Rainy States Film Festival Opens In Humorous Vein

-------------------------- RAINY STATES FILM FESTIVAL --------------------------

A nonprofit festival, Rainy States was founded last year by Northwest filmmakers who committed themselves to producing an annual event that would showcase Northwest films in Seattle. It's sponsored by Allied Arts Foundation and is partly funded by several local businesses, including Alpha Cine, American Production Services, FilmLites, MovieMaker, QFC, Second Base and Scarecrow Video.

Series tickets are $25, which translates into a savings of $15 if you plan to attend all eight programs. Individual events are priced at $5 apiece. Information: 322-3572.

Comedy, low-key and high-pitched, dominates the first edition of the Rainy States Film Festival, which starts tonight and runs through Sunday at the Broadway Performance Hall.

Rarely have so many locally produced movies been so loaded with humor. From the sendups of Freudian analysis implicit in the title of today's opener, "Oedipal Breakfast," to the hilarious media gorgons of the closing film, "Trust Me," the emphasis is on laughs. Both movies are world premieres.

More deadpan are Kevin McKeon and Kurt Wahlner's droll B-movie homage, "A Formula For Mayhem," which has already played festivals in other cities, and Gregg Lachow's delightfully dry time-travel comedy, "The Seven Mysteries of Life," which had a two-week theatrical engagement last year at the Pike St. Cinema.

As the festival's title suggests, it's a roundup of Northwest-produced movies from British Columbia, Oregon and Washington. Also eligible were Idaho and Alaska, but those states entered no films. Of the 53 shorts and features submitted, 22 were selected to be shown during the four-day event.

Here's a roundup of screenings:

Today

"Oedipal Breakfast," 8 o'clock tonight. One of the few films in the festival that has a guaranteed theatrical future, James C. Sander's comedy will open Feb. 24 for a regular run at the Pike St. Cinema. It's a comedy about the beneficial aspects of amnesia. Although it eventually gets mired in too many subplots, it has some wonderfully off-the-wall moments (the opening shot is a stunner) as well as a few memory-lapse jokes that may not be to everyone's taste ("The best thing about Alzheimer's is you get to meet so many new people"). Also on the program: "Inertia," Keith Bearden's tale of an aging Olympia newspaper boy.

Tomorrow

"The Gunfighter," 8 p.m. tomorrow. This gracefully existential tale of a doomed young man - and an obsession with basketball and Gary Cooper's stoicism in "High Noon" - was directed by Rodney Rogers and photographed by Laszlo Pal. It's one of several fine new shorts on this program, which includes Grace Lee-Park's touching "Daughterline," Doug Aberle's animated 12 1/2-minute pipe-cleaner epic, "Wire We Here," and the world premiere of Jay J. Koh's "My Brown Eyes," an affecting tale of a Korean boy's terrible first day in a new school.

Saturday

"27 Pieces of Me," 2 p.m. Saturday. The weakest feature in the festival, Gina Hicks and Gerald Donahoe's 90-minute film about Seattle lesbians and gays is the story of a dramatic reunion involving a Seattle lesbian who has cut herself off from her family. Her younger sister arrives in Seattle unannounced and eventually realizes that her sister is gay. The soundtrack includes songs by 10 Seattle bands. Also on the program: a repeat of "Daughterline."

"The Seven Mysteries of Life," 5 p.m. Saturday. The best Seattle-produced feature film to date, this goofy, grainy deadpan farce plays like a Jim Jarmusch sendup of "The Time Machine." Gregg Lachow, who wrote and directed it, plays a young 20th-century inventor who goes back in time to prevent Abraham Lincoln's assassination. Megan Murphy and Kara McMahon are the women who wait for him on a Puget Sound beach. Also on the program: Bob Hutchinson's chalkboard-animation music video, "Atlanta Lowdown," an irresistible visual riff on a 1929 jazz tune.

"A Formula For Mayhem," 8 p.m. Saturday. This comic 1992 spin on low-budget detective movies is the work of Kevin McKeon and Kurt Wahlner, who created detective Ernie Boylan, made him the subject of three audiocassette mysteries, then turned his adventures into a 90-minute feature. The story takes place in Seattle in 1941 and involves a mysterious break-in at a research lab. This marks the movie's first official Seattle showing, although it has played festivals in Philadelphia, New Orleans, Mannheim, Goteborg and Sao Paulo. Also on the program: "Stolen Toyota," Kelley Baker's unnerving seven-minute documentary about stolen cars and the realities of the insurance business.

Sunday

"Spree," 2 p.m. Sunday. Emmy-winning writer-director Rustin Thompson's rude, jittery 29-minute tale of an abused woman fleeing from her ex-husband. It recently turned into a work-in-progress, thanks to a production deal with a California company that will produce and distribute it when it's expanded to feature-length. Thompson and his star, Libby Simeon, will begin adding about an hour to the film in June, again using all-local cast and crew. Also part of this program of shorts: John D. Pai's tribute to Charlie Parker, "Ode to Joy"; Ruth Hayes' ambitious animated film about the conquest of the new world, "Reign of the Dog"; and Marc Burgio's "Red Square," the story of an Evergreen student's confrontation with suicide.

"The Miracle Strip: A Story of Longacres Race Track," 5 p.m. Sunday. Completed a couple of years ago, this engrossing 80-minute documentary has been shown on KBTC-TV and it's available on videotape, but this marks its big-screen debut here. It was created by 29-year-old Stephen Sadis, who worked at Longacres in the early 1980s. Also on the program: Rob Lundsgaard's tribute to silent films, "The Lunch Hour," and a repeat of Koh's "My Brown Eyes."

"Trust Me," 8 p.m. Sunday. Created by Jeff Probst, a local actor-writer-director-producer who once hosted KIRO-TV's "Home and Garden Show," this road movie is so over-the-top that it doesn't always know what to do with its own raucous energy. But the actors, some of them regulars at Annex Theater, are often great fun. Therese Tinling is the essence of cool as a senator's jilted and vengeful girlfriend, and Adrian LaTourelle is engaging as a hopeless "hitman" she picks up on the road. Cindy Shrieve is a riot as an ambitious, shamelessly sleazy tabloid television reporter who will do anything to get her reports of their Bonnie-and-Clyde behavior on the network ("If this were Connie Chung, it'd be prime time!"). Also on the program: Vancouver filmmaker Kevin Shortt's "Lookin' Good."