United States

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Aaron Fischer is a San Francisco native with a simple dream - to be immortalized forever as a world record holder. Rather than being able to lift the heaviest weight or have the longest toenails, Fischer seeks to create the world's largest container of popcorn. Set to a jazzy score by the Squirrel Nut Zippers, Popcorn! follows Fischer as he enlists friends and family to help him enter the Guinness Book. The road is paved with tons of unpopped kernels, dozens of "modified" air poppers and many funny miscalculations.

Season:
2001
Premiere status:
World Premiere
Director:
Aaron Fischer
Cinematography:
Jeanne Hoffman
Producer:
Aaron Fischer

Running time: N/A

Normally, a day in the life of Tyler--a slacker whose lifestyle and image call for hanging out in the same bars with the same friends every day in the North Beach section of San Francisco--would be pretty uneventful. And Tyler likes it that way. But this day is different - Tyler has just spent the night with a 19-year-old stripper from New Orleans, and as he stumbles out of a youth hostel at 7 a.m., it becomes quite apparent that everyone knows, including his girlfriend, Paige. But how did the news get to the numerous surrounding restaurants, cafes, and apartments so rapidly?

Season:
2001
Director:
Jed Mortenson, Richard Speight, Jr.
Cinematography:
Mark Herzig
Cast:
Casey Peterson, Jennifer Milmore, Gabrielle Anwar
Producer:
Jed Mortenson, Casey Peterson
Executive Producer:
Ellen Valles

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Director's Note: Never try to shoot a feature with only $350. Don't ever hire a homeless man as your script supervisor. And, last but not least, always do a thorough background check on all leading actors. They could be nuts! An appropriate statement once you've seen Shawn Flanagan's The Friggin' Mafia Movie -- a film that pretty much lets you know that filmmaking is hell! In fact, at some point, you are going to ask yourself if the filmmakers have edited together their film or the making of their film.

Season:
2001
Premiere status:
World Premiere
Director:
Shawn Flanagan
Cinematography:
Michael Smith
Cast:
Richard Lynch, Rich Amooi, Shawn Flanagan, Dan L. Connolly
Producer:
Dan L. Connolly, Shawn Flanagan

Running time: N/A

When you're walking the prison Broadway as a new fish, you better have your game face on, or you'll be a punk until parole. In his debut feature, Sean Wilson delivers what could be a primer for those going into the joint or a peek between the bars for those armchair cinephiles who have always wondered what happens after Dano books 'em. Short on sentimentality and bolstered by violent tension, the story of Slim on his first (probably not last) trip into the federal penitentiary system is based on Wilson's own experiences inside.

Season:
2001
Director:
Sean Wilson
Cinematography:
Greg Bernstein
Cast:
William Van Noland, Peter Quartaroli, James Anthony Cotton, David Fine and David Burkson
Producer:
Sean Wilson, Pete Smith, Tom Gander
Executive Producer:
Sean Wilson

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A raw drama about a very UN-Yuppie couple, 3 Days takes us into the hidden world of a male and female prostitute who have a unique relationship. They walk down the streets barely noticed. They're looked upon as merely Junkies or Prostitutes. They've brought it all on themselves. This is how most react when they see people like Randy and Lex; a couple trying to survive on the streets. Both have done almost anything to live, to breath one more day. This is their story. 

Season:
2001
Director:
M. David Lee III
Cinematography:
Chip Holley
Cast:

Michael Kineslla, Renee Smith, Amy Watt, Douglas Sept

Producer:
M. David Lee III, Wendy ML Collins

Running time: N/A

He may be a vision in gold rip away pants and drive the women wild with erotic gyrations, but Robert Lopez is no ordinary Elvis impersonator. He is El Vez, the Mexican Elvis, and his goal is to educate as he entertains. Once the curator of an L.A. folk art museum, the thoughtful Lopez is now almost as much an icon as his hero. With hits like "Ain't Nothing but a Chihuahua," and "Immigration Time," El Vez adapts lyrics to familiar Elvis melodies to inform about a number of historical and political topics.

Season:
2001
Director:
Marjorie Chodorov
Cinematography:
Jennifer Lane, Euripides Nunez, Andrew Thomas, Marjorie Chodorov
Producer:
Marjorie Chodorov

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Loretta Harms' intriguing short film about a motel room, a child's toy, and the lives that they affect.

Season:
2001
Director:
Loretta Harms

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Come one! Come all! Step right up into a world of mystery. Witness, if you will, wonders that defy imagination! Welcome to Gibsonton, Florida, home to the 2 foot 6 inch woman who married the 8 foot 4 inch giant, the couple with the two-headed cow and the contortionist who smiles on one side of his face, frowns on the other, and hammers a spike up his nose.

Season:
2001
Director:
Melissa Shachat
Cinematography:
Douglas Cooper
Producer:
Loretta Harms, Roger Schulte, Maury Solomon

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Mitko Panov's Comrades is an absorbing rumination on friendship, war and the strength of spirit. A simple photograph from 1981--Mitko Panov, one of many smiling teenagers in the photograph, and his friends are a part of Yugoslavia's irony-free "Army of Peace." Panov and his comrades, like most teenage soldiers, are unconcerned about Marshal Tito or ethnicity. They orient themselves according to who among them is the unit's best musician, party animal or comedian. They are blissfully unaware of the horrors that are about to take place.

Season:
2001
Director:
Mitko Panov
Cinematography:
Michael J. Young, Dragoi Sorin, Mario Delic
Producer:
Mitko Panov

Running time: N/A

The World Premiere of actress Lori Petty's (A League of Their Own, Tank Girl) directorial debut about the psychological journey of a man forced to confront the truth about his childhood.

Season:
2001
Director:
Lori Petty
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