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Palm Springs International Festival-Sunday-Aug . 26th-5:30PM


Okay guys-Room 10 is showing Sunday-August 26th in the Star Power Series is at 5:30PM...if you live nearby go to see it on the big screen!!!



Shortfest is worth your time
Manny the Movie Guy • Special to The Desert Post Weekly • August 23, 2007

http://www.mydesert.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070823/EVENTS16/708230349


The beauty of short films is the genre's innate ability to capture life as we know it. Filmmakers can have fun with the art form, yet the challenge is to be succinct.


This year's crop of movies at the Palm Springs International Festival of Short Films ranges from gritty documentaries to vanity projects by major film stars. They're all good and they're all worth your time.

Two short films that are garnering major buzz are the ones directed by A-list stars such as Bryce Dallas Howard ("Spider-Man 3," "The Village") and Jennifer Aniston. Both of their movies, Howard's "Orchids" and Aniston's "Room 10," are part of Glamour Magazine's "Reel Moments" series and were funded by Cartier and FilmAid.

"Orchids" tells the tale of Beatrice (Katherine Waterston), an amateur photographer who befriends Cliff (Alfred Molina), a wealthy, middle-aged eccentric with a deep dark secret. It's now up to Beatrice to help Cliff conquer his fears and insecurities.

Howard, who also co-wrote the film with Dane Charbeneau, showcases her auteur eye. She has the makings of a great director, possibly following the footsteps of her filmmaker dad, Ron Howard. The way the narrative is told, each character's layers are slowly peeled away until you surrender to the film. Don't miss "Orchids."

Another film in the festival's Star Power series (Sunday, August 26, 5:30pm) is Aniston's "Room 10." Our favorite "Friends" girl co-directs this thought-provoking film with Andrea Buchanan.

Based on Glamour reader Colleen Goldrick's real-life story, "Room 10" stars Robin Wright Penn as an E.R. nurse who learns the unmistakable power of love from a patient's husband in room 10.

The husband is wonderfully played by Kris Kristofferson. His wife of 45 years is slowly dying, and he can't do anything about it. "Sometimes you just get tired of being married," he despairingly says to Penn, and Kristofferson utters those lines with bravado - a delivery both sad and haunting.

Winner of the Jury Prize at the CineVegas International Film Festival, "Room 10" will make you shed a tear or two, and will have you wishing for more in-depth films from Aniston.

The movie that truly made me cry, and received my full support is the searing documentary called "Freeheld." A multi-award winning film (it won the Short Filmmaking Special Jury Prize at Sundance this year) directed by Cynthia Wade, you will never be able to take your eyes off of the screen.

"Freeheld" documents the last days of Lieutenant Laurel Hester. She was dying from lung cancer, and all she wanted to do was leave her pension benefits to her life partner, Stacie.

But Ocean County in New Jersey would not honor this privilege. Same-sex domestic partners were frowned upon by the five Republican county freeholders, who were voting against the proposal.

With hundreds of supporters behind her, Hester's riveting story rose to national attention, but director Wade was wise enough to capture the human side of her struggle - one woman's fight to provide for the love of her life. Try to catch this indelible portrait (American Life category, Saturday, Aug. 25th at 3pm).

If fluffy animation is your idea for short films, there are a lot of movies to choose from! Under the Animation Celebration banner (Saturday, Aug. 25th at 10:30am), you can enjoy a movie called "Madame Tutli-Putli," an animated short from Canada which truly deserves the term, artistic tour-de-force!

I always look forward to this time of year, when the Palm Springs International Festival of Short Films arrives in the valley. So catch a short film, and learn a thing or two about life as we know it.













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