Film

The Lift-Off Film Festival makes a bumpy local landing

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Stealth

When the Lift-Off Film Festival first came to Las Vegas last year, the two-night event drew a small crowd for a seemingly haphazard program of short films and an awkward live script reading. This year’s event, expanded from two nights to four, was similarly under-promoted, but it had a stronger turnout and a more compelling selection of films. Las Vegas still seems like an odd fit for the international Lift-Off brand, which has festivals in London, Liverpool, Los Angeles, Tokyo and Amsterdam, but the organization deserves credit for putting resources toward bringing independent short films to a real movie theater in town, with free admission.

I made it to two of this year’s screenings at the Brenden Theatres inside the Palms, including the best-of program on Saturday night. The promised awards presentation was a little underwhelming, since the only representative in attendance from any of the winning films was 12-year-old actress Kristina Hernandez, star of Stealth, the winner for the best narrative film. Hernandez, who lives in Las Vegas, talked about sending in a video audition for Stealth, an American Film Institute thesis film shot in Los Angeles, and about how she brought her own life experience to the role of a young transgender girl.

While Hernandez shows plenty of promise (she mentioned her hopes to attend performing-arts high school Las Vegas Academy), Stealth is the kind of well-meaning mediocrity that often wins audience awards at film festivals. Still, it’s far better than How to Make a Bully From Scratch, the winner for best documentary, which is essentially a commercial for a dubious anti-bullying program sold to educators and parents, and a truly shameful selection (let alone award-winner) for any film festival. I preferred the sardonic romantic comedy Low/Fi, which picked up an honorable mention, and the creepy Itsy Bitsy Spiders, from local filmmaker Bertrand Paré, both of which showed more style and creativity than the top winners.

In addition to Paré and Hernandez, local talent represented in the festival included composer David Rosen, who showed two of his music videos, Rosen’s Shadows on the Ceiling director April Kagan and Vegas acting staple Rusty Meyers. Organizers didn’t do much to reach out to the local community, though, and while the festival’s selections and attendance were stronger this year, I hope to see next year’s event (which was announced at the awards presentation) put in more of an effort on that front.

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