New film festival only shows prize-winners

Around the world in a day. It's a possibility -- at least on film -- when the Las Vegas International Film Festival checks into The Orleans on Saturday.

Technically, the festival begins tonight with a bowling bash and ends Sunday with an awards brunch. Those events are only for filmmakers and festival officials, however.

But Saturday's panel discussions and screenings are open to the public, festival coordinator Jason Carnie says.

The 15 shorts, features, documentaries and music videos represent the best of more than 1,000 films entered in the festival competition.

"We only show the winners," Carnie says.

Those winners represent "quality independent film," he explains, particularly movies that "don't have an audience because of distribution."

Leading the lineup: the festival's grand jury prize-winner, "Beyond the Call," from Oscar-nominated documentarian Adrian Belic ("Genghis Blues"), which follows three veterans as they travel the world delivering humanitarian aid to the front lines of war.

Or, as "Beyond the Call's" posters proclaim, it's "an Indiana Jones meets Mother Teresa adventure."

The Best of Nevada feature, the documentary "Off the Rocker," focuses on Las Vegas seniors in the whirl of ballroom dancing.

"Off the Rocker's" Los Angeles-based director, Matthew Bardocz, previously entered the documentary in other festivals.

"But it's nice to have the opportunity to have the world premiere in Las Vegas, where the film was created," Bardocz says.

He filmed the documentary about two years ago (immediately after working as a crew member on the Oscar-winning "Little Miss Sunshine") over the course of 17 days, documenting seniors who follow veteran lounge singer Jerry Tiffe and his trio.

"The seniors were up at 4:30 a.m. exercising and would stay out until 10 p.m. dancing in the casinos every day I was there," Bardocz says in the movie's press notes. "I barely had time to load new tapes into the camera, yet alone sleep. It was quite a whirlwind experience trying to stay a step ahead of them."

Best director Michael Oved Dayan's documentary "Glimpses of Heaven" profiles victims of childhood trauma -- including a Holocaust survivor and a Cree Indian separated from his parents by the Canadian government -- who overcome troubled pasts by creating beauty and harmony in the present.

A street hustler's life catches up with him in "Zero Hour," which spotlight's Juan Riedinger's best actor performance, while Chrystine Yeh earned best actress honors for portraying a lovelorn South Korean woman in the short "Her Smile," chosen as the festival's best foreign film.

The award-winners will be shown in an Orleans ballroom on large-format DVD, Carnie explains, because "it's an exorbitant experience to book an exhibition hall" -- especially at a local multiplex -- at the height of the summer blockbuster season.

With "a super high-quality projector" and high-end sound system, the DVD set-up provides an optimal viewing experience, he maintains. "We've done this in the past," Carnie says.

Not in Las Vegas, however; this is the first Las Vegas International Film Festival under a team headed by festival director Rick Weisner, according to Carnie. A previous Las Vegas International Film Festival, with different organizers, took place at The Orleans' multiplex in the late '90s.