Wendy DeCora.com

My friend Will is involved with the Hardacre Film Festival that is held in Tipton, IA showcasing independent films from all over the world. I’ve known about it for several years, but this was the year I finally went. They had screenings on Friday night and all day on Saturday. I headed over after work for the Friday night session.

I wasn’t sure what to expect. Despite all my movie-going years, I’d never been to a film festival of any kind. The Friday night session showcased two feature-length narratives, one animated short, two live-action/narrative shorts, and a feature-length documentary.

The film that opened the festival was my least favorite and I was actually wondering if I’d stay the whole night after it, but happily, everything that followed was thought-provoking or entertaining, or both.
The film that made me doubt was Coyote Funeral. The story of two brothers walking the width of Texas in order to deal with their issues. I basically wanted to punch the main character in the face the entire time. And then I was driven nuts by the continuity of the wardrobe. The brothers head off on this trip with one backpack of stuff and they stay rather consistent, trading about five shirts back and forth between them throughout their journey. But shortly into the trip, they pick up the obvious female character, who when she leaves with them is wearing a short denim skirt and some hoochie top and has like a small purse, if that. She then proceeds to change her clothes all the time! She’s got several different pairs of pants, shorts, all these tops. It was just so distracting. I doubt that a low-budget film like this had a costume or continuity person, but if they did, that person sucked! Ok, I got that out of my system…

The next film was much better, kind of great. Actually, kind of completely amazing considering it was made for less than $39,000! Mojave Phone Booth is described (by its own synopsis) as:

In the middle of the Mojave desert, rests an abandoned phone booth, riddled with bullet holes, graffiti, its windows broken, but otherwise functioning. Its identity was born on the internet, and for years travellers would make the trek down a lonely dirt road and camp next to the booth, in the hopes that it might suddenly ring, and they could connect with a stranger (often from another country) on the other end of the line.

This is the story of four disparate people whose lives intersect with this mystical outpost. With themes of love, death, the mystery of the universe, and the phenomenon of inter-connectivity, Mojave Phone Booth pitches us deep into the lives of these working class people in Las Vegas.

The movie was filmed with thirteen guidelines for keeping the film ultra-low budget, but proving, at least to this film goer, that a quality feature-length film doesn’t need a big budget to make it a quality production. There are a lot of actors that you’d recognize from movies and TV. (”Who makes Steve Guttenburg a star?”) The movie got bonus points from me by having a big “Hey! She was on The X-Files’” moment with Annabeth Gish.

Next up was Everything Will Be Ok, an animated short film by Don Hertzfeldt. It was actually shown on 35mm (everything else was digital), which was cool. It was the winner of the Best Short Film award at Sundance this year, as well as the winner of the Best Animated Film at the Hardacre, and I can see why. Its hard to describe, but the tagline does its best:

A series of dark and troubling events force Bill to reckon with the meaning of his life - or lack thereof.

Best of all? Bill is a stick figure dude. I laughed. And I really nearly cried.

The next short film was kind of meh for me. The description for the film, called My Name is Wallace from the festival program reads:

A lonely, high functioning mentally challenged man falls in love with a 900 sex-line operator, and through that call, both find redemption.

And really, that was the entire 17 minute film. There wasn’t anything salacious (not that I was really expecting that), but there just wasn’t anything beyond that description. It was a bit funny, but there wasn’t anything unpredictable to engage me as a viewer.

The last short film of the evening was ridiculous and hysterical. Entitled The Frank Anderson, it starred several actors of Office Space and the Christopher Guest movies fame. Its a short comedy piece that for me was a sketch comedy idea that was allowed to mature into something a bit longer than five minutes. What’s it about? Frank Anderson has man-boobs and he wants them reduced… or does he? HA!

The final film of the evening was a fascinating and funny documentary called Abel Raises Cain. Because it seems silly for me to try and describe the film myself when a good synopsis already exists, I give you that synopsis:

As far back as she can remember, Jenny Abel has seen her father appear on television under a variety of aliases, fooling news reporters and talk show hosts. He was continually plotting new ways to infiltrate the media with one of his seemingly absurd causes.

Throughout the years, people have accused him of being a scam artist or an impostor. But to Jenny, he was always just a father with a unique profession.

Alan Abel, by trade, is a professional prankster. His hoaxing career began in the late 1950s with a campaign to clothe all animals for the sake of decency. Even though it was a satirical commentary on censorship, his slogan, “A nude horse is a rude horse,” was plastered on the front page of newspapers all over the country.

Fueled by the overwhelming response he received from this simple yet silly idea, Abel continued concocting a myriad of elaborate hoaxes and schemes, all designed to provoke and amuse. Permeating the airwaves with such stunts as Euthanasia Cruises and the KKK Symphony Orchestra, he has never been afraid to go to ridiculous lengths in order to expose what he believes to be an injustice.

Alan Abel continues to wreak havoc in the media. His story is brought to light for the first time in this amusing and touching documentary by daughter Jenny Abel, who not only has had a ringside seat to his antics throughout her lifetime but, on several occasions, was also an unwitting accomplice to his mischief.

Jenny explores why her father is hailed by some journalists as the “world’s greatest hoaxer” and scorned by others as a complete menace to the media. She reflects on what it was like growing up with a prankster and follows her father on the road with his most recent hoax, a campaign to ban breastfeeding.

Abel Raises Cain attempts to explain the true motives behind Alan’s hoaxes and, in the process, allows for a different perspective on how the media operates. The film echoes Abel’s ultimate message — that you can’t believe everything you see, read or hear.

I had never heard of this guy before. The documentary was fascinating. It should be out on DVD soon and I hope Netflix will stock it so more people can discover this story. It really rings true today with our media soaked culture of 24-hour news and websites; how can you trust any of the news that you see?

Even more fascinating than the film, was the incredible treat that the subject of the film, Alan Abel himself, came to the festival to accept the award for Best Documentary Feature on behalf of his daughter. It was surreal to watch watch a movie about someone and then have them standing 20 feet in front of you immediately afterwards. He did a Q&A session and talked about a few of his many other hoaxes that they didn’t include in the film, including one where he managed to get a guy into a Super Bowl game as a fake referee who actually called about four plays before he was found out, and then chased out of the stadium by a cop. So funny, but even better, was that the cop was also a fake! The hoax was a “gift” to a friend of his who had been a star football player in high school, but circumstances had forced him to give up the game, and he regretted that he’d never gotten a shot at the Super Bowl. So Alan gave him that shot. One point that Alan made several times in his talk was that he’s never done anything that was illegal or caused anyone physical harm or put them in danger, that his goal was just to entertain while making people think.

All in all, it was a wonderful way to spend a long evening. We didn’t get out of the theater until 12:30am! I would definitely recommend the Hardacre Film Festival to anyone who loves independent films.

[Side Note: The writing of most of this post was supported by music from the live webcast of Bonerama's performance at the Green Parrot bar in the Florida Keys. Catch them again tomorrow night! Same bat time. Same bat channel. (Monday, 8/6/07 ~10pm EDT)]

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