The Gasparilla Film Festival opened Wednesday night at the Tampa Theater with the showing of Kabluey. The turnout was excellent as movie goers continued to stream in until the 8:00 PM show time. Kabluey was well received by the audience and the film’s writer and star, Jeff Balis was on hand to speak after the movie.

The after party took place at Spain downtown and was also a great success. Two projectors showed trailers of the upcoming festival offerings on the wall behind the crowded bar. Live Spanish and flamenco music was also part of the entertainment. If you weren’t there, you missed a nice evening. But don’t worry, the festival is just starting.

There are plenty of interesting films you can choose from:

American Fork (Friday)

Tracy Orbison (Hubbel Palmer) is an earnest dreamer whose quest to be somebody fuels a string of seriocomic misadventures. Tracy works a dead-end job as a grocery store clerk in a drab slice of strip-mall America but believes he’s found a way out when the acting bug bites. He falls under the spell of Z-list actor Truman Hope (The Squid and the Whale’s William Baldwin), only to become disillusioned after glimpsing Hope’s true character. A friendship with bagboy Kendis Cooley (Vincent Caso) leads to Tracy’s next project: reforming a gang of surly, teenaged deadbeats. Here too, Tracy’s ef-forts fall short of his fantasies.

Blood Feast (Saturday)

Legendary filmmaker Herschell Gordon Lewis, often referred to as the “Godfather of Gore”, directed Blood Feast in 1963 - the very first “gore” or “splatter” film. For many of his horror and “nudie cutie” hits, he often collaborated with producer David F. Friedman, releasing well-received and financially successful films such as Two-Thousand Maniacs!, Color Me Blood Red, and Trader Hornee. Lewis continued making horror films into the late ‘60s and early ‘70s, continuing his sordid reputation as a taboo-buster with the films The Gore Gore Girls, Wizard of Gore, and Gruesome Twosome. In the early ‘70s, Lewis retired from filmmaking altogether, and established himself as the king of direct mail advertising. You can’t keep a great horror director away from the cameras too long, however, for in 2002 he returned to the genre directing Blood Feast 2: All U Can Eat to a legion of delighted fans.

What We Do Is Secret (Saturday)

Filmmaker Rodger Grossman’s decade of research led to this gem of movie which looks at the seminal band from the late 70’s LA punk rock scene, the Germs, and their enigmatic lead singer, Darby Crash. Shane West (‘ER’) stars as Darby Crash, and Bijou Phillips and Rick Gonzalez play his bandmates in this retro biography. Incredibly faithful to the history of the group and those times, West embodies Crash both in character and appearance in this hard-hitting feature.

RSS 2.0 - trackback