While blood, nudity and
scares will be aplenty at the Second Annual PollyGrind Film Festival, founder
and director Chad Clinton Freeman says there is so much more to the event.
"It's about being inspired,"
said Freeman of the underground festival that takes place October 7-17 at
theatre7 (1406
South 3rd Street, Las Vegas, NV 89104 in the arts district. "There is so much
creativity that will be on display throughout the event that I think it would
be very rare for someone to experience PollyGrind and not walk away
inspired."
Thirty-four independent
feature films will screen, along with more than 80 trailers, music videos and
shorts. More than 20 projects are from Las Vegas filmmakers, but some of what's
screening comes from as far as India, Spain, Brazil, England, Australia,
Canada, Germany, Sweden and Italy, making for a nice mix of cultures, human
experiences and genres on display.
"Everything from
arthouse to grindhouse is here," Freeman said. "There's brutality,
there's blood and nudity, there's controversy, there's exploitation, there's
experimentation, there's comedy and there are movies that are quite thought
provoking."
According to Freeman, action,
horror, sci-fi, experimental, dark comedy, hixploitation, mumblecore, horror
comedy, crime, gore, found footage, avant-garde, biker, exploitation, western,
sexploitation, documentary, and then some are represented at the event.
World premieres will include
Creep Creepersin's Finger Bang, Michael Ricks' The Las Vegas Abductions, Logan
Myers' Mondo Sexxxx: The Terry Kobrah Story, Aramis Sartorio's The Gruesome
Death of Tommy Pistol, Shane Ryan's The Girl Who Wasn't Missing, and Craig
McIntyre's The Los Angeles Ripper.
The world premiere of the
sexy revenge thriller The Atonement of Janis Drake will close the event on Oct.
17. The debut feature by Glen Meadows stars Beverly Lynne and Angel Porrino.
Darren Ward's A Day of
Violence and Ginnetta Correli's The Earl Sessions will have their U.S. premieres.
PollyGrind will also screen
the latest from the legendary underground filmmakers Eric Stanze (Ratline) and
Herschell Gordon Lewis (The Uh-Oh Show), who Freeman jokingly says are
partially to be blamed for the event.
"When you see a
Herschell Gordon Lewis film or an Eric Stanze film for the first time, it's
quite mind blowing," Freeman said. "Discovering and watching
Herschell's work from the 60's when I was in college made me fall in love with
grindhouse. Then in the late nineties comes this kid Eric Stanze, making these
raw and brutal indie films. He showed me that the pioneer spirit and the
creative energy of the great exploitation films of the past were still alive
and well."
Bill Zebub (Night of the
Pumpkin), Joe Castro (The Summer of Massacre), Caleb Emerson (Frankie in
Blunderland), Sean Garrity (Zooey & Adam), Sean Cain (Breath of Hate),
Henry Weintraub (The Darkest Corner of Paradise) and Fred Vogel (Sella Turcica)
are additional underground filmmakers being showcased at PollyGrind.
Other highlights are the
debut features from Adam Rehmeier (The Bunny Game), Calvin Lee Reeder (The
Oregonian), Billy Chase Goforth (25K), Sevé Schelenz (Skew), Matthew Pollack
(Run Run It's Him), and Edward E. Romero (Butterfly).
Rounding out the features
will be Dear God No! (James Bickert), Planet of the Vampire Women (Darin Wood),
Rage (Chris Witherspoon), 15 till Midnight (Wolfgang Meyer), My Demon Within (Michael Su),
Seeking Wellness: Suffering Through Four Movements ( Daniel Schneidkraut),
Ashes (Elias Matar), The Super (Evan Makrogiannis / Brian Weaver), El Monstro Del Mar (Stuart Simpson), Beware (Jason Daly), and The
Taint (Drew Bolduc / Dan Nelson).
Confirmed guests appearing at
the festival include: Beverly Lynne aka The Queen of Late Night, who will be a
guest on the PollyGrind Edition of The Will Edwards Show on Oct. 12; Scream
Queen and producer Brooke Lewis; Darin Wood, Christy Savage, Liesel Hanson,
Jawara Duncan and others from the film Planet of the Vampire Women; producer
and editor Alex Lugones of The Super; WZMB Zombie Radio Show during
Zombiepalooza on Oct. 13, and performance artist Rodleen Getsic of The Bunny
Game.
Honey Lauren, Monique Parent,
Dawna Lee Heiesing, Creep Creepersin, Shane Ryan, Sean Cain, James Bickert, Aramis
Sartorio, Craig McIntyre, Nikki Wall, Ginnetta Correli, Michael Su and
more are also scheduled to attend.
Eight of the 13 features
screened last year went on to find DVD distribution, including the top jury and audience winners Slime City
Massacre and Dead Hooker in a Trunk.
This year, PollyGrind has
signed on to offer DVD distribution deals from Breaking Glass Pictures to
the top two winners, with other winners receiving deluxe sub-distribution
packages from Apprehensive Films and Wild Eye Releasing, as well as arthouse
distribution contracts from venue host theatre7. Also up for grabs is close to
$10,000 in software prizes from Sony Creative, Final Draft and Red Giant
Software. Freeman also has an additional $5,000 of swag for giveaways.
PollyGrind kickoffs Oct. 7
with a concert and a zombie walk during First Friday. Rocket Blue, The Roxy
Gunn Project, Monster Zero, Of the Gods and Creepersin will provide the live
soundtrack at Neon Venus, while 222 Imperial will be displaying an art show called
10,000 Skeletons, and Photo Bang Bang has a must-see torture chamber photo op.
Starting at 6 p.m. and going
until midnight, the kickoff event will also offer free blood spattered Retro
Bakery cupcakes, cult and horror DVD giveaways, a classic car show organized by Sin City Royal Riders, a
zombification station via Suzanne Lugano, an appearance and performance by
Jenny Hendrix, and many artists showing off their work.
At 8:30 p.m. there will be a red carpet walk for all the
filmmakers, actors, etc. in attendance. A red carpet zombie walk will follow
later in the night at 10 p.m.
"The aim of the
PollyGrind is to celebrate individuality, diversity, creativity, community and
empowerment," Freeman said. "On Friday we'll be celebrating all types
of art in the Entertainment Capital of the World's booming arts district. It's
the perfect way to kick off PollyGrind."
While PollyGrind is not
solely a horror film festival, it does lean heavily toward scary movies, making
it a perfect fit for October.
"Summer is dying,"
Freeman said. "The cooler weather is coming and Halloween is coming. The
end of 2011, another tough year, is near. What better way to celebrate than a
film festival that is all about facing our fears, facing our demons, becoming
inspired and becoming empowered?"
For more information or to
purchase advanced tickets, please visit www.pollygrind.com.
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