[Newport Beach Film Fest] Orange County Connections Abound Among This Year's Entries

The sci-fi thriller 1:03 AM comes from Huntington Beach resident Raymond Cinemato. The Chapman University student’s film is about a man who applies for a strange government permit.

Did somebody say strange? Justin Lutsky, a local and Chapman University graduate who was featured on the reality show On the Lot, directed Victims of Love, a rom-com about a self-made thirtysomething woman who won’t hesitate to end a relationship—permanently—if a man she dates does not live up to her impossible standards. Did I mention she’s a serial killer?

Documentary shorts also get in on the local action. Unabashed liberal Tim Temple tries to get to the bottom of why highly educated professionals make the choice to serve in the military instead of pursuing more lucrative careers in the private sector in Why We Serve. Irvine-based company ChopShop and local resident Zach Lyons produced Steezy Riders, which follows pro snowboarders-turned-Harley-Davidson enthusiasts on a 2,000-mile journey across the western U.S.

Saving the Boom is John Keitel’s video chronicling Fred Karger’s mission to save Laguna Beach’s legendary gay bar the Boom Boom Room, which closed on Sept. 4, 2007. It is reviewed elsewhere in these pages, as is Tracy Sabeti’s documentary Center Street Rising, which focuses on the windowless TKO Boxing Club in Santa Ana that played a prominent part in Daffodil J. Altan’s Weekly cover story on Olympic hopeful Ronny Rios (“Ronny,” Aug. 3, 2007).

mcoker@ocweekly.com