Short film festival returns to the red carpet

It’s back!  Dahlonega’s own film festival, known as Night at the Movies, will take the stage at The Holly Theatre on August 19.
The event, which is hosted by local filmmakers Luke Pilgrim and Brad Kennedy, returns for its fifth year and features eight short films.
Originally intending to find a way to show their own short films that they wrote, directed, and edited, Pilgrim and Kennedy (who run Sozo Bear Films) created the event.
They wanted to have a premiere so they put their short film together with other regionally-produced short films, said Pilgrim.
“Since then, the festival has become much more than that,” he said. “While we do headline the event each year, we also receive submissions from all over the world and then showcase them to an audience who might otherwise never get to see these films.”
Pilgrim said there aren't many places to screen short films other than online and film festivals.
“It's really special for us to be able to bring an artform to our community that a lot of people may be unaware of,” he said. “The audience gets the rare opportunity to ask the filmmakers themselves how or why they achieved certain things in the films.”

THROWBACK THEME

In order to give this year’s festival a bit of a different personality, Sozo Bear decided to go with something other than the classical movie theater theme.
“We chose the video rental theme as a fun throwback to the glory days of the video rental store where there was nothing quite like finding the perfect selection of VHS tapes for a Friday night,” Kennedy said. “For this year’s festival, we’re replicating the experience: curated short films from around the country all packaged in one exciting lineup.”

PERMISSION TO SPEAK

Attendees are encouraged to ask questions during the Q&A portion, such as how the filmmakers pulled off a certain visual effect or what the inspiration for a movie was.
Kennedy said the event is a wonderful experience at which filmmakers and audience can connect and have fun watching and discussing movies.
“Oftentimes, film festivals don't have large audiences for short film blocks,” he said, “so we aim to ensure our filmmakers that there is an audience in attendance who loves short films and can't wait to see theirs.”
Kennedy said they can tell during the Q&A sessions how much the filmmakers enjoy the questions from the audience about the making of their art and being able to showcase their short film in front of a large audience.

LINEUP

This year’s Night at the Movies will feature eight short films, including:
• Good Cop / Bad Cop—Directed by E'an Verdugo—Being the hardened criminal that Rick is, means he has seen a lot of bad cops... but Officer Hinkley... he's another kind of BAD COP.
• Cat Clay Chaos—Directed by Emmett Fifield—A pleasant afternoon for two clay characters gets interrupted by a cat. And things quickly descend into chaos, in, Cat Clay Chaos
• Over the Moon & Out of Time—Directed by Kai Patterson—Two pilots and a paratrooper are caught up in the antics of a malfunctioning alien saucer as its flustered inhabitants do their best to get home to Saturn.
• Mark II—Directed by Brent Howard—A lowly office worker stumbles upon a floppy disk that will transform his life forever.
• Warmth—Directed by Chandler Thornton—Christopher, a paranormal investigator, spends the night at the home of a friend after she sees something horrifying in her fireplace.
• Death & A Salesman—Directed by Tom Elders—A young door to door salesman's day goes from bad to worse when he “charms” his way into a crime scene.
• MAMILs—Directed by Jonathon Pawlowski—A group of 40-year-old men navigate their friendship as their peloton threatens to break apart.
• Greg—Directed by Luke Pilgrim & Brad Kennedy—Allen is your no-nonsense father who always disapproves of the “dummies” his daughter Laura dates. This Christmas, when Laura brings home an actual cotton-stuffed dummy as her new boyfriend, Allen must grapple with the fact that he might be getting in the way of her happiness. This film was written in 2017 after someone gave Pilgrim and Kennedy a cotton dummy as a prop. After having shelved the script for a few years, the team filmed it locally in May. It’s aimed to be a family comedy about learning that the most loving thing you can do for others is let them make their own choices.
Attendees are encouraged to get their tickets by visiting sozobearfilms.com (look for the VHS tape). Tickets are $15 online or at the door.
The event is Friday, August 19 with the red carpet beginning at 6 p.m. and show at 7 p.m.
“This is a fun event for the community to get dressed up (if you want to) and come take your picture on the red carpet,” Pilgrim said,  “watch some incredible short films, and see a little behind the scenes of what it takes to make your own short film.”