Terra Screens in Silicon Valley

San Jose: The 14th annual Cinequest film festival wrapped up here last weekend after 11 days of screenings, panels, premiers and parties. MeniThings productions director Aristomenis Tsirbas was invited to participate in the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and sciences accredited festival for the second consecutive year. Aristomenis’ (“Meni”) latest cgi short film “Terra” was selected by the jury from over 1500 submissions.
“Terra” was exhibited in a shorts program that included the 2004 Oscar winning animated film “ Harvie Krumpet”. The festival closed with a full-house screening of Terry L. Benedict's "The Conscientious Objector," which won the audience choice award, documentary as well as "best feature DXD," also a prize in the "emerging directors" category. "Objector" is the story of Desmond T. Doss, who despite his steadfast moral and religious beliefs against killing, worked to serve the U.S. during World War II, becoming a hero and even earning a Congressional Medal of Honor.

Every film festival has a particular focus. Cinequest is held in the heart of the tech oriented silicon valley and festival coordinators took advantage of the many entertainment and technology companies that call San José home to add a unique set of panels and presentations to Cinequest 14.. Avid, Panasonic and Apple rolled out the latest technical solutions for the budget conscious independent filmmakers attending this years event.

The programming at this years event featured Dozens of world premieres including the “Global Landscape: Focus on Norway” , including the opening night movie, "United," . A romantic comedy love triangle involving soccer and the shipyards of western Norway, it made its North American premiere here at the San Jose Repertory Theatre. Among the 38 premieres are 15 world and 11 United States premieres, an impressive array that fulfills Cinequest's desire to be a "discovery" festival. “ ‘Terra’ was chosen based on the number of awards this thought provoking short has amassed. Filmmaker Aristomenis Tsirbas raises important political issues with his masterful direction” said Jens Hussey, the event's director of public relations.

The jury awarded Brazilian film "O Homen Que Copiava" (The Man Who Copied) its Maverick Spirit award, the film, directed by Jorge Furtado, follows the story of a 20-year-old high-school drop out who finds himself counterfeiting money as a means to get a girl's attention, only to be drawn further into the criminal underworld. In other prizes, Cinequest presented its best feature documentary prize to Celesta Davis' "Awful Normal." The film, which had its world premiere at the festival, focuses on the director and her sister's experience with child molestation in the late-1970s. Tennyson Bardwell's "Dorian Blues" received the audience choice award, feature. The film is the story of Dorian Lagatos, a self-described "stereotypical gay" who is surrounded by his football jock brother and arch-conservative macho father.

Hussey continued to say Cinequest currently has "many other things in development" with its online offerings that the group will reveal in the coming months. He added, "We're making it our goal to become the number one discovery festival in the country. We doubled the number of feature premieres this year, [and] we're really being aggressive in charging ahead." Cinequest took place in the northern Californian city adjacent to the Silicon Valley from March 3-14

From: Dane Smith [mailto:dane@menithings.com] Filmfestival ambassador