Film festival focuses on pleasing movie fans

When it comes to the Vegas Indie Film Fest! less is most definitely more.

Some other local festivals tout rosters that practically burst at the seams with dozens of films. But VIFF! founding director Derek Stonebarger takes pride in his relatively modest slate of six features, two short-film blocks and the winning entries from the 48-Hour Film Project.

“Could I have gotten a better deal if I’d just rented a theater for two days and just shown a bunch of stuff that nobody would see? Yeah,” he admits. “But we’re not going to do that. The ones that we are able to screen, we want people to see them.”

To that end, the festival is making the screenings as accessible as possible by hosting them at times when film lovers can actually attend and in the places they’re accustomed to going, rather than the hotel ballrooms other local festivals favor.

“We try to show it the way the filmmaker intended,” Stonebarger says. “In a theater.” Specifically, the Century theaters at The Orleans, Brenden Theatres at the Palms and Stonebarger’s theatre7, 1406 S. Third St.

Now in its fourth year, the Vegas Indie Film Fest! relied on a panel of a half-dozen local filmmakers to screen the entries and decide the final lineup.

“Everybody who watches ours is filmmakers,” Stonebarger says, “and we can appreciate what it took to get (each) project done.”

He was especially impressed with the opening night film, “Territory 8,” which will have its world premiere at 6 p.m. Wednesday at The Orleans.

Written and directed by local filmmaker Kelly Schwarze and filmed in the valley with a cast of local actors, the movie focuses on the survivors of a chemical weapon explosion in the Nevada desert.

“This set that they were able to use is kind of like the star of the movie, in my opinion,” Stonebarger says of the empty water reclamation site known as “the poop plant.” “It’s so unbelievable. This looks like a multimillion-dollar film.”

David Schmoeller, associate professor of film at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, will receive a lifetime achievement award for directing.

“He’s a true advocate for what’s happening in this town and just the quality that’s coming out of this town,” Stonebarger says of Schmoeller’s selection. “And he’s got real-world, real big films from his past and something that everybody here can aspire to.”

Schmoeller’s latest, “Little Monsters” (7 p.m. May 9, Palms), focuses on 10-year-old murderers who are released from prison on their 18th birthdays.

The festival’s other lifetime achievement award is going to actor and “Celebrity Apprentice” sensation Gary Busey, who can be seen alongside Edward Furlong, Lee Majors and Margot Kidder in the dark comedy “Matt’s Chance” (8 p.m. May 8, Orleans).

The rest of the lineup consists of:

■ “Two Hundred Thousand Dirty” (8 p.m. May 2, Orleans), starring Coolio and shot in a local mattress store, about employees who plot a murder for money.

■ “The Corpse Grinders 3” (5 p.m. May 5, theatre7), a filmed-in-Spain sequel/remake of local B-movie fave Ted V. Mikels’ 1971 cult classic.

■ “Liars, Fires and Bears” (6 p.m. May 8, Orleans), from UNLV filmmakers Jeremy Cloe and Constanza Castro, about a neglected 9-year-old and a drunk 30-something on a cross-country road trip.

■ A 90-minute collection of shorts made by local filmmakers as part of the 48-Hour Film Project (6 p.m. May 2, Orleans).

■ Two 90-minute blocks of local and international short films (5 and 7 p.m. May 4, theatre7).

Tickets are $7 for the theatre7 screenings, $10 for The Orleans screenings and $7 to $10.50 for “Little Monsters.” A festival pass that includes every screening except “Little Monsters” is $80.

For tickets or more information, see www.viff.net.

Contact Christopher Lawrence at
clawrence@reviewjournal.com or 702-380-4567.