Sign, Shoot and Show

By Scott Smith in Arts & Entertainment on Apr 7, 2005 11:25AM

Hey, indie filmmakers! On your way to getting pickled at Rainbo or hitting open mic night at The Innertown, stop in at Atomix (1957 W. Chicago) and sign you and some of your film major friends up for the Fast Forward Film Festival #17 – The Stranger.

Forget the rumors you've heard, the show's a go. It seems that on April 1st, the guys running the event sent out an e-mail to their mailing list with a subject line that read “Fast Forward #17 cancelled.” It was a great April Fool’s joke until some people took it sort of seriously. Whoops. The theme for this month’s fest is “out-of-place people and things” (like Michael Jackson at a day care center). Past efforts can be viewed here.

If you’ve never submitted or been to Fast Forward, here’s how it works: First sign up at Atomix between now and April 14th. Then on April 15th, you’ll get your topic. You’ll have 21 hours to make your film because the screening is the next night on the 16th at Open End Gallery (2000 W. Fulton).

Once you take home some fabulous prizes, check out this interview with director Peter Sollett over at IFP. A former Sundance Best Short Film winner and director of the critically acclaimed movie Raising Victor Vargas, he’s got some tips on how to take that Warhol-esque film of your roommate sleeping and turn it into a place in Sofia Coppola’s cell phone.