Asheville’s Other Vance
By the time you read this, you will have already missed your chance to catch the Asheville debut of Vance, which was last week at Asheville Pizza & Brewing Company. Don’t blame yourself — it’s not like the filmmakers bothered to tell anyone about it or anything. Vance was shot in downtown Asheville and on the campus of UNCA in just 13 days — on the ridiculously small budget of “around $2000.” And the film team didn’t even include an e-mail address or phone number on the computer-printout one-sheet they dropped off for us here at Xpress. So I’m having trouble imagining they’re real experts in the “letting people know about your movie” part of guerilla cinema. That said, the film itself looks pretty boss. Vance is a dark comedy about a college freshman (played by director/writer/co-producer James Humphries), an isolated island of alienation and spite lost in a sea of people. When a high school friend decides to help Vance change his life into something less-than-lonely, things only get worse. Oh, and there’s some subplot about collecting pennies, too. Sounds funny enough, but if you’ve already missed your chance to watch it, why should you care? Well, East Of Left Films, the production company behind Vance, just announced that the DVD should be available by the end of the year. On a related note, writer Humphries and director Brandon Tweed (who scored and edited Vance) recently completed another film, The Quatrain, for Drop Frame Features in Raleigh. They plan to debut the film in L.A. later this year — assuming, of course, they remember to tell anyone about it.
To DVD, Or Not To DVD
Speaking of things that might make it to DVD, the 2nd Annual Asheville 48 Hour Film Project may, or may not, release a compilation of this year’s entries for retail sale. Evidently, the thing isn’t much of a moneymaker, and Bonesteel Films, the event’s major sponsor, was still on the fence about it at press time. However, at a minimum, Bonesteel will release one copy of the compilation, available for rent at Orbit DVD in West Asheville. According to Bonesteel, the possibly one-off DVD will feature all shorts submitted to the festival, including such works as The Ducksorcist, Fairy’s Tale 2: The Domareckoning and Best Film winner Sock and Awe. Visit 48hourfilm.com/asheville.
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