HD Film Festival Schedule Released for HDFEST Los Angeles 2008
Los Angeles, CA-Nov. 14. The schedule was released today for HDFEST's Los Angeles event, which will be staged at Dolby Laboratories in Burbank. HDFEST Los Angeles will include screenings of high-definition movies, discussions on HD moviemaking and digital cinema, festival parties and the HDFEST 2008 Deffie Award Ceremony. This year's HDFEST Los Angeles will include presentations of seven revolutionary feature length HD films as well as unique High-Definition showcases including the HDFEST High-Definition Animation Showcase and the HDFEST High-Definition Music Video Showcase. HDFEST 2008 is the 9th year of the festival, which has been presenting exclusively HD festival events since 2000.
The opening night screenings of HDFEST Los Angeles will take place December 5th in Dolby Laboratories' Larry Umlang Presentation Theatre II. A complete calendar of events for the festival, which runs December 5th, 6th and 7th can be found at http://www.hdfest.com/hdfestla.html. On Sunday night, December 7th, HDFEST will present the HDFEST 2008 Deffie Award Ceremony at Dolby Laboratories' Larry Umlang Presentation Theatre II. The annual HDFEST awards recognize achievement in high definition moviemaking and animation.

HDFEST Screenings
Presentations at HDFEST Los Angeles include HD documentaries, HD experimental films, HD animations, HD music videos, HD feature narrative films and HD shorts. Many films will be making their North American Premiere or Los Angeles Premiere. Almost all the films in the HDFEST Los Angeles line-up will be making their HD Festival Premiere, meaning they have never before been presented in high-definition. High-Definition Short Film presentations include "Comedic Short Films," "HD Short Films of the Surreal & Unreal" and "Short Films: Visions into the Future and the Past."
Among the numerous highlights of this year's tour is the Los Angeles premiere of the feature length comedy REMARKABLE POWER! directed by Brandon Beckner and starring Kevin Nealon (WEEDS, SATURDAY NIGHT LIVE, YOU DON'T MESS WITH THE ZOHAN), Nora Zehetner (HEROES) and Tom Arnold (GARDENS OF THE NIGHT, ROSEANNE). REMARKABLE POWER! follows a late night talk show host who masterminds an elaborate scheme to save his canceled show and avenge his wife's affair. "Cops in costume, a peculiar special effects make-up team, porn stars with dreams of stardom, a Jewish drug lord with very large brothers, Russian mobsters and others converge in this unique roller-coaster ride of comedy, mystery, murder and mayhem through the underbelly of modern day Sodom and Gomorrah." Brandon Beckner and producer Scott Sampila will be at HDFEST to discuss REMARKABLE POWER!
Also making its Los Angeles Premiere at HDFEST is Serpent and the Sun: Tales of an Aztec Apprentice an extraordinary and inventive "hybrid documentary" documenting the global phenomena of shamanism, the medicine men and women of the world, and their lives. The Serpent and the Sun, written and directed by Shaahin Cheyen, was filmed on a month long journey through Mexico and explores the roots of an Aztec medicine man and his apprentice while trekking through the mountains of rural Mexico.
Hooked on Speedman is another feature making its Los Angeles Premiere at HDFEST. Directed by Michelle Ouellet and staring Nicholas Carella and Christopher Jacot (FANTASTIC FOUR, EUREKA), Hooked on Speedman is a feature-length comedy from Toronto. This hilarious film follows two independent filmmakers trying to make a documentary about their hero, fellow Canadian Scott Speedman. But there are two obvious problems – they have no idea how to make a movie and they’ve never met Scott Speedman.
HDFEST will also present a cutting edge series of sixteen animations created completely in HD resolution. HDFEST's HD animation series includes a wide variety of styles and genres including stop-motion, experimental animation and CGI. This sequence of HD animation will showcase the accomplishments now possible for filmmakers and animators working with fairly low budgets. Among the numerous High-Definition animations in this groundbreaking showcase include Two Minutes Away from Launch from Singapore and Directed by Jaryl Lim, Hose Written and Directed by Kevin Watkins, a unique film which is believed to be the first stop-motion project on this scale, shot entirely outdoors using natural light, The Miraculous Pear Tree from The Netherlands directed by Jeroen Zijlstra which is a stop-motion animation telling the Tibetan fairytale of a Tibetan monk who encounters a less than dignified salesman, the groundbreaking German HD animation Morula, Directed by Kristian Labusga, an animation with a focus on music visualization using motion capture data for the character and camera movement, and also two animations from Joaquin Baldwin Papiroflexia and Sebastian's Voodoo.
Other notable festival presentations include the High-Definition Premiere of Kill Kill Faster Faster Directed and Produced by Gareth Maxwell Roberts and starring Gil Bellows (24: REDEMPTION, THE WEATHERMAN, ALLY MCBEAL) and Esai Morales (JERICHO, NYPD BLUE), Kill Kill Faster Faster is a contemporary film noir inspired by the critically acclaimed novel of the same name by Joel Rose; "Route 30" Written and Directed by John Putch which follows "3 interconnecting stories from the Lincoln Highway in South Central Pennsylvania" and stars David Deluise (STARGATE SG-1) and Dana Delany (DESPERATE HOUSEWIVES) ; FOOD FIGHT Directed and Produced by Chris Taylor, a fascinating look at how American agricultural policy and food culture developed in the 20th century, and how the California food movement has created a counter-revolution against big agribusiness and the High-Definition Premiere of The Collective, Directed by Judson Morgan and Kelly Overton.