Tumbleweed Festival entertains

Movie-goers watch one of several short films from the 2013 Tumbleweed Film Festival inside the Esther Bricques Winery barrel room last Saturday evening. The winery has quickly become the most popular of the festival’s serveral venues. It truly represents the festival’s motto of “Watch  Globally, Drink Locally.” Gary DeVon/staff photos
Movie-goers watch one of several short films from the 2013 Tumbleweed Film Festival inside the Esther Bricques Winery barrel room last Saturday evening. The winery has quickly become the most popular of the festival’s serveral venues. It truly represents the festival’s motto of “Watch Globally, Drink Locally.” Gary DeVon/staff photos

Good Karma $1 wins ‘Best of Fest’

OROVILLE – More than 300 film-goers attended one or multiple venues of last week’s Tumbleweed Film Festival in Oroville.

The short films were shown at four locations this year. The first night, Thursday, was at Veranda Beach Resort. As rain threatened, the outdoor theater was moved inside the Breadline at the Beach Restaurant so the family friendly films could be shown. About 40 people, mostly kids, enjoyed the animated and live-action shorts.

Also on Thursday, was the festival’s latest venue, the Pastime Bar and Grill, where a “Best of Fest” line up was presented of hits from the festival’s previous three years in Oroville. For a new venue the Pastime attracted around 70 participants, many of whom had come early to enjoy dinner in the restaurant.

Both these venues were free to the public as the festival’s way of giving back to the community which has made them feel welcome.

““We really appreciate all the help from our sponsors and venues this year and feel like the community is starting to embrace Tumbleweed and the idea of having their own, unique film festival,” said Geoff Klein, one of the festival’s co-founders.

“We had a really nice turn-out and plan to continue this momentum to grow the event in Oroville, as well as into Tonasket and Osoyoos in 2014,” adds Klein.

The festival’s other founder, Mo Fine said, “We want this festival to showcase the Okanogan and great short films, as well as produce a fun, entertaining event for the community, while also enticing people from outside the area to visit,”

On Friday night the Tumbleweed’s projector and screen moved to Alpine Brewery, one of two venues, along with Esther Bricques Winery, that have been with the event since its beginning in 2010.

Alpine had about 50 people enjoy new short films from the U.S., Canada and around the world. A writer and actor, Fraser Corbett, from Osoyoos spoke about his film “Shakey’s Coffee” after it was shown. As did Sharon Robert, also from Osoyoos, who produced the film.

Saturday night was the big event with 120 people at Esther Bricques, many of them had been to one of the other venues, but wanted to see more. They also came to listen to the group Sack of Hammers which played until the movies started in the barrel room turned theater at 7 p.m.

Good Karma $1, won this year’s “Best of Fest” gaining the most audience votes. The film was made in the USA and directed by Amy Laslett and Jason Berger It is an insightful documentary about the thought and personalization that goes into the creation of street signs (for panhandling).

Top 10 Runner-Ups:

  1. Seattle filmmakers and Tumbleweed Film Festival co-founders Geoff Klien and Mo Fine at Alpine Brewery for Friday night’s showing of short films from around the world.
    Seattle filmmakers and Tumbleweed Film Festival co-founders Geoff Klien and Mo Fine at Alpine Brewery for Friday night’s showing of short films from around the world.

    Shakey’s Coffee (Canada), by Patrick Sabongui & Osoyoos local Fraser Corbett, who wrote and starred in the film. Also produced by Osoyoos local Sharon Roberts) – The words of Shakespeare help a young man find his courage.

  2. Walking the Dogs (UK)(staring Emma Thompson) – Director Jeremy Brock. King Elizabeth gets a surprise visit from a commoner.
  3. Dog Eat Dog (USA)- Director Sian Heder. A competition starts to adopt a dog from the pound.
  4. Penny Dreadful (USA) – Director Shane Atkinson. A kidnapper gets more than he bargains for when he kidnaps a young school girl.
  5. Great Adventures (Australia) – Director Gerard Lambkin – the incredible adventures of a grandfather and his grandson.
  6. My Right Eye (Spain) – Director Josecho de Linares. A man visits his ailing grandmother and reminisces about their time together when he was a boy.
  7. Macropolis (United Kingdom) – Director Joel Simon – Rejected toys find their way out of the toy factory and onto a toy shelf.
  8. Hedgehogs in the City (Latvia) – Director Evalds Lacis. Clever hedgehogs teach their friends how to make money in the city, with a common goal in mind.
  9. Luminaris (Argentina) – director Juan Pablo Zaramella. A man living in a future world controlled by light finds love.
  10. Good Bye (USA) –Director Joel Ashton McCarthy – two brothers take a final road-trip together.

“More people in the community are coming up to us and asking us how they can help with this film festival. As a two person show, we need all the help we can get, so we’re very excited that these people are as eager as we are to help us build a long-term, successful event,” Klein said.

Fine adds, “It’s about the art and creating a cultural event that belongs to the community, but, in the end, Tumbleweed Film Festival will go as far as the involvement of the community.”

Seattle filmmakers and Tumbleweed Film Festival co-founders Geoff Klien and Mo Fine at Alpine Brewery for Friday night’s showing of short films from around the world.