Film festival coming to Wasilla

The Anchorage Film Festival is bringing some of the top short films in the country to the Valley on May 18.

Billed as the "Best of the Anchorage Film Festival," a two-hour program of short films is being presented at Mead's Coffeehouse at 7:30 p.m. May 18. The event is one of many around the state.

Tickets are $5 each, and are available at Mead's Coffeehouse.

In December, the Anchorage Film Festival debuted as a rousing success. Alaskans were happy for the chance to view some of the top indepent films in the world, organizer Tony Sheppard said.

The event was featured on the Sundance Channel, in Premier Magazine and the L.A. Film Festival. Sheppard said the group is taking the films to the rest of the state following the success of the Anchorage show.

"There are some great short films out there being made by independent filmmakers," Sheppard said. "We are bringing those to people around the state."

Entries in last year's film festival were overwhelming, Sheppard said, with more than 200 submissions. The submittd films were from all around the world, and ranged from ultrashort, animated films to full-length feature films.

The overwhelming response gave organizers a good indication that independent film is alive and well in Alaska.

The 2001 Anchorage Film Festival also screened the 2001 Academy Award-winning short film "Helicopter," during the Sundance Channel program showing.

At the Wasilla event, film buffs will get the opportunity to see "Helicopter," and six other top short films, including "Tower of Babble," which was a project of Academy Award-winning actor Kevin Spacey.

It debuted at the Anchorage Film Festival last year.

The lineup of films includes "Revenge of the Red Balloon," by Greg Rossen; "Boundaries," by Greg Durbin; "Helicopter," by Ari Gold; "Hypertension," by Jeff Spoonhouser; "Zen and the Art of Landscaping"; "Sleeping Dogs Lie," by Joseph Moran; and "The Tower of Babble," by Jeff Wadlow.

Other 2001 award-winning films include "John John in the Sky," by Jefferson Davis; "The Last Stand," by Holiday, Phelan and Johnson; and "Horses on Mars," by Eric Anderson.

"We are really excited about a lot of these films, and we want to give people to opportunity to see some of the things independent filmmakers are putting out now," Sheppard said. "There's a reason people like Kevin Spacey get involved with independent film."

For more information about the Valley showing, or the Anchorage Film Festival in general, interested people can visit the Web site www.anchoragefilmfestival.com.

Interested people may also call 357-5633 or 338-3690 for more information.