Motion Picture

Today's FastFilm Festival in Boulder is so quickly paced that filmmakers will enjoy just ten minutes of fame rather than the requisite fifteen. But that's kind of the point. The compendium of seven-minute films (with three minutes at the end of each movie for a mini Q&A session) is the result of the Shoot Out Boulder, an annual filmmaking event on hyper-drive. Back on October 12, teams of amateur videographers set out to make movies in a 24-hour period using a list of easy-to-find props. They weren't allowed fancy editing equipment and could only modify their films in-camera — that is, with the rewind and fast-forward buttons on their camcorders. The results, according to Shoot Out executive director Michael Conti, tend to be hilarious, dramatic and even political. "They blew up the Boulder Theater, they did an underwater swimming sequence and they impersonated me," he says of one of last year's filmmaking crews. Ten winners were honored at a Boulder Theater screening, but the FastFilm Festival features all of the entries. The free show starts at 11 a.m. and runs until 5:30 p.m. at the Canyon Theater in the Boulder Public Library, 1000 Canyon Boulevard. Call Conti at 303-449-1515 for details.
Sat., Oct. 20, 11 a.m.-5:30 p.m., 2007