Workshops, celebrity visits add to variety of screenings

The "International" may be gone from the Las Vegas Film Festival's title, but the international focus isn't.

That's because the second annual Las Vegas Film Festival, which begins a four-day run today at the Eastside Cannery, features a world of features, documentaries and short films from around the globe.

There's "Twilight" heartthrob Robert Pattinson in the British comedy "How To Be," which proved such a popular attraction festival organizers added two showings after the first screening sold out -- weeks before the festival.

The Oscar-winning live-action short, Germany's "Spielzuegland (Toyland)," turns up Saturday, during one of the festival's numerous programming blocks devoted to short films.

But those are only two of more than a hundred separate titles featured at the festival, which attracted more than a thousand submissions.

Last year's event took place at The Orleans -- a casino equipped with its own multiplex cinema -- and attracted about 5,000 attendees, according to Jeremy Parker, the festival's director of sponsorships.

This year, however, one of Cannery Casino Resorts' owners became a sponsor -- and the event moved to the company's new Eastside Cannery.

The move means that two hotel ballrooms will be transformed into "beautiful theaters," complete with special VIP sections, explains festival director James Mulidore. The shift means "we've done things you can't really do at movie theaters."

Allowing festivalgoers to watch a movie with cocktail in hand, for example.

As with any film festival, though, it's what's on screen that counts.

"We're all about showcasing the best in independent cinema," Mulidore says, noting the festival's support of "movies you can't see everywhere else."

And while the annual CineVegas film festival (held annually in June at the Palms) may have a higher-profile celebrity contingent, the Las Vegas Film Festival also has its share of noted participants.

Actors John Saxon and Barry Pepper will participate in moderated conversations tonight and Friday night, respectively, following screenings of Saxon's "God's Ears" and Pepper's "Like Dandelion Dust."

In addition, festival filmmakers will discuss screenwriting, directing and producing in three separate workshops.

And almost every film has somebody from the production to answer audience questions following screenings, Mulidore notes.

That includes filmmaker Jim Rothman, whose short "I'm Not Matt Damon" premieres during Friday's 12:50 p.m. short film block. It's a comedy about an aspiring actor (played by Rothman) who's constantly rejected at auditions because he either looks too much, or not enough, like Matt Damon.

While "the dawn of the Internet" means filmmakers have more options for getting their work seen, "a film festival is a targeted area," Rothman notes, "a congregation not only for independent filmmakers" but for audiences -- and maybe even industry officials looking for something new.

Including, he hopes, somebody willing to finance a feature-length version of his short.

Local filmmakers also get into the festival act.

Tonight's Nevada Film Block spotlights six shorts, including "Growing Up Vegas," about an Elvis impersonator who takes a tomboy under his wing, and "Crime Sweepers," a spoofy TV pilot featuring such anthropomorphic characters as Detective Dusty Floors and murderous mob boss Christopher Mopin.

"Crime Sweepers" won best comedy short at last year's Action on Film International festival in Pasadena, Calif., but "I love that 'Crime Sweepers' is playing in Las Vegas," says filmmaker Lance Mora, a full-time camera operator and editor for a local television station when he's not making movies. "This is where we made the movie and it's our home."

Friday afternoon's showcase devoted to work by College of Southern Nevada students also shines a spotlight on local filmmakers. "This is embryonic filmmaking at its most elemental," says John Marsh, who directs the college's filmmaking program.

And elemental filmmaking remains the focus for filmmakers and audiences alike, says CSN professor Robert Benedetto, who served as a judge for this year's Las Vegas Film Festival.

"The importance of this film festival, and any film festival, is that it provides an invaluable opportunity for filmmakers to get exposure to their work," Benedetto notes, along with an equally invaluable chance for audiences "to see great films from the U.S. and around the world," many of which will never make it to local theaters (or DVD players).

Contact movie critic Carol Cling at ccling@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0272.