5th Annual Fairfield Film Expo

Movies & Maya: The Worlds of Illusion

by John Sorflaten

**Loosely based on A Midsummer's Night Dream, Wormtooth Nation takes place in an underground city where a rebellion is underway.**

What, really, is the difference between watching a movie and watching your own mind get wrapped around the emotions du jour? Heart rate, blood pressure, hormones—all get wrapped up in the moment, whether it’s real life or movie phantasmagoria.

Well, with a movie we get to have a happy ending (usually). And our pulse-pounding identification with the hero ends when we walk out into the street or parking lot. But in real life, we just keep on keepin’ on.

I found a book called The History of Maya—that’s like chronicling the illusion of illusion. The changing shape of how emotions grab us for one reason or another is the history of our personal trip through life. Now that’s the history of maya.

Which takes us to the 5th Annual Fairfield Film Expo, February 6-7, 2009, hosted by 1st Fridays Art Walk. I confess a personal connection here. Imagine yourself taking some home movies one summer 25 years ago and stringing the shots together into a reasonable 45-minute edit. And lo, 25 life-wrenching years later, two feature films have your home-movie pictures gloriously exploited for profit and enjoyment among audiences the age of your own children.

Video Gamesmanship

You’ll see such footage when you attend Walter Day’s double-feature, Chasing Ghosts: Beyond the Arcade and King of Kong: a Fistful of Quarters, on Saturday afternoon, February 7, at the Sondheim Center, 1:00 and 3:00 p.m. You’ll see Walter in his youth managing video gamers who compete for high scores. Meanwhile, Walter juggles his public relations empire. Imagine getting Life Magazine to put your video game contestants in a two-page photo spread. Imagine getting That’s Incredible TV show to tape your “Video Game Olympics.” Imagine getting the governor of Iowa to give your video arcade an award for putting Iowa on the public map.

Those two movies happened because my buddy Louis Wilson and I taped the illusory emotions of those days 25 years ago. I sure hope we pointed the camera at the right stuff.

Baseball History in Norway, Iowa

This takes me to the next memorable movie of maya, The Final Season, produced by Fairfield’s own Hollywood transplant, Steve Schott. Steve works as Executive Producer at Hawthorne Direct now. When I visited Steve there, he told me that some movie distributers said, “The movie is too soft” for the public. Well, that reinforced my own metaphor that the movie was a “decaf” film compared to most public fare that is clearly “caffeinated” with adrenaline-pounding cliff-hanger moments and explosions.

Visiting Steve was my Forrest Gump moment-of-the-year. Incredibly enough, I had met Steve about six years ago after connecting with my old film-school buddy, who had invited Steve to learn the industry ropes from him 23 years ago! And now I was inviting Steve to show his movie in the Fairfield Film Expo.

Check out The Final Season Saturday night at the Sondheim, February 7, 7:30 p.m. Steve will answer your questions about producing this decaf thriller.

You’ll also hear the scoop from Tony Wilson, who many years previously optioned the story of the Norway, Iowa, high school baseball team’s triumph over political hardships to win their 12th straight state championship. It’s a gripping human relations story about the Iowa style of community living.

Dolphins for Sale

Another Film Expo experience involves watching the machinations of fate and love in The Dolphin Dealer. Former Fairfielder Leigh Badgley pitched the idea at a story-idea contest, won $50,000, and went on to produce a blockbuster exposé. She reveals how dolphins wound up in a Dubai hotel resort after being captured in the Solomon Islands by a Canadian entrepreneur, who has his own interesting emotions about it. See Leigh’s movie on Friday night, February 6, 7:30 p.m., at the Sondheim Center. She’ll tell you how she wrestled this story into shape for Canadian TV viewers. It’s all emotions and illusion. Remember, no dolphins in Fairfield, yet. But they’ll exist for a while Friday night at the Sondheim.

Iowa Film Industry

And the beat goes on. Check out Iowa’s own President of the Iowa Motion Pictures Association, Kent Newman, kicking off the Film Expo at 7 p.m. Friday night. His presence acknowledges the importance Fairfield holds for the Iowa film scene. We’re Maya Central for movie illusions.

Steampunk Webseries

To top off the list of illusions, check out the experimental, nouveau-media internet-released thriller Wormtooth Nation. Get gripped by 81 minutes of Geoff Boothby and Cullen Thomas’s “freedom fighter” extravaganza shot here in Fairfield and released in segments on YouTube. Young producers do it all. See it 7:30 p.m., Friday, February 6, at Central Park Furnishings on the square.

Pitch Your Own Story!

Are you “in” yet? Creating illusions is the feat du jour. Check out the Pitching Contest workshop, Saturday afternoon, 2:30-4:30 p.m., at the Fairfield Arts and Convention Center. Bring your friends so they can hear you pitch your three-minute elevator speech. It’s American Idol style, with running commentary by three Fairfield media professionals: Steve Schott, Leigh Badgley, and BBC documentary producer Stuart Tanner. They’ll bestow three prizes, plus all the feedback you can handle. Come listen and enjoy, too. It’s $25 (students $20) at the door for pitch contestants—or save $5 by registering in advance online at www.FairfieldArtWalk.org.

Video Production Workshop

Come see how to create your own illusions at Brian Smith’s HD Video Production workshop on Saturday, February 7, 9:30-11:30 a.m., at the FACC.

Young People’s Film Project

And if we haven’t grabbed you by now, and if you happen to be in grades 5 to 8, come to the Fairfield Public Library on Saturday, February 7, 2–5 p.m. You’ll join the Young People’s Film Project and create a YouTube short of 5 minutes or so. Come direct and act in your own piece of illusory maya. Only people old enough to be really young can come.

Tell your kids it’s all illusion. They’re still young enough to understand.

For more details on the next Fairfield Film Expo, always held on the first Friday in February, visit www.FairfieldArtWalk.org.

See the Index for a complete list of Movie Reviews.

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