Truly independent films are made from the gut… It is very easy to help a filmmaker. Buy one lunch today. – Mike Plante
The rules are simple and straightforward. In exchange for an afternoon meal, participating filmmakers make a short film with an identical budget to the total cost of the lunch. A contract is drafted on the back of a napkin with only a handful of stipulations drawn from the lunchtime conversation, such as “Film must: use miniatures,” “have a bunny in it” or “span continents.” Now, fifty shorts later, Lunchfilm originator (and Cinevegas programmer) Mike Plante brings the latest batch to our neighborhood. With films from Tom Barndt, Martha Colburn, David Fenster and David Nordstrom, Jim Finn, Mike Gibisser, Brent Green, Sam Green, Braden King, George Kuchar, Lee Lynch and Naomi Uman, Nicholas McCarthy, Sarah Soquel Morhaim, Ricardo Rivera, Kelly Sears, Jennifer Shainin and Randy Walker, the resulting works are as varied and engaging as this multifarious collection of contributors would suggest. (Jonathan Marlow)