GOLDEN MOMENTS
‘Mr. Gold,” a look at a goldsuited sign turner in Orlando, may run just four minutes, but it has secured a spot at the Florida Film Festival.
“For me, it’s just a big honor. I’ve lived here all my life,” said Brian Carlson, 29, of Lockhart. “I’ve been to the festival. I’ve dreamed about having a film in it. It is humbling,” he said about his first film’s inclusion.
As a Central Florida cultural event in its 24th year, the Florida Film Festival exerts a pull on filmmakers, especially those with local connections.
In all, 177 films — 57 features and 120 shorts — will play over 10 days at the Enzian in Maitland and the Regal Cinema in Winter Park Village.
This year’s festival — the largest in its history — starts today with the screening of “Welcome to Me,” a comedy that casts Kristen Wiig (“Saturday Night Live”) in an offbeat role that runs the gamut from shutin to lottery winner to talk-show host. The fest will draw celebrities (Sam Rockwell, Bob Balaban) and 100 filmmakers whose works are in the lineup.
“Florida Film Festival is the only festival that I actually attend annually, so screening at it is surreal and kind of nerve-racking,” said Jason Kupfer of Orlando. “I live in the
same general area that everyone going to the screening does, so they have the rest of the year to confront me in person if I wasted their time.”
Kupfer, 35, will be showing a short at the festival for the second time. In 2008, his “Sleuth Incident” played. This year, his “Invaders” runs six minutes and depicts how two would-be home invaders meet disaster for obsessing over their masks. Kupfer wanted to put a new spin on homeinvasion films.
“You never really get to see what the decision-making process is in the colorful mask choices,” he said. “No one can really be too terrifyingly menacing after that conversation. I think the message would be to just never answer your door without some sort of excessive weapon already in hand.”
The twist in “Invaders” meets one criterion for the festival: That people be surprised by what they see on the screen.
Another goal is an eclectic lineup with something for everyone, said Enzian programming director Matthew Curtis. “We tried to pick the cream of the crop. I hope people come out and discover it for themselves,” he said.
The festival selected the films from 1,600 entries, and 30 countries are represented. Twenty films have Florida connections including “Homeless,” a frank drama about a teen boy. It was directed by Clay Hassler, a Florida State University grad.
One of the standout titles is “3
Min- utes,” a documentary about the 2012 killing of a black teenager by a white man over loud music at a Jacksonville gas station. Director Marc Silver’s work won a special jury award at this year’s Sundance Film Festival.
“Welcome to Leith,” another documentary, is set in North Dakota. But the two directors grew up in Florida and graduated from state colleges: Christopher K. Walker from the University of Central Florida in 2008, and Michael Beach Nichols from the University of Florida in 2009.
“I knew about the festival as a student at the University of Florida, but I never had the good fortune to attend,” said Nichols, 35.
The two men, now based in Brooklyn, will be at the festival for their screening.
“It feels like a homecoming in a sense. I’ve always wanted to screen at FFF,” said Walker, 30, who has attended the festival before. “Since graduating I’ve been working as a documentary film editor. This film is my directorial debut, and we had our world premiere at Sundance this past January.”
From some films, Central Floridians will learn about their world. “Mr. Gold” tells of Jose Melendez, a familiar presence on Colonial Drive for his sign-spinning. The documentary short reveals that he is a 21-time felon who says he has “a messed-up history” but hopes to own a landscaping business.
“Once you get to know him, he’s a polite, gentle person,” filmmaker Carlson said, adding he had no trouble talking Melendez into doing the movie.
“I wanted something short that was Internet friendly. People on the Internet won’t watch something over four minutes,” Carlson said. “I need to get people to watch my stuff. I would have loved to make it longer, but it was a time thing, and a money thing.”
And now it’s a film festival thing, with a message. “The biggest thing about the film is it’s a story of redemption, and second chances,” Carlson said. “Receiving a chance and giving someone a second chance.”