CALL to SC filmmakers for 2016 2nd Act Film Festival

The 2nd Act Film Festival is a unique take on the film project. Its mission is to encourage and promote the growth of independent filmmaking in South Carolina by gathering highly creative and diverse voices that represent independent filmmaking in the state.

The 2^nd Act Film Festival is a curated film project. Filmmakers submit their names to be considered for participation in the festival. A group of media and film professionals will select the final group of filmmakers based on their previous work, the filmmaking team they have organized, and their enthusiasm for independent filmmaking. There is no entry fee to participate. The level of filmmaking experience by the filmmaker can range from beginner to professional. Participating filmmakers will be featured in Jasper magazine and promoted heavily in events leading up to the festival screening.

Filmmakers are given the same first and third acts of a three act short script. The filmmaker's job is to write the second act and make the film. There is no restriction on genre or subject matter. This year, filmmaking teams will receive $100 to help produce their film.

The $250 2nd Act Film Festival Audience Award is given to the film that the audience recognizes as the most outstanding product of those created for the festival. Participating filmmakers will also receive gifts from the event sponsors.

The ten selected filmmakers will screen their films at Tapp’s Arts Center on Friday, October 14^th, 2016. Past festivals have played to overflow crowds. Complete guidelines and entry forms may be found at www.secondactfilmfestival.com. The call for entries closes August 31^st.

According to independent filmmaker OK Keyes, winner of the 2013 Audience Award, “Second Act was a wonderful experience as a young creator trying to find inspiration to do art outside of a school project. I also think the parameters for the project create a unique challenge to not be like everyone else that pushes you to really know your own style.”

 2^nd Act Film Festival Highlights

There is no entry fee for participating filmmakers and teams.

• Filmmakers will receive $100 to help produce their film.
• Selected filmmakers must currently live in South Carolina.
• The final group of filmmakers will be selected by a group of media professionals.
• Filmmakers will be selected based on their prior works, as well as their passion and commitment toward independent filmmaking.
• All filmmakers will receive the same two script pages as well as additional instructions on producing the film.

Contact Festival Director Wade Sellers at 803.467.4206 or wade@coalpoweredfilmworks.com for more information.

PREVIEW: Stop Kiss at USC's Lab Theatre by Rebecca Shrom

What do you want?”

“Sara asks this question repeatedly throughout the show, and I think it is important to ask that now and again,” explains Liz Houck, senior Theatre and Psychology major at USC, who is directing Stop Kiss in USC’s Lab Theater. Stop Kiss is a play about love. Not just the romantic love between a man and a woman, or the romantic love between two women, or two men, but the kind of love that builds from friendships, and all the fluidity that can be found in between.

Stop Kiss, by Diana Son, is a play, set in New York, which centers around 2 women, Callie (Jasmine James) and Sara (Imani Hanley), and their blossoming relationship. One fateful night, when Callie and Sara share their first kiss, they are both assaulted in the park. Callie remains physically unharmed, but Sara is beaten into a coma. The play then continues to jump back and forth between two timelines: the time before the accident and the recovery process. The play explores Callie and Sara’s relationship, their relationships with others, and how many different ways there can be to love someone, whether romantically, platonically, or otherwise.

“Stop Kiss is such a poignant, powerful play that says so much about systemic oppression and broken systems,” Houck explains. She is hoping that will bring back the question of “What do you want?” to the forefront of the audience’s brain. But not only that, she is hoping it will be a catalyst for discussion. She states, “… It’s even more productive to ask more specific questions such as ‘What do you want to change in the world in order to help people like Callie and Sara exist without fear?’ and ‘What do you want to do about the current system?’”

Stop Kiss, despite being published 17 years ago, still remains extremely relevant.  Freddie Powers (George) shares, “[The play] was an important message about violence against queer people when the play was published in 1998 and it's almost shocking how easily adaptable it is to 2015. We didn't have to make any changes in the script because nothing sounds out of place today; the message is still just as relevant.” Houck goes on to explain, “Considering the current social climate regarding race and sexuality especially, there is a call to action to be taken from the show, especially in a state where marriage equality happened in the same year as the Charleston Nine tragedy. How does that happen, and what does that say about us?

Houck also states that the production is going to use glitch art to address the issue of oppression visually. With the help of USC Media Arts MA alum OK Keyes, the cast was led in a workshop, took images from the media, and broke them in order to creat something new.  Houck says, “We are using glitch art as a means to break the systems which oppress the charcaters in the world of the play, which mirrors the world in which we live. Glitch involves breaking the image: the actual code is bent or broken, which distorts the image.”

But in the end, it really all comes back to the idea of love. Everyone should be free to love, and let others love in whatever fashion they desire. Abi McNeely (Mrs. Winsley/Nurse) shares, “There are so many different types of love: romantic, sexual, friendly, combinations of all three... and nowadays, these different types are even more prominent, especially with young people. There will always be people against these different kinds of love, but people love anyway. And that's important. It doesn't matter; love anyway.”

Stop Kiss will be performed in the Booker T. Washington Theater (1400 Wheat St.) on October 15-18 at 8 pm each night. Tickets are $5 at the door. For more information about Stop Kiss or the theatre program at the University of South Carolina, contact Kevin Bush by phone at (803) 777-9353 or via email at bushk@mailbox.sc.edu.

 Stop Kiss contains adult language and content 
that is not suitable for children.

Tamara Finkbeiner wins Audience Award at Jasper's 2nd Act Film Festival

 

Congratulations to Tamara Finkbeiner whose film Eva's Plug, won the Audience Award at Friday night's 2nd Act Film Festival sponsored by Jasper Magazine. Selected via audience ballot, the 2nd Act Film Festival Audience Award includes a check for $250, a First Draft editing program, and a one-of-a-kind trophy designed by Columbia artist, Matthew Kramer. According to film festival director Wade Sellers, "With any short film fest there are many films that could win an audience award, that was the same with this year's 2nd Act Film Fest. There is usually a film, however, that just connects with an audience in that room at that moment and that was the case with Tamara's film Eva's Plug. You could feel the energy and enthusiasm for the film build as it played. That experience is what 2nd Act is all about."

This was the second 2nd Act Film Festival (the first was in October 2013) which played once again to a capacity house at Tapp's Arts Center and included the films of 10 adjudicated filmmakers from South Carolina including Lucas Sams, Brian Harmon, Jason Stokes, Bessy Adut, Phyllis Jackson, Caletta Harris-Bailey, Bradley Wagster,  Dustin Weibel, Jordan Young, and Tamara Finkbeiner. The selected filmmakers, who applied to participate earlier this season, were chosen over other applicants based on their abilities and the freshness of the voice the jurors thought they would bring to the project. Jurors included Lee Ann Kornegay, Lee Snelgrove,  Caitlin Bright, Wade Sellers, and Cindi Boiter. 

"This year we put more pressure on ourselves to assist the filmmakers," Sellers says. "We offered script notes, production advice and assistance, and editorial suggestions once the films were turned in. As a whole the films were more diverse in voice and just better as a whole than our first event." Sellers is the owner and director of Coal Powered Filmworks, a three-time Emmy nominated filmmaker, and the film editor for Jasper Magazine.

In keeping with Jasper's efforts to foster a multi-disciplinary arts community, both visual artists and musicians played a part in the festival and its presentation.  Visual artist Michael Krajewski created an original painting which was used for the festival poster and program; visual artist Matthew Kramer created the Audience Award; and Pedro Ldv entertained festival attendees both before the event and during intermission. In addition, original music from several Columbia-based musicians, including Stan Gardner, Daniel Machado and more, was used as background music during the films themselves.

Columbia-based writer Don McCallister also served as a consultant on the first and third acts of the screenplay which was given to the filmmakers with the challenge that they write the second act and create a film, six minutes long or less, using all three acts. Participants in the 2013 2nd Act Film Festival including Ron Hagell and OK Keyes lent the knowledge of their experience to this year's filmmakers by consulting on films and screenplays.

In the aftermath of Columbia's devastating flood last week other artists including Michael Krajewski,  Bonnie Goldberg, Kara Gunter, Nancy Marine, and Sean McGuiness voluntarily stepped up and offered the fruits of their labors to benefit flood victims through a silent auction which generated $1060 which will be delivered to the Central Carolina Community Foundation. Two large bins of children's arts supplies was also collected from audience members for distribution to children effected by the flood.

The festival staff would like to thank Precision Overhead Garage Door Service, the Mouse House, Coal Powered Filmwork, and Bourbon Columbia for their sponsorship funds and services.

"It was exciting to see these ten filmmakers create these films," Sellers says, "and it only makes us more excited for the future of the event."

IndieGoGo Fundraising Campaign for Local Filmmaking Camp S.M.I.S.T.

Are you a big fan of the Indie Grits Film Festival? What about Girls Rock Columbia? Man, wouldn't it be great if somebody combined those two ideas??

As it turns out, local filmmaker O.K. Keyes has. She is currently working to raise funds for SMIST (Space. Movement. Image. Sound. Time.), a self-proclaimed "workshop-in-the-woods for women DIY filmmakers." Based on the premise that most DIY film shoots require Jill-of-all-trades rather than dedicated experts, the camp offers a vast crash-course in the basics of filmmaking as well as instruction on the ethos of independent and experimental filmmaking. With guest speakers, nightly screenings, and a daily morning "Meditation in Maya [Deren]," this is an ambitious, and awesome, undertaking worthy of your support if you care about feminism, local filmmaking, or just the young women in your community. Keyes is a top-notch filmmaker herself (she was a co-winner of last year's 2nd Act Film Festival), and she's already put a lot of sweat (and financial) equity into making this camp--something that she likely would have loved as a young women herself--a reality.

Check out the IndieGoGo video and fundraising page here. The campaign runs through July 24, 2014.

http://vimeo.com/99601028