Mark your calendars! This Wednesday, May 7, 2008 at 7 p.m., film lovers will gather at the Hollywood Theatre (4122 NE Sandy) to watch the premiere of eight short-format documentaries created by Portland filmmakers as part of this year’s International Documentary Challenge. Two of these Portland entries were of the 14 films that were chosen as finalists and competed for Grand Prize in the 2008 Hot Docs Canadian International Documentary Festival in Toronto April 26. As for the May 7 screening here in Portland, the list of films, along with short synopses, is listed at the end of this post. Tickets are $6 and can be purchased at the Hollywood Theatre Box Office or can be purchased online here.
Portland tied for second at having the most entrants of all the cities in the contest (Toronto had the most at 14; Portland, Seattle, and LA all had 8 teams compete) Portland’s presence in the competition is partly due to founder Doug Whyte’s residence in town, though he moved here less than a year ago from St. Louis, Missouri. Doug has set out to increase the presence of this film experience in the City of Roses, but he hopes the competition will continue to gain popularity across the globe. In 2006, the first year of the challenge had 75 registered contenders. “I am amazed at the quality of films we got from the Portland area,” Doug said. “Out of the 101 total films from 16 countries, three of the Portland entries made the top 16.”
In alphabetical order, the showcase of short films that will be screened at Hollywood Theatre May 7 are listed below. The list includes all Portland entries to this year’s challenge, including the two Portland finalists, as well as the Doc Challenge Grand Winner, “Click Whoosh” and the POV Short Film Winner, “Ars Magna,” both made by Seattle teams; “Beholder,” the film that won Best Writing and the Doc Challenge Original Vision awards from Brooklyn, NY; and an international entry from Sydney, Australia. Two of the Portland teams also had wins in music categories: “The Mixtress” won best soundtrack and “Jetty” won best original score. Please note, the list below is not the order of the screening schedule, so be sure to get there before it begins at 7pm, to catch the full 90 minutes of film pleasure!
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