HDFEST New York Saw the Future - It's Now

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Parent Category: Film Festivals

Category: Previews

Published on Friday, 04 November 2011 05:00

Written by L E Shannon

The 2011 edition of HDFEST New York is taking place November 9 - 10, 2011 at Sony Wonder Technology Lab in Midtown Manhattan, New York City.

Back in 2000, HDFEST foresaw the future of film and entertainment as going high-definition and digital to a degree few others believed at the time.

"HDFEST is digital democracy in action. High-Def has the potential to level the playing field between the big budgets and the indies more than any other technological breakthrough since digital video, and perhaps, ultimately even much more."

And we see this proliferating today.

The Opening Night film is the documentary feature from Australia, Last Stand at Nymboida, directed by Jeff Bird who co-wrote with Paddy Gorman. The film recounts the rebellion of a band of tough coal miners in Australia‛s most dangerous coal mine when they were faced wtih losing their jobs in 1975. The director is expected to attend.

Also screening:

Beatboxing-The Fifth Element of Hip-Hop
dir. Klaus Schneyder
In the late 1970s a youth culture emerged from disadvantaged neighborhoods of New York. It combined graffiti writing, DJing, break dancing and rapping, with the musical side flavored by "Beatboxing". The result of poverty and lack of instruments was one pioneering artist‛s idea to imitate drum rhythms with his mouth, coining the term "Human Beatbox". (A prime example of this ability is the actor Michael Winslow.)

Two series of short films include:

• Quirk of Fate
• Purple Flowers
• A Russian Elephant in the Room
• Missing Elizabeth
• Duet
• Dust Machine
• Perhaps Tomorrow
• Cookie
• Departures
• Passing Through
• A Musing
• Helen's Ducks

Also included are animation, experimental and music videos:

• Ivan – music video with vocalist Leika Mochan as vegetables in her kitchen take on lives of their own
• Rosewell – the rock band‛s music video, the first in Chile to use a 3D motion capture technique
• Chapel Song – music video for lovers
• Guovssahasa Nieida / Dancing Virgin – experimental dance film
• Ad Infinitum – an experimental film as "sculptural continuum" as it shifts between 3D and 2D designs
• Triboluminescence – an experimental "impression of constant movement and a seamless unfolding of glowing abstract forms"
• Hot Velcro Action – short film about the wonders of Velcro
• Place Stamp Here – animated short film about a girl and a black dog
• 8 Second Dance – a short film made by 12 students of Digital Animation Center

For more information, go to hdfest.com/hdfestnewyork2011.htm

HDFEST New York
November 9 - 10, 2011

Sony Wonder Technology Lab
Sony Plaza Public Arcade
56th Street & Madison Avenue
New York City

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