That said, I gave all 3 movies mentioned here a "4" -- that's inclusive of the Secret Fest which I can't really talk about.

The first film, DUST, was a documentary on dust. That doesn't sound particularly exciting I realize, but it's quirky concept attracted me to want to see it. I've been a bit iffy on the experimental films at Northwest Film Forum but constantly try to include some in my schedule each year because I think they are worthwhile and challenging to my own perceptions. I wouldn't say DUST was experimental at all, however. It was a very straightforward documentary with narration and some talking heads. So why would something like this propel beyond just a meager "3" for me? I think a large part had to do with the very well done photography. From the very beginning, the composition was incredibly planned and executed, and the movements were highly precise and direct. I imagined the same dialogue and sets in the hands of an inexperienced layman with a cheap DV cam and immediately began to think what a horror it would have been to sit through 90 minutes of shaky handheld and subpar audio quality of people talking about dust. At times, DUST felt more to me like a narrative, with long sweeping pans and the occasional quirky character commenting obsessively about something unashamed of the camera lens.

But then at other times, DUST went too over the top. Long scientific monologues, though interesting and educational, weakened its pace. Occasionally the camera doubled over an area again, panning as if it were simply out of visuals or correcting a prior attempt, or possibly afraid to stray too far away from the subject for fear they may do something interesting. These little things detracted from the movie overall. Despite that, it had a very similar feel in tone to Out of Time, a SIFF documentary from last year which I rated very highly. It was no surprise then to discover the same programmer picked up both movies. (Thank you, Andy Spletzer!)

THE SONG OF THE SPARROWS was a solid narrative, humorous and touching with a great flowing script, and an exceptional cast. There was some symbolism involving an ostrich searching for freedom and a man searching for the ostrich, but I'm not really sure how to interpret it as of yet. I'm happy to see another great movie from Iran, and especially happy to see another movie that features more of the urban big city life of Tehran. I hate to judge a movie by politically motivated factors, but it's very refreshing to that side rather than a bunch of families huddled in caves way out in the desert, which while important, is less easily related to by american audiences.

I did not think SPARROWS was amazing enough to be one of the best, simply because it didn't really break any new creative ground, but there's a scene involving a group of boys tripping over a bucket of water and spilling a massive amount of goldfish they had saved up for since the beginning of the movie that really broke my heart and almost tipped me over to the "5".

AUDIENCE WATCH: One person in the audience at SPARROWS felt the need to vocalize at certain moments, one of which was when one of the characters did something rude to another, they exclaimed, "jerk!"

GONZO is a loosely assembled hodge-podge of clips, reenactments, sounds and music that flow along a timeline of milestones throughout Thompson's life. Narrated solely through interviews and direct readings from his work by Johnny Depp, it offers up a glimpse at a more personal side behind what in later years could only be determined through reports of Thompson's reclusive personality.

The movie begins with some awkward editing sloppiness which continues at times throughout, and is later dotted by semi-frequent cliched musical interludes, however in its attempt to show Thompson's life it succeeds in portraying not only the biographical aspects of how his writing was shaped, but also a more deeper analysis of what his writings and his character have meant for the political landscape of our country.

Depp's narration of the movie was less painful than one might otherwise expect, though occasional on-screen moments reading out of a book seemed out of place and unnecessary. These portions and other b-roll could have been dropped altogether to tighten the film, which ran at roughly 2 hours.

One of the highlights of GONZO isn't really about Thompson at all: it's a glimpse at the phenomenal work of Ralph Steadman.

MY EFFORTLESS BRILLIANCE is described by director Lynn Shelton as an experiment in making the filmmaking process as organic as possible. It started by first identifying the actors, then building characters around them, and then finally scene suggestion where dialogue was all ad-lib in front of the camera as it was rolling. What came out of this was a natural conversational feel to the movie -- you could tell there was no way it was scripted, but the strengths of the actors were such that it didn't matter. The dynamic between the two leads was incredibly natural and helped drive the success of the film.

AUDIENCE WATCH: Even after a stern warning from festival programmer Beth Barett about cell phone peeking during the film, the woman to my left couldn't resist the warm glow of mobile love about an hour into BRILLIANCE. Piling onto that was two separate individuals in another row making loud crinkly sounds with their popcorn/candy bags for at least a good half hour apiece. People love to hear their own noises!

It's also the time when I start updating this blog on a regular basis. If there's one thing that's kept this thing alive, it's SIFF season, that's for freaking sure.

The SIFF schedule was recently published and the box office has opened, which means I've already assembled a sort of working list. In fact I think this year is a record as far as selecting a working list and actually planning out a schedule so quickly.

I won't be getting a Full Series pass this year due to having just started a new job at Disney. I'll have more to share on that later.

For now, let's just get right to the schedule (behind the cut).

9:30pm My Effortless Brilliance
Egyptian Theatre
MYEF2408A
http://www.siff.net/rdir.aspx?SID=5329

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Sunday May 25
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11:00am 2008 Secret Festival
Egyptian Theatre
SECR2508X
http://www.siff.net/rdir.aspx?SID=5526

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Monday May 26
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5:00pm Dust
Northwest Film Forum
DUST2608A
http://www.siff.net/rdir.aspx?SID=5186

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Tuesday May 27
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7:00pm The Song of Sparrows
Uptown Cinema
SONG2708A
http://www.siff.net/rdir.aspx?SID=5447

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Friday May 30
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9:30pm Ben X
Uptown Cinema
BENX3008A
http://www.siff.net/rdir.aspx?SID=5170

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Saturday May 31
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4:00pm Idiots and Angels
Harvard Exit
IDIO3108A
http://www.siff.net/rdir.aspx?SID=5494

7:00pm Encounters at the End of the World
Uptown Cinema
ENCO3108A
http://www.siff.net/rdir.aspx?SID=5191

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Sunday June 1
--------------------------------------------------
11:00am 2008 Secret Festival
Egyptian Theatre
SECR0108X
http://www.siff.net/rdir.aspx?SID=5525

4:00pm Great Speeches From A Dying World
Harvard Exit
SPEE0108A
http://www.siff.net/rdir.aspx?SID=5093

8:30pm Rare Gems from Pilot Animation Studios
SIFF Cinema
PILO0108A
http://www.siff.net/rdir.aspx?SID=5518

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Monday June 2
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6:30pm Island Etude
Pacific Place Cinema
ETUD0208A
http://www.siff.net/rdir.aspx?SID=5246

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Saturday June 7
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1:30pm Be Like Others
Egyptian Theatre
BELI0708A
http://www.siff.net/rdir.aspx?SID=5303

9:00pm Erik Nietzsche The Early Years
Uptown Cinema
ERIK0708A
http://www.siff.net/rdir.aspx?SID=5156

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Sunday June 8
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11:00am 2008 Secret Festival
Egyptian Theatre
SECR0808X
http://www.siff.net/rdir.aspx?SID=5524

6:30pm Baghead
Egyptian Theatre
BAGH0808A
http://www.siff.net/rdir.aspx?SID=5296

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Monday June 9
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4:30pm Walt & El Grupo
Uptown Cinema
WALT0908A
http://www.siff.net/rdir.aspx?SID=5342

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Tuesday June 10
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7:00pm In the Land of the Headhunters
The Moore
INTH1008W
http://www.siff.net/rdir.aspx?SID=5499

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Wednesday June 11
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7:00pm Buddha Collapsed Out of Shame
Egyptian Theatre
BUDD1108A
http://www.siff.net/rdir.aspx?SID=5216

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Friday June 13
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7:00pm The Album Leaf Performs Sunrise
The Triple Door
SUN11308F
http://www.siff.net/rdir.aspx?SID=5509

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Saturday June 14
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4:00pm Faces
SIFF Cinema
CASS1408A
http://www.siff.net/rdir.aspx?SID=5504

8:00pm Alexander Nevsky
Benaroya Hall
NEVS1408W
http://www.siff.net/rdir.aspx?SID=5503

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Sunday June 15
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11:00am 2008 Secret Festival
Egyptian Theatre
SECR1508X
http://www.siff.net/rdir.aspx?SID=5523

1:30pm Towelhead
Egyptian Theatre
TOWE1508A
http://www.siff.net/rdir.aspx?SID=5209

8:30pm The Unknown Woman
Uptown Cinema
UNKN1508A
http://www.siff.net/rdir.aspx?SID=5083

In 6 hours, you get to see 26 movies (with 15min intermissions between four themed sets), and spend some time in a cool little hidden theatre at the market.

See the Post Alley Film Festival website for more info.

On a more personal note, the festival founder happens to be my former film teacher.

And even more personally, the festival day happens to fall on my birthday, so there's a chance I may not make it. But if you do, tell 'em I sent you!

The Saturday session covered primarily pre-production, but floated in and out of various other topics with Moritsugu's energy and enthusiasm. One thing I found really interesting about his perspective on no-budget filmmaking was his advice to always think big -- that despite how you may view your lack of budget now, you should always aim high and then cut back creatively, because there is always a chance the high estimate might actually turn up.

I'm currently in a bad state of affairs as far as ideas, so when Moritsugu talked about Jim Jarmusch's "50 details" my ears perked up. Apparently when Jarmusch was working on "Stranger Than Paradise" he had originally started with a general list of 50 things he really loves. Little items, certain shots, snippets of dialogue, anything. From there, he constructed scenes, and then put scenes together into a story. I love this idea because I always think in very fine details about how I would like a certain scene to be filmed. Writing a story and then working on the details afterwards makes me fear them getting lost in the fray. I realize this is backwards from what the professionals would recommend in how to construct a good, engaging story.

During class time, we viewed a film by a former high school student in a shady part of San Francisco, called "AKA Don Bonus." The movie was a documentary on his life in the projects and was shot entirely handheld by him. It's a very jolting video, and apparently played at various film fests and won an Emmy. The point in watching this was an exercise in how low budget you can be and still be very moving. Keeping crew size down, shooting on location, etc, are all things that can help. We briefly covered the rules for a Dogme certified film and a few on the list reiterated points that can be transfered very easily over to a no-budget style.

Other portions of the pre-production step that were covered were tips on obtaining grant funds, gathering crew, release forms and copyrights, and other general prep work that needs to happen prior to the shoot. Much of this was review for me from having taken the UW's film class, but it was a welcome review and Moritsugu added quite a bit about his own personal experiences to make it worthwhile information. I especially liked his very up front attitude as far as revealing details on his budget, the way he works with his cast, and his own grant application processes. In my so far brief experience talking to other directors, this information seems very tightly under wrap and most seem very secretive or shy about giving out these details. I think it's great to hear from someone who is so open and honest about their style. Not only is it educational, but it also reinforces the DIY ideology that anyone can do this given the information and drive to make it happen.

I think I'm going to start a list.

Even with the somewhat raucous, chatty audience, and my inability to sit still through standard Kubrick-lengthed movies, it never once failed to continue to completely floor me. Every second of the movie is just jaw-droppingly gorgeous in so many ways, far beyond just visual. I've seen the 70mm Cinerama version, and no the SIFF Cinema experience didn't really compare, but it was hard not to again appreciate every element of this movie's production.

I'm sure my comments on the movie have been made dozens of times by people far more qualified to do an analysis, but I did have some observations watching this again, especially after spending time studying some of the finer details on filmmaking.

The audio in the movie, and lack of it, is one of those things that I only now have had a far greater appreciation for. There are the initial scenes that I assume were done completely in ADR using natural sound clips and voiceovers, which then progress into a buildup of powerful orchestration over very grand establishing scenes, then dialogue, and then just at the height of each dramatic scene, there is complete and total silence. This deliberate sensory removal is effective in a large part because of all the prior build-up, forcing you to take notice because of how jarring the change is. It reminds me of something I had read about Ozu's movies where simply because of establishing a particular scene length and content style early on, he could manipulate later scenes by exploiting the movie's already comfortable rhythm in a way that left the viewer no choice but to interpret them in a completely different way.

The other major thing that stands out to me is how the effects still to this day look so real, even better than the best CGI. A large chunk of that probably stems from the fact that CGI is always so polished looking. Kubrick's space is gritty, shadowy, detailed and even dated. But it all still continues to look so real, partly I think because the images we have seen from space match up. Kubrick expands on this shared visual knowledge instead of completely reinventing what space is, and lets us inside a fairly reasonable looking space vessel (which frankly though dated looking, still seems completely realistic). And to establish where we are, as well as to pander to our need to know what would really happen if it were really real, Kubrick fills in all the little details about life in space. From the grippy shoes worn by the stumbling stewardess, to the on-board bathroom with the 10+ step instruction card, and even the hat worn by the stewardess to prevent her hair from going in every direction -- these details were amusing and fun, but also seemed entirely plausible given what we know, and not completely over the top. That realism to me is one of the many great strengths of the movie that make it still so accessible today.

The last observation I had was how amazingly small the crew list was. I don't remember seeing any set design artists or anything listed in the credits, so I have a feeling these were uncredited rather than nonexistent.

I'm not giving up that easily though. It's true I haven't watched squat since SIFF ended (Simpsons, Sicko..), nor worked on any filmmaking related projects, but there is still time to ramp it back up again and I've still got 7 Ozu movies in the queue waiting to be ripped through. Last weekend I attended a videogame and pinball convention down in San Jose called California Extreme (CAX), and this year they had a first ever film festival run where all the movies were videogame and pinball related. The entire convention was a lot of fun and unfortunately I only got to see one of the dozen movies they played (Chasing Ghosts, an excellent documentary on competitive classic arcade game players and their reflections on gaming), but they also had King of Kong (out today in theaters here, go see it!) as well as one or two others I'd previously already seen. Quite an impressive line-up!

On the filmmaking front, I think I'm going to register for that upcoming NWFF workshop with Jon Moritsugu, just to keep things fresh about the process. I really wanted to take their 16mm class but unfortunately it conflicts with my lengthy workday and commute schedule. Perhaps some time later.

Lastly, I have a Flickr feed of various photos and one in particular (see photo above) was receiving an insane number of hits recently just after going live on the site. The photo is of a portion of storage space for Netflix and their giant pallets of DVDs waiting to be unwrapped and shipped to eager customers. I only just now discovered the photo has been posted to a Netflix blog which is cool. Hurray for 15min of fame! (And in case you're wondering, the main pallet in the photo is labeled as 14,000 copies of the Memoirs of a Geisha Bonus Disc).

Also via that, a mention on Seattlest as well.

edit - further publicity:

- King5 blog
- a user LJ

The LJ post is sort of an amusing tie-in to a prior blog post I made a while back during pre-production:

"In an effort to recruit personal stories for the movie, I wrote up a very simple post for a local LiveJournal community, knowing full well the mere mention of the term "Seattle Freeze" there would get peoples' pants in a jumble, simply because it has been posted about several times in the past. Although I did not quite realize how much of a jumble it would cause, as I thought I'd made my needs pretty clear. 101 responses later, and still 0 people for the movie. Even after mailing a few to followup, thinking perhaps by commenting they were somehow interested, no response. A little icy, perhaps."

We actually in fact did not end up using anyone from the community, however the number of responses to the original LJ post and this latest one clearly show it is a subject everyone has an opinion on which I think is pretty great in and of itself.

I notice there are a lot of Favorites and five-star ratings on the YouTube video link which seems a bit inflated (likely due to our friends) but I suppose it's better than a single 1-star rating glaring back at you from across the internet.

I really do hope it continues to get more publicity. Not just because I think the whole idea is kind of fun to monitor, but because the subject does deserve to be out there on the table. People may or may not agree with its premise, but the fact is that it has been observed and commented upon by a fair number here and that's something at least worth talking about.

Our documentary doesn't cover quite so much political ground -- instead it focuses on an observed social phenomenon that may or may not exist in the Seattle region. It's quirky and actually managed to provide a bit of comic relief, garnering a good handful of hearty laughs from the audience.

The whole experience of watching the film with an audience of about 100 people was really interesting. Seeing that they were humored in spots I never expected was completely fascinating and also very thrilling at the same time. I totally did not expect much reaction at all, having watched the movie in its entirety some 50 billion times over the past several months. The fact that people seemed to enjoy it made a lot of the little issues and sticking points over the months seem very trivial in the end.

After the movie we had a good Q&A with a lot of questions that really showed the audience got into it. For being the first of the series of documentary shorts it did pretty well, and overall I'm satisfied how things turned out.

I suppose this means I'm officially a "filmmaker," though as Robert Rodriguez says in his 10 Minute Film School, "The moment you think that you want to be a filmmaker you're that."

The Seattle Freeze will be available on YouTube soon.

Observations and Interesting notes on Ozu

- Ozu chose his actors not by their skill but by their character, meeting with them and asking about their lives and interests rather than their experience. He found that their character came through their faces better than any amount of professional acting. It is also for this reason he used the same actors over and over again -- he wrote characters with these particular actors in mind.

- He found non-actors to be more malleable and was extremely obsessive about coaching them, often repeating scenes numerous times until the actor had completed it correctly in the way Ozu had prescribed. He would choreograph words with actions of the hands (scratching one's face) or body movement and facial expression. His actors were often fed up with this, but were very grateful for his coaching at the same time and felt they had learned a lot.

- Ozu loved Citizen Kane, a completely radically different style from his own, but he found it very technically interesting.

- Ozu was very fond of drinking, and much of the writing happened while he was drinking in collaboration with his main screenwriting partner Kogo Noda.

- He wrote for characters, working them out first then working out scenes on notecards. The notecards would be shuffled around until a movie was entirely laid out.

- Certain types of scenes were generally specific to certain types of locations, with the main locations being inside the tatami room of a house, the local bar, work, and school.

- Ozu's favorite part of the filmmaking process was shooting, his least favorite was editing

- His shooting priority was for composition, and frequently he would shuffle room items around after a take in order to get the most optimal photographic shot. There are numerous continuity issues because of this. He was very sloppy about it and did not think people would notice (and most people haven't).

- His shooting style projects that of the passive Japanese individual, sitting attentively in the tatami room watching and listening. It forces one to sit still at the table and observe, and in doing so this style as it evolved eventually became to be known as one that is quintessentially Japanese. In editing, rather than the traditionally modern concept of cutting on action, Ozu forces us not only to listen until the sentence has ended, but several seconds afterwards so that we may digest and at the same time appreciate the words of this stranger who has invited us into their tatami room.

- Ozu used unimportant objects in his shooting as transition points, but in doing so assigned weight to their meaning and held these shots in the editing room for a long time, sometimes as much as 10 seconds. He was very intrigued by the clock scene from High Noon. The concept that most closely illustrates this practice is that of mu, which simply means nothingness, but within nothing there can be everything.

- His films, according to Richie, follow a very defined pattern which is true for each shot, each sequence, and the entirety of each story itself. Generally it involves a wide perspective, a middle perspective, a close-up, and then back to a wide perspective.

- Chishu Ryu has appeared in all but a couple of his movies, and is said to play the part most closest to Ozu himself.

- The Japanese expression mono no aware describes a philosophy that can be summed up as c'est la vie or "life is like that" -- a phrase that appears in a good handful of Ozu films to show the simple acceptance of his characters of what comes to pass. This phrase exemplifies his body of work as concentrating on slices of Japanese life that move on in the present timeline right along with the viewer, rather than focusing on the past or future.

- Ozu was shy with women and never married. He died of cancer late in life. His tombstone bears the symbol for mu.

Yasujiro Ozu began making films in the late 1920's, beginning first with a period film and ending dozens of films later with a body of highly influential work that is at once deceptively simplistic and plot-less, and at the same time deeply meaningful. His ability to say "No" shaped his directorial style as it evolved through increasing restraint in his cinematography. Even as he succumbed to "talkies" and color (but not the larger format of the "Scopes") he still retained those unique elements that defined his filmmaking style, which came together to reflect on a single common theme: the dissolution of the family.

Richie's book explores the work of Ozu by not simply running through a biography of the director (this is reserved for the last chapter), but instead following the path of the creation of his films from start to finish. A thorough analysis of each step of the way, from script to shooting to editing, is done with dozens of examples from his large body of work to illustrate each point. It's a bit heavy at times, especially having not watched much more than a small chunk of Ozu's films, but it's not a requirement that they all be seen before reading the book as the examples provide well enough description to make their point. In some ways there are spoilers, but an Ozu film really has no such thing.

I found much of the strength of this book to come from the thorough research on the part of Richie with plenty of bibliographic references, his thesis-like speculations on aspects of Ozu's filmmaking choices with plenty of backing evidence, and the analysis of his filmmaking style and methods which seem so counter-intuitive to what we are taught today much less what Japanese directors were doing at the time of his career. It's an informative and entertaining read, providing great insight into the process and methods of a highly influential director.

I will say that our short film is far better produced than a good handful of the SIFF documentaries I saw this year, which is really saying something. The biggest surprise for me in all of this was really the people in my class. For some crazy reason I assumed people who wanted to go into filmmaking would be really nuts about movies! The majority of my classmates were in fact very poorly versed in anything beyond the standard multiplex fare, and I think maybe one of them had actually even attended SIFF once in their life. It was quite a surprise and I had wondered if maybe this was the result of taking the class through the UW and not through, say, Seattle Film Institute which was my second choice. The other surprise for me was how slowly the class moved, but I think again this is the result of the people attending and the teachers being excessively accommodating. I actually overheard one person in the class say that they were very glad they took the Documentary track rather than the Narrative track because "making a documentary is so much less work." That statement just boggled me. After seeing something like Out of Time at this year's SIFF, it's really tough to imagine the idea of a documentary being "easy."

Anyway, so I'm a little grumpy about some of the things from the class, but I'm also happy to have taken it and gotten the experience. There is something to be said for a class pushing you along and continually making you revisit certain topics. During the past year I have also been reading up as much as I can about the filmmaking process, and will continue to do so until I feel comfortable enough to assemble a crew and begin work.

It might be a little difficult to keep up with reading and blogging and seeing movies in the next few months though, because I'm about to start a new job! I have accepted a position at Wizards of the Coast and will be starting fairly soon. I'm very excited about this and can't wait, but it's going to suck up a lot of time and I want to keep log+capture alive and well, so we'll see how things pan out. As a farewell to my current employer, the University of Washington, I have checked out seven Ozu films from the UW library to be viewed hopefully within the next couple of weeks before the new job starts. This is to coincide with a book I am almost done with called Ozu: His Life and Films by Donald Richie, which I highly recommend.

To wrap up the 2007 Seattle International Film Festival, I thought I would make up a bunch of lists.

Perks of the Pass - or great things about being a first time Full Series Passholder

- Ducking into the restrooms early before the ticketholders generate a ridiculously long line
- Likewise with the concession stand, when the siren song of buttered popcorn calls
- Separate entrance at the Neptune from the lowly ticketholders and their ticketholding germs!
- Flexibility to change your mind on a moment's notice, when the buzz on a film starts to go around
- Getting to hear buzz through the Fool Serious email list

Sucky Things About the Pass

- Full Series Passholders are still one cut below yet another group of pass-holes -- Platinum passholders
- Skipping movies comes easier because you're not tied to them individually as with tickets
- The Full Series pass is no good for galas or Secret Fest, thus ensuring you plunk down at least $100 more in miscellaneous festival entertainment expenses
- Being leashed to the pass can be a great annoyance with it dangling around your neck constantly

Tiring SIFF Moments - or things I could do without for another year

- Excessively long programmer introductions to films
- Watching the SIFF intro animations again, of which there were only 3 this year and one live action short
- The smell of fresh buttered popcorn
- People laughing at Beth Barrett's "pacemaker" joke (it was funny the first time!)
- Wishing I had earplugs at the Egyptian

Common Film Themes - or reoccurring things noticed across a number of movies this year

- guys seriously obsessed with girls
- cats making random appearances
- poorly produced documentaries about highly specific subject-matter (though this isn't exactly unique to this year, admittedly)

SIFF 2007 Ranked List of Films

- Rocket Science [the cream of the crop]
- The Year of Living Dangerously
- Sharkwater
- Season Five
- King of Kong
- The Boss of It All
- Great World of Sound
- In the Shadow of the Moon
- Out of Time
- I Don't Want To Sleep Alone
- Joe Strummer: The Future Is Unwritten
- Manufactured Landscapes
- Berlin: Symphony of a City
- Woman on the Beach [the first half would have hit my top 5]
- Secret Fest Film #4
- Paris je t'aime - A Collective Feature Film [hit or miss]
- Interview
- Secret Fest Film #2
- Hounds
- Rescue Dawn
- Delirious
- Offscreen [first 3/4ths would have hit my top 10]
- The Pervert's Guide to Cinema
- Dr. Bronner's Magic Soapbox
- It's Winter
- Syndromes and a Century
- Angel-A
- Waiter
- The Art of Crying
- Scott Walker: 30 Century Man
- Vinicius
- Secret Fest Film #1
- Black White + Gray
- American Shopper
- Secret Fest Film #3
- The 2007 Fly Filmmaking Challenge
- Still Alive. A Film About Krzysztof Kieslowski
- Northwest Ties
- Sanctuary: Lisa Gerrard
- Dans Paris
- Murch
- Blood on the Flat Track: The Rise of the Rat City Rollergirls
- Cthulhu
- I Dot the Eye
- Slipstream
- Eagle vs Shark [enragingly unfunny]
- Man in the Chair [offensively horrible]
- The Elephant and the Sea [worst. movie. ever.]