PASSING STONES

TICKETS for PASSING STONES at 518 Val Sun Feb 4, 730p HERE

Drector Roger Majkowski – 2001 USA 94 min – IndieFest 2001 program note:

Leon (writer/director Roger Majkowski) is a ferociously bitter 30-year-old paperboy (he prefers the term “circulation manager”) still living at home with his nagging mother and dope-addled man-boy brother, Anthony. When a doddering customer gives him a cryptic letter before blowing his own brains out, Leon enlists the help of his twisted siblings to solve the mystery. After older brother Gary, a demented cross between Buddha and Machiavelli, translates the letter (it’s in Polish), it sends the trio on a hunt for a fortune. Their search leads them to a family of women even more bizarre than themselves. Head of this other household is the hard-edged Sheila. Sheila’s sister Meredith seeks relief from the barking and uncontrollable swearing of her Tourettes through a crack pipe. Their mother, Eve, lies in a catatonic stupor, yet locked within her brain are past secrets that may lead to a buried treasure. Buried treasure! Only a movie as frenzied and funny as this one could get away with an old saw like that. Filled with one-of-a-kind characters (Roger Majkowski, especially, is simply amazing as the lunatic Leon) and pitched at a delirious pace, this is an indie version of “It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World.” 

ABOUT INDIEFEST Year Three

Dates: Jan 11-21, 2001

Venues: Galaxy, Lumiere, Bohemia Lounge, Fine Arts Cinema

Features: 21  Shorts: 52  Parties: 6  Bands: 3 Total Films: 73  Total Films To Date: 128. 

With: Jeff Ross, Stevy Stephens, Allen White, Tod Booth, Mimi Brody, Abby Kavanaugh, Mick Diener, Sarah Lockhart, Dennis Conroy, Claudia Lehan, Steve Mockus, Sean Shodahl, Philip Walker, Dan Rodenburg, Alicia Perre-Dowd, Allen White, Marjorie Kase, Lynn Coakley, Trina Ross.

Sponsors: Animation, Bay Guardian, Cineric, Hotel Bijou, Eveo, SAG, Bohemia, AIVF, Creative Technology, Sierra Nevada, Rainbow Grocery, Filmmaker Magazine, Lost Weekend Video, sfstation.com, Academy of Art College

NOTES: Added short films. Opening Night bash was at Somarts. First of many Bill Plympton films at the festival. First year with Tod Booth programming. Borrowed Mimi Brody from SF FIlm Society to program shorts. Indie film themed choose your own adventure game by Richard Schenkman throughout the 32 page program guide! First year as a 501c3 non-profit!