Las Vegas Film Festival Showcased Films From Around the World
Photos by Nikki Artale
On July 18-21, 2013 the Las Vegas Film Festival brought in filmmakers, screenplay writers, actors, actresses and fans from all over the world. The categories included feature films, shorts, documentaries, foreign films, animation and videos. Honored this year was Rory J. Saper, the 2013 Male Indie Icon Award Winner. Rory is from the United Kingdom and his film “Rufus” was one of the featured films shown at the Festival. The 2013 Female Indie Icon Award Winner was Zoe Bellwho is one of the best stunt actors in the industry and has won two World Stunt Awards for her work. Zoe was featured in the film “Raze”, directed by Josh C. Waller. The film is about 48 women who have been abducted and must fight to kill each other in order to protect their loved ones. Zoe spent quite a while on stage talking with her fans in the audience.
Another outstanding film was “Liars, Fires & Bears” directed by Jeremy Cloe. It is a heartbreaking story of a 9 year old girl who goes on a cross country road trip to find her brother. It is a powerful story of Dave and Eve as they form a close bond with each other running from the law.
UNLV and CSN filled the days with the Student Film Showcase and as always the films were impressive and showed the talent of the young filmmakers. Domenica Castro wrote, acted and directed a short film “Jaquie Jaquie Oh” shown at the festival. www.vimeo.com/65163210 Domenica just graduated from UNLV with a Bachelors of Arts degree and is well on the road to become an excellent filmmaker. She is currently producing another short film “Splitsville”. Professor David Schmoeller was there to support his students. David wrote and directed the award winner film “Little Monsters”.
Magic Camp showed the magic that many of our children possess and where they learn to become magic superstars at the camp. It was a joy to see the children perform their sleight of hand and magic tricks and bring out the magic inside of themselves.
Siegfried Fishchbacher attended the showing of Magic Camp and commented after the show that he liked the film. It was good to see Siegfried who is a master magician and illusionist.
Siegfried Fishchbacher
Another sleight of hand master, known as the fastest hands in the world, was Mickey Silver. Mickey has a new project called “The Perfect Move” which is a true story of a young boy’s fascination with sleight of hand that takes him into a world of power that enables him to make millions by out-witting the gaming industry.
Mickey Silver
Magical Universe directed by Jeremy Workman is a story of Al Carbee, an eccentric artist who spends his days photographing Barbie dolls. Al Carbee has over 500 Barbie dolls and 1,000 negatives and prints. His work was shown at the Saco Museum and people called it fascinating and intriguing.
The Lufthansa Heist written by Daniel Simone and the late Henry Hill, explored in depth the true story of the heist. Jimmy Burke and his seven man crew made off with $6 million in cash making it the largest cash haul in history. A question and answer period was held after the screening of “Jimmy the Gent Burke.
Coldwater was a powerful and disturbing film about a reform facility that parents send their boys to in the hope that they change their delinquent behavior. The punishments are harsh and tragic and somewhat unbelievable. Vincent Grashaw won for Best Director, PJ Boudousaque won for Best Actor and the film won the Grand Jury Award for Best Movie.
Charo was the guest presenter and she was so full of life, energy and lots of smiles and hugs for her many admirers that were so excited to see her at the film festival. An added treat was meeting her son Shel Rasten who is so gorgeous and too handsome to describe. His smile melted my heart. Shel was featured in the film “The Boulevard”, directed by Tom Badal. It is a film about the last night of a streetwalker. He is mesmerizing on the screen and I personally would vote him the “Sexiest Man Alive”.
Shel Rasten an Charo
Shel Rasten
Nikki Artale and Charo
The Silver Ace Award went to Robert Cochrane for the film “You Should Know Jack”
Screenplay Competition 3rd place went to Jack McLaughlin for “Moonlight Bandit”
Short Screenplay 2ndplace went to Ron Podell for “Tyrannosaurus Sex”
Congratulations to the team that was responsible to put together the Las Vegas Film Festival.
Milo Kostelecky Film Director, Frederick Apcar Director of Operations, West McDdowell Program Director, Voula Konstantarakis Event Manager, Jennifer Kotowski Art Director, KJ Howe Emcee, Jon “Jersey” Goldman Director of Sponsorship/Emcee, Grayson Orr Asst. Programmer, Joe Fopiano Asst. Programer. A great event and we look forward to next year’s
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