OTFC & Other Events
Our Events...plus other Oklahoma & regional events brought to our attention. Also read up on timely NEWS items of general interest and OPEN CALLS for cast, crew, and festival submissions. Plus various event PHOTOS.
 Screening & discussion of landmark biopic "Lugosi" with Oklahoma producer Gary Rhodes at OU Film & Video Symposium March 27. Also Fritz Kiersch with "Children of the Corn."  Film actress and TV personality Stacy Taylor is the featured guest speaker at Darkwood Institute's "Acting for the Camera" workshop January 10, 2004.  Warm up this winter with OKCer Charles Maupin's windsurfing documentary 'Liquid Wind,' making its world premiere at OU Jan. 29, 2004. |
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Nov 19-20, 2004:
2nd Annual Blue November MicroFilmFest in Tulsa
Once again, it is time for the Blue November MicroFilmFest, Tulsa's "Reel" Film Festival! We are focusing even closer on the local filmmaker this year, and we want the best and the brightest that Oklahoma can offer.
Brought to you by Captain Adam Chambers, we are back and ready for STAGE II, and we are still growing! This year's fest will be held on November 19th and 20th of 2004 at the OSU-Tulsa Auditorium. This facility triples the seating of last year's event and offers high quality sound, lighting, and projection. Tables will be set up for filmmakers and industry-related exhibits. Blue November is poised for the most successful festival ever!
Chambers says he wants this to be a spectacle of local art. He's been able to keep the tradition of FREE admission for the public so that anyone and everyone can attend, and it is always FREE to enter your film! Where else can you do that? We are expanding and you can be a part of it all!
Chambers emailed submission apps all over during March, but if you still need one, EMAIL THE CAPTAIN and he'll send you one. Then you can print the form and give copies to your friends and family or your school!
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October 22, 2004:
IAO's 3rd Annual Monster Ball in OKC
No details submitted yet...
June 25-27, 2004:
Real to Reel Workshops in OKC
The Oklahoma Film Society announces Real to Reel 2004! In its second year, this three-day film workshop is open to professionals and students involved with the film and production industry of Oklahoma.
The workshop will be held in Oklahoma City's Embassy Suites on South Meridian from June 25-27, 2004. This event is themed after the 1982 classic television series "Tales of the Gold Monkey," starring Stephen Collins (now in "7th Heaven"), Jeff MacKay (now in "JAG") and legendary actor Roddy McDowall. For more information on this series visit www.goldmonkey.com.
Various price packages are available for adults and children to participate at Real to Reel 2004. This PRICE PACKAGE FLYER details much of it, and there are special KIDS RATES, too!
To be placed on the Society mailing list or for information regarding this event and the Oklahoma Film Society visit www.okfs.org or email us at okfs@cox.net.
June 10-13, 2004:
4th Annual deadCENTER Film Festival in OKC
We're back! Films shown throughout this year's festival will consist of narrative and documentary features, narrative and documentary short films, animation and student films.
deadCENTER has shown films submitted from every state in the continental U.S. as well as many international films. Last year alone, deadCENTER screened over 90 films, including international films submitted from England, Scotland, Ireland, Spain, Mexico, Canada, Germany and Japan.
This year's festival has even more to offer with two new events that are geared toward families, the Apple Pie Cinema and Kids Fest. deadCENTER events kick off with an opening night gala on Thursday, followed by screenings, filmmaker seminars, industry panels, an awards party, a free evening screening and more throughout the weekend.
Individual Artists of Oklahoma (IAO) is hosting the June 11 Friday night screenings from 8:00PM-1:00AM. IAO Gallery is at 811 N. Broadway in Oklahoma City.
For more information about deadCENTER Film Festival, contact Cacky Poarch (405) 808-4575 or via EMAIL. You can also check out OUR WEBSITE.
May 14, 2004:
7th Annual IAO Open Screening in OKC
- WHAT: Huge menagerie of films & videos submitted from around the state
- WHO: Sponsored by Individual Artists of Oklahoma (IAO)
- WHEN: Friday, May 14, 8:00PM
- WHERE: IAO Gallery, 811 N. Broadway, Oklahoma City
- COST: ??? They didn't tell us.
For more information call 405-232-6060.
April 24, 2004:
Script Selling Workshop with top Hollywood agent KEN SHERMAN
From LORD OF THE RINGS to MY BIG FAT GREEK WEDDING: Everything you need to know about writing your script in Oklahoma and selling it to the world!
Is there anyone in America who hasn't tried to write a screenplay? Well, on Saturday, April 24, the University of Oklahoma Film and Video Studies Program in the College of Arts and Sciences will sponsor a morning workshop that will offer "all" you need to know about "Writing Your Script in Oklahoma and Selling It to the World!" Presented by top Hollywood agent Ken Sherman and award-winning screenwriter (and FVS director) Andrew Horton.
- WHAT: "Writing your script and selling it to the World" workshop
- WHO: Hollywood agent Ken Sherman with selling advice and Andrew Horton with writing advice
- WHEN: Saturday, April 24, 9:30AM to Noon
- WHERE: 123 George Lynn Cross Hall, 770 Van Vleet Oval on OU-Norman Campus
- COST: $25 ($20 students/faculty/staff) in advance...or $30 ($25 students/faculty/staff) at the door
- BONUS: Paid attendees receive a copy of Horton's latest book SCREENWRITING FOR A GLOBAL MARKET
Sherman has worked in Hollywood for a number of years, helping to "package" and sell a number of scripts, books and films, including SNOW FALLING ON CEDARS.
Horton, director of OU's Film & Video Studies (FVS) Program, wrote Brad Pitt's first feature film, has co-written award-winning films such as SOMETHING IN BETWEEN, and currently is writing a Greek-New Zealand romantic comedy with Herschel Weingrod, who wrote TWINS, TRADING PLACES, and SPACE JAM, among others.
According to Horton, "You don't have to live in Hollywood to write good scripts that can be sold not only in Los Angeles, but around the world! I want people in Oklahoma to know that screenwriting really is a global community. I have sold scripts to New Zealand, Norway, Hungary, Greece and beyond!"
For more information and accommodations on the basis of disability, contact the FVS Office at (405) 325-3020 or via EMAIL.
For reservations send checks made out to The OU Foundation to: FVS Script Seminar 640 Parrington Oval #302, University of Oklahoma, Norman, OK 73019-2512
April 3, 2004:
4th Annual L.A. Gathering for Oklahoma University FVS Alumni
For the 4th year, THE UNIVERISTY OF OKLAHOMA FILM & VIDEO STUDIES PROGRAM is organizing an alumni gathering in the Los Angeles area and trying to help FVS students who have not been on the FVS trip before, get to LA and "get around town" to meet various film and Media contacts.
THE GATHERING IS SATURDAY, APRIL 3RD, 6-11PM at the home of MARK & VICTORIA EATON in San Marino (directions and phone below.)
FVS Program Director Dr. Andrew Horton will be there with over 20 students coming along, too, most for the first time in California! Odette Horton will be cooking up a delicious meal as she did for two of the past three years at our gatherings!
And special Oklahoma film guests have been invited (we will announce when we receive final word on this!)
We encourage OU-FVS grads in the L.A. area to come and join the fun, catch up on what's going on, meet the students, and anything you can do to help them with internships, etc, will be appreciated. They will be going around town on Friday, so if any of you are free to help with the driving around, much appreciated.
$15 is the price for the evening. Checks should be made out to THE OU FOUNDATION and can be mailed to us at FVS, 640 Parrington Oval #302, U of Oklahoma, Norman, OK 73019. Or you can pay at the door.
CONTACT FVS TO RSVP OR FOR MORE INFO: 918-325-3020 OR EMAIL.
DIRECTIONS for The Saturday Evening April 3rd OU and Oklahoma Gathering 6pm: Mark And Victoria EATON home (PHONE 626-441-6330.) From points West, take the 10 East (or if you're closer to Hollywood, the 101 Holllywood Freeway South) to the 110 Pasadena Freeway North. Exit Fair Oaks Ave. and take a right on Fair Oaks, then left on Mission St. Take Mission St. about 1 mile past Garfield Rd., then turn left on Euclid Ave. Second-to-last house on your left at 1625 S. Euclid Ave.
March 27, 2004:
"Celebrate Tulsa Film Community" Party
You never know who'll show up!
Screenwriter and newspaper editor Jim Butcher cordially invites any and all film people to a Celebrate Tulsa Film Community party at his home during March!
- What: Celebrate Tulsa Film Community Party
- When: Saturday, March 27, 7:00PM
- Where: the home of Jim & Meg Butcher
- Address: 4262 E. 78th Street in Tulsa
- Cost: FREE
Tulsa is hot! This former Oil Capital of the World is fast becoming a mecca for film. This celebration will be an opportunity to make new friends and network with film and television people who live in the Tulsa area and learn what is happening in Oklahoma, Hollywood and around the World from several special guests including Dr. Andy Horton, head of OU's film department and writer of Brad Pitt's first feature film. Find out first hand what is developing with Jill Noonan and Rod Slane's Dreams Beyond Productions in Sand Springs and Oscar and Shiron Rays Darkwood Productions and Bare Bones International Film Festival of Muskogee.
Chances are you will be surprised and pleased at the extent of Tulsa's film activity. People who have a direct interest and involvment in film and TV are invited, as well as bankers, attorneys and friends and fans of film.
Call Jim at 918-269-7708 (cell) or 918-663-1414 (work) or send him EMAIL. Our goal is to have an enjoyable evening discussing film in Hollywood, around the world and in Tulsa with friends and professionals. Some "A" list professionals will be invited. It will be interesting to see who shows. Regardless, it will be a good evening. Invite a film friend or colleague. Casual dress, very informal.
Jim Butcher currently is executive editor to 13 community newspapers in the Tulsa metro area. He is an award-winning writer and newspaper editor with about 25 years newspaper experience. He and Andy Horton have written a screenplay on Wiley Post. Andy wrote Brad Pitt's first feature film in 1989. Dr. Horton has been a consultant on a screenplay Jim Butcher has written on the true story of the Osage Indian Murders of the 1920s. The two are currently developing that film project which will have a production budget of $7 million. Andy and Jim have been hired to write a screenplay on another true story. Jim is a native of Oklahoma with a BA in journalism and an MBA in marketing.
Directions to the Butchers' place: Go west on 76th Street (flashing light) off Yale Avenue, drive about 2 blocks and then turn south on Sandusky, which becomes 78th Street. Butchers are third house on the south side. He says they'll put up balloons, etc., to help mark the way.
March 27, 2004:
4th Annual OU Motion Picture & Video Symposium focuses on HORROR
Learn how to make a horror feature film
The Independent Film Project at OU holds its 4th Annual Motion Picture and Video Symposium on Saturday, 27 March, focusing on horror films with experienced motion picture directors Fritz Kiersch and Gary D. Rhodes.
Registration begins at 9 a.m. with coffee and donuts. The morning session is with Rhodes, the screening of his Lugosi: Hollywood's Dracula, with discussion of the 1930's horror genre, the drive-in horror films of the 50's-60’s, Bela Lugosi, and horror film mockumentaries of the modern day (e.g., Blair Witch, etc.) Lunch will be served at the Museum's Redbud Cafe. The afternoon session is with Kiersch, and the screening and discussion of his Children of the Corn.
The event is FREE and open to the public.
- What: 4th Annual Motion Picture & Video Symposium
- When: Saturday, March 27, 9:00AM - 4:00PM
- Where: Sam Noble Oklahoma Museum of Natural History, Robert S. Kerr Auditorium
- Address: 2401 Chautauqua, Norman, OK
- Cost: FREE
Fritz Kiersch is an experienced theatrical motion picture director, having worked in almost all film craft categories over the past 28 years with an emphasis on producing, directing and writing.
Children of the Corn (1984) was his first feature directing assignment. This modestly budgeted New World Pictures production, from a short story by Horrormeister Stephen King, was a large commercial success that solidified a multiple picture contract. Since then Kiersch has directed seven more theatrical features for various studios and cable networks including Tuff Turf, a youth oriented action story starring James Spader and Robert Downey, Jr.; Shattered Image, a psychological thriller starring Bo Derek and Jack Scalia; and a version of the classic Gulliver's Travels for Hallmark Entertainment.
Kiersch became the inaugural director of the Film and Video Studies Program at the Oklahoma City Community College in 2000. He has co-chaired and developed the Oklahoma Cinema Studies Consortium, an educational institutional alliance, which will begin overseeing cross registration between three Oklahoma based college film studies programs in the fall 2003. This Consortium, comprised of The University of Oklahoma, Oklahoma City University and Oklahoma City Community College, will effectively establish the largest film studies program in the midwest by providing the greatest depth of coursework, disciplines of specific study, and largest faculty.
Kiersch is the winner of the Special Jury Prize, Film Fantastique Category, International Science Fiction Film Festival of Brussels (1984) and the Bronze Medal, Television Commercial Category International Film and Television Festival of New York (1981).
Gary D. Rhodes, assistant professor of Film/Video Studies at the University of Oklahoma, is the writer-director of such documentary films as Lugosi: Hollywood's Dracula, Fiddlin' Man: The Life and Times of Bob Wills, and Solo Flight. Banned in Oklahoma, his most recent film, will soon be released by the Criterion Collection in conjunction with the 1979 film The Tin Drum.
Rhodes has also served as a guest speaker with OTFC's 2001 OKFilm Series, and his fictional documentary Chair was recognized as a finalist in OTFC's inaugural OKIndieFest Competition in 2000.
Rhodes' books include "Lugosi" (McFarland, 1997), "White Zombie: Anatomy of a Horror Film" (McFarland, 2000), and "Horror at the Drive-In" (McFarland, 2002.) He has written regularly for a variety of horror film magazines since the mid-1980s, and is a 2004 recipient of a Rondo Award for the best horror film article of 2003.
Lugosi: Hollywood's Dracula uncovers the life and career of legendary actor Bela Lugosi, from his early life in Hungary and Germany through his Hollywood successes and eventual decline. The film features music by four-time Grammy nominee Art Greenshaw, and cinematography by James F. Cain, whose experimental films have won awards at film festivals around the world. Lugosi has played theaters and film festivals around the world. Details about this documentary can be found at the official WEBSITE.
For more information on this symposium and other events, call the OU Independent Film Project at (405) 325-4670, send EMAIL, or visit our WEBSITE.
March 12, 2004:
OKC/Tulsa "Video Exchange" Screenings in Tulsa
Living Arts Space is hosting the first of several planned Video Exchange evenings to feature works collected by Oklahoma City's Individual Artists of Oklahoma (IAO) Gallery and Living Arts Media Program.
The event includes screenings and is followed by a formative meeting for a Living Arts Video Evenings/ committee.
Here's the lineup of artists. OKFilm IndieFest attendees from 2001-2003 will recognize some of these titles, complementing the newer material offered:
- John Ecklar (Tulsa resident) "Blue Grass Dreaming," 1st place narrative 1998 OU Student Film & Video Festival
- Crystal Davis "Eve," 2003 IAO Linda Jagear Scholarship recipient
- Tyler Randall (Tulsa resident) "Burned," 3rd place winner of the 4th IAO F/V Open Screening
- Maggie Abel "Remote Control"
- Adam Lynn (Tulsa resident) "Adopt an Artist"
- Darren Dunn "The Ichthyologist," Audience Choice winner 5th IAO F/V Open Screening
- Brian Waibel (Tulsa resident) "Empty Stockings"
- Tommy Austin & Geoffrey L. Smith "Dead Uncle Lowell," 1st place comedy film Hometown Film Festival 2003
- Robert Erwin "Post-freudian angst," Audience Choice winner 6th IAO Open Screening
- Justan Floyd "The Matador," Best in Show winner 6th IAO F/V Open Screening
- David Mayo (Tulsa resident) "Happy Endings"
- LeeAnne Rowe (Tulsa resident) "A Brush with Death"
- Larua Durler (Tulsa resident) "Turtle, the Space Girlbot and Her Rocketships of Secret Agent, Super Hero Love"
- 7136 Entertainment/FLAM (Tulsa resident) "Long Shot"
- Titus Jackson (Tulsa resident) "Anathema"
- Liz Mortensen (Tulsa resident)"Like a Feather"
Living Arts Space is located at 308 S. Kenosha, on the east edge of downtown Tulsa. Phone (918) 585-1234.
VIDEO EVENINGS PROGRAM COMMITTEE MEETING: Immediately following the screening of these videos there will be a meeting of those who are interested in helping Living Arts form a new committee for the presentation of Contemporary Video Art Works on a more regular basis. Please consider volunteering your talent to good use!
February 22, 2004:
Circle Cinema sponsors Oscar-winner Aviva Slesin with "Secret Lives" documentary
Circle Cinema Foundation, the nonprofit organization dedicated to restoring historic Circle Cinema at Tulsa's Whittier Square, is proud to host Oscar-winning director Aviva Slesinin in Tulsa for a special screening & discussion of her documentary film Secret Lives: Hidden Children and their Rescuers.
The film will be presented as a Circle Cinema fundraiser at 7:00pm at AMC Southroads on Sunday, February 22, with reception. Attendees can purchase $25 movie tickets or $50 movie/reception combo tickets by calling 918-592-3456 or emailing Circle Cinema Executive Director Jean Letcher.
Slesin is president of Aviva Films in New York. Her career was launched in 1975 as a freelance film editor with A China Memoir: the Other Half of the Sky, produced by Shirley MacLaine and nominated for an Academy Award for Best Feature Documentary. Next she edited Making Television Dance, about choreographer Twyla Tharp, followed in 1977 by The Ruttles, a Beatles satire directed by Monty Python's Eric Idle.
In 1980 Ms. Slesin made the transition to independent producing and directing with nine comedy shorts for the original Saturday Night Live, one of which--"Singing Dogs" with Bill Murray--was featured at that year's New York Film Festival. She directed and edited Directed by William Wyler, a biography of the late Hollywood director which aired on PBS on American Masters and was shown at the London, Venice, Sundance and New York Film Festivals in 1986.
In 1988 Ms. Slesin won the Academy Award for Best Feature Documentary for her film The Ten Year Lunch: The Wit and Legend of the Algonquin Round Table.
1990 marked a shift to dramatic films when she directed and executive produced Stood Up!, an ABC After School Special. Voices in Celebration, a documentary on the National Gallery's fiftieth anniversary, appeared next; during 1993/94 Ms. Slesin produced and directed the documentary Hot on the Trail: Sex, Love and Romance in the Old West for TBS.
Since 1995, Ms. Slesin produced and directed short segments for the Rosie O'Donnell show; Kids Talk; a series of fourteen shorts for Edgewise with John Hockenberry, nine segments for HBO's Real Sex series and six pieces for Religion and Ethics News Weekly.
Ms. Slesin has been a MacDowell Fellow, has lectured at various universities and has had a retrospective of her work at the Sundance Film Festival
The purpose of Circle Cinema Foundation is to use film to foster understanding and appreciation of the diversity of the human experience, and create community among the viewers in the restored historic Circle Cinema. Learn more at www.circlecinema.com.
February 21, 2004:
Movie "Dust" and Screenwriter Party with Oscar-nominated filmmaker Milcho Manchevski
Oklahoma University film guru Andy Horton is hosting another screenwriters' party--affectionately called "Writer's Block Gathering"-- at his home Saturday, February 21 from 7-11:00pm. The Horton House is at 318 College Avenue in Norman (corner of Symmes and College.) All are welcome, not just screenwriters!
Horton's special guest this month is Oscar-nominated filmmaker Milcho Manchevski, in town for a screening of his new film Dust at the Oklahoma City Museum of Art at 2:00pm Saturday
- Saturday Feb 21, 2:00PM: screening of "Dust" at Oklahoma City Museum of Art, with filmmaker Milcho Manchevski. FREE, of course.
- Saturday Feb 21, 7:00PM: Writer's Block Gathering at Andy & Odette Horton's house in Norman, with Manchevski again! Tickets $5-$7.
A few words about Dust: Tipping its hat to the "spaghetti" westerns of Sergio Leone, this Balkan western jumps back and forth across space and time to tell two intertwined stories: one about an old woman and a burglar in contemporary New York City, the other about two American frontier brothers-turned-enemies caught up in the final days of the Ottoman Empire in 1913. Stars Joseph Fiennes, Adrian Lester and David Wenham. [Director: Milcho Manchevski 2001 GB/Germany/Italy/Macedonia 127min. R 35mm]
Macedonia native Manchevski has written and directed the feature films Before the Rain (nominated for Best Foreign Film Oscar in 1994) and Dust, over 50 short forms (experimental films, documentaries, commercials and music videos, including Tennessee for the band Arrested Development), and has been a guest director on NBC's "Law and Order: SVU" and HBO's "The Wire." The New York Times listed Before the Rain as one of the best 1,000 films ever made. Manchevski has also won awards for best experimental film (for 1.73) and best MTV video (for Tennessee, which The Rolling Stone called "one of the 100 best videos ever made.")Manchevski is currently teaching filmmaking at the NYU Film School. For further information contact Andy Horton at the FVS Office at 405-325-3020 or fvs@ou.edu. For details regarding the museum screening Saturday afternoon, use the contact data on our Oklahoma City Museum of Art page. For a complete film schedule visit www.okcmoa.com/programs_film_cal.htm. CALL 405-236-3100 x237 in OKC for same-day advance tickets.
February 14-15, 2004:
Tulsa's Living Arts hosts Video Production & Editing Workshop
This 2-day workshop taught by Living Arts Director Steve Liggett and Liz Mortenson will show you the basics of video production, camera anatomy, use of tripods, and laying out a storyboard.
Both Saturday and Sunday sessions are from 1:00-5:00PM. Sunday's session will explore editing techniques and the use of the Avid editing stations at Living Arts Media Lab. Steve Liggett will show you how to input and digitize your video footage, create scenes, trim and split scenes, build a storyboard, make transitions between scenes, special effects, creating titles, adding sound and layering sound and mastering to DVD or miniDV.
After taking this workshop, you will be qualified to use the Media Lab at the special rate of $12.50 per hour!
Cost is only $60 for this 2-day workshop. You could probably recoup that cost the first time you conduct some serious editing at Living Arts, thanks to that great hourly rate for workshop grads! By reservation only, so call 918-585-1234 to enroll.
February 13-28, 2004:
February is Movie Month at Tulsa's Nightingale Theater!
This February, while we're busy rehearsing and preparing the shows for our next season, why don't you stop by the Nightingale and enjoy some of our favorite movies?
We'll be showing a different feature every Friday and Saturday night, and on Sunday nights we'll air episodes from the acclaimed British television series Hammer Studios' House of Horror. Admit it, you'd miss us if you went a month without dropping in. Besides, you'll want to bask in the warmth of our newly installed auditorium heating (but we'll leave the blankets out for old times' sake.)
Admission is by donation unless otherwise noted; all proceeds help keep the theater open. Check the website www.midwesterntheater.org/ for location and phone # and other upcoming events. Here's the lineup:
Sam Shepard Valentine Weekend
- Friday, Feb 13, 8:00PM: PARIS, TEXAS (1984). Written by Sam Shepard, directed by Wim Wenders, starring Harry Dean Stanton, Dean Stockwell, Nastassja Kinski...what more do you want? This one won the Grand Prize at the Cannes Film Festival in 1984. The story unfolds as a battered amnesiac (Stanton) reassembles the pieces of his ruptured life like a detective solving a mystery. Haunting and achingly beautiful. A film you'll never forget.
- Saturday, Feb 14, 8:00PM: FOOL FOR LOVE (1985). Written by and starring Sam Shepard, directed by Robert Altman, featuring Kim Basinger, this adaptation of the stage play has all the stuff of great myth--love, rage, jealousy, and incest. It's funny, too. This movie will shake you up.
- Sunday, Feb 15, 7:00PM: HAMMER HOUSE OF HORROR, Episodes 4-6. (These are great date movies--they don't rely on gore but they're creepy enough to encourage a close embrace.)
Howard Hawks Cowboy Classics
- Friday, Feb 20, 8:00PM: THE BIG SKY. Kirk Douglas, Dewey Martin, and a heap of fur-trappin' rascals head up the mighty Missouri River where no white man has ever been. Humor, adventure, and romance as only director Howard Hawks can do it. In glorious black-and-white.
- Saturday, Feb 21, 8:00PM: RIO BRAVO. This is the one all those gen-X indie filmakers rave about, but that doesn't mean it's not a great movie. John Wayne, Dean Martin, Angie Dickinson, Walter Brennan, and Ricky Martin star in this lean masterpiece about friendship. The wonderful characters banter, bicker, bond, and eventually even get around to kicking a litte bad-guy butt. By film's end you'll feel like they're old friends.
- Sunday, Feb 22, 7:00PM: HAMMER HOUSE OF HORROR, Episodes 7-9. (Management promises to cover the funeral expenses of any audience member who dies of fright during this screening.)
Fantastorealism
- Friday, Feb 27, 8:00PM: THE RULING CLASS. Peter O'Toole is hilarious, riveting, and unnerving in this black-as-soot tragicomic fantasia by playwright Peter Barnes. O'Toole plays the unbalanced 14th Earl of Gurney who believes that he is Jesus Christ- that is, until the straitjacket culture of the ruling class forces him to adopt a new persona- namely, Jack the Ripper! The film is full of spontaneous musical numbers, sharp satire, insane ideas, and utter irreverance, but it's the intensity of O'Toole's eyes that will make you a believer.
- Saturday, Feb 28, 8:00PM: PENNIES FROM HEAVEN (1981). The Village Voice called this "one of the 2 or 3 superb films of 1981." Steve Martin stars with Bernadette Peters and Christopher Walken in this fable-like story by playwright Dennis Potter, which features more than a dozen spectacularly filmed, glittering production numbers and superb precision dancing. The film is a visual treat right down to the costumes, which Bob Mackie designed. It also offers outstanding performances; Martin is very good in his first non-comedic role; Peters zings; Walken plays his character of a pimp with his usual satanic touch- his dance number must be seen to be believed.
- Sunday, Feb 29, 7:00PM: HAMMER HOUSE OF HORROR, Episodes 10-13. (Any audience member to make it through all 13 episodes with their sanity intact will receive a complimentary Certificate of Bravery.)
February 13, 2004:
OU Independent Film Maker Series: "Waitin' to Live"
The Independent Film Project @ OU opens the season with an entertaining feature presentation, Waitin' to Live, a Joey Travolta production written by Nick Felix. Part of the Independent Film Maker Series, the screening will be held Friday, February 13, 7:30 p.m., at the Sam Noble Oklahoma Museum of Natural History, Kerr Auditorium. Members of the cast and crew will participate in a question-and-answer session following the screening. The event is FREE and open to the public.
"I describe the film Waitin' to Live as a romantic 'dramedy,'" said Felix, "because it has all three elements of romance, drama, and comedy." After being murdered for refusing to sell his homestead, 60-year old Bucko Cassidy (LEE MAJORS) reincarnates to help his son Junior (DEREK HAMILTON) avoid an identical fate. Bucko also learns Junior's wife, Ellie (RACHEL WILSON) is about to divorce him. This will force Junior to sell the house and junkyard to satisfy the divorce settlement. Junior is desperate and lost.
When Junior recovers from the shock of seeing Bucko again after having buried him six months earlier, Bucko explains there is a backlog of paperwork in heaven and that he is currently in a holding pattern. While he is "waitin' to live," he has been allowed to temporarily return as a spirit, but subject to be called back at any time for his next incarnation assignment. Bucko reveals that Junior is the only person who can see or hear him. This causes all manner of conflict and confusion, as well as concern for Junior who, it is believed by all who know him, is letting the pressure get to him. Bucko brings to the surface unique qualities that Junior had enjoyed in his own past incarnations, and is able to empower Junior to meet his problems head-on.
The film continues with more turns that keep the audience laughing. Filmed in Nevada, Arizona and Idaho, Waitin’ to Live is a must see independent film with great actors like Lee Majors, Derek Hamilton, Rachel Wilson, Reginald Vel Johnson, Alison Eastwood, (Clint Eastwood's daughter), Margaret Avery, Barry Corbin, Scott Reeves, and Johnny Dark.
Writer/director Felix has directed and produced over 100 television shows. He has authored and produced original movies, stage plays and children’s television series. A professional dancer and dance instructor, Felix has choreographed dance movements for such performers as Robert Duvall and was one of the original choreographers for the Barney television series. Nick became very active in the entertainment field by choreographing dance scenes and teaching stars like Robert Duvall and Tess Harper in Tender Mercies, Cindy Williams and David Morris in When Dreams Come True, and Chloris Leachman, Jeff Daniels, and Amy Wright in Love Hurts. He has produced several hundred television shows and stage shows where he’s worked with Micky Rooney, Sandy Duncan, Rosemary Clooney, Joey Travolta, Meredith McCrae, Shelley Winters, Pat Paulsen, Woody Herman, Anna-Maria Albergetti, and others. He extended his talents to the stage, where he wrote and produced a full-length musical, Heaven versus Hell: A Dance Contest, plus other plays and scripts. Waitin’ to Live is Nick's first movie based on his script, and produced and directed by Joey Travolta. Nick's most current movie project, from his script, Dance Magic, is a story of action and romance in the dance business.
Joey Travolta, the older brother of Saturday Night Fever's John Travolta, is a director/producer/writer and composer. In 1994 Travolta made directing his priority and has since had fifteen films to his credit. He was director in Honey, I Shrunk the Kids and L.A. Heat. Travolta had a starring role as himself in Movie Stars (1999). Travolta lives in Los Angeles.
For more information on this and other events, please contact the Independent Film Project at (405) 325-4670, email IndieFilmProject@ou.edu, or visit our website at art.ou.edu/ind_film/.
January 29, 2004:
World Premiere of OK Film "Liquid Wind" at OU-Norman
Screaming Butterfly Productions presents the world premiere of Oklahoma windsurfing documentary Liquid Wind, exec-produced by OTFCer Charles Maupin.
Shot during 2003 at Oklahoma City's Lake Hefner, Liquid Wind is an intense look at the kiteboarding and windsurfing phenomenon there. Includes interviews with top Oklahoma windsurfers and kiteboarders, weather experts, and those responsible for bringing this extreme water sport to Lake Hefner. Noted appearances are made by meteorologist Mike Morgan from NBC affiliate KFOR; world-renowned film director Michael Knof; and Bruce Robertson, co-founder of Central Oklahoma Boardsailing Association.
- What: World Premiere screening of 'Liquid Wind' windsurfing documentary
- Date: Thursday, Jan 29, 2004
- Time: 7:30PM
- Where: Meacham Auditorium at OU-Norman Campus
- Cost: FREE
- Who: Surfers, filmmakers, water sports enthusiasts, lake loungers, and all your relatives
Film also includes musical contributions from Oklahoma artists Grey, Jon Carrube, Chris Stephens, Brad Davis, Mary Catherine Reynolds, and Louise Goldberg.
For a look at Liquid Wind merchandise and still shots, as well as other information, visit liquidwind.tripod.com. For a press kit and screening or broadcast licensing information contact Charles Maupin at (405)826-2501 or ifmokc@aol.com.
January 10, 2004:
"Acting for the Camera" Workshop with Stacy Taylor
Actress and TV personality Stacy Taylor will be a guest lecturer at Darkwood Film Arts Institute's Acting for the Camera workshop on Saturday, January 10th at their Muskogee Studio.
Miss Taylor started her acting career at age 3 and was a co-star in the movie Littleflower and the star of How to Pick up Chicks. She also worked as anchor for KWTV News 9 and "Good Morning West Texas" KAMC 28, an ABC affiliate.
Currently the chairman and CEO of Stacy Taylor Broadcasting, she is cast alongside Barry Levy (X-Files, Millennium) and Larry Sellers (Dr. Quinn Medicine Woman) in UPI: Unexplained Phenomena Investigators, a television series in development for network audiences.
This eight-hour workshop will take place at 401 W. Broadway, 2nd Floor, Muskogee Oklahoma. The public is invited to attend. Cost is $55. For more information, send email to darkwoodinstitute@hotmail.com.
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