly convinced these strangers are her real parents.