The First Annual “Wet Your Pants Comedy Film Festival” was held on Saturday, November 21, 2009 at the Carmel Community Playhouse. I was fortunate to be asked to help out with the event.  The idea for this fun packed festival came from a personal tragedy for it’s founders.  Steve Pearce fought a long battle with Kidney Disease. Along the way he became an ardent supporter and volunteer for the Nation Kidney Foundation. He did a great job spreading awareness and raising funds for the foundation. He also made a lot of good friends and was always making the lives of everyone who knew him better through laughter. When he finally lost his battle earlier this year his family decided to keep his spirit alive through what he loved most… laughter. All of the proceeds from the festival went to the National Kidney Foundation.

Heading up the Festival was Steve’s brother Brian Pearce and their parents. Brian has Produced several films and is currently a Voluntary Board Member of the Indiana Filmmakers Network. This year’s festival was arranged at a break-neck speed. They had only a couple of months to put together what most festivals take a year to organize. It was very important for the family that the festival be held on November 21st… Steve’s Birthday.

In the short amount of time they actually got twice as many entries as needed for the festival. The submissions were whittled down to the fifteen films selected for screening. Most of the films screened had some kind of local connection. There was no shortage of laughter.  There were several feature length films  including, Zorg & Andy, Open Mic’rs, and 29 Reasons To Run. There were also a dozen short films…

Waffles For Virginia

Do Pencils Go To Heaven

Delusions

Cat Clock

Clones Gone Wild

The First Date

I’m Not Talking To You

The Last Bottle

PHAT

If A Tree Fell

Das Spiel

Tree Talk

Many festivals take years before they turn a profit for their charities… not this one. The very first Wet Your Pants Festival was able to make a generous donate to the National Kidney Foundation. The attendance was great and everyone had a wonderful time. The day was split into four blocks of films with Q&A sessions between each. There was plenty of time to meet the filmmakers.

The films competed for three awards.

“Best Film of 2009″ award was decided by a group of local industry professionals and personalities. It was won by Gary Weeks’ film “Clones Gone Wild” . A story of what happens when your clone is cooler than you.

“The Audience Choice Award” as it’s name implies, was decided by the audience members…hmmm what a neat idea. This award also went to Gary Weeks, this time for his film “29 Reasons to Run”. A cross country journey by two friends who really need to get their lives together.

The Third award was the “Steve Pearce Memorial Award”. This award was presented by Steve’s family to the film that most matched Steve’s odd sense of humor. It was given to Director Steve Wright’s short film “Cat Clock”. I can’t really describe this film… it would give the whole thing away and wouldn’t nearly do it justice.

The Family has already started making plans for next year’s festival. I’m really looking forward to what it will bring.

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Posted by admin on December 8th, 2009 :: Filed under Film Festivals,Film Screenings,Film Shoots
Tags :: Brian Pearce, Film Festivals

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The 2008 Indy Awards were held Saturday September 27th, at the Laikin Auditorium-Jewish Community Center, Indianapolis In.

There were twelve films competing two $400 awards. All of the filmmakers did a great job. I really enjoyed catching up with the all of them and meeting some new faces.

Let me go on the record here. I had a horse in this race. I was one of the people that encouraged and helped Kate Chaplin bring “First They Came For…” to the screen. So being there when that ‘horse’ won it’s first race was a thrill! There were quite a few of the crew members in attendance.  A couple of them brought their own film to the festival. Tom Johnson and Nate Savadge entered their film “The Last Bottle”. The epic tale of two friends who turn against each other when they are down to their last beer. As has been said before, this film changed my life. It was great fun to watch! Kelly Lynch brought two of his films to the festival “On Common Ground” and “The Passenger”. Kelly’s eye for cinematography and camera movement is amazing. And since “The Passenger” took first place at the ‘Really Big Short Film Festival’ last spring. We were all nervous about going up against him again.

I am thrilled that Kate got the Audience Award. She’s worked very hard on her filmmaking skills and it’s great to see her get this recognition. The entire cast and crew put in some amazingly hard work to produce this film. The other thing that seemed appropoe was this film winning it’s first award at a screening in the Jewish Community Center. Considering the message of the film, I think the venue really drove it home.  The ideas of never forget and never again. I want to personally thank everyone in attendance that voted for the film.

The Jury Award was presented to “In Memoriam” a short film by Fort Wayne native Andrea Listenberger. Andrea is currently attending collage in New York state and could not make it to the festival. Her family was present and received the award for her. I hope to see more work from Andrea in the future. Her story telling skills are impressive and the preformances of the cast were riviting.

Congratulations to both Kate and Andrea… It was definitely ladies’ night at the Indy Awards!

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Posted by admin on September 28th, 2008 :: Filed under Film Festivals,Film Screenings
Tags :: Film Festivals, Indy Awards, Kate Chaplin

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