F R I D A Y , A P R I L 3 0
Program 6
Directors Guild of America • 9:00 p.m. • Theatre 3
FREAKY CAMPFIRE STORIES (RT: 84 minutes)
Horror and slasher stories mark their arrival to VC FILMFEST with this collection of works that alternately borrow from various masters of suspense, but bring to the table a distinctly familiar cultural grounding.
BAMPINAY
(USA, 2003) Dir./Scr.: Matthew Abaya
Bampinay is a gothy American aswang (Philippine Vampire) who enjoys taking advantage of naive white male Asiaphiles as night approaches. She is pursued by Mahal, a tough young vampire hunter bent on her destruction. When the two clash, they begin to see that their differences are few in their similar day-to-night struggles. BAMPINAY retells familiar Asian American themes through the prism of a campy horror film narrative.
Video, 21 min., color, Narrative
THE BOX
(USA, 2002) Dir./Scr.: Mari Okada
There is a box that can never be opened. As imagined by the director, the mysterious box is created through sound and image. THE BOX plays with ambiguity, which in turn seeks to stimulate the viewer’s imagination.
Video, 1 min., black & white, Experimental
SITTER
(USA, 2004) Dir./Scr.: Dominic Mah
Celia is hired to housesit for a wealthy shut-in, Marisa, who is going on vacation to escape unspecified problems at work. Marisa has made peculiar demands on Celia as to the care of her luxurious house and the feeling of her cat, Verno. At first Celia is happy to bask in the decadence of the mansion, all by herself. But gradually, she becomes aware that there may be someone else still in the house with her...and the real reason Marisa went on vacation was to get away from herself.
Video, 19 min., color, Narrative
TEN BLOODY FINGERS
(USA, 2003) Dir./Scr.: Chris Lee
On the way to Reno from Los Angeles, Bruce Howard runs out of gas in the middle of the night and is forced to walk to a desolate motel. There, he is subjected to a ritualistic countdown over the telephone in which a strange voice calls every ten minutes starting with “ten bloody fingers, and ten miles away” and ending with “one bloody finger, and one mile away.” Bruce finds an eerie parallel to a scary story told at his house the night before, and must dissect the story with the help of his wife before it’s too late.
Video, 19 min., color, Narrative
THOU SHALT NOT KILL
(USA/Hong Kong, 2001) Dir./Scr.: Chan Yuk Ting
A man kills someone. A judge kills many prisoners. The story is about who has the right to judge and who has the right to kill.
Video, 4 min., color, Animated
JILL
(USA, 2003) Dir./Scr.: Xavier Janghoon Lee
A Man is haunted by memories he believes were brought to him by an eye transplant 20 years ago. Is it the brain or the eyes that stores all the memories of what we see? Since his eye transplant, Joshua has been haunted by the horrible memories of a little girl named Jill. Not knowing what to do for her, he names his daughter after Jill, never knowing the danger it will bring them.
Video, 20 min., color, NarrativeCLICK HERE to go to the VC FILMFEST ONLINE BOXOFFICE and purchase tickets for this program.
