The Red Rock Film Festival selections have been known for dark heavy dramas and political documentaries as well as diversity. This year the latter is no exception. The festival has announced 89 films from 21 countries and filmed in 43 countries in practically every genre.
Festival director, Marxteyn said "488 films were submitted to the festival this year with a huge increase in foreign film."
This year the festival has moved to a new home in Cedar City as it plans a new festival for Washington County. Main St. in Cedar is covered with lamp post banners as it anticipates the 8th year for the Red Rock Film Festival that appears to have something for everyone, even horror.
"We normally don't take any horror or sci-fi; but this year's real life horror and trippy sci-fi fits right into the film festival scheme."
Adrian Chiarella's "Touch" is a mild ghost story that appears in the festival's "Zion Flix: Before the Screaming Starts" program. According to the program guide, this shorts program "examines the human psyche that leads up to horrific acts."
Jaebin Han's "Selfish People" places horror in the real world. As a proxy driver for drunk drivers, Eu-sul, takes a drunken lady named Se-rim home, and finds out that she is reported missing three days later. The story turns thriller when Eu-sul, by chance, gets in Se-rim’s car again to find a mysterious guy in the car.
Continuing the festival's tradition of films from Spain is Jos Man's "The Only Man", a classic zombie story with a twist. Imagine an intelligent zombie battling a disease epidemic, scolding the free loader zombie with no consciousness.
The darkest film of the set appears to be Lance R. Marshall's "The Demon Deep in Oklahoma". Both the director and lead actress are scheduled to appear in Cedar in this psycho-sexual tale where their characters Wes and Katie live in their remote childhood home that sits in the middle of nowhere in Southeastern Oklahoma full of bad memories. When their friend Tommy comes to visit, Katie's insistence that there is a demon in the house shakes up secrets between the three.
If you like Sci-fi with a heavy dose of the experimental, Benjamin Ross Hayden's
"Agophobia" will definitely conjure up Shin'ya Tsukamoto's "Tetsuo, the Iron Man". Michael Van Ostade's "Songs from the Outside" crosses the line as a young filmmaker inspired by Spielberg seems to cross paths with his subject an entrepreneur who finds a strange object that lands in his backyard.
Mark Moliterni's "My Buddy" in the Collegiate Shorts program is about Manny Rey, an old man living alone in an empty house and connects to the outside world through TV until he orders WIN an android that has been programmed for maximum working efficiency who is curious to human's mutual laughter in watching a sit-com.
The highlights of the festival are definitely in keeping with the tradition of the festival. Opening night films "Watchers of the Sky" and "Judas" will keep Red Rock regulars in line.
Edet Belzberg's "Watchers of the Sky" is a definite Oscar contender in the documentary feature category. The film examines the cycle of violence, and the world’s response as director Edet Belzberg brings viewers into traditionally inaccessible places and dives into the tragedies from Nuremberg, Rwanda, Darfur and Syria. Edet uncovers the forgotten life of Raphael Lemkin, the inventor of the word ‘genocide’ that eventually brought justice to some of the world's darkest war crimes.
The year of the Bible continues with Russian cinema and Andrey Bogatyrev's "Judas", the story of the jealous relationships between Judas and Jesus Christ.
Festival previewer and actor Deborah Geffner said calls the film "Riveting. Perfect."
She said "I'm so glad I got to see this film. It's a disturbing retelling of Jesus's story… this man starts out a beggar and whiner, a liar, untrustworthy, clearly a man who has seen and done a great deal of evil. The paradox is that he comes to see and understand Jesus more clearly than any of his followers."
The festival is open to all ages and runs November 12-15, 2014 at the Heritage Center in Cedar City. Tickets range from $5 section C seating for one Red Grid screening to a four-day Cinematic Pass for $250 that includes section A eating, access to all screenings, workshops, parties, events, breakfast, lunch and dinner. Tickets are now on sale at the Heritage Center on 105 N. 100 E. or online at www.rrff.eventbrite.com or by calling 435.705.5555.
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