04 Mar Celebration and Cinema – 2014 DC Independent Film Festival
One of the most successful and enduring film festivals to call DC home, the DC Independent Film Festival celebrated its 16th year as one of the area’s longest running festivals. The DCIFF mission includes supporting and showcasing talented filmmakers from around the world. And by exhibiting world premiere screenings, hosting timely seminars and workshops, as well as sponsoring discussions with the United States Congress, DCIFF offers independent filmmakers unparalleled opportunities to be heard and seen. This year the festival ran from February 19 through the 23rd at the Naval Heritage Center, and screened films from 30 different countries including China, Russia, Austria, Croatia and India.
Premieres
The festival kicked off with two important features, Partners for Peace and Toastmaster. Partners for Peace follows a group of 13 women—led by Nobel Peace Laureates Jody William and Mairread Maguire—as they embark on a mission to the Middle East to examine the Israel and Palestine conflict and empower the women of the region to work toward peace. A lively Q&A between the audience, Jody Williams, activist Jaclyn Friedman and director Ed Kucerak followed the film.
Toastmaster examines the Armenian traditions of toasts at family dinners and how they are passed down from generation to generation. Fittingly, the opening night party toast followed the film.
To add some star power to the festival, Jennifer Lynch, daughter of the Hollywood director David Lynch was scheduled to attend the premiere of Despite the Gods, her Bollywood horror-style film. Although she had to cancel, she participated in a Skype session with the audience following the screening.
Future Filmmakers
Committed to promoting the star filmmakers of tomorrow, DCIFF began The High School Film Competition. Over 200 high school students from DC the area submitted their short films. The festival selected 10 entries that were presented in a competition at the Gala Theatre in Columbia Heights.
Master Classes, Workshops and Seminars, Oh My!
The DCIFF festival also offered exciting seminars, workshops and panels including an acting workshop with actor Manny Perez boasting roles in Cold Case, Law and Order and Homeland. Local talent took part as panelists including Brian Grundstrom, President of TIVA (Television Internet Video Association), who taught music scoring to the delighted crowd and dissected film music cues. Another workshop combined cinematography and technology. Documentary filmmakers Richard Chisolm and Paul Moon discussed the latest gear for Indie filmmakers while experimental cinematographer Alexander Porter displayed the RGBDToolkit, an open source hybrid filming & 3D scanning technique.
Big Winners Party On
Feature films, documentaries and animated shorts played to receptive crowds and enthusiastic judges. A big draw was local filmmaker Tim Gordon’s Blood and Circumstances. His film is a psychological thriller centering on a prison inmate’s mental examination to learn if he is fit to stand trial.
The closing night party attracted a large crowd on Sunday, the 24th and featured the film This Ain’t No Mouse Music! The documentary looks at different categories of music like the blues, New Orleans R&B, country and Cajun and how they have been collected and preserved by sound detective Chris Strachwitz. Following the film, a live New Orleans Mardi Gras band escorted the audience out of the theatre and into the closing night party where the festival awards were announced. Some of the winners were Greencard Warriors for Best Feature, Ofir for Best Documentary and 3 Mile Limit for Best International Film. To read about the rest of the winners, check out the DCIFF site: http://dciff-indie.org.