10th Annual Best Fest San Diego
August 16th & 17th, 2008
by Alicia Glass
Hosted at the Jewish Community Center’s Garfield Theater,
Best Fest brings you the latest and brightest in high school and college student film!
This was my first visit to Best Fest (http://www.bestfestsandiego.com/index.html), and I have to admit, these have to be some of the nicest festival folk I’ve come into contact with yet. The volunteers were friendly and genial, the Board members willing to talk to anyone and everyone, and always encouraging the filmmakers to speak out about their films without nervousness. Every single person, whether they be filmmaker, critic, parental unit or otherwise, was made to feel welcome that has sadly become rare in a lot of film festivals. There was dinner provided both nights by Daphne’s Greek Café, and the festival was kind enough to invite me to dinner both nights. Oh what heavenly gyros. And dessert was provided by a group of amusing servers and Dreyer’s Dibs ice cream. All in all, it was a grand time, no matter the actual size of the festival itself. Smaller ones can actually be better, as I get to talk to the actual filmmakers. So without further ado, on to the actual films!
48 Hours of Madness
A contest held, in which students are all given the same script and 48 hours in which to make a movie based on that script. Filmmakers can make their movie in whatever style or genre they like and add or take away any elements, so long as the key storyline remained constant.
These films were not judged for Best Fest America, but the hosts thought them fine enough to be shown during the festival anyway.
This years script, as I understood it, was the idea that a person or group of people were taken somewhere by a demon or a devil and informed they had five minutes left to live.
Karma
Southwest High School, Team I Drink Your Milkshake
This one seemed a bit undecided, like the filmmakers couldn’t decide which genre or style to go with, so they made a film with bits of all of them. Which, given that the film was only a few minutes long, didn’t seem to work too well, to me.
Review Rating: 6 out of 10
Going Up
Cal State Fullerton, Team The Rejuvenators
This one was rather business-comedy-like, it reminded me of Office Space. 3 people attempt to coerce Death, a shady businessman, into giving them just five more minutes to live. Not bad for a student film.
Review Rating: 7 out of 10
5 More Minutes
Orange Glen High, Team Kickin (Blank)
This film was done in a very fine film noir black and white style, complete with the sad saxophone, the cigarettes and the fedora on the protagonist. I enjoyed it immensely.
Review Rating: 8 out of 10
A Party at McIrwin’s
Carlsbad High, Team A Change We Can Believe In
This one seemed a rather random gathering of characters to attend a party that turns out to be a poisoning. Perfectly fine filming, but the story needed work.
Review Rating: 6 out of 10
The Last Five Minutes
San Diego Mesa College, Team Zero Budget
This was also well done, complete with a rap that begged Death for one more chance and promised more souls in payment, and a storyline that reminded me a lot of Menace II Society, which I adored.
Review Rating: 8 out of 10
Chain Mail
Santiago High, Team Shark TV
A cellphone chain mail informs 3 friends they have five minutes left to live, and one of them runs off to do everything he always wanted to but never did, including tell a neighboring gay man how he really feels. Very cute, and definitely amusing.
Review Rating: 6.5 out of 10
End of Story
Grossmont College, Team Edge
This team has apparently been going to Best Fest for the last 5 years, and believe me, it shows. This film, while only a few minutes long, looks so professional its astounding, and reminds me very much of the recent movie 21. They even actually went to Las Vegas to film it. The film itself, starting with a turnaround on an assassin, even includes a choreographed fight scene involving a lady wearing only a towel. Seriously, wow.
Review Rating: 9 out of 10
Keeping Up With the Joneses
Carlsbad High, Team Indi Velopment
Done in black and white in the total Leave It To Beaver style, complete with the father and his cracking belt, the mother with her constant scrubbing and the cowed children, this film actually won first place. And I can see why: looks totally professional, the story makes you laugh (the June Cleaver style mom ends up killing the sexy neighbor who’s been seducing her husband), and anyone can appreciate it.
Review Rating: 8.5 out of 10
Betrayal
Cal State Fullerton, Team In The Mouth
A couple, informed they have 5 minutes left to live, have to choose which of them will get cut and which will live. But that’s not the real twist, the shocker is when we find out about the man who brought them there in the first place, and how he’s involved. Well played, for a short film.
Review Rating: 7 out of 10
Screening #2
Let the Films continue!
Satellite
Music Video
Toreey Pines High School
Sean Hunter, Jeff Lipton, Michael Lieziert, Garrett Johns
The music wasn’t bad, it seemed to be about unrequited love a boy had for a girl. The video however, I think, needed work. Still images of nighttime moons and stars, coupled with daytime shots of the lonely protagonists, didn’t seem to work too well together to me.
Review Rating: 5 out of 10
Mark’s Story
Documentary
Cal State San Marcos
Jeremy Root, Seth Mondragon
The story of Mark Manion, who was hit by a drunk driver when he was 19 and suffered horrendous damage that plagued him for the rest of his life, inciting Manion to go cross country giving talks on the dangers of drunk driving. Well done as far as cinematography goes, the story is a little depressing though.
Review Rating: 7 out of 10
How Not To Get a Cold
Commercial
Point Loma Nazarene University
Kevin Maeda, Luke Appelquist
A commercial for the Wellness Center, this is a cute little ironic message to wash your dirty hands already.
Review Rating: 6.5 out of 10
Doors
Experimental
SDSU
Max Petrich, Alison Hranek, Becky Fugal, Christina Bale
It was in black and white and I honestly didn’t get the story, other than they were using doors as an allegory for the subconscious.
Review Rating: 6 out of 10
Whiteface
Drama
Canyon Crest High
Ryan Hosking, Keith James
This one was also in black and white, but there wasn’t quite so much confusing imagery. The protagonist teen, a young man who appears very passionate about theater, gets told he can’t do his theater performance one way and proceeds, with all the zeal of youth, to do it anydamnway. The performance of Keith James is really impressive, especially his rap.
Review Rating: 8 out of 10
Toaster Hand Man
Animation
Dale Jackson Career Center, TX
Michael Torres
An amusing little animation about a haphazard scientist who makes your average joe into a crime fighter, using a…toaster?!
Review Rating: 7 out of 10
Making It! The Musical
Comedy
SDSU
Brianna Adams
Two kids wanting to break into the whole Hollywood film business proclaim their woes in song and dance! The wit, in both the music lyrics and the film altogether, had every single person in the audience laughing.
Review Rating: 8.5 out of 10
Screening #3
Action!
School of the Living Dead
Horror
Mount Carmel High
Daniel Yune, Nicholas Cataldo
Your fairly standard zombie flick, set in a high school. I would say focus on the story more rather than the gore, but then most zombies movies don’t bother, so go you guys!
Review Rating: 7 out of 10
Defendiendo Mi Cutura
Documentary
Benjamin Garcia, Rafael Garcia Jr., Madai Garduno, Joe Grizzle, Ray Grizzle, Argenis Herrera, Sonia Alvarado, Mary Wence
A bit of background and current events on the Mexican-American activist Hermina Enrique and her efforts to keep her culture alive. Not bad for a first documentary.
Review Rating: 7 out of 10
It’s Her
Music Video
Chapman University
Frank Lucatuorto, Myles Gilbert
Good song, professional looking video, looked like I could’ve seen it on MTV in the afternoons.
Review Rating: 8 out of 10
Awareness
Commercial
RB High
Kevin Roessler
A short Public Service Announcement about drunk driving, that seems to be a bit lacking on the slamming impact.
Review Rating: 6.5 out of 10
Plates
Drama
Chapman University
Michael Campbell, Andrew Cox, Ryan Cox
An apparently very shy 3rd grade (male) teacher does his best, along with overbearing mother, to get a recently braced girl who’s refusing to speak. It’s a good story and well filmed, but if it were a real story, these days, that poor teacher would’ve been arrested by that overbearing mother.
Review Rating: 8 out of 10
The Rocket
Animation
Dale Jackson Career Center, TX
Mai Nguyen
A young boys adventure with a mail order rocket. The fluidity and sound needs work, but the story is cute and easily understood.
Review Rating: 7 out of 10
One Penny
Experimental
Torrey Pines High
Alan Joyce, Liam King, Robbie Gettinger, Andrew Dinh
A whole bunch, like over 1100, still images used to describe the journey of a penny. It didn’t strike me though, that the penny had much to say, rather that it was more the story of a penny being shunted around places in one particular area by a few people.
Review Rating: 6. 5 out of 10
Hard Hitting Questions
Comedy
CSSM
Jeremy Root
A cute little short interview with a dog. Not bad, for youtube or something similar.
Review Rating: 6 out of 10
Screening #4
Camera Rolling!
From The South
Drama
Chapman University
Jay fox, Tim Fox, Brandon Alperin, Blake Smith
Your fairly standard film about a Mexican immigrant trying to make it across the border…or is it? That ethnic-skinned protagonist doesn’t speak til the very end of the film, and then, it’s Arabic. Think about it.
Review Rating: 9 out of 10
Influences
Commercial
Poway High
Al Pappas, Brad Hutton
A fairly standard anti-smoking commercial. And yes, being a smoker, I am biased.
Review Rating: 6 out of 10
337: The Cave
Experimental
PLNU
Mauricio Perez, Shelby Martin, Jake Schafer, Sean Trank
A film apparently inspired by Plato’s Allegory of The Cave, which I’m sorry to say I haven’t studied, so this is open to my interpretation. It looked to me like a guy was having horrific visions about the life choices he had made, and would make a good lead in for a horror movie.
Review Rating: 8 out of 10
Monopoly
Music Video
Rancho Bernardo High
John Hill, Elan Levy
A very simple music video, the singer surrounded by shadows singing his song with his guitar into a microphone. The song was nice enough, but forgettable.
Review Rating: 6 out of 10
Portrait
Horror
La Costa Canyon High
Tyler Wolters
A portrait artist seems to go more than a bit insane due to a lack of inspiration and begins killing people in his own unique fashion, only to meet an ironic and well-deserved end. The story is solid, but the cinematography needs a bit of work.
Review Rating: 7.5 out of 10
Somewhere Under the Rainbow
Documentary
Orange Glen High
Michael Robles Garcia, Mark Keyworth Belko
Not bad for a documentary about the stress and trauma of being a homosexual high school teenager. Statistics about suicide rates of homosexual teens is fine to know, but I would’ve also included some links to help groups or something.
Review Rating: 7.5 out of 10
When the World Goes Dark
Animation
Cleveland Institute of Art
Anthony Paul Scalmato
A solid animation style, but I didn’t understand the story at all, or if there even was one. It looked to me like a homeless man was attempting to scream at all his personal demons, that was about it.
Review Rating: 6.5 out of 10
Heart Attack
Comedy
Menlo School, California
David Harris, Rogier Van Beeck Calkoen
An adorable little story of Leslie, who’s looking for love in a series of horrid blind dates in New York. And one the day she’s finally off for a date with a good-seeming guy, everything goes wrong and at the worst possible moment, after being dropped by the good guy, she finally meets the narrator of the film, the right guy.
Review Rating: 7 out of 10
Screening #5
Sound and Stage!
A Jogging Memory
Experimental
La Jolla High
Daniel Jaffe
A man dealing with too many variables in his life revels in the memories a boombox jogs into being for him, for as long as it brings him comfort. At least, that was what I took from the film. It is an experimental, and a little hard to get, but well made all the same.
Review Rating: 8 out of 10
Training Goggles
Drama
SDSU
Jeff Gardiner
Your typical lonely engineer, in the process of making VR goggles for military training, gets a surprise when his invention gets glitched by the microwave, and he “meets” a dream woman. Similar ideas have been done before, and it makes me wonder where the dream guy is for the lonely women, but still, a heartwarming film.
Review Rating: 8 out of 10
I Want My Parents Back
Documentary
Media Arts Center, San Diego California
Aaron Dominguez, Argenis Herrera, Euniz Gonzalez, Garrett Hayes, Khirye Rice, Melly Jenny, Nathan Villalobos, Omar Flores, Cody Marshall
A documentary that more or less centers around three children left in the States when their parents are forcibly deported back to Mexico. Lots of warnings about how to act when or if Immigration officers come around. Not a bad effort for a school project, but it would get lynched if it went to the general public.
Review Rating: 7 out of 10
Solitude
Horror
Valhalla High
Adam Lee, Steven Moyer, Chris Jones
A horror trailer made for a movie that doesn’t actually exist, and a fine try as far as trailers and the horror genre in general go.
Review Rating: 7.5 out of 10
Perception
Drama
Cody High, Wyoming
Preston Randolph
A drug addict discovers LSD and it leads him on a series of horrifying discoveries, that culminates in the protagonist killing the newly elected President of the United States. The cinematography, along with a solid story and the unapologetic frankness of the protagonist, makes for a very fine experience.
Review Rating: 8 out of 10
Batman Rebuilt
Animation
Imperial Academy, Republic, Ohio
Caleb Christofer
A stop-action animation of Batman characters done with Legos! Adorably campy, very like unto Robot Chicken, which I adore. One of the crew spent the entire festival dressed up as the Joker from The Dark Knight as well, handing out his card to garner interest in this film.
Review Rating: 8 out of 10
Screening #6
Show Me the Funny!
Recreating Myself
Music Video
Torrey Pines High
Nick Oishi, Parker Slavin
The music video itself wasn’t very good, different style shots thrown together in a kind of mish mash to keep the story going with the song. The song though was very nice. And us festival goers were in for a treat before the video, the singer of Recreating Myself came out onstage and sang us live a different song, which was lovely.
Review Rating: 6.5 out of 10
An American Tragedy
Drama
Chapman University
Hunter Johnson, Doug Meyer
Set in 1922 Illinois and apparently based on a true story, a young man with an ailing father goes against the strong union when he joins a coal mine to make money to buy medicine. The whole thing ends in tragedy, as the name suggests, but the film looked entirely professional and well done, like something I’d expect to find on the AMC channel some afternoon.
Review Rating: 9 out of 10
Ad Infinitum
Experimental
Orange Glen High
Aaron Hease, Daniel Powell
A lot of kaleidoscopic imagery to denote the repetition and apparent boredom of high school, which is fine but if kids are already going through it, why would they want to see a film about it? The repeated lines of “The Repetition of facts is not knowledge” was cute though.
Review Rating: 6.5 out of 10
Channel 3 Promo
Commercial
PLNU
Mauricio Perez, Sarah Dunn, Jake Sonafer, Sean Trank
A short but well done commercial about the campus TV channel.
Review Rating: 7 out of 10
Metronome
Drama
Agoura High, California
Brian Felber, Colin Davis, Austin Kearns
I’m not quite sure why this was labeled drama, unless it’s a statement against following the pack or something. The main character decides to mark his steps to the beat of a metronome and gains quite a following, which culminates in the literal question of “If everyone jumped off a cliff, would you jump too?”
Review Rating: 8 out of 10
Memoriam
Documentary
Kevin Klauber, C.J. Laursen
A fairly simple documentary with some nice little animations for backgrounds in many of the memories, that explores how memories shape who we are.
Review Rating: 7 out of 10
Fistful of Love
Comedy
LA City College
Ikuo Saito, Paolo Cruz
A couple, who ironically met in Kung Fu class, decide to fight when they can’t agree about commitment. Hilarious, especially for a reviewer who adores asian films.
Review Rating: 8 out of 10
Screening #7
That’s a Wrap!
The Dale Akiki Story
Documentary
Valhalla High
Adam Lee
The story of a different-looking man apparently wrongfully accused of molesting and performing Satanic rites on more than 50 children. The documentary seems to focus on Akiki and his reaction to the trial rather than the particulars of the trial itself, but that’s fine.
Review Rating: 7 out of 10
Animal Instincts
Animation
Bond University, Southern Australia
A fairly standard claymation style which pits a cow against a sheep for ALL the food on a farm, still vastly amusing.
Review Rating: 8 out of 10
Johnny Goner
Drama
Menlo School, California
A teen obsessed with death and the health of himself and those closest to him searches for answers at the funeral home he works at, with the help of the flower girl. Not much for me, but others seemed to enjoy it.
Review Rating: 7 out of 10
Star 98.7
Commercial
CSUN
Candace Infuso
A bedridden hospital man finds new vigor when the janitor changes the radio station to 98.7 in LA.
Review Rating: 7 out of 10
Cadence of the Elements
Experimental
Torrey Pines High
Alan Joyce, Liam King, Robbie Gettinger, Andrew Dinh
Shots of nature, mainly water and fire, set to a drum cadence that reminds me of a high school marching band. It’s not bad, although I rather missed the purpose.
Review Rating: 7 out of 10
Aberration
Horror
Carlsbad High
Morgan C. Tremaine
An abducted young man fights to find out what happened, where he was taken, and why. Pretty good makeup and cinematography, but the story itself needs a bit more fleshing.
Review Rating: 7 out of 10
Scary Bad Skinny
Music Video
Chapman University
Frank Lucatuorto, Myles Gilbert
With a screaming song sung by the band Shattered Hope, the video is a cheap little piece that has not a thing to do with the song, but is amusing nevertheless.
Review Rating: 7 out of 10
Thieves Rush In
Comedy
SDSU
Dawn Ford, Christina Cervantes
Two lonely hearts are brought together by the theft and surprise journey of a bicycle, from some memorable character impersonators through cinema history.
Review Rating: 8 out of 10
Awards
That’s all folks!
Time for the awards, with such surprise presenters as Chris Brinker,
producer of The Boondock Saints, who presented the Drama Awards.
Commercials-
High School – 2nd Place Influences, 1st Place Awareness
College – 3rd Place How Not To Get a Cold, 2nd Place Channel 3 Promo, 1st Place Star 98.7
Documentary-
High School – 4th Place I Want My Parents Back, 3rd Place Somewhere Under the Rainbow, 2nd Place Defendiendo Mi Cultura, 1st Place The Dale Akiki Story
College – 2nd Place Mark’s Story, 1st Place Memoriam
Music Video-
High School – 3rd Place Satellite, 2nd Place Recreating Myself, 1st Place Monopoly
College – 2nd Place Scary Bad Skinny, 1st Place It’s Her
Drama-
High School – 4th Place Whiteface, 3rd Place Perception, 2nd Place Metronome, 1st Place Johnny Goner
College – 4th Place Training Goggles, 3rd Place From the South, 2nd Place Plates, 1st Place An American Tragedy
Animation-
High School – 3rd Place The Rocket, 2nd Place Toaster Hand Man, 1st Place Batman Rebuilt
College – 2nd Place When the World Goes Dark, 1st Place Animal Instincts
Horror/Thriller-
High School – 3rd Place Tie School of the Living Dead & Portrait, 2nd Place Solitude, 1st Place Abberation
Experimental-
High School – 4th Place Ad Infinitum, 3rd Place Cadence of Elements, 2nd Place One Penny, 1st Place A Jogging Memory
College – 2nd Place Doors, 1st Place 337: The Cave
Comedy-
High School – Heart Attack
College – 4th Place Hard Hitting Questions, 3rd Place A Fistful of Love, 2nd Place Making It! The Musical, 1st Place Thieves Rush In
Best of the Fest-
High School – The Dale Akiki Story
College – Thieves Rush In
Audience Choice Award-
High School – A Jogging Memory
College – Making It! The Musical
