FilmBar, a movie theater on Second and Garfield streets, will begin a monthly screening of films Saturday produced by local filmmakers to generate creativity and support the Arizona film community.
The Arizona Filmmaker Showcase will promote three films — one feature and two shorts.
FilmBar owner Kelly Aubey said he has received several requests from local filmmakers to screen their projects since FilmBar opened two years ago.
Aubey said his main goals for the showcase are to promote the local film community, introduce new talent to the public and continue to create a profit for FilmBar.
Cronkite News Service reported that there have been recent statewide efforts to revive tax-incentives for the film industry similar to the ones that expired in 2010. Aubey said the Arizona Filmmaker Showcase would help to educate the community and foster more support for those tax breaks.
Spreading the work of local talent is essential to Arizona’s film industry, he said.
“When more people are aware it will set the filmmaking scene up better to garnish support for improving government support for filmmakers in the city,” Aubey said.
Arizona filmmakers can submit a short or feature film to FilmBar’s monthly contest. The only requirements are that the film be shot in Arizona and the filmmaker be a resident of the state.
Along with having their films screened at the monthly showcase, the winning filmmakers will have five minutes to introduce their pieces. They will also have the opportunity to sell merchandise and talk with the audience after the show.
The three films that have been selected for March’s showcase were announced earlier this month, said Brett Walker, filmmaker and co-creator of blog and podcast Dark of the Matinee.
“Call of Warfare,” by local filmmaker Randall Huff, is a comedic short film described as a “faux-documentary” about young adults coming into maturity set to the background of a paintball competition.
The second short, “The Face of Innocence,” tells a story of a photojournalist trying to solve the kidnapping of his sister, said producers JP Frydrych and Craig MacDonald. The pair work for Valley-based Jump Ship Productions.
“The Face of Innocence” won Second Place, Audience Award, Best Music, Best Technical, and Best Trailer in the Phoenix chapter of the Independent Film Project Breakout Challenge in January, Frydrych said.
This month’s featured film is “Illegal Alien,” created by Mike Hardy and Chris Lee from Hardy Pictures. Walker summarized the film as a story of two teenagers who accidentally cause their co-worker’s deportation and later try to get him back into the United States.
“It’s a comedy that has a lot of fun with different stereotypes,” Walker said.
Tickets cost $8 and can be bought at FilmBar’s website. The first showcase this Saturday at 10 p.m. is nearly sold out, Aubey said. Walker and the other Dark of the Matinee creators Christopher Coffel and Matthew Robinson will be hosting the event.
Walker said they are “not really biased to anything” when selecting the winning films.
“We just want to show what filmmakers are making,” Walker said. “We try to put pieces together that we are going to show and hope that their audiences are going to be similar. That way there is some pullover from one audience to the other.”
“Call of Warfare” has not screened yet, so Huff said he looks forward to seeing it on the big screen for the first time. He said the key to being a successful independent filmmaker is exposure. FilmBar will offer this with the Arizona Filmmaker Showcase.
Contact the reporter at alejandra.armstrong@asu.edu
