The SoCal Film Festival has a message for those fearful about moving around Southern California's 405 freeway during “Carmageddon II”:
Stay off the streets and in Huntington Beach for the eighth annual celebration of independent cinema, which rolls in the Central Library on Talbert Avenue Thursday through Sunday (and online through Oct. 7).
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See also:
SoCal Film Festival Keeps Chugging in Surf City
Fall Film Fest Season Kicks Off With SoCal Film Festival in Huntington Beach
SoCal Film Festival Rolls in Huntington Beach
The ditch traffic pitch is made on the SoCal Film Fest home page. Honk if you love indies!
The event opens Thursday night with Russ Emanuel's The Legend of Nethiah, which is about a young boy escaping the reality of his parents' bitter divorce through the stories of his grandfather. Emilio Iasiello wrote the screenplay and stars include Robert Picardo, Jared Young, Theresa Russell, John Heard and newcomer Jeremiah Sayys star. Here is the trailer:
Shorts programs take over the screen Friday, with entries from the U.S., Europe and Australia.
The festival kicks back up Saturday with another shorts program at 1 p.m., followed by four full-length features. They are, respectively:
Camilo Vila's 186 Dollars to Freedom, which follows a California surfer oblivious to political change in 1980 Peru until a corrupt cop frames and jails him as a drug dealer. Previously titled The City of Gardens, the film is based on a true story and was compared to Midnight Express when it rolled at last month's New York International Latino Film Festival. Cast and crew participate in Q&A after the 2:30 p.m. Surf City screening. Here's that trailer:
Truly Indie Studios' Grindhouse-inspired The Lackey, from director Shaun Piccinino, is about a martial arts baddie who leaves the life of crime upon discovering he had a daughter with a junkie ex-girlfriend. Then he's reluctantly dragged back in. If I had a nickle . . . The Lackey screens at 4:30 p.m. Trailer me:
Ben Jagger directs his big brother Dean S. Jagger in The Paddy Lincoln Gang, a drama about an on-the-cusp Los Angeles-based band rocked by its charismatic Irish singer's dark secret. It's presumably not the one about Bono really being a chick. Paddy clicks at 6:45 p.m. and here's the vid-mercial:
Saturday closes out horrifically with Aaron's House from B. Luciano Barsuglia, who “writ, cut, shot, directed” the chiller surrounding a paranormal investigation of a home filled with strange goings on. “Based on true events” (that seem to be more unreal than ever these days), the film's central location is a pad a surviving member of the Donner Party settled into before heresy, murder and cannibalism moved in. Makes termites, yappy neighbor dogs and your underwater mortgage trivial in comparison, no? The flick plays at 8:40 p.m.; close your eyes and check this out:
A short film and The Paddy Lincoln Gang repeats at 3 p.m. Sunday. Go to SoCalFilmFest.com for all times and ticket information for in-person screenings and the complete list of films.
And for those less freaked out about Carmageddon II up Hollyweird way than they are about the mess while trying to leave Long Beach for OC (what's that all about?), you can watch these and a ton more SoCal Film Fest entries films online now at FlipsideTV.com. May the only traffic you should encounter this weekend be web traffic.
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OC Weekly Editor-in-Chief Matt Coker has been engaging, enraging and entertaining readers of newspapers, magazines and websites for decades. He spent the first 13 years of his career in journalism at daily newspapers before “graduating” to OC Weekly in 1995 as the alternative newsweekly’s first calendar editor.