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Fest at your own pace: The virtual world suits Boulder City’s Dam Short Film Festival well

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‘Faleminderit’
Faleminderit / Courtesy

Despite COVID’s continued chilling effect on live events, the Dam Short Film Festival is back. The Boulder City-based film festival—ranked among Film Freeway’s top 100 best-reviewed festivals, no small feat considering film fests number in the high thousands—is streaming online for a second straight year, a necessary concession that has had the unexpected benefit of extending the festival’s reach well beyond the American southwest.

Space Chaser

Space Chaser

“Our attendance in 2020”—the last year Dam Short held an in-person event—“was a little over 5,000 people. With the virtual festival [in 2021], we had over 6,300,” says Tsvetelina Stefanova, DSFF’s executive director. “And people told us that they watched almost every program, because they could do it on their own time. They watched programs they never would have stayed for, like the music videos or the underground program.”

Stefanova promises that the 2022 edition of the festival—streaming online via Eventive, a user-friendly platform that plays nice with laptops, mobile devices and most smart TVs, from February 10-14—will once again offer lots of must-see programs. DSFF will present nearly 150 short films organized into 23 thematic blocks of 60 to 90 minutes, which you can watch for just $14 per block. And with an all-access $140 household festival pass, you can stream it all for less than a buck a film.

DSFF 2022 highlights include Algorithm, a mind-bending sci-fi story from director Edwina Casey; Alphonse Polito’s documentary Road to Recovery, a peek into the lives of ex-addicts; Cloud Boy, Kieran Firth-Bernard’s animated “semi-autobiography” about growing up with autism; The Water Sommelier, Ryan Wichert and Noémi Dabrowski’s lighthearted introduction to professional water taster Martin Riese; Nicolas Neuhold’s Faleminderit, a drama about a Luxembourgish cartographer’s momentous discovery; the music video for Cam Calloway’s slinky, atmospheric “China Blue,” directed by UNLV film professor Brett Levner; and many more.

“There’s a little bit of something for everybody,” Stefanova says, adding that she particularly enjoyed curating this year’s music video program, something she’s been unable to wholly focus on for past festivals because she had too much on her plate. (Good thing, too. As the keyboardist and co-vocalist for acclaimed Valley band Same Sex Mary and the promoter behind Bad Moon Booking, Stefanova knows a lot about the music industry, too.)

Windsor Parks: The Sinking Streets

Windsor Parks: The Sinking Streets

This virtual DSFF will also feature the panel discussions and Q&A sessions that accompany films at the in-person events, and Stefanova says those, too, enjoy an unexpected benefit from the virtual format.

“When we’re in the [Boulder Theatre], we only have about 10, 15 minutes after each program to talk to the filmmakers that could physically fly out to Las Vegas to be there and participate,” she says. “With the virtual Q&A, we have more time to really delve into a lot of things.”

Still, as valuable as the convenience might be, there’s no replacing an in-person Dam Short Film Festival, Stefanova says. She’s hopeful that the lessons learned from the past two events will make DSFF even better when it returns to Boulder Theatre.

“We definitely want to stay true to the core of what our festival is, which is the in-person experience in Boulder City—the networking, the way that the town has welcomed the filmmakers,” she says. “But there’s no reason we can’t build on top of that and incorporate some of the [virtual] things that have really worked well for us.”

Dam Short Film Festival February 10-14, damshortfilm.org.

Las Vegas Weekly is sharing 20% off all-access household passes and individual programs with access code: TheWeekly

Redeem your discounted all-access household pass HERE or purchase individual programs HERE.

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