AFI FEST Los Angeles International Film Festival 2009

Truly independent films are made from the gut. One day I bought a broke filmmaker friend lunch. I suggested that, instead of owing me, he make a film for the amount I spent. We made a napkin contract with “rules” to follow. Fifty Lunchfilms have now been commissioned. Like a menu, the series has a variety of tastes and styles, from languid, real-life documents to scripted narratives to pure art. Braden King and Bobcat Goldthwait (separately) decided to make narrative experiments with the personal notion of a home movie. Sam Green pursued a burning question he had resulting from his documentary, WEATHER UNDERGROUND. Sarah Soquel Morhaim turned the tables on voyeurism. Despite budget limitations, each short shines beyond its means, thanks to creativity in front of and behind the camera. Nicholas McCarthy’s funny, biting love story is crisp in every way. Somehow he even managed to edit it on the Fox lot. Eat and create.

–Mike Plante

$43.19 (aka OFFSHORE BANK, d. Tom Barndt, 2008, 4m)
$43.43 (aka THE CALL, d. David Fenster and David Nordstrom, 2009, 10m)
$26.79 (aka GOLDTHWAIT FAMILY HOME MOVIES (ANNIVERSARY EDITION), d. Bobcat Goldthwait, 2008, 7m)
$67.50 (aka FRIENDS, d. James Graham, 2009, 3m)
$43.05 (aka WEIRD CAROLERS, d. Brent Green, 2009, 4m)
$20.28 (aka CLEAR GLASSES, d. Sam Green, 2008, 4m)
110 zloty (aka LETTERS REAL/NAMES NOT, d. Aza Jacobs, 2009, 10m)
$35.00 (aka HOME MOVIE, d. Braden King, 2009, 14m)
$41.32 (aka TIN WOODMAN’S HOME MOVIE #2, d. Naomi Uman and Lee Lynch, 2008, 5m)
$29.51 (aka CHINESE BOX, d. Nick McCarthy, 2009, 10m)
$48.96 (aka ALL DAY ALL NIGHT, d. Sarah Soquel Morhaim, 2008, 3m)
$35.44 (aka JEAN, d. Kelly Sears, 2008, 3m)
$27.73 (aka WHISKEYPRIEST, d. Randy Walker and Jennifer Shainin, 2009, 16m)