It's only a 40-minute drive from my house, and only 10 minutes from the last housing developments in Henderson, but Boulder City is like a whole other world. In Vegas, a film festival, even one as big as CineVegas, is just one more entertainment choice among dozens. But at last week's Dam Short Film Festival in Boulder City, it's as if the whole town is standing still to focus its energies on the showcase of more than 100 short films playing at the local American Legion Hall.
Three Girls, a Guy and an Apocalypse, a film I cowrote and coproduced for the 48 Hour Film Project last August, is in the festival, so I head over with director and cowriter Jason Leinwand and star Lori Kay to catch our two screenings on Thursday and Friday nights, as well as check out the opening ceremonies and mingle with other filmmakers.
At the Boulder Dam Hotel, site of the opening reception, the festival organizers have an old limo cruising around the block, picking up filmmakers behind the hotel and driving them around to the front to be dropped off at the red carpet. A guy dressed like an usher from the 1940s opens the door, "paparazzi" snap photos and an Elvis impersonator conducts interviews. Most of the filmmakers and more than a few town residents have gathered outside the hotel to gawk at this odd spectacle. A handful of attendees have taken it upon themselves to dress glamorously.
Boulder City Mayor Robert Ferraro, who's much less colorful than Oscar Goodman, shows up to proclaim it Dam Short Film Festival Day, and Miss Boulder City, complete with sash and tiara, waves her beauty-pageant wave and tells the host about world peace. Inside, Boulder City residents mingle with filmmakers and other local notables, including onetime Lt. Gov. Lonnie Hammargren, who's dressed in a cowboy hat and matching sparkly tie and jacket, playing the guitar and passing out cards touting his next run for office. He appears right at home. Even the older, more conservatively dressed Boulderites seem to be embracing the oddity, perhaps figuring that this is as close to Hollywood as their town is likely to get.
After the festivities and a bit of mingling (as well as some munching of cheese and crackers), we head to the American Legion Hall to catch the Nevada Film Focus program, in which our movie is showing. The hall isn't too large, but it's full when the program begins, and people seem genuinely excited to check out some local talent. The program is hit and miss, but we get a very positive response to our film, and Better Masque, directed by Roger Erik Tinch, who was the cinematographer and editor on Three Girls, ends up winning Best Nevada Film at the awards ceremony on Saturday.
We return on Friday to catch our film again, this time in the science fiction program. Although one other Nevada film, the weird and entrancing The Walking Ink, is in the program, the rest of the shorts are from out of state and demonstrate just how far local filmmaking still has to go to compete with the best work from other regions. Nearly all of the films have impressive special effects and professional production values; one even features former X-Files star William B. Davis. Our response is still good, but it's nowhere near as positive as the night before. It doesn't help that we're essentially a comedy sandwiched in between all of these serious, heavy sci-fi films. We're not in the comedy program, which organizer Lee Lanier points out as especially strong. (There are also drama, documentary and animation programs.) Tonight's event is more subdued than the previous night's, but it still affords an opportunity to meet people who are here in this little town out of nothing more than a dedication to film, something that we in Vegas are perhaps still a little too cynical for.