Hold onto your hats folks, it’s time for the first ever candler giveaway. Readers, you have been very good to me this month, so it’s time to give something back. After last month’s Starting Out In Film post gained some traction thanks to some linkage from the excellent blog Self Reliant Film, you came back for more in June. Many of you were intrigued by my Google Wave for Filmmakers post, but there is no question that above all else you showed up for my coverage of the deadCENTER Film Festival. In fact, Oklahoma can now lay claim to the candler blog’s second highest readership in the U.S. Thanks!

Now to the contest. While I was in Oklahoma City, I popped into the Full Circle Book Store, an incredible local find, for a signing of a new collection of essays, Sooner Cinema: Oklahoma Goes to the Movies. I’ve only just started to read it and it is fascinating. The authors of this book take an interesting look at the cinematic history of the Sooner State. Trust me, this is the only book of its kind. If you are fascinated by local cinema, American history, or just a new take on American filmmaking, this will be a nice book for your collection.

I have one copy to give away and it is autographed by five of the authors. The rules are simple, leave a comment on this post with a legitimate e-mail address. That’s it! I don’t care if you use an alias and I will not be making a mailing list out of this data, I simply need your e-mail to contact you if you win. Please leave only one comment on any topic. Feel free to share your favorite film or director, suggestion for the candler, whatever you want to write. Keep it clean, dirty comments won’t get posted and are ineligible. You may enter up until 12:00am Thursday July 9th, as in midnight on Wednesday July 8th, two weeks from today. Best of luck to all!

Now that the dust has settled, here’s the complete compendium of candler blog coverage from Oklahoma City’s deadCENTER Film Festival. Read on...

The internet has been touch and go the past two days, and I’m on a friend’s computer instead of my own, so I can’t add the usual flair you have come to know and love to this post. Even with the fest completed, this continues to be an intensely film-related vacation. After a buffet breakfast at a place called Ingrid’s Kitchen, I headed over to the best bookstore in Oklahoma City, Full Circle. Designed with all kinds of nooks and crannies and rolling ladders, it is a store whose selection is not only Okie specific, but wide ranging. It’s design encourages discovery and their staff are super friendly. No one paid me to say that, seriously.

I went to Full Circle because my friend, Sunrise Tippeconnie, was signing a book in which an essay of his is featured. The book is Sooner Cinema: Oklahoma Goes to the Movies and I’m in the process of reading it. Quite interesting. This state has a long history of making movies and being portrayed in them. Which brings me to my next point.

The talk of the town right now is Michael Winterbottom’s The Killer Inside Me, which is shooting here right now. The film has brought stars Casey Affleck, Jessica Alba, and Ned Beatty. During the final day of deadCENTER they had blocked off streets downtown and filled them with 1950s cars. Last night I headed to Cookie’s, a tiny bar with a lot of heart, for the Cast and Crew more-than-halfway-through-production party. It was a nice time with some wonderful karaoke singers. The only celeb to show up was Mr. Beatty, and he was a gentleman.

I love hanging out with film crews. They are so much more tolerable than filmmakers because they rarely want to talk about movies. After the bar I went straight to a Sonic for the second time today. For those of you who don’t know about Sonic, well, you just have to drive until you find one. I got an Ocean Water Slushie and some onion rings. They tasted delicious after drinking a Pacifico cerveza.

We are off to the Wichita Mountains now, probably no more film to deal with today. I still owe you all some reiews and you’ll get them, but probably not until I’m back in New York. Poke around the site in the meantime, there’s a lot going on here.

Hot off the presses! Here are the winnered of the 9th Annual deadCENTER Film Festival. I was only able to review two of these films here, but hopefully I will get to see/review the rest at a later date.

• Screenplay:  Laura Looks Up by Keri Schreiner, Los Angeles, CA
• Narrative Feature: Weather Girl directed by Blayne Weaver, Los Angeles, CA
• Documentary Feature: Official Rejection directed by Paul Osborne, Los Angeles, CA
• Narrative Short: Gaining Ground directed by Marc Brummen, Germany
• Documentary Short: Forced into ‘Comfort’, Fighting for Apology directed by Theo Lipfert, Bozeman, MT
• Animation: I’m So Proud Of You directed by Don Herzfeld, Santa Barbara, CA
• Student Film: Science Fair directed by Dean Fleischer-Camp, Brooklyn, NY
• Oklahoma Feature: Barking Water directed by Sterlin Harjo, Tulsa, OK
• Oklahoma Short: Starvation Doctrine directed by Zac Davis, OKC, OK
• Grand Jury Narrative Feature: Yvette, directed by Rogelio Almeida, Duncan, OK
• Grand Jury Narrative Documentary:  The Day After Peace directed by Jeremy Gilley, London, UK

The 2009 deadCENTER Film Festival has come to an end. It’s been a fun ride indeed. I saw some good films, I made some good friends, and I discovered a town that I had never been to before. Oklahoma City is an interesting place for film. There are many many makers out here and an increasing slate of productions for people to find work on. The biggest gap to a thriving film community here seems to be the availability of art house, fringe and repertory film screening spaces. Once a year, when this festival rolls into town, the citizens of Oklahoma City get a nice helping of the films that don’t get out here. They need more, but the fest represents a nice start.

To be honest, I only went to 2 screenings yesterday which I will post about either later today or tomorrow. It has been a whirlwind few days here and there is finally a nice reprieve. I’ll be here a few more days touring around. I will keep you all up to date, especially on film news. Interestingly, I’m currently at a book signing at a local book store. The book, Sooner Cinema: Oklahoma Goes to the Movies, features an essay fro my good friend (and future candler contributor, watch for it) Sunrise Tippeconnie. The book just came out, otherwise I would have read it in advance to help understand this state a little better. No matter, as more film related info comes to me, you’ll get it. Here are some pics from closing night, enjoy.

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Yesterday was a bit of whirlwind, even though I spent most of the day on my ass in the same theater. It just so happened that all the films I wanted to see were at the same venue. Really, I mean it, I’m not just lazy. It started out with a little filmmaker coffee time over at the Oklahoma City Museum of Art. It is nice when everyone comes together for a bit of starbucks and biscuits in the morning. Makers, fans, critics and friends all hung out, some tooling around on MacBook Airs that are provided in the lounge. I, course, just slapped my giant 17″ MBP next to those lithe little machines and went to town.

By days end I managed to see 3 features: Official Rejection, Sweethearts of the Prison Rodeo, and Weather Girl. All attracted nice sized crowds and were recieved quite positively by the festival audience. As I settled into the 8:00 screening of Weather Girl, I finally realized that I hadn’t eaten all day. More than anything, I feared my critical rendencies being affected by the hunger pangs that would taunt me throughout. As you could guess, I was fine and ended up going to an Italian joint named Flip’s on the way back to the house.

Let me tell you about Flip’s. The food was okay, and the Oklahoma Belgian-style beer I had was delicious, but the real charm was the music. I swear, for the entire time I was there, they must have been playing the theme song from King of the Hill on loop. It was just plain awesome. Filmmaker coffee this morning was pretty nice. I got to talk to some filmmakers about the reviews I’ve given them, but more on that later. Right now I’ve got to head to another feature doc, Our Spirits Don’t Speak English: Indian Boarding School. I’m not sure what I’ll be seeing after that, but check back soon for the liveblog where I’ll keep you up to date.

Here is a picture of how intense filmmaker coffee can get in the morning. And yes, I did choose a pic that made everyone look bad on purpose.

Scott Storm, Aaron Hillis and Paul Osborne talking about stuff.

The fact that Bradley Beesley’s Sweethearts of the Prison Rodeo is something of a festival darling here in Oklahoma City is not a surprise by any measure. It is a rock solid documentary not only with local interest, but it is rousing people to bring about change, sort of.

The film follows female inmates at the Eddie Warrior Correctional Center in Taft, Oklahoma as they prepare for the second prison rodeo that women have been invited to. The event is a state tradition first instituted in 1940 and has attracted large crowds over the years, but only to watch the men. Mr. Beesley’s film has a lot of potential for volatility. After all, it is the story of hardened criminals being thrown in front of riled up cattle for the enjoyment of the masses. What transpires throughout the runtime of the piece is so counfounding, so disturbing, and so beautiful that one can’t help but be moved by this odd and untold story.

You need some backstory, which the film provides, to understand what makes the film so dog gone wonderful. Oklahoma has more women incarcerated per capita than any other state in the U.S. Approximately 80% of them are mothers and the majority of them are in there for methamphetamine charges. Here in Oklahoma, meth is widely available and probably the biggest social problem Okies have to deal with. When the drug stastistic comes out on screen, the crowd I was with didn’t budge, wasn’t surprised. It is a fact of life out here.

So we get to know some of these women who join the rodeo in an effort to get outside of the gray wals they call home; to be a part of a team and find the personal streghth they need to make it in the world once their sentence ends. It is a moving tale, but Mr. Beesley doesn’t spoon feed us anything. As an audience, we are forced to make certain choices about the characters and the film as a whole which speak volumes about our own personal values. Is it right to watch men and women be gored by animals, or is it alright for the animals? Are we okay to believe that murderers should be given a pulpit in cinema? Can we look the victims’ families in the eyes and say “I think Danny Liles deserves a second chance because I saw a movie about him?” Should we be given the chance?

These questions and more are not present in the world of Sweethearts of the Prison Rodeo, and yet they are inescapable. This is why it is such a successful film. At points, there wasn’t a dry eye in the room watching this movie, and this is among a crowd who has the power to change the bleak state of things in Oklahoma. The social problems in the state (as in any state, don’t get me wrong) could fill a stack of papers a mile high, and female incarceration and meth use are only the result of such problems, not the cause. People need to get organized, get educated, and get together, but more than that they need to get motivated to move the earth here. I believe they can do it, and I believe that Mr. Beesley’s film will help push them.

There are so many films showing here at deadCENTER that it is impossible for me to see everything that I want to. Yesterday I was only able to check out two features and no shorts. If only the festival could be two weeks long so I could see it all.

Anyway, most of yesterday was spent in friend’s car, searching for Route 66, which we didn’t find. I still got a scenic tour of Oklahoma, so it wasn’t a total loss. When we cot back to the city, I went to the Oklahoma City Bombing Memorial. This is a beautiful memorial for this terrible act that happened on our soil. Given that I am here to observe cinema, it is fascinating to see a horror like this bombing being dealt with through art. The memorial is a peaceful place. Very fitting. Pictures below.

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But this isn’t a sightseeing tour, it’s film festival coverage. You can check out my reviews on the films I saw yesterday, Triangle of Death and Pearl, elsewhere on the site. Afterwards I headed over to a swanky party, much swankier than the party on Wednesday night. How swanky? A friend of mine ordered a glass of water and it came in an 18 inch tall fluted glass. Classy? Hells yeah it’s classy. Unfortunately, my beer only came in a 12 ounce bottle. Bummer.

Today is going to be a busy slate. Official Rejection screening and panel is at 2:00pm, then Sweethearts of the Prison Rodeo followed by Weather Girl. I’m hoping to bounce in and out of shorts programs in between, and my late night screening plans are still up in the air. Live blog will start soon, keep checking back for the latest and greatest from the center of the earth. Pictures from the Pearl premiere and requisite party below.

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