Thursday, November 19, 2020

Southern Oregon Comedy Film Festival Adapts To Virtual Streaming

The 2020 Killer Valley Comedy Film Festival (KVCFF) follows the 13-year legacy of the horror film festival that introduced “Killer Valley” to the Pacific Northwest, and will stream on their official website from Friday, Nov. 20 - Sunday, Dec. 6, 2020. 

For 10 years, the horror film festival had been a one-night affair, hosted live in Ashland, OR. By its eleventh year (2018) the contributions from filmmakers from around the globe had grown into two nights worth of content, and the team split the program so that one night held all the satire, spoofs, and “so-bad-it’s-funny” movies, while the other night showcased the creepy, spooky, and truly scary films of the horror genre.

Following the positive feedback from their audience, the Killer Valley team spawned a second genre film festival, this time to celebrate the best original comedy films from underground and emerging filmmakers. Now in only the second year of their comedy fest, the organizers have had to tackle the challenge of showcasing the collection of highly laughable movies without a live event.

Last month, in October 2020, The Killer Valley Horror Film Festival (KVHFF) launched virtually on their website, and the filmmakers behind the movies streamed could not have been happier. Traditionally held in Southern Oregon, often only the local and near-local filmmakers were able to attend. As submissions began to grow beyond the Pacific Northwest, this left more of the filmmakers out of the experience of enjoying other new movies and networking with filmmakers within their favorite genre.

While the virtual festival still has a challenge in replacing the networking portion of an in-person event, it opens up viewership far beyond the home turf of the festival hosts. “1 Dead Dog,” a dark comedy/horror film out of Portland, Oregon was the featured presentation of 2020's KVHFF. Due to the festival’s streaming experience, the film was seen and reviewed by a staff writer out of North Carolina for the horror movie web magazine, Horror Obsessive. Other filmmakers from outside of the area were able to share with their fans and followers, allowing them a chance to watch without traveling cross-country or further.

According to the festival’s event host and website manager, Levi Anderson, the film blocks from their horror festival had verified viewers from Great Britain, Italy, Australia, China, and Bangladesh, plus web visitors from additional countries across the world. Anderson finds a nerdy delight in being able to see just which particular (yet anonymous) viewers actually watched entire film blocks and which only checked out the previews. “That’s really cool to see, and with filmmakers in our comedy festival from some of those same countries, plus Brazil, Spain, The Netherlands, Ireland, Mexico… we are giving all the filmmakers a truly international audience,” says Anderson.

The comedy festival, and all things “Killer Valley,” still try to keep some local flavor. One of the highlights of 2020’s Killer Valley Comedy Festival is the comedic music video, “White Pants,” performed by Lucky Doug Fergus and directed by music producer/engineer Sylvia Massey. Massey has a highly-respected career working with popular as well as underground music artists, from Green Jellö, Tool, System of a Down, and many artists under Rick Rubin’s American Recordings label, to local bands and musicians around Southern Oregon and Northern California.

Massey operated her own music studio in Weed, CA for 11 years, where Lucky Doug Fergus met and began recording tracks with her, before making a move to Ashland, OR which was Fergus’s own stomping grounds. The funny music video was produced at many recognizable locations in Ashland, featuring crew from the locally produced films “Phoenix, Oregon” (Joma Films/2020) and “Atomic Apocalypse” (Gothic Manor/2020).

Additional films in the comedy festival include "Mr. Dark: A Tasty Burger," directed by Jesse James Hennessy, "Mailer Daemon," from John Mudge, "Tipsy," directed by Daryl Della, the animated shorts, “Nukey the Nuke-Boy,” from Demetrios Tzamaras and “Dylan & Dave,” from Greg Zajac (Canada), the mockumentaries “The Virus,” from Kindrid Parker and Jon Allen, “Paved,” from Justin Norman, and “Eugene Eubanks: Baltimore’s Favorite Son,” from Radomir Jordanovic.

International films that will be streaming include “Cuckoo!” from Jörgen Scholtens (The Netherlands), “The Man Who Became a Meme,” from João Rabello (Brazil), “Bitch,” from Darragh Moran (Ireland), “¿Qué Harías?” by Nicole Katzew (Mexico), “Bonne Conduite,” directed by Théo Semeteys (France), "The Body," directed by Adam Weber (Australia), “Dinner for Two,” directed by Finnian Williamson (Australia), and “(The Eternal Struggle Between Saints and Sinners Erupts in a) Gunfight!,” directed by The Helmers (Canada).

KVCFF would not be complete without paying homage to the satirical horror/comedy films that helped spawn this comedy festival to begin with. “Second Life Citizens,” directed by Neil Willoughby, is a campy return to the gratuitous gore of 80s & 90s era zombie flicks, and “Stay,” from director Ken Amin (Canada), is a descent into madness, ever-so-relatable in the 2020 quarantine environment.

The 2020 Killer Valley Comedy Film Festival will be streaming all the films in 3 distinct film blocks, each with introductions by the festival host. Much of the content is geared towards a mature audience, and of course those with a sense of humor.

Movie fans can purchase a view pass to watch the films at any time within the 3 week viewing window (Nov. 20 - Dec. 6) at: https://www.KillerValleyComedyFilmFestival.com.

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Friday, October 9, 2020

Horror Film Festival Celebrates Lucky 13th Year

Southern Oregon’s 2020 Killer Valley Horror Film Festival (KVHFF) celebrates it’s lucky #13 this year, but for the first time ever, it will not be hosted live.  In previous years this festival celebrated independent filmmakers with in-person screenings, filmmaker meet-and-greets, and an awards ceremony in Ashland, OR.

This year, the 2020 Killer Valley Horror Film Festival launches officially on their website at 3am, Oct. 9th (the witching hour) and runs through midnight of Nov. 1st, 2020 (as the Day of the Dead makes way for All Soul’s Day).

KVHFF is not the first festival to turn to digital streaming, but it is still a new approach for traditional live events to cater to fans strictly through the Internet.  Executive Director Randy Granstrom has said he misses the mingling and the networking with film cast & crew during the festival, and 2020 will be the first year he hasn’t directly presented awards to the filmmakers.  This year’s award-winners have each recorded their acceptance speeches separately, to be presented on the festival’s website and social media at 9pm on Oct. 9th.

Mark Patton
Highlight’s of this year’s films include the Portland-produced, “1 Dead Dog,” a feature film from director Rollyn Stafford that stars Brian Sutherland, Daniel Timothy Treacy, and Meagan Karimi-Naser.  Karimi-Naser won Best Actress for her performance in the film. 

The film also features horror icon Mark Patton, who famously played the reluctant protagonist Jesse in “A Nightmare on Elm Street 2: Freddy’s Revenge” in 1985.  Patton is also the focus of a recently trending documentary on Shudder based on that historic role, “Scream Queen! My Nightmare on Elm Street.

Heather Langenkamp
In good company, Heather Langenkamp, the star of the iconic film that launched the “A Nightmare on Elm Street” franchise, and who also reprised her role in two sequels, also makes an appearance in this year’s festival.  Langenkamp stars in a short film, “Cottonmouth,” which appears in the first of two KVHFF Short Film Blocks.

Additional short films were submitted from all over the world. Standouts of this year’s selected films include: “Malakout,” a stop-motion tale of evil and demonic possession that oozes dread, “Fantasmagoria,” an Italian film that harkens back to the silent film era with a vicious edge of 70’s Giallo extremism, “Snake Eyes: an ASMR Nightmare,” which is a masterful play on the senses with striking audio/visual storytelling, and “Night of the Witch,” a satirical take on the teen slasher films of the 80s.

With films from Iran, Sweden, Ukraine, Denmark, Czech Republic, Italy, Canada, and the USA, the selection of 27 short films for this festival were done by a team of trusted cinephiles, led by film editor and long-time KVHFF Festival Programmer, Ross Williams.

The 2020 Killer Valley Horror Film Festival will be streaming all the films in 3 distinct blocks.  Fans can purchase a view pass to watch the films at any time within the 3 week viewing window. Horror fans can visit the website for more details at: KillerValleyHorrorFilmFestival.com.

2020 Killer Valley Horror Film Festival


Thursday, April 16, 2020

Pandemic Playlist - 2020


BINGE THESE


The Great Beaver’s list of niche independent movies to watch during quarantine. All feature films, produced in the Pacific Northwest, are available for rent, and a list of short films and underground cinema are available to stream for free.


Thursday, November 10, 2016

Horror Film Festival Haunts Southern Oregon On Nov. 12th

Returning to Ashland, OR for it’s 8th installment, the Killer Valley Horror Film Festival (KVHFF) is a celebration of independent horror and science fiction movies from around the globe. A one-night affair, geared to film-goers 18 years and older, the festival showcases genres that are arguably the most fun for independent filmmakers to create, and provides an atmosphere for horror fans to watch in a more social environment than a typical theater setting. Audiences often dress in costume, and the festival offers Special FX Makeup Booths in case viewers want to feel like a zombie for the night.

Local film production companies, along with Southern Oregon Film and Media (SOFaM), will have booths set up to showcase their works.
This annual event also features a special appearance by Adrienne King, star of the original “Friday the 13th,” and proprietor of Crystal Lake Wines. Fans can get autographed bottles of her signature blends, all made in the Rogue Valley of Southern Oregon.

Monday, November 7, 2016

Review of "Don't Fuck in the Woods" (2016)



When I first got the screener of “Don’t Fuck in the Woods”, I had only a day before been dumped by the love of my life. I was worried that watching a bunch of fun-loving couples get horny and freak on each other beside the campfire for an hour and a half would be too depressing for my broken heart.

Luckily, just as that little bit of sadness started creeping in while the first horny couple fumbled out of their clothes – and I started to think, “Oh God, I miss her… if only we had one more night together… one romantic night in the woods… [choke, sob]… one more night to prove — Oh Snap!” Disembowelment mid-coitus!

Seeing these couples getting slaughtered in the midst of passion was actually lifting my spirits. “Maybe,” I thought, “just maybe my ex and her new lover will be massacred before he gets a chance to make her cum, too.” A man can hope – and that is the mark of a good film – it gives the watcher a sense of fulfillment. In that regard, “Don’t Fuck in the Woods” is a smashing success.

Wednesday, August 24, 2016

Autumn Film Festivals Celebrate “The State of Jefferson”

A region of the Pacific Northwest that has imagined its own independence as far back as the 1850’s, the ‘mythical’ 51st State of Jefferson, is a proposed U.S. state that would span the contiguous, mostly rural area of southern Oregon and Northern California.
Many a liberated spirit claim this State their home, and as of the 2010 US Census, if the Jefferson counties were a state, the state’s population would be 457,859 and be roughly the size of West Virginia.
As Summer turns to Autumn in this neck of the woods, independent film fans and creators have two film festival opportunities to celebrate the art and entertainment of their local industry.
The 2016 Jefferson State Flixx Fest is coming Sept. 22-25 and “is committed to showcasing films and screenplays that capture some of the Jefferson State’s iconic values: rebellion, beauty, irreverence, landscape, vision and independence, in whatever storytelling form that takes.”
Brought together by the Scott Valley Film Coalition, this festival will be held at the REC (Resource and Event Center), 11236 Hwy 3 – Ft. Jones, CA. See the schedule and list of films at FlixxFest.org.
The Klamath Independent Film Festival unofficially celebrates The State of Jefferson from Sept. 30 – Oct. 2, with a showcase of filmmakers from counties on the California/Oregon border (Klamath, Lake, Jackson, Josephine, and Curry counties of Oregon. Siskiyou, Modoc, and Del Norte counties of California). The KIFF will be held at the Ross Ragland Theater, 218 N. 7th St., Klamath Falls, OR.
In fact the KIFF 2016 Headlining Film is the “… future noir set in the rebel State of Jefferson in 2029” called Black Road, the third feature film from Southern Oregon duo Anne and Gary Lundgren, of Joma Films. Full schedule and list of films available at KlamathFilm.org.

Jefferson State Flixx Fest
http://www.flixxfest.org

Thursday, December 3, 2015

Review of "Name" - a Short Post-Zombie-Apocalypse Film



What’s in a name? For our lead protagonist, the one thing she can’t remember about the man she loved, a man who died violently from an outbreak that decimated the human race, is his name. All the memories of shared laughs, tears, and lust are there — but why can she not just remember his name?

The irony of this short film, directed by Jeremy M. Brown, is that neither the man or the woman who are the focus of this story, have a name. They are credited neatly as “Woman” and “Man”. But as Woman continues to dwell over emotional memories of what love and life were like before the end of mankind, which has left her stranded and alone in a desolate world, she struggles to remember just that one last detail: what was his name?