Orange County News Blog

​

The Weekly's October 2008 cover story "Rock Angel" detailed the challenges Garden Grove filmmaker David Di Sabatino faced making a documentary on the late "Father of Christian Rock Music," Larry Norman.

It didn't get any easier after the film Fallen Angel was in the can. Di Sabatino has been berated by Norman's fans and threatened with legal action by Norman's family.

But today, all is quite well on the Fallen Angel front.

Di Sabatino might even be tempted to say, "Somebody up there likes me."

Above are trailers to 17 pictures playing at the fifth anniversary SoCal Film Festival, which kicks off tonight at Huntington Beach Central Library and over the next 10 days will present 204 feature films, documentaries and shorts.

The fourth biennial Vietnamese International Film Festival (VIFF) opens on April 2 in Orange County and will showcase more than 60 short and feature films, panel discussions and an special award to actor Dustin Nguyen (pictured), who co-starred with Cate Blanchett in Little Fish.

Event organizer Ysa Le said yesterday that films from Australia, Canada, Denmark, France, United Kingdom, USA and, of course, Vietnam will be shown at various local spots including UC Irvine, Edwards Regal University 6 in Irvine and, for the first time, at the Bowers Museum in Santa Ana.

At a press conference yesterday at the Bowers, Huy T. Tran, veteran co-chair of VIFF's screening committee, said he wants the public to know, "Boy, do we have a treat for you. I've been with VIFF since the beginning. These are the most outstanding films we've ever had."

The eight-day festival opens with Footy Legends by acclaimed, up-and-coming Australian director Khoa Do, who will attend and field questions. Later, other screenings will include Sad Fish by Le-Van Kiet, All About Dad by Mark Tran, Operation Babylift: The Lost Children of Vietnam** by Tammy Nguyen Lee, Saigon Heat by Andy Vu and Danny Do, Vietnam Overtures by Stephane Gauger and In the Dark by Nadine Truong and The Hot Kiss by Nguyen Quang Dung.

For more information--including show times, locations and more in-depth film descriptions--visit: www.vietfilmfest.com or call 1-714-893-6145.

**World premiere.

--R. Scott Moxley / OC Weekly

Our sister publications LA Weekly and Village Voice just published their annual, massive film critics' poll for 2007, which includes 102 of the nation's critics, some of whom you know and some you don't, though all of the critics you regularly read in our paper are included. (My own page in the poll is HERE.)

Topping the list are the usual faves: THERE WILL BE BLOOD, NO COUNTRY FOR OLD MEN, etc. But further down the list you get to more eccentric choices -- NORBIT? Comedy is highly subjective, I suppose; I put HOT ROD on my list, after all. And I have to give mad props to whoever voted for "Meatwad" as Best Supporting Actor for his role in the Aqua Teen Hunger Force Movie (were there an award for best poster, that would have to take it too). SOUTHLAND TALES is loved and hated, but it's interesting to note that most of its strongest supporters don't actually live in the Southland.

The Worst list is where things get interesting. I hate when readers impugn motives without evidence, so I don't want to do it too much here, but it's notable that almost every highly acclaimed movie of '07 is on the Worst list somewhere. I understand visceral reactions to polemics like REDACTED (though I liked it) or even the "cranky critic" reaction against FX-heavy flicks like 300 and TRANSFORMERS. But when titles like JUNO and NO COUNTRY FOR OLD MEN make the list, it feels like the choice is simply to spite one's peers, a reactive move prompted by them being chosen as #1 elsewhere -- I confess, I was tempted to vote for THERE WILL BE BLOOD just because I'm tired of it winning everything and being excessively compared to Welles and Kubrick (oh, how it wants to be them, but it ain't), but it has a lot of merits despite its flaws.

But really, there are things one can reasonably dislike about a movie like JUNO; but...worse than EPIC MOVIE? Worse than BRATZ? THE MESSENGERS? There may be an element here of critics with a certain degree of power choosing not to have seen those movies in the first place. Or the idea that such films aren't even worthy of bashing.

What do I know, though. I liked SHOOT 'EM UP.

ZOMBIE FARM, directed by SoCal Independent Film Fest organizer Brian Barsuglia, will be coming out on DVD December 17th, and is currently available for preorder. However, Brian and friends aren't done making the thing yet -- and they'd like YOU to be a part of it.

They'll be screening it this Sunday at 7pm at the Spotlight Theater in Bakersfield, and will be recording the audience for a special alternate audio track on the disc. All are encouraged to "laugh, shout, scream, say what you want, drink and be merry!"

Here's what I wrote originally for this very blog about ZOMBIE FARM:

After the first ten minutes I feel like leaving: awfully acted “inbred hillbillies” chow down on a rubber rat, and I fear nothing good can come of this. It’s a knowingly bad movie, but that’s not a plus more often than not. Still, despite this, I stick around, and it grows on me. Not exactly a “good” movie in any sense, it is strangely endearing, and appears to have been made purely for the sake of showcasing hilariously bad “zombie walks” by inexperienced actors, and a whole lot of ridiculously over-the-top gore effects. Any pointers on making it “better” would be useless, save perhaps one...it does take too long to figure out who its protagonists are, but once they’re all put together, the story is muchly improved by it.

Barsuglia's full press release follows below...

The drinks weren't free at the closing night party for FAIF/Indiefest, but they were a good deal: cocktails came in big party-sized cups, and the bartender, though not the fastest in the world, made 'em right, with a 50/50 booze/mixer ratio. All for normal bar prices.

The food was free – chicken empanadas, greasy spring rolls with filling I didn't identify and didn't need to, glazed meatballs, crackers 'n' cheese, and a veggie plate with hummus that had some dangerously concealed hot pepper flakes in it.

With 70 awards to be handed out, it seemed like maybe everyone would get one. Surprisingly, that wasn't the case. Stan Harrington walked off with multiple awards, competing head-to-head with features in many categories with his short EL PERCANSE PERFECTO. It seemed silly to have two different awards for best animated feature, since as far as I'm aware there only were two animated features in the fest, and hey, they both won!

Not every day at a film fest yields winners. On the contrary, some reveal their auteurs as wieners.

Okay, that’s unnecessarily flip. Normally, I try to give some credit to struggling directors, and find the good even in the bad. I also felt a bit bad at having walked out on some of the previous programs – a practice I find unforgivable if reviewing a single film for assignment, but more acceptable if the article being worked on is a multi-film piece, like a festival wrap-up.

I was sorely tested, however, by SPIRIT. Good God, I wanted to walk out almost immediately, when it opened with a title card on black that was held way too long while some truly awful music played. The music in this thing sounds like it was composed on a late-‘80s Casio keyboard that is occasionally attempting to approximate nursery rhymes, superhero themes, and karaoke backing music for the worst kind of Asian pop music.

I bet you think Downtown Disney’s a rip-off, don’cha?

You’re not wrong. The Diet Coke I had at the Rainforest Café cost $2.69. For that kind of coin, I don’t expect the waitresses to be wearing shirts.

But I have found one decent deal during my time at Indiefest. Ralph Brennan’s Jazz Kitchen – the New Orleans-style place – serves six oyster shooters for $7.95. If that’s too steep, you can get one for a buck fifty, which I believe is the cheapest item available for sale in the entire D.D. experience. Ask for horseradish on the side – it’s the most ass-kicking variety of the ground root I’ve ever encountered. They’re American style shooters, as opposed to the kind a sushi chef would do – basically just an oyster and some cocktail sauce in a shot glass. But they’re big ol’ mollusks, these.

The first short film I saw today was about a guy with boobs. Do I have your attention yet?

Hello cinephiles.

You know how you guys are always complaining about what junk Hollywood puts out, and proclaiming your love for independent films?

I have one question in response: Where are you? With three screens of constantly running films that are as independent as it gets, the AMC at Downtown Disney ought to be your destination of choice this week. Instead, I frequently find myself alone in a large auditorium, watching something that even the director couldn’t show up for. Granted, sometimes the movies aren’t great, but sometimes they are. How will you know if you don’t show up?

Indiefest could certainly use a fulltime publicist. As I meet filmmakers here, the most common thing they tell me is that they had no idea they could have sent me a copy of their film to get some advance coverage. A publicist would be on the ball about that, but you can’t count on such things, would-be Spielbergs. So here are some serious pointers for those of you who might get a film entered in a festival one day:

To say that Indiefest/FAIF suffered from a few opening day jitters might be understating it a bit. The main Downtown Disney parking lot was barricaded off, the theater personal didn’t let anything start on time until Disney brass showed up and laid down some laws, and there were just a few projection errors – poor Chris Harrington saw his excellent Spanish language short “El Perfecto Percanse” projected without English subtitles. Running a film festival on three screens simultaneously is a lot of work, and from what I could see, festival organizer Ray Gibb and his partner Don (whose surname I cannot find anywhere in my press materials – sorry Don!) were having to run the whole thing by themselves. Get these men some volunteers, stat! They did a heroic job of getting things back on track, and we can probably expect smoother sailing in the next few days.

One thing I’ll say about the Disney AMC – its auditoriums are DARK. At most fests, I can take notes in the darkness, no problem, but here I couldn’t always tell if my pen was making a mark or not. Maybe my eyesight’s fading in my pre-middle-age. But I do eat carrots.