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Sandeep continues an award winning festival run: BEST FEATURETTE - 2011 Vegas Cinefest. BEST DIRECTOR OF A SHORT FILM - Derek Frey - Independent Fillm Quarterly Festival BEST DIRECTOR - Derek Frey - International Film Festival of Spirituality, Religion, Visionary BEST COMEDY SHORT - 2011 Mockfest BEST SHORT FILM - 2012 Freestyle Film Exhibition BEST WRITING - The Minor Prophets - 2011 Mockfest BEST SCREENPLAY - International Film Festival of Spirituality, Religion, Visionary BEST ACTOR - Deep Roy - International Film Festival of Spirituality, Religion, Visionary BEST ACTOR - Deep Roy - The Sunset International Film Festival - Los Angeles BEST ACTOR - Deep Roy - The 2011 Colorado Film Festival BEST COMEDY SHORT - 2011 Jersey Shore FIlm Festiva lBEST ORIGINAL SCORE - International Film Festival of Spirituality, Religion, Visionary AWARD OF EXCELLENCE - 2012 Best Shorts Competition AWARD OF EXCELLENCE - 2012 RINCON International Film Festival - Puerto Rico AWARD OF MERIT - Lead Actor Deep Roy - 2012 Best Shorts Competition AWARD OF MERIT - Accolade Film Festival HONORABLE MENTION - 10th annual DIY Film Festival BRONZE AWARD WINNER - 2012 Prestige Film Awards FINALIST - International Film Festival for Peace, Inspiration & Equality SEMI-FINALIST - NEXT TV Film Festival VOTED 1 OF THE TOP 3 SHORT FILMS - SIlicon Valley Film Festival FINALIST - Moondance International Film Festival
For updates please visit: http://www.theballadofsandeep.com/festivalsandawards.html PRESS: And the winners are … 2012 Big Island Film Festival exceeds all expectation By Hadley Catalano T he 2012 Big Island Film Festival gathered directors, producers, actors and film critics from around the world over Memorial Day weekend to watch, reflect, and admire award winning short, feature length, and foreign films. The seventh annual celebration of the moving picture art form, hosted at the Mauna Lani Resort, welcomed over 2,200 people and raised $4,200 for the Fisher Tripler Army Medical Center. Local and state honors were award to both festival directors and filmmakers. Jan and Leo Sears, founders of the BIFF, received an appreciation plaque from rep Elisa Leonelli, from the Hollywood Foreign Press Association, who was attending the festival to evaluate foreign language films for possible Golden Globe consideration. Among the 12 winning category awards of the BIFF, announced on Monday, May 28, Big Island residents Kelly Winsa and Peter Henderson’s “Hi, Honey” received the Audience Choice for Short Film and O`ahu’s producer/director/writer Alexander Bocchieri’s “Flat” won for Best Hawai`i Short. However noteworthy the festival’s award winners, so too was the camaraderie and patronage that filmmakers felt with the “Talk Story” festival. Directors Dane Neves and Derek Frey were just two of the reasons that the BIFF has become an increasingly successful event. While Neves, a 25-year-old O`ahu native screened his third BIFF movie, a short titled “Giant Monsters Attack Hawai`i,” and Frey, a first time BIFF entrant and seasoned associate producer for Tim Burton films, directed “The Ballad of Sandeep,” the two have one thing in common – a passion for Hawai`i and independent film festivals. Neves, who attended the Academy for Creative Media at the University of Hawai`i- Manoa, has a lifelong passion for film, particularly those with puppets. “I’ve always been a fan of The Muppets,” said the young director who made “Giant Monsters” through various visual and after effects programs. “I have always wanted to make a Godzilla movie.” Neves’ BIFF eight-minute short (previously accepted were ”Cotton Cool” in 2008 and “The Green Tie Affair,” which won Best Family Short in 2011) is a Waikiki take on the classic, stereotypical monsters-attack-city flick. “In college everyone was doing romantic comedies and coming of age movies, I wanted to do something different,” said Neves, who shoots all of his films in Hawai`i but commissioned Sunny Vegas from Chicago, a master puppeteer, to bring to life his puppet designs. “There is a message in this film, to embrace your true potential and don’t let anyone hold you back.” Neves himself has taken personal solace in his movie’s mission. Working full time at `Olelo Community Media, he makes movies in his free time to hone his artistic skills, not for profit sake. He is already in production on his next short puppet film “Poison Apple,” a musical story of Snow White told through the perspective of the apple. His repeated submissions to the BIFF– and he plans to submit more– have been because of what Neves called a friendly relationship with the directors, a familial closeness that is unique to the festival and captures the nature of the Big Island. It is this same personal tie that has Derek Frey, director of “The Ballad of Sandeep,” returning to the Big Island and its residents for the past 10 plus years. “I first visited in March of 2001 as part of the film crew on Tim Burton’s ‘Planet of the Apes,’ said the director, who said he fell in love with the scenic beauty and visual inspiration of the island. “I caught the band Technical Difficulties playing at Fiascos in Hilo on St. Patrick’s Day and was blown away by their musicianship and dynamic compositions.” Frey returned to the island five months later to shoot a music video for the band and continued to return to the island over the past decade to film additional music videos and help film a concert at the Palace Theater. “It’s been quite an inspiring collaboration and I’ve remained close friends with the band. What really made filming on the Big Island possible were the friends I made. I’m very fortunate to have met so many artistic souls who share a passion to create. On any of the projects I’ve mounted on the Big Island the intent has always been to merely create something for the sake of itself and there has been a team of devoted people at the ready to give it their all.” Two of these dedicated individuals include Volcano residents RaVani and Thom Durkin (RaVani was the lead singer for Technical Difficulties). Both husband and wife have assisted Frey on his previous film, “The Curse of the Sacred Stone,” which was filmed entirely in Puna and his 2012 BIFF submission “The Ballad of Sandeep,” starring Deep Roy (Star Trek, “The Neverending Story,” and “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory,” etc.). “Derek (Frey) is a wonderful person to work with,” RaVani, who graduated from Waiakea High School and UH Hilo, said. “ He’s so patient, friendly, and professional. It was really fun working on the films and very exciting.” With RaVani working the make-up and costuming departments and Thom’s assistant directing and tackling sound recording the two were an instrumental part of the limited crew that filmed the 28-minute movie in the outskirts of Philadelphia. “We got by with a handful of devoted and hard working friends and family. Although extremely limited by a shoestring budget I feel we were successful in telling the story we intended to,” Frey explained about the film that fits the bill of the festival’s narrative focus. “We wanted to tell a story where Deep (Roy) had the opportunity to step from behind the makeup and portray a character closer to the man he really is. The story also touches upon the aftermath of difficult economic times in the United States. Many Americans have recently faced the harsh reality of having their jobs outsourced to countries such as India. The Minor Prophets (a comedic group of a Philadelphia), having encountered this reality in their own day jobs, took what could have been a simple premise and turned it on its head.” Due to Frey’s close ties with the Big Island he was hoping his latest comedic short would make it in to the “Talk Story” festival. “I know selecting a lineup for a film festival is extremely competitive so I didn’t want to get too excited at the prospect,” Frey said. “Out of all of the film festivals “The Ballad of Sandeep” has been accepted into, I have to say being part of the Big Island Film Festival means the most.” For additional information on “Giant Monsters,” visit facebook.com/Giantmonstersattackhawaii, and Derek Frey’s website www.lazerfilm.com, which includes music videos and a short film shot on the Big Island, or go to www.theballadofsandeep.com.
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