Posted by eric ringer in News on May 19th, 2008
SF IndieFest presents
ANOTHER HOLE IN THE HEAD FILM FESTIVAL
Horror, Sci-Fi, Mayhem and Merriment
June 5-19, 2008 at the Roxie Film Center in San Francisco
3117 16th Street in San Francisco
Tix and info: www.sfindie.com
SF IndieFest unleashes ghosts, madmen, monsters, and futuristic merriment at the 5th annual Another Hole in the Head Film Festival running June 5-19, 2008 at the Roxie Film Center, 3117 Sixteenth Street, in San Francisco. For tickets or more information please call (415) 820-3907 or click on www.sfindie.com.
If the myriad traumas of daily life in the big city get to be too much, and it seems like only neuron-shattering screams or a trip to an alternate universe will ease your mind, then the Another Hole in the Head Film Festival is just what the mad doctor ordered. Once again Hole Head presents the finest in contemporary horror, horror-comedy, sci-fi and dark fantasy with more than 30 films from America and abroad, all the mayhem that fits on a celluloid print.
All About 5th annual Another Hole In The Head Film Festival:
Opening and Closing Nights, Bai Ling and Uwe Boll - need we say more?
This year’s HoleHead is bookended by two anticipated US premieres: the opening night sci-fi opus THE GENE GENERATION, starring screen vixen Bai Ling, and the closing night Vietnam saga, TUNNEL RATS, from renowned schlock-master-slash-critic-boxing cinematic bad boy Uwe Boll.
On Thursday, June 5 the fest kicks off with Pearry Reginal Teo’s THE GENE GENERATION, a gene-bending sci-fi thriller. To wipe out the dregs of society, the government is planning the destruction of the last remaining city on Earth. In its place, they will build a new city, populated only by the best and brightest of the gene pool. As word of this spreads, DNA hackers begin stealing genes to increase their DNA profile. In response, the government hires assassins to wipe out the hackers. Michelle (Bai Ling), one of the assassins, must commit to her duty to the government over her desires for love - a pact that sends her ultimately on a quest for revenge and redemption.
Following THE GENE GENERATION, get your groove on at Annie’s Social Club, 917 Folsom Street in San Francisco, for an opening night bash sure to get the neighbors screaming. Featuring music by The Merry Widows, The Zoopy Show, and The Undertaker and His Pals along with previews of HoleHead offerings, short films and more, the party is free with a ticket stub or $5 for the general public.
14 days later the lights will dim for Uwe Boll’s TUNNEL RATS. Adored and detested in equal parts, filmmaker Uwe Boll serves up deliciously ridiculous cinematic mania, and his latest is sure to not disappoint. Set in the tunnels of Vietnam, the film follows a select squadron of troops out to do battle with the Viet Cong. Armed only with flashlights and .45s, the soldiers must dodge booby traps and bamboo punji sticks as they seek out their enemies in the dark. A bloody, in-your-face picture, TUNNEL RATS will tunnel into your psyche and give you just the kind of beating you’d expect from a filmmaker who once challenged his critics to face him in the boxing ring.
Locals bring death and damnation… and world premieres
Like dropping acid in hell, Ryan Harper’s CIRCULATION, will have its world premiere at HoleHead. Hallucinogenic and surreal, CIRCULATION follows Ana as she escapes from her barbaric husband. Is she running straight into purgatory? Are her dreams of brutality and violence actually real? Is she alive or is she dead? Her story is one of lost souls and a metaphor-rich visualization of the afterlife.
Also having its world premiere is Phillip Hudson’s HOME WORLD. With an alien race attacking humankind, a strike team sets out with a virus specially engineered to eradicate them. An effects-laden tour de force, HOME WORLD takes us through the looking glass into a land where nothing is as it seems and the future of the human race hangs on the brink.
San Francisco filmmaker Robert Pratten gets psycho-sexual with, MIND FLESH a Cronenberg style horror thriller about obsession making its US Premiere at HoleHead. The story of a cabbie still nursing the psychological torment of a an event that occurred in his youth, MIND FLESH gets dirty when it’s revealed that this trauma has opened up a portal from his mind to the physical world. As his lurid thoughts become manifest, the planes of reality get disrupted like a bad acid trip. When extraterrestrials show up to help mend the breach in reality, the cab driver must take his taxi to the dark side of his past and confront the evils he faced in his youth.
Imagine Alameda overrun by zombies and you get an idea of what goes on inside Kevin Tenney’s head. The filmmaker - formerly of Alameda who has since fled to Sacramento - delivers an opus of pus with BRAIN DEAD, the story of six people stranded in a deserted fishing lodge with - what else? - a host of alien-infected, mutant amoeba-controlled zombies at their doorstep.
Asian horror will blow you away - literally
Is the image of Rose McGowan’s machine-gun-sporting leg from GRINDHOUSE’s PLANET TERROR still stuck in your head? Good, then you’ll love THE MACHINE GIRL, another title having its US Premiere here at the Festival. Straight outta Japan comes Noboru Iguchi’s pop machinist fantasy of a school-girl’s vengeance. After her family is slaughtered and her arm severed, the heroine of this tale sticks a machine gun in her stump and slaughters everyone in her path.
From Thailand comes ALONE, a tale of twins by filmmaker Banjong Pisanthanakun. Pim and her sister were born conjoined and their strong bond led them to commit to stay together forever. However, the strength of their love led them down a path of dangerous co-dependence and the bitterness that sprang between them resulted eventually in their surgical separation. Pim’s sister doesn’t survive the operation, plunging Pim into a world of guilt. Years later, Pim returns to Thailand from Korea - where she has sought refuge from her pain - and the spirit of her dead sister angrily thrusts herself into Pim’s life.
Japanese filmmaker Sion Sono’s latest, EXTE: HAIR EXTENSIONS, comes on like a bad hair day. When a cargo container full of dead bodies docks in Tokyo, local authorities are shocked that the corpse of one woman is not full of blood and guts, but hair. Stolen by a hair fetishist, the locks turn against their captor, exploding from the body and embarking on a murderous rampage. Like a really bad perm, EXTE: HAIR EXTENSIONS will leave you trembling with fear and emotionally devastated. Book salon appointments now - after seeing EXTE: HAIR EXTENSIONS you may want to get a trim.
A pair of Edo-period homosexual samurai are the focus of Japanese director Kankuro Kudo’s comedy YAJI & KITA. Battling drug addition and pondering the meaning of life, join Yaji and Kita as they journey in search of the shrine of Ise, stopping to ride the occasional pink floating elephant.
Tales of fright and fun from the US and two from the UK, too
Based on the Imperium Comics series, TRAILER PARK OF TERROR, Steven Goldmann’s film of the same name chronicles six troubled high school students and their chaperone, an optimistic youth ministries Pastor, on their return from an outdoor character building retreat in the mountains. During a raging storm, their bus crashes, hopelessly stranding them in the middle of the Trucker’s Triangle, a forgotten locus of consummate evil in the middle of nowhere. The hapless group seeks shelter for the night in a seemingly abandoned trailer park they find down the road. However, when the sun sets, it’s not refuge they find. Instead, terror finds them in the form of Norma, a damned redneck reaper with a killer body who dispenses vengeance and death aided by her cursed companions, a bloodthirsty brood of Undead trailer trash.
Childhood trauma, perhaps a theme in this year’s Festival (see MIND FLESH and ALONE), appears once again in Jon Knautz’s JACK BROOKS: MONSTER SLAYER. Jack Brooks has a nagging girlfriend, dead-end therapy sessions, and is taking night classes that put him to sleep. Class is about to get more interesting though, as Jack’s new professor is the victim of an ancient curse. It’s certainly ominous that Jack’s professor is played by Freddy Krueger himself, horror icon Robert Englund. Soon enough, Jack is forced to confront his old demons…along with a few new ones.
Matthew Kohnen’s WASTING AWAY is a fresh take on the zombie flick. Tired of the constant droning of zombie after zombie as they stumble awkwardly toward their prey? Always wondered what the heck was going on inside the brain of one of those zombies? Ever feel like a zombie yourself? WASTING AWAY is an oddball comedy from the perspective of the flesh munching monsters themselves. Isn’t this the zombie film you’ve always been waiting for?
An undoubtedly true story based on the recently recovered journals of Texan Dale S. Rogers, THE WILD MAN OF THE NAVIDAD is the new tale of terror by Duane Graves, produced by the team that brought you the original THE TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE. Set in a rural Texas community where moonshine flows faster than the local river, townspeople are tormented by a ferocious beast inhabiting the woods. Rogers’ journals are the only remaining evidence of the harrowing events, for the first time recreated for the world to witness.
The brothers Daniel and David Holechek (note to Daniel and David: consider changing the last name to “HoleHead”) bring their comic mockumentary, 305, based on the online spoof smash of the same name. Set in ancient Sparta, five cowardly soldiers accidentally kill the king and his army of 300. However, with a Persian invasion imminent, the 5 must get their act together and defend their land.
Another comic gem, ATOM NINE, is filmmaker Christopher Farley’s family friendly flick. When astrophysicist and mad genius Dr. Adam Gaines and his robo-helper sidekick discover a 3.5 billion year old meteorite, they get more than they bargained for. Soon, celestial terrorist Gremio Flugg and his gang of “Fluggmen” seek to steal the meteor - and the secrets contained within its rocky husk.
What BOYZ IN THE HOOD did for films examining the Los Angeles gang scene, MUTANT VAMPIRE ZOMBIES FROM THE HOOD will do for the zombie gangster genre. A landmark film of this ilk, director Thunder Levin gives us zombies in Compton, intergalactic gangsta high-jinx, and a soundtrack dripping with hip hop.
Batman, Spider-Man, Superman, now Iron Man: who are these people? Have you ever wondered what goes on when a super hero has a day off? What’s in their refrigerators? Are they art film lovers, or popcorn flick junkies? Sybil Drew gets to the bottom of these questions, and more, in YOUR FRIENDLY NEIGHBORHOOD HERO, an in-depth documentary look at those whose duty it is to save the day. Featuring interviews with real life super heroes, the film is a closely observed look at what makes these people tick.
For a mix of the gorgeous and gruesome, check out Zach Passero’s WICKED LAKE. Warped brothers and their wheelchair bound ringleader attack two women out for an afternoon frolic. The tale of vengeance that follows is neither campy nor fun - beautifully shot, WICKED LAKE sets new standards in the demented realm of splatter and gore.
From the UK comes the US Premiere of Matthew Hope’s, THE VANGUARD. Set in the post-oil future where the world is controlled by an entity known only as The Corporation, one man lives a solitary life, immune to the drug force fed by Corporation scientists that turns humans into primitive, ape-like beings called Biosyns. Hunted by the Biosyns, and by Corporation militants called Trackers, this one man must search across the wilds of the countryside to unearth truths that will shatter The Corporation’s grip on humanity. With his blood as a possible antidote to the toxic Biosyns, he is the last hope for humankind’s existence.
Also from the UK, IndieFest alum Julien Richards (THE LAST HORROR MOVIE, IndieFest ‘04) delivers the coming-of-age scream fest SUMMER SCARS. A day of truancy turns deadly when a group of kids playing hooky encounter a dangerous loner in the woods. Torture, brutality and murder - always good metaphors for adolescence - become the name of the day as what starts as fun and games becomes a disastrous encounter with a lunatic.
A revival: one of the greatest films of all time
Has it really been 40 years since Jane Fonda floated around naked in a spaceship as the title credits rolled on the Roger Vadim classic BARBARELLA for the first time? Indeed it has, and as this year will bring us Robert Rodriguez’s remake, why not revisit the original on the big screen? HoleHead brings you BARBARELLA: QUEEN OF THE GALAXY in all its sci-fi camp glory. Screening twice during the fest, come dressed in Babarella-inspire garb for the June 7 screening and get in free!
Kentucky Jones lassoes the Brava Theatre
As a terrific coda for two weeks of horror, sci-fi and fantasy, head over to the Brava Theatre June 18 - 21 to catch the Primitive Screwheads (Hole Head’s sibling theatre troupe) and their brand spanking new production of KENTUCKY JONES AND THE CARPET OF DOOM. When terrorists seek a powerful ancient artifact only one man can stop them: the calamitous Kentucky Jones. Witness the hilarity as he battles terrorists, snakes, and other miscellaneous heathens. Audience members be warned: be prepared to duck!
Ticket prices and general information
Another Hole In The Head Film Festival runs June 5-19, 2008 at the Roxie Film Center, 3117 Sixteenth Street, in San Francisco. Advance tickets prices are $10.50 (no advance ticket service charges!) for films. The Hole Head Pass is $100. The Pass is good for all screenings June 5-12, the HoleHead Opening Night Party on June 5 and to see the play KENTUCKY JONES AND THE CARPET OF DOOM June 18-21 at Brava. The pass is not good for the repeat screenings June 13 - 19.
Advance tickets are available at www.sfindie.com. Same day tickets are only available at the theater. Pass holders get first priority on seating. The box office opens 30 minutes before the first show of the day. For all screenings please arrive 15 minutes before show time to assure seating.
For more information please call (415) 820-3907 or click on www.sfindie.com.
Loading ...