As the J. Michael Award winner from the Seattle Times Three-Minute Masterpiece digital film contest, "A Friendly Game" was invited to a second screening at the Seattle International Film Festival. This time as part of the FutureWave Shorts program for artists under 18.
This was Ben's second year in FutureWave via the Seattle Times contest. Last year, Noah and Ben screened "Perilous Skies".
The screening took place on the very big screen of the beautiful 1915 Egyptian Theater in Seattle. The theater boasts a large auditorium, filled nearly to capacity, mostly with enthusiastic teens.
At the screening, Dustin Kasper of SIFF introduced author Sherman Alexie. Mr. Alexie talked a little about growing up on the Spokane Indian Reservation and feeling cut off and without a voice. He said he envied today youth, "you lucky bastards".
The first youth films screen were the result of the Superfly 36-hour film making project. In that project, the kids made films from scripts based on Mr. Alexie's 2007 book The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian. Ben enjoyed those films doubly because he had read and enjoyed the Diary.
Next came the FutureWave Shorts starting with "A Friendly Game", which got great laughs all the way through.
After the screening, all the dozen or so filmmakers came on to the stage to introduce themselves and to answer questions. Ben was asked was tools he used to create the special effects in "A Friendly Game" and in his other movies. He answered that he used Sony Vegas and said that anyone could learn how to do it. Later someone asked the age range of the filmmakers. Ben was the youngest director. When he answered that he was just 13, I think the audience literarily gasped. (After the screening, I told Ben that if they had known he made the movie when 12, they might have fallen out of their seats.)
The afternoon ended with one of our favorite movies, "Disorder" (from Ballard High), which we had also seen at NFFTY, winning the top WaveMaker award.
- Carl
|
|
"A Friendly Game"
(On
BenKadie.com)
"Perilous Skies" at FutureWave last year
