A provocateur, the Oak Cliff Film Festival is exactly that. The OCFF stands out far from the conventional festival circuit, with a torch in its hand stirring, provoking. Just take a look at the program and you’ll understand what I mean.
Oak Cliff Film Festival 2015 – Theme: DIY Cinema. This is a DIY guide
by Vicky Sanz
A provocateur, the Oak Cliff Film Festival is exactly that. The OCFF stands out far from the conventional festival circuit, with a torch in its hand stirring, provoking. Just take a look at the program and you’ll understand what I mean.
The Oak Cliff Film Festival fourth edition runs from June 11th to the 14th, their theme this year is the No Wave movement. They choose this subject “because it relates to current filmmaking” explains Barak Epstein, co founder and programmer of the OCFF, “with all the technology available independent filmmakers are taking things in their own hands.” A great example is their opening night screening Tangerine, a film completely filmed with an iPhone. Yes, an iPhone!
The OCFF is committed to develop the filmmaker community in Texas. The festival hosts panels like DIY Filmmaking with directors Trent Harris and Nick Zedd in attendance, cyanotype and super 8mm film workshops and starting this year has a Filmmakers Grant.
So if you are in the mood to be surprised, to explore and pushed out to the fringe of your comfort zone, here are a few picks from this uniquely curated program.
Station to Station
Doug Aiken
Three weeks traveling from New York to California aboard a nine-car train filled with visual and musical artists including Beck, Olafur Elliason and Giorgo Moroder!! Where do I sign in? In 2013, artist Doug Aiken created Station to Station (2015) a transcontinental journey of creation, exhibition and participation. I missed it! Luckily this utopian road trip was captured in film, 61 individual one-minute films shot before, during, and after the trip. A fragmentary, inspirational experience that explores our creative culture and nature.
When: Friday 6/12 @7:00pm
Where: Texas Theatre
Arrebato
Iván Zulueta
Rapture: state of ecstasy or great passion, the passion needed to create. Ivan Zulueta’s second and last film is a Spanish cult classic. Arrebato (1979) creates an unsettling atmosphere, a surreal and experimental narrative that follows horror film director José Sirgado as he receives a mysterious package containing a reel of film, an audiotape and a key. This hypnotic movie wonders and questions what filmmaking entrances.
When: Friday 6/12 @ 9:30pm
Where: The Wild Detectives
20 Years of Madness
Jeremy Royce
Do you ever wonder where would you be 20 years from now? Would dreams and ambitions would come true? Would you fulfill your passions and callings? We all hope we do, but what if we don’t. This documentary shows a group of high school friends that created a brilliant TV show called 30 Minutes of Madness in Detroit 90s Public Television. After high school, they split, went their own ways, some very dark ones. Twenty years later, they’ll meet again, face their struggles and create once again. A good reminder that it’s never too late.
When: Saturday 6/13 @ 1:00pm
Where: The Kessler
God Bless The Child
Robert Machoian, Rodrigo Ojeda-Beck
What do children when left unsupervised? God Bless the Child (2015) follows five real siblings during one adult free day. The Grahams are not actors; they are simply curious, candid children living an ordinary day while we watch. While waiting for their absent and depressed widowed mother return, Harper, the eldest, takes care of her brothers including baby Jonah. Charming children trying out boundaries, we might recognize a glimpse of us.
When: Saturday 6/13 @ 5:15pm
Where: Bishop Arts Theater Center
The Sinema of Nick Zedd
Nick Zedd
Legendary director Nick Zedd’s Cinema of Transgression manifesto was fundamental for the early 80s no-wave filmmakers. This special program features a collection of his short films and 16mm experimental films, and the unique opportunity to meet a legend. Get a taste of the charachter in this interview.
When: Saturday 6/13 @ 9:30pm
Where: El Sibil
Eden
Elise DuRant
Director Elise DuRant draws from her own childhood to take us along Alma’s trip back to Mexico after her father’s death. She goes looking for closure for her family forced emigration, and finds much more. A bicultural film that speaks to many of us that leaved something behind, maybe a mirror for those seeking for roots and belonging. An introspective film about family and identity.
When: Sunday 6/14 @ 4:45pm
Where: Bishop Arts Theater Center
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Vicky Sanz an Argentine calling Dallas home. A very subjective observer, a passionate reader, unashamedly obsessed with film, addicted to travel, a storyteller, a writer.
