Miami Underground Film Festival 2008

Monster Camp - Winner Best Documentary
USA 2007, 78 min Documentary
Director Cullen Hoback         
Best Documentary Cinequest Film Festival, Best Documentary Rome International Film Fest

For some it’s merely a hobby, for others, it is a lifestyle. Welcome to Monster Camp, a world where people transform into creatures, heroes, and monsters to escape their daily lives.

In the vein of Lord of the Rings, World of Warcraft and Dungeons and Dragons, these enthusiasts have developed a complicated world to bring their fantasies to life.

Romantic relationships are forged between Characters. Friendships are destroyed over plot disputes. Characters are slain and never return.  But keeping this world alive takes a lot of real world work. And unless someone is willing to take charge, the fantasy may be lost forever.

P.J. - Winner Best Actress
USA 2007, 91 Min
Director: Russ Emanuel

A man who calls himself P.J. (played by Howard Nash), has witnessed a horrific accident and subsequently retreats within himself. He barely talks, and doesn't even know who he is. He is brought to a hospital where the resident doctor (John Heard) tries to get through to him with the help of his assistant (Vincent Pastore) and P.J.'s bitter ex-girlfriend (Patricia Rae). All the while, the doctor is fighting his own life's demons, and an out-of-touch supervisor (Robert Picardo) who wants P.J. permanently committed.

Relevant questions of God and faith are tackled in this dramatic, yet inspiring film based on Mark McQuown's award-winning play.

Under the Snow - Winner Best Feature
Spain 2007,
Director Candela Figueira and Maitena Muruzabal
Winner Audience Award Valladolid Film Festival, Slamdance Film Festival 2008

The winter season is almost here. In the snow chain packing section of a factory, the orders are piling up. Javier, the supervisor, asks upper management for additional personnel. Jairo is sent from another section while Karmentxu and Angela are hired through a temporary work agency, for two weeks. From 6am to 2pm, the four of them pack snow chains in silence, each of them at their own workstation.

The meteorology announces a cold spell thus prolonging their stay at the factory. Almost without noticing, Angela starts breaking the work rules and little by little, the rules start changing. The work becomes a game and that cold and gray building the place to play. Nobody can imagine what is going on behind that iron gate. It is a secret shared just for the four of them. A world that survives thanks to the continuous snow. What is going to happen when the snow ceases to fall?

The Palomino Club
USA 2007, 10 min
Director David Gittlin
World Premiere

What happens to childhood dreams? Do they get eaten by the Cookie Monster? Or do they fade away and mildew like old wallpaper?  Joshua Rubin is forced to ponder this question when the hot shot septic chemical salesman’s posh lifestyle and career come inexplicably apart in the span of two, harrowing days.

Confusions of an Unmarried Couple
Canada 2007, 74 min
Director Brett and Jason Butler
Audience Award Indiana Film and Video Festival, Best Comedy Feature Wreck Beach Festival

Take a couple who've had a troubled past, including an ugly break-up, and throw in a strange attempt at reconciliation. Ask each where they think things went wrong and you have one confusing and very real account of a relationship in flux. Meet Dan and Lisa, they’re an unmarried couple.

Craig
Denmark 2008, 100 min
Director Kim Sonderholm
North American Premiere

Craig is left all alone when his parents die in a fire. His world slowly becomes unraveled when he loses his medication and starts to lose his grip on reality. Loneliness can be a dangerous thing.

The Night in the Life of Doris Dolores - Winner Best Director
USA 2007, 14 min
Director Bob Moricz
Shot in garish color on Super 8mm film, Doris Dolores (Raquel Rupple) lives for the thrill. Her stick in the mud husband, Rick (George Schau), seems to care more about his ventriloquist act than his young wife's restlessness. Meanwhile, the sock puppet twists Rick's brain with lascivious whispers.

Palace of Stains
USA 2007, 70 min
Director Bob Moricz
Mid-Valley Video Festival, Portland Underground Film Festival

There's a new family in the town of Lydiaville. The Griepers, rich off a television ministry, move into the house on the hill, and the Cosgraves are not too happy about it. Meanwhile, the Cosgrave's arch enemies, the Montomerys, have lost their entire fortune. These three warring clans fight dirty. Palace of Stain has a cast of 56 and was shot in one wild day.

Marta’s Sex Tape - Winner Best Foreign Film
Marta's Sex Tape
46 min.
Director: Anthony Rivero Stabley (aka Antonio Rivero)
World Premiere

All artists eventually have to expose themselves. Art is about not being afraid of letting the world see you as you are. Otherwise – what is it that you’re doing in this very short life? So when you do finally stand there, naked in front of everyone, well… you better love yourself or at least feel very comfortable with what you are saying. It’s that security that allows artists not to worry what others might think, because in the end artists are the ones that create, reflect, express and make people wonder in amazement.

Tribute This!
USA 2008, 91 min Documentary
Director Mick McCleery
North American Premiere

A tribute album to an unknown songwriter? Sounds crazy, but who says it can’t be done.  Billy Franks has been honing his craft for thirty years.  He has devoted his life to music, and has never been given the break that many know he deserves. 

During the summer of 2005, an award-winning American film crew hoped to set right what they see as an extreme case of "unjustifiable anonymity" by asking some of the biggest names in music (Springsteen, Costello, Lewis, Stewart, etc.) to make a tribute album to this unknown.

Armed only with the songs, the singer, an unwavering resolve, and a disarming sense of humor, these four friends traveled the world to complete their quest. Were some of the music world's great songwriters willing to recognize a fellow traveler? Will members of rock royalty embrace a disinherited brother? Or did an entourage of managers, publicists and security guards foil any attempt to even pose the question?

Building Empire
UK 2006, 137 min Documentary
Director Jambe Davdar

This Fan-made film is a compelling insight into the development and creation of THE EMPIRE STRIKES BACK. This documentary combines the movie as we know it with behind the scenes footage, audio from the cast and crew, alternate angles, reconstructed scenes, text facts and more to take you deep inside the process which brought the film to the big screen.

Jambe Davdar works in the UK television industry and has been credited for uncovering some previously lost video gems from the world of Star Wars. An avid fan of the original trilogy he collected the Kenner/Palitoy toys in childhood, re-watched the Star Wars films as a teenager and has applied his career skills in adulthood to share BUILDING EMPIRE, RETURNING TO JEDI and numerous other video highlights with fellow Star Wars fans. He is currently working on both a STAR WARS and a RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK project in the same vein.

Mysteries of the Opposite Sex - Winner Best Actor
USA 2007, 4 min
Director Will Vazquez
Winner for Best Film, Best Director, Best Actor and Best Actress at Miami Film Race 2007

Two people who meet on an Internet dating web site, meet in person for the first time and realize they're incompatible.

This film was written, shot, and edited in only 12 hours as part of the Miami Film Race. The film was a clean sweep taking the four major awards. Director Will Vazquez, whose film Quick Pick won the Golden Coconut for Best Feature - Home Cookin in 2007 shows why he's one of Miami's best home grown talent. Local actors Oscar Diaz and Kimberly Cox won Best Actor and Best Actress. Oscar Diaz is also this year's winner of the Golden Coconut for Best Actor for his work in Dodo rings, Full Circle and Mysteries of the Opposite Sex.

The Double Born
USA 2008, 93 min
Director Tony Randel
World Premiere

Golden Globe nominee, Sammi Davis portrays a woman, tortured by the sudden disappearance of her only child years before. Obsessed with having another baby, she is devastated and driven to emotional crisis when discovering her new husband is infertile. Gripped by despair, the woman begins to resign herself to the bitter likelihood of never having another child.

Striking up a friendship with two discarded young laborers, hired to re-paint her son’s now silent room. The three lost souls form a disturbing bond as the boys are led deeper into the woman’s tormented world. Her family’s suspicions of this unsettling new friendship sets off an irreversible series of events, leading to madness and murder as the horrors of the past collide with the sins of the present, ending in tragedy and terror.

THE DOUBLE BORN in an intense sexual thriller from the creative team behind the HELLRAISER and WISHMASTER series. Artistic, stylized and unconventionally cinematic, THE DOUBLE BORN is a gritty, voyeuristic exploration of family, desperation, lust and murder. Sometimes, family goes beyond blood.