LOCALS ONLY: FOUR MACABRE MARVELS

SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 12
The 34th Annual Olympia Film Festival Presents:
LOCALS ONLY: FOUR MACABRE MARVELS
7:00pm doors / 7:30pm film
Free Admission

BUZZARD HOLLOW BEEF

Still reeling from her divorce and struggling as the single mother of a 9 month old, Jordan Vollmer looks forward to a relaxing Thanksgiving weekend with her family and her best friend, Paige. Unfortunately the guy she’s been blowing off has crashed the Vollmer’s holiday weekend, tagging along with Jordan’s brother, Joel. As the group ventures into the small town of Buzzard Hollow they are greeted with strange and unsavory characters known around these parts as the Solomon family. Their suspicions surrounding the Solomon’s are aroused by the fact that they all seem unwilling to talk about the beef that they serve in their hamburgers and sell in their butcher shop. The Vollmer family experience horrifying hallucinations and begin to suspect that the Solomons are somehow involved when they catch Garrett, Darrell & Cody hunting on their property. Jordan narrowly escapes their rifle sights and the danger quickly escalates as they are picked off one by one.
Dir. Joshua M. Johnson & Tara C. Hall 2017 / US / 115 minutes

CAT VIDEO

Using the cat video as a medium, the artist attempts to reach a wider audience while also exploring universal themes of isolation, windiness, and the inexplicable beckoning of nature, luring us into fragility.
Dir. Anne Hartner / 2016 / US / 2 minutes

MAGGIE’S PROBLEM

With the use of carbonated music and washed out pastels, Molly Hewitt’s short film focuses on an unconventional love story between a lime-green creature with a heart of seaweed and a rosy-cheeked protagonist under duress. Maggie’s Problem is a monster movie that lampoons film tropes, utilizes madcap music, and employs a dizzying carousel of practical effects and set designs. “I always remain myself,” Hewitt says, “attempting to relate, understand and subvert through imitation. Unraveling the mechanisms and meanings of cultural text to be reused in an illuminating or empowering way. I am intrigued by the grotesque, the violent and extreme. I am low-budget-chic creating a new genre that combines lumpy, figurative ceramics and narrative video.” Maggie’s Problemis a deconstruction of the expected, and one of the weirdest films in this year’s fest: Imagine Creature from the Black Lagoon by way of Terminal USA.
Dir. Molly Hewitt / 2014 / US / 30 mins

OT3

A mid-twentieth century romp, OT3 begins when murderer Nico Van Camp discovers that his boyfriend Josiah’s brother has been killed by a local drug gang called The Collective, headed by their notorious and mysterious leader, OT3. Nico has no choice but to enlist the help of his arch-nemesis, the deadly Wednesday St. James—a showgirl, and Josiah’s second lover. Though initially hesitant, she agrees to a one-night truce with Nico in order to hunt their common enemy. Together, bound by their love for the same man, the pair of killers descend into an underground ‘60s world of madness, blood, and lust. Set in a time of turbulent change and shifting social norms, Nico and Wednesday, with their stiff formalwear and stab-happy killing style, are threatened by The Collective’s fluid ways, psychotropic drug menu, and reliance on undetectable poison. By the end of the night, they’re protecting not only Josiah, but their very way of life, and they wind up bonded in a way they never thought possible. But when they have to face each other in the stark light of day–at a tomato-aspic-filled funeral, no less–it remains to be seen whether their tenuous bond will last; not to mention how their shared boyfriend will react. The directorial debut of local actor Rachel Millena Saul, OT3 draws on the director’s love of anachronisms, vintage recipes, brooding yet sympathetic murderers, and the glory of camp.
Dir. Rachel Millena Saul / 2017 / US / 20 minutes