Festival director James Lee recently spoke with “Breakthrough Entertainment” about this year’s Filmstock, which will take place Thursday, Dec. 5-Saturday, Dec. 7 at Tempe Pollack Cinemas, 1825 E. Elliot Road.
Filmstock is a film festival that is hosted by each of the four corner states – Colorado, Utah, New Mexico and Arizona – and features only short films. Selections include both those that have advanced from each of the other states’ festivals and those that were made by filmmakers from right here in the Valley.
Listen to “Breakthrough Entertainment’s” full interview with Lee by clicking HERE. The following is an excerpt from the interview in which the festival director discusses his favorite selections from this year’s Filmstock.
“We are a short film festival so every block of screenings that we have is 90 minutes of fantastic shorts from around the world. We take our top four films from the festival and show them at Filmstock in Albuquerque, New Mexico; Filmstock in Denver, Colorado; and Filmstock in Salt Lake City, Utah. It is part of our effort to give Arizona film and Arizona filmmakers some more exposure – as well as exposure for filmmakers from those other states.
“I like them all but there are some really fantastic shorts. Synthetic Human is a local production company here [in the Valley]. They have been with us since the beginning – back in 2009 – and are always cranking out fantastic material. You will never sit through a Synthetic Human film and be bored.
“They have come out with their new movie – ‘A Stray.’ It is really good … and will be playing Dec. 7 during our high drama block along with a film from New Mexico featuring some people from ‘Breaking Bad.’ [That one is] called ‘Those That Play Your Clowns’ and is about a down-on-his-luck actor. It is a sobering tale but it has some humor in it as well.
“About five or six of the filmmakers will actually be there on top of lots of other filmmakers from the Valley that you will get to meet. Every showing will also be hosted by a local celebrity of some kind. There will be at least 20 name actors from here in the Valley who work on anything from commercials to horror flicks all the way up to feature films. It is all part of making the show better and incorporating the community more into what we are doing.” – James Lee
