In 2010 The Wassaic Project is proud to be working with Liliana Greenfield-Sanders of Gluten Free Films as our Guest Curator for Film.
Films and Film Makers Include:
James Franco’s award winning short Herbert White: Based on the poem by the same name, a man, trying to live a normal family life, struggles with acting on his secret most inner demons.
Luke Matheny‘s Student Academy Award Winning short God of Love, a comedy about a lounge-singing darts champion who receives a package of love-inducing darts – was winner of the gold medal at the 2010 Student Academy Awards; special jury recognition at Aspen ShortsFest; as well as first prize and the King Award for Screenwriting at the NYU First Run Film Festival. “God of Love” was Matheny’s thesis at NYU’s prestigious graduate film program.
Gregori Viens’s award winning feature Punching the Clown. Winner of the Audience Award at the Slamdance Flim Festival and Best Music at Gen Art, this uproarious and sharp new comedy tells the story of Henry Philips, a hapless modern day troubadour who grinds his way through the heartland, living out of his car and singing his twisted satirical songs to anyone who will listen. After booking a mishap involving a Christian fundraiser, he decides he’s hit rock bottom. Seeking to shake things up, he moves to L.A. where his luck changes overnight. Thanks less to his inept manager than to a wild case of mistaken identity, he falls backwards into a string of packed gigs, a record deal and even the promise of love. But he who lives by the whimsy of show business dies by it, and reality hits him like a fist in the face: an innocent miscommunication over a bagel brands him a neo-Nazi in the world of tabloid journalism. Luckily, somewhere between rock bottom and nowhere lies the perfect terrain for his dark and hilarious songs. Hailed by comedy icon Sarah Silverman as “the best movie about comedy I’ve seen so far,” this hilarious and evocative film is “totally primed for a fervent cult following.”
Big Fan is the directorial debut from the writer of The Wrestler and official 2009 Sundance selection. Paul Aufiero (PATTON OSWALT), a 35-year-old parking garage attendant from Staten Island, is the self-described “world’s biggest New York Giants fan.” He lives at home with his mother (MARCIA JEAN KURTZ), spending his off hours calling in to local sports-radio station 760 The Zone, where he rants in support of his beloved team, often against his mysterious on-air rival, Eagles fan Philadelphia Phil (MICHAEL RAPAPORT). His family berates him for doing nothing with his life, but they don’t understand the depth of his love of the Giants or the responsibility his fandom carries. One night, Paul and his best friend Sal (KEVIN CORRIGAN) spot Giants star linebacker Quantrell Bishop (JONATHAN HAMM) at a gas station in their neighborhood. They impulsively follow his limo into Manhattan, to a strip club, where they hang in the background, agog at their hero. Paul cautiously decides to approach him, stepping into the rarefied air of football stardom — and things do not go as planned. The fallout of this chance encounter brings Paul’s world crashing down around him as his family, the team, the media and the authorities engage in a tug of war over Paul, testing his allegiances and calling into question everything he believes in. Meanwhile, the Giants march toward a late-season showdown with the Eagles, unaware that sometimes the most brutal struggles take place far from the field of play. Following up his first filmed screenplay (“The Wrestler”), writer-director Robert Siegel once again demonstrates a unique and potent vision of the human experience, in all of it its harsh truths and hopeful humanity.
Miracle Fish, Academy Award nominee for best live-action short film:
8 year old Joe has a birthday he’ll never forget. His school friends tease him for lack of birthday gifts.
Joe hides out in the school sick bay and falls asleep, wishing everyone in the world would go away. When he awakes, he finds his school empty and wonders if his wish has come true.
But his fantasy is shattered, when an event darker than the thought of a being the last person on earth, confronts him.
…. and many more!