In a curious turn of events or simply wonderful coincidence, it appears that all three of the 2008 Florida Film Festival Grand Jury Award winners in the Shorts categories (Narrative, Documentary, and Animation) will be back on Enzian's screen this Fall, as well as the Best Narrative Feature winner. First up will be Alex Holdridge's lovely and hilarious Best Feature, IN SEARCH OF A MIDNIGHT KISS, tentatively scheduled to open September 19. This smart romantic comedy is the only one of the award winners we actuallly had control of bringing back, since the shorts were at the mercy of the curators of their respective programs.

Next on the horizon is Signe Baumane's "explicitly educational" series, TEAT BEAT OF SEX," winner of Best Animated Short, which will be one of only two American selections in the 11th annual Manhattan Short Film Festival. The festival will be utilizing Episodes #8 - 11, the losing-her-virginity story arc that had its North American Premiere at FFF in early April, and will play Enzian on Tuesday, September 23 at 6:30 PM. More on the just-announced complete lineup later...

And finally, Myna Joseph's powerful and unsettling sister story, MAN, winner of the Best Narrative Short (automatically qualifying it for next year's Oscars in the category of Best Live Action Short), and Daniel Robin's haunting look at his parents' marriage, MY OLYMPIC SUMMER, the Best Documentary Short, will both return in the same program on Wednesday, December 3. These are but two of the amazing films in the Sundance Art House Project Shorts program, a collection of some of the best short films from last year's Sundance that happens to include not only the aforementioned FFF Grand Jury Award winners, but two other outstanding FFF vets as well--the Bill Murray-starring FCU: FACT CHECKERS UNIT and the Australian shocker, SPIDER. More on the complete program of this one later as well...

In the meantime, have a safe and restful Labor Day weekend.

--Matthew

After their monumental collapse out of playoff contention the final three weeks of last year, it's hard to fathom that this team could continue bringing the pain. Tuesday night the NY Mets actually blew a 7-0 lead on the road to their biggest rival, Philadelphia, and ended up losing the game in 13 innings. Guess who's no longer in first place? By my count that's over 20 times this season already that the Mets' bullpen has stunk up the joint and blown games that should have been "W"s (costing Johan Santana at least 6 more wins and a shot at another Cy Young). Apparently the aging-but-not-quite-washed up Pedro Martinez, yesterday's starting pitcher/victim, was 47 - 0 lifetime when staked to a 7 run lead--that record is no longer unscathed.

While I root for the Mets in the NL and picked them to win their division in the "World's Greatest Baseball Pool," I am thankful that I don't bleed orange and blue like my sister Jolie, who's a die-hard fan even though she lives in Oregon. I'm having a hard enough time dealing with my beloved Twins' 14-game road trip (their longest in 40 years due to the Republican national convention in Minneapolis--yet another reason to be disgusted) that's off to a disappointing start with four straight losses after winning the first two in LA. It's definitely crunch time, and they simply have to play better on the road or the surging White Sox will make their 3-game series in Minny the final week of the season a moot point.

--Matthew

Has it really been almost 20 years? Spike Lee's first great film, the highly acclaimed, multiple award-winning DO THE RIGHT THING (1989), makes a rare appearance on the big screen in 35mm as part of Enzian's Cult Classics series on Tuesday night at 9:30 PM. Incredibly entertaining and still quite provocative, the film focuses on life in the Bed-Stuy section of Brooklyn, where a white-owned pizza parlor flourishes in the predominantly black neighborhood. But on this particular sweltering summer day, circumstances lead to an outbreak of hostilities...

In just his third feature after SHE'S GOTTA HAVE IT (1986) and SCHOOL DAZE (1988), Spike's writing and filmmaking reaches a skill level here that established him as a major American filmmaker from that point on. The cast he worked with was sensational, and included both Hollywood veterans and actors ready to hit the bigtime in the indie film world--Danny Aiello, Ossie Davis, Ruby Dee, Giancarlo Esposito, John Turturro, Richard Edson, Bill Nunn, John Savage, Rosie Perez, Samuel L. Jackson, Martin Lawrence, and of course, Spike himself as Mookie the delivery boy, all lent their talents to this landmark and incendiary film about race relations.

DO THE RIGHT THING was nominated for two Academy Awards (Best Supporting Actor for Aiello and Best (Original) Screenplay for Spike), won the New York Film Critics Circle Best Cinematography award (Ernest Dickerson), and four Los Angeles Film Critics Asociations awards including Best Picture, Director, Supporting Actor, and Music. On the eve of a black man receiving his party's nomination to run for President for the first time in American history, there may never be a more appropriate time to revisit or check out this brilliant and thought-provoking work. I know I'll be there.

--Matthew

From the shameless plug department: the 2009 Florida Film Festival (March 27 - April 5), the 18th annual edition of Central Florida's most celebrated film event held every spring, is now officially taking submissions for both domestic and international features and shorts. Call for Entries forms and information can found on the festival website at www.floridafilmfestival.com/img09/PDF/call_for_entries.pdf or through Withoutabox at www.withoutabox.com/login/1139

We look forward to previewing your work!

-Matthew

Enzian Theater, the Orlando area's only full-time, not-for-profit art house since 1985, was recently nominated as one of Central Florida's "Best Places to Work in 2008" presented by the Orlando Business Journal (circ. 100,000). Among the top raves about each of the best-places-to-work nomineess are job flexibility, open lines of communication, family-oriented atmosphere, recognition and encouragement from management, and employee engagement. And as I get ready to begin my 13th year as Programming Director for both Enzian and the Florida Film Festival in the next couple of weeks, I can only add one thing to those comments (and a small tribute to the late Isaac Hayes to boot)--Right On!

--Matthew

Friday night at The Social in downtown Orlando I had one of the most fun experiences at a club that I've had in a long time. The Silver Beats are a Beatles cover band from Tokyo, complete with original guitars and outfits, and they put on a fantastic show that exceeded all expectations. Concentrating on mostly earlier material including those great Chuck Berry and Carl Perkins covers from the first LPs and live shows, they took a brief foray into later stuff such as "Come Together," "Don't Let Me Down," a keyboard-less (!) "Let It Be," and "Back in the USSR." But the majority of their 95 minute set was "Rubber Soul" and back, hit after hit, energetically performed often note for note. And you know how many great Beatle songs can be played in an hour and a half?

Apparently the band have 160 tunes in their Fab Four repertoire, hold a steady gig at The Cavern Club (I kid you not) in Tokyo, and just finished a tour as openers for The Killers. When the members were introduced by both their Beatle names and real names, "Paul" introduced "John" as "the # 1 John Lennon in Japan!" When you see and hear this guy, you don't doubt it. Check them out at www.silverbeats.com or the "A Hard Day's Night" promotional video on You Tube. Watch out for cheap imitations though--apparently there's a Silver Beats in Spain as well that can't hold a candle to these talented performers from the Far East. The merch table had cool retro shirts and buttons too, but it's the unbelievable pop genius of song after song and effervescent performances that put a big smile on everyone's faces--hipsters and rednecks, hippies, punks, and middle-agers alike.

I know New York has an acclaimed Beatles cover band of famous session musicians called The Fab Faux, but The Silver Beats have made a believer out of me. You need to see these guys...

--Matthew

Last weekend's gathering of local filmmakers and film fans, including some of the participants of Enzian's Young Filmmaker Summer Camp, made for a unique FilmSlam # 8. A solid crowd of 70 or so viewers took in the 8-film program and voted on their favorites (though MISSION Y (BECAUSE MISSION X FAILED) was not eligible since Enzian was intimately involved with its production). Taking 1st Place and receiving a bye into December's Brouhaha Film & Video Showcase was Bradley Kelly's A LOT, a short about a businessman on his way to reconcile with his estranged wife who must first deal with a parking lot attendant. Congrats as well to 2nd place winner Daniel Robert Scherr for his THE GOOD DOCTOR and 3rd Place winner Joe Malys for his DAY OF THE MUMMY.

And a shout out to FilmSlam programmer and host John Theisen for his latest bit of media coverage on the front page of the August 2 issue of The Forum, a free local paper produced by the Orlando Sentinel. Way to go John!

--Matthew

Still playing catch-up after a late July vacation and time away last week for family health issues, but in the interim the Orlando Weekly (Central Florida's cool alternative paper, circ. 75,000) came out with their annual "Best of" issue. And sure 'nuff Enzian was chosen as "Best Theater in Orlando" and the Florida Film Festival was ranked #3 for "Orlando's Best Festivals" category, following the Orlando Fringe Festival and the Florida Music Festival.

Enzian Theater has been the recipient of the readers' poll award eleven out of twelve years since the Weekly began publishing their "Best of Orlando" series in 1996, while this is the Florida Film Festival's first year earning an award for "Orlando's Best Festivals." The Weekly's "Best of Orlando" awards are chosen by the publication's readers and residents of Central Florida, and we're proud and appreciative that they selected us.

--Matthew

In retrospect probably both, but who cares? All I know is that a rare 35mm print of Robert Aldrich's WHAT EVER HAPPENED TO BABY JANE? (1962), starring Bette Davis, Joan Crawford and Victor Buono, plays Enzian tonight (Tuesday) as part of the increasingly popular, bi-weekly Cult Classics series. This landmark personality-disorder horror film, thriller, black comic Gothic chiller, or whatever you want to label it, could be considered a direct descendant of Billy Wilder's SUNSET BOULEVARD, and it scared the crap out of me when I was little. But so did William Castle's STRAIGHT-JACKET (also starring Crawford), which upon recent viewing as one of the Midnight Features in this year's Florida Film Festival, now plays as an absolute camp classic that is flat-out hilarious and bizarre.

Sibling rivalry reached a new pinnacle of perversion in this twisted tale of two sisters under one roof, one a former actress now confined to a wheelchair who's dependent on the other, a former child star now both demented and highly resentful. Scary and fun and featuring one of Bette Davis' most memorable and over-the-top performances, WHAT EVER HAPPENED TO BABY JANE? also proved to be quite influential, triggering a decade-long run of horror films starring older actresses in psychotic roles. Davis herself (along with Olivia de Havilland and Agnes Moorehead) followed it up with HUSH...HUSH SWEET CHARLOTTE three years later, and other titles like DIE! DIE! MY DARLING! with Tallulah Bankhead, WHAT'S THE MATTER WITH HELEN? with Debbie Reynolds and Shelley Winters, and WHO SLEW AUNTIE ROO? (Winters again!) tried to cash in on the trend. And of course, I couldn't get enough of them in those pre-teen years--a cheap thrill is a cheap thrill.

--Matthew

This Sunday, August 10, at 1:00 PM marks the occasion of yet another gathering of some of the finest in local filmmaking that the Central Florida area has to offer. FilmSlam # 8 is ready to go and features what appears to be a fascinating and eclectic mix of short films, including a doc about Disney pioneer Ub Iwerks (!), a mummy movie that's got to better than the sequel that's currently at the multiplex, and a doc about a proposed life-size statue of surf champion Kelly Slater in Cocoa Beach. The cherry on the top however, is the inclusion of the mini sci-fi epic produced at the Enzian's KidFest Young Filmmakers Summer Camp just a couple of weeks ago--MISSION Y (BECAUSE MISSION X FAILED). Congratulations to all the 5th - 8th grade campers that made it happen, as well as writers/supervisors Jay Henderson and Jon Jones.

Now come on out and show your support, Orlando!

--Matthew

America Held Hostage by Brett Favre's "un-retirement" is finally over--thank God! ESPN will have to figure out something else to cover after all these weeks. The Packers did us all a favor by unloading the Green Bay living legend with the rocket arm to the NY Jets for a conditional 4th round draft pick--the better the Jets do and the closer they get to the Super Bowl, the higher the draft pick will be. And the Packers made absolutely sure the Jets could not just turn around and trade him to his team of choice (and mine of course)--the Minnesota Vikings. Apparently there's a clause in the trade contract that says the Jets will owe Green Bay three (!) first round draft picks if they trade him to the Vikes. So that ain't happenin', but at least I won't have to deal with the conflicted emotions of having my football team's most hated rival and arch-nemesis suddenly taking over to try and lead them to a championship. Granted they'd have a better shot at a Super Bowl with Brett than Tarvaris Jackson, but did we really want to go there?

So let's hear it--I.N.T.S, JETS, JETS, JETS! Unless of course he suddenly changes his mind and retires again.

--Matthew

Shanon Larimer, the recently appointed (well, less than a year anyway) new Executive Director for Enzian and the Florida Film Festival, was selected by the Orlando Business Journal (circ. 100, 000) as one of Central Florida's most successful and influential people under age 40--way to go, boss! Weighing in the decision had to be the fact that the 2008 Festival wrapped its 17th year this spring with a 43% increase in box office sales, averaged 90% capacity on all ticketed events, and attracted more than 25,000 visitors, patrons, and participants. Regarded as one of the region's top film festivals, I'm proud to say the Florida Film Festival has become an established, if not essential, part of Central Florida's cultural calendar and international film scene.

--Matthew