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KEN CARLSON & LYQUOC VO FIND COLLABORATION IRRESISTIBLE >>> Last year, Olympia filmmaker Ken Carlson and his team, Mutually Assured Productions, embarked on an experiment. They decided to build their very own film festival from scratch, calling it the Olympia Awesome Film Festival. This one-day event debuted in May, successfully attracting
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OLYMPIA FILMMAKER WRAPS SHOOTING OF DEBUT FEATURE >>> I found Jeff Stillwell where I suppose everyone at some point last week found themselves: in the snow. I caught Stillwell on Friday in his car, leaving home in Olympia to brave the treacherous expressways and make a party in Seattle that night. Wait,
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RON LAGMAN SCREENS COMMITTED IN TACOMA >>> Saturday, Jan. 14, 6:53 P.M.: I walk down a blustery Opera Alley in downtown T-town, looking for an address and looking forward to the first public screening of filmmaker Ron Lagman's new work, Tapat Sa Pangako (Committed). Yet danger looms above my head -
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LUKE SMIRALDO BRINGS SHAKESPEARE TO SLAM TOWN >>> Luke Smiraldo likes using the word "enamored" a lot, and why not? The man has plenty to love. One could start anywhere with this multi-talented artist, but his strong connections to the Tacoma community strike me right away. A resident since '91, Smiraldo
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DIRECTOR ISAAC OLSEN GIVES DISTRIBUTION A SHOT >>> Given all the handmade technical innovation the young Isaac Olsen displayed in his first feature, Quiet Shoes, I dubbed him "our city's own Orson Welles" in an earlier Volcano article. Now I may have to revise that title, since Olsen pulled off a
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ON THE SET OF ROSE COLORED SHADES WITH RANDY SPARKS >>> I creep up the creaky, flame-emblazoned steps as silently as I can, not sure whether the audio guy will detect my approach through his boom mic. Director Randy Sparks has pretty much the entire floor above Tacoma's Stonegate Pizza and
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MICK FLAAEN RETURNS WITH GRIT CITY PRODUCTIONS >>> With 2012 imminent, I can't help but ponder what the future will bring while looking back at these past 12 months. It was just a few days before Christmas last year when I posted my first "Movie Biz Buzz" on this blog,
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PETE ANDERSON MOVES ON WITH THE WAIT >>> This year I've decided to watch safely from the sidelines as the gift-giving game heats up. Everyone seems to want a piece of the action - while Aunt Darlene knits the pinky on your new pair of gloves, filmmakers like Pete Anderson
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ACTOR-PRODUCER TONYA YORKE PUTS THE WESTERN IN WESTERN WASHINGTON >>> Growing up, did you go through that cowboy phase? You know - the oversized hat and boots, plastic sheriff's badge, popgun, the works. You'd hoot and holler through all the rooms in the house and imagine every sibling and/or pet
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NEW WEB SERIES PHOENIX RUN TO BEGIN SHOOTING IN DECEMBER >>> I think all this gray weather has gotten to some local filmmakers. The stories behind my most recent Buzzes - which I seek out at random every week - all ended up gravitating toward the macabre, like The Resolution's plot
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HARRY TCHINSKI SHOOTS GRIMISES RISING IN BLACK LAKE ASYLUM >>> When I saw the big white ambulance with "Pierce County Asylum" engraved on its side, I knew I was close. Director Harry Tchinski had asked me to visit the closed set of his newest horror feature, Grimises Rising, buried somewhere
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RICK WALTERS HOSTS FUNDRAISER FOR LATEST FILM >>> TWISTED. MURDER. MAYHEM. And you thought Halloween had crawled back into its coffin for another year. Allow me to fill in some blanks. "Twisted" belongs to Twisted Tales of Madness and Murder, a feature-length anthology of horror shorts written by Federal Way's Rick
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DEAR CITY'S JEFF STILLWELL BEGINS FIRST FEATURE FILM >>> Did I go to Wendy's twice yesterday? Comedian Jim Gaffigan jokes that lofty contemplations like the one above eventually creep into his brain during church services. If make that noble pilgrimage every Sunday, you probably from time to time can relate to Gaffigan's
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CIRCUMSTANCE PLAYING NOW AT THE GRAND CINEMA >>> A feeling of paranoia arrives early in writer-director Maryam Keshavarz's film, Circumstance, and it never leaves. We see two young women - the beautiful Atafeh (Nikohl Boosheri) and the beautiful Shireen (Sarah Kazemy) - giggling and playfully pushing each other on a sidewalk.
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MUTUALLY ASSURED PRODUCTIONS PREMIERES MISSED CONNECTION IN OLYMPIA SATURDAY>>> Authors have book readings. Painters have exhibitions. So why don't more indie moviemakers have public showings of their works beyond a film festival setting? Finding an appropriate and affordable venue is just one hurdle to overcome. The real struggle may reside within
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AND SO IT BEGINS >>> Last night the Tacoma Film Festival officially entered its sixth year of existence, and this time around I aim to embrace it in a slightly different way than in the past. Obviously I'll soak in as much cinema as time allows before Closing Night Oct. 13.
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MELISSA LEO & PETER GERETY IN THE SEA IS ALL I KNOW >>> I feel your fear. The Tacoma Film Festival starts Thursday, Oct. 6, and it scares you. You think, "So many movies, and not one recognizable face in any of them." The star is our buoy, our anchor
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PETE ANDERSON KEEPS LATEST FILM LOCAL >>> I consider myself only a part-time filmmaker, so I can't say I belong in the same league as someone like Pete Anderson. When he told me Break marks not only his seventh time in the director's chair of a feature film, but also his
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RANDY SPARKS TAKES A NEW DIRECTION >>> I dialed Randy Sparks' number late Thursday night, and his voice, tiny amidst a mob of shouts, greeted my ears. "Chris, hold on a second!" he cried, sounding faraway. "I'm at Hell's Kitchen!" It figures. If you know only two indispensable truths about Sparks, they are
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SIT BACK AND WATCH >>> It wouldn't surprise me to find out that on any given day a film festival is brewing in some corner of the world. But in our small slice of Western Washington, they all tend to congregate in the autumn months. With the exception of the Seattle
