Anne Stone Crow in “Margaret”
The D.C. area is well known for fostering local musical talent, and with a buzz around the Prince George’s County-made comedy Sweaty Betty, our local filmmakers are gaining some attention, too. Budding directors have gotten a chance to try out their wares in the annual 48 Hour Film Project in recent years. But before that, there was only one word for local film making, and that was Rosebud.
Named after the iconic [spoiler alert!] sled in Citizen Kane, the Rosebud Festival has championed locally made films since 1990. This year’s event, originally scheduled for January 23-24, was rescheduled for this weekend due to the blizzard.
Jeff Krulik, director of Heavy Metal Parking Lot and Led Zeppelin Played Here, helped start the festival and told me that “Rosebud is a true legacy, a top regional film festival, and the only one I know of that offers such eye-popping cash prizes. Local filmmakers owe it to themselves to enter on that alone.”
Five-time Rosebud winner Rob Parrish (watch his winning 2011 short “Next to Heaven: Judy’s Smile” here.) writes: “The Rosebud Festival is a real treasure for the DMV film community, providing a great screening venue for less traditional work… Rosebud has helped put more advanced film making gear in my hands on many occasions.”
I had the opportunity to preview three of this year’s nominees:
“Fall Seven Times, Get Up Eight: The Japanese War Brides.” (26 min.) Director Karen Kasmauski’s documentary short observes three Japanese women who emigrated to the US in the ’50s as war brides of American soldiers. The film also looks at these women through their daughters: a photojournalist, a newspaper editor, and a freelance journalist, all of whom live in or have ties to the D.C. area. The film is a touching study of two generations of women, a sketch that could well sustain a feature-length study.
“The Columbarium.” (4 min.) Director Tyler Trumbo shot this impressionistic short on 16mm black and white film. The film is a brief portrait of Emmitt Waston, caretaker of tens of thousands of cremated remains at the Neptune Society Columbarium in San Francisco. Watson muses on the meaning of community as a place for the dead as well as the living.
“Margaret.” (13 min.) An elderly woman makes the rounds at a speed-dating event for senior citizens in director Manan Singh Katohora’s comedic film. The film’s humor doesn’t all click, but the film wins you over by the time it reveals its real, sentimental premise.
For more information and a full list of this year’s nominees, see here.
The Rosebud Showcase takes place Saturday, January 30, 2016 from 2 p.m. – 8 p.m. at The Naval Heritage Center (701 Pennsylvania Avenue NW). The Rosebud Awards Ceremony takes place Sunday, January 31, 2016 from 7 p.m. – 10 p.m. at Clarendon Ballroom (3185 Wilson Boulevard, Arlington). Tickets for the showcase (five and a half hours of films) are available for $15 from https://www.arlingtonmedia.org/rosebud
