A Brief History of the hi/lo Film Festival

In the summer of 1997 two San Francisco film geeks (Paul Charney and Brian L. Perkins), members of the upstart Bay Area comedy group/production company Killing My Lobster, decided it was utterly necessary to make a short film about a flaming piece of chocolate careening through space and boarding a pizza box (the mothership, naturally). The film, Space Chocolate, was shot during one 19 hour stretch in the cinematographer's kitchen in August of that year. Before it even got to the editing room it was obvious to the makers of the film, and their circle of similarly deluded friends, that Space Chocolate needed a public forum. The typical course of action at this point would have been for Charney and Perkins to first finish the damn thing and then to submit it to the world's many film festivals. Fortunately, this never even occurred to the two and their Killing My Lobster cronies.

Realizing that renting out a theater for a whole night just to show a five and a half minute flick was a little excessive, Perkins teamed up with another Lobster (Marc Vogl), and the two decided that clearly the easiest way to get Space Chocolate to the people was to seek out its cinematic brethren and have a little shindig. Because nothing moves action along like a race against time, the two gave themselves sixty days to find a theater, the films, and their audience.

At this point Vogl and Perkins were joined by production guru Nadine Storyk, an organizational mastermind. The three printed up some very cheap looking postcards calling for 8mm, 16mm, and video submissions. They got on the horn to ask some friends in San Francisco, New York, and L.A. if they wanted to submit any of their work. The response was quite surprising. In only one month, hi/lo received nearly sixty submissions from all over the country. Joined by fellow Lobster Daniel Lee, Storyk, Vogl, and Perkins selected fifteen of these films based on their intelligent, unique, and often bizarre brand of do-it- yourself-and-screw-the-man je ne sais quoi.

The hi/lo film festival was named in tribute to those fine minds who, though limited by their meager capital resources, are able to create thought-provoking and challenging films. Although the showcased films varied wildly in style, subject matter, format, (and picture and sound quality), they were unified by their experimental spirit, stimulating viewers in terms of both substance and style.

Five screenings were held over the weekend of November 14-16, 1998 at The Casting Couch Microtheatre in San Francisco's North Beach district and the run was nearly totally sold out. Highlights included Torsten Z. Burns and Anthony Discenza's brilliantly manic adventrue film in hyper speed Actions in Action, Matt Reed Smith's Hunting Earl, and Tena Scalph's Insignificance. Happily, Space Chocolate was completed a full hour and a half prior to the festival's opening credits and made it's planetary debut.

This year hi/lo is expanding. The submission period is longer (six months instead of one), the program will be international (submissions from India, Croatia, and Holland have arrived at the PO Box in the Upper Haight), and entries are no longer limited to short films. And as for the theater, hi/lo is growing up and heading to the Mission District's 16th Street Victoria Theatre. See you in November.

3rd Annual hi/lo Film Festival
November 12-14, 1999
16th Street Victoria Theatre
San Francisco, USA

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