Looking for a departure from your usual movie renting experience? Why not check out something more local than New York or L.A.? Videoport has a number of selections from area filmmakers making magic literally in your own backyard. Here are a couple of picks to start you out:
HP Lovecraft’s “Nyarlothotep,” by Crawling Chaos Pictures, 2001.
Winner of the Katahdin Award at the 2001 Portland Festival of World Cinema, this adaptation of the HP Lovecraft story is an impressive combination of classical horror and post-modern experimental cinema. Adapted and directed by Christian Matzke, highlights of the short film (it runs only about 13 minutes) include intriguing camera angles and a well-paced, thoughtful interpretation of Lovecraft’s original story. The film was shot digitally, and subsequently aged to look like an old-style flick from the 1920’s. While the musical score occasionally detracts more than it adds, the final sequences are genuinely well-cut and well-played, and the final result is a short film that will stay with you both for the quality of its production and the content of the story itself. DVD extras include outtakes, stills and an interview with Matzke. You can rent it at Videoport for only $1, and decide for yourself if you could do it better.
Pennyweight, by Newborn Pictures, 1999.
One of the funnier contributions from the creative team of Kyle Rankin and Efram Potelle, this comedy short follows the misadventures of filmmaker Blaine Kinney as he attempts to secure the necessary funding to produce his movie. The basic premise is that Kinney’s investor, Fentworth Pennyweight III, is willing to give him $200,000, no strings and no questions asked, if Kinney will just do one thing: Wear a pair of absurd, oversized floral earrings for one year. While the physical comedy is occasionally over-the-top, the dialogue is fun, the acting-particularly by character actor Ray Wise, who plays Pennyweight-solid, and the forays into Portland hysterical. Available on VHS only.