Film reviews By John Ginn

For The Entertainer

'COURTING CONDI

( Film by Sebastian Doggart, documentary, 107 minutes, playing at 7 p.m. Friday, March 6, at LaSells Stewart Center's C&E Auditorium with 'Patience of Memory'and 'Luck of the Draw'). Courting Condi is a documentary unlike any I've ever seen. It's part "mockumentary," a la "Spinal Tap" or from the Christopher Guest school, but it uses its comedic premise to present a straight-ahead factual documentary about Condoleezza Rice. Here's the set up: For actor and musician Devin Ratray, Condoleeza Rice has always been "The Woman." Smart, pretty, powerful, and possessed of a similar love of music, he knows that he and she were made for each other. Although he is out of her league, he has to give it a shot; so with filmmaker Sebastian Doggart in tow, Devin hits the road to pursue his dream. Traveling the country, he explores Condi's roots in the pre-Civil Rights south, her college career in Denver, and her climb through many glass ceilings, including her stint as provost at Stanford Unversity. But as he follows her career, Devin also begins to see a journey through the heart of darkness as Condi gradually sells off her ideals in order to court and stay close to the brokers of power. In the end, the film is often hilarious, tragic, clever, serious and heartbreaking, as Devin's journey becomes America's journey into confusion and disillusionment. All this, and several original songs and music videos too!

'BOHEMIBOT'

(Film by Brendan Bellomo, drama, 26 minutes, playing at 8 p.m. Friday, March 6, at Darkside Cinema with "Sterolife" and "Two-Step Lovechild"). The new landscape of independent film is largely defined by the amount of relatively affordable technology at the disposal of filmmakers. Perhaps no film submitted to the festival demonstrated this better than "Bohemibot." Produced at the NYU Tisch School of the Arts, the film looks "spectacular." Combining life action and CGI generated backgrounds, the film looks like it could have cost a couple of million dollars. A science fiction film about two warring nations on an alien planet, the film adds another layer of complexity by telling its story almost entirely on the strength of its imagery. The characters all speak an alien language, with no subtitles, yet the story is easy to follow. This film really blew my mind. Technology has come so far since I studied film back in the late 1970s. This film would have been impossible to create back then. Not just hard. Impossible.

'PATIENCE OF THE MEMORY'

(Film by Vuk Jevremovic, animated, 7 minutes, playing at 7 p.m. Friday, March 6, at LaSells Stewart Center C& E Auditorium with "Courting Condi" and "Luck of the Draw" and at 3 p.m. Sunday, March 8, at LaSells Stewart Center with a "Shorts Collection 3"). Animation, in my opinion, is the purest form of cinema there is. All film is illusion. There is no such thing as motion pictures; what you are seeing is a series of individual pictures, projected one after the other, at a rate sufficient to trick the mind into reading the images as a real time event. So when you view film at the level of individual images, animation then becomes a motion picture that is literally willed into existence one frame at a time, 24 frames for each second of film. In "Patience of the Memory," European artist Vuk Jevremovic uses every artistic style in the book to tell a story of birth, destruction, and rebirth, and the constant struggle of technology and nature (represented by a hart, which seems to act as the films spirit guide) to find balance. Frame by frame, Jeremovic creates wonderful pieces of art only to sketch, draw, paint or otherwise destroy them, only to replace them with another gorgeous image. The depth of his creative energy and imagination is astonishing, and there is a moment a few minutes into the film where the hart coalesces out of a swirl of pencil scribblings, looks around, then dashes off screen that is so beautifully executed that it took my breath away. The whole shot is only a few seconds long, but it is now in my scrapbook of visual memories. What a treat.

'LUCK OF THE DRAW'

(Directed by Mitchel Resnick, 16 minutes, playing at 7 p.m. Friday March 6 and LaSells Stewart Center C & E Auditorim with 'Courting Condi' and 'Patience of Memory'). In 1972, five college men anxiously watch a live TV broadcast to see if their birthdates will be picked in the draft lottery. Powerfully written and directed, and wonderfully acted, the film packs a lot of drama into its 15 minutes, masterfully tying the Vietnam war to the occupation of Iraq, and shows that whether service is by draft or by volunteer army, the rhetoric driving war has remained virtually unchanged. I found this to be a very well-made and suspenseful film about a period of time that has rarely been addressed. In the late '60s and early '70s, young men would be forced to sit each year to see if their birthdate would come up in a national lottery. Since one's chances of being killed in Vietnam were a thousandfold more likely than dying in Iraq, being chosen was pretty grim news. Plus, the filmmaker will be here for the festival, and he is very open to talking about his film.

'ROPEWALK'

(Film by Steve Fetsch, documentary, 58 minutes, playing at 1 p.m. Saturday, March 7, in LaSells Stewart Center's C&E Auditorium). "Ropewalk" is an informative and educational tale about rope. You heard me. Rope. An item that is no doubt taken for granted, yet, as the film shows, is also a vital component throughout history almost literally tying all human progress together. Narrated by Bill Hagenbuch, an engineer who made rope creation his life's work, the film offers both a personal and historic perspective, showing how rope can be used to tether a horse on an early farm or, possibly, in the future, tether giant platforms in space to earth. I've included this one because when we first got it in the submission pile, everyone sort of went, "Wh-ha? A movie about rope?" Yet, it was one of the best reviewed movies to come from the selection committee. No one really thinks about rope, yet the movie shows that rope is really one of the most important inventions that humans have come up with. It's the kind of subject da Vinci would have thought about, while all around him might not understand why he was giving the matter so much study.

John Ginn is a former editor of The Entertainer, a free-lance film writer and a member of the 2009 da Vinci Film Festival film screening committee.

CHECK IT OUT

10th annual da Vinci Film Festival, March 6-8 at LaSells Stewart Center, 875 S.W.26th St., on the Oregon State University campus and at the Darkside Cinema, 215 S.W. Fourth St.

Featuring more than 30 films,both short and feature length,the festival has gathered together a wide spectrum of independent films - local and international, documentary, drama, comedy, young filmmakers and experimental, including several films written and directed by Corvallis filmmakers.

Many of the filmmakers will be on hand at 7 p.m. Friday, March 6, for a reception before the screening of their films at 7 p.m.at LaSells Stewart Center and 8 p.m. at Darkside Cinema. Q&A follows the films.

Saturday, March 7, kicks off with an afternoon of exciting documentaries, including health, hang-gliding and Oregon water issues, followed by a block of experimental and animated shorts and a block of young filmmaker shorts.

At 6 p.m. on Saturday, March 7, meet filmmakers at a round table discussion led by Paul Turner,owner of the Darkside Cinema.

Closing out the 2009 festival on Sunday will be a screening of selected Fast Film Contest films, created by individuals and teams during the weekend of Feb. 20-22.

Tickets to the festival are available online, see below, or in person at First Alternative Coop, The Book Bin and Gracewinds Music. Ticket prices for adults are: $20 for a weekend/all access pass; $12 for a day pass; or $8 for a one film/block of films ticker. Prices for students with ID are: $12 for a weekend/all access pass; or $8 for an all day pass. Some films not be appropriate for young audiences.

Information: davincifilmfest.com.

'Arc of a Bird' • 'Behind the Wheel' • 'Big Blue Sky' • 'A Black Lie' • 'Bohemibot' • 'Boletos Por Favor' • 'Breakthrough' • 'Bronx Paradise' • Cantata in C Major' • 'The Chef's Letter' • 'Clean Freak' • 'College Isn't Free' • 'Courting Condi' • 'Familiar Voices' • Fast Films • 'Fly' • 'Happy Birthday' • 'Health, Money, Fear' • 'I Gotta Get A TV' • 'In Pursuit of Panama' • 'A Likely Story' • 'Luck of the Draw' • 'The Miracle' • 'Nothing to Nobody' • 'Oona's Story' • 'Patience of Memory' • 'Ropewalk' • 'Steeped' • 'Sterolife' • 'Sweet Seduction' • 'Tablas' • 'The Twenty' • 'Two-Step Love Child"