Film festival a big draw for Boulder City

By Becky Bosshart

Wednesday, Jan. 28, 2009 | 6:35 p.m.

Short films are a big lure for a small city.

For the fifth year, the Dam Short Film Festival in Boulder City will showcase films from across the country and those made by local directors. The event Feb. 11-14 at the historic Boulder Theatre is expected to attract 2,500 visitors, festival Director Lee Lanier said.

"We have films in the genres of romance, animation, documentary, science fiction and horror," he said. "I think the Jay Rosenblatt retrospective will be really, good just because he is a well recognized filmmaker. He makes really unique documentaries."

The festival will show 124 films broken into 22 themed programs. The audience will see four to 12 films in each program, which run from an hour to an hour and a half.

In the documentary category, a film about a current event, such as the mortgage meltdown and its effect on the mosquito population, will be showed along side a historical piece on the Armenian genocide.

"We had a record number of entries this year, over 400," said Charlene Brewer, the festival's assistant director. "We've added a couple special program blocks because our festival falls on both Friday the 13th and Valentine's Day."

The film festival is a special event that the Boulder City Chamber of Commerce mentions first to visitors, chamber Executive Director Jill Lagan said.

"People want to know if it's as big as Sundance and I say, 'It will be someday,'" she said.

When that day comes, Boulder City is going to be crowded. Sundance, an internationally renowned independent film festival, attracts 45,000 visitors a year to Park City, Utah. Lanier said last year's short film festival attracted 2,100, and he sees it increasing 25 percent each year.

The festival will be hosted for the second time in the 400-seat theater at 1225 Arizona St. Prior to that it was housed in the American Legion building, which Lanier said wasn't the most conducive space for an expanding film festival.

Nevada filmmakers get their own show time.

Their showcase, showing at 9 p.m. Feb. 13, features seven films by some familiar names, such as Jamison Derfler (with his new work "A Hot Meal,") Jeremy Helal ("In Dreams") and Scott Buzz ("Dark Romance"). One of the newcomers is Amber Beard, showing her 2007 work "Growing Up Vegas," which tells the story of a young girl who befriends an Elvis impersonator.

Awards will be decided by the audience, who will vote with poker chips. Winners will be picked in eight categories: best drama, comedy, documentary, student film, animation, Nevada filmmaker, audience favorite, and horror/science fiction.

Winners will be announced at the 6:30 p.m. Feb. 14 awards gala, which will be followed by an 8 p.m. showing of the winning films. This combined gala/show ticket is $10.

Tickets, only available at the door, are $5 for each program. A four-day pass, available online, is $50. Visit www.damshortfilm.org for the full schedule.

Becky Bosshart can be reached at 990-7748 or [email protected].