A Feast of Film

Southern Nevada's oldest theater provides a new home for the Dam Short Film Festival, which begins a three-day run today at Boulder City's historic Boulder Theatre.

Now in its fourth year, the festival will spotlight more than 125 short films, from animation to documentary, comedy to drama.

That's more movies than ever before, but in even less time, according to festival director Lee Lanier.

"We cut back a little bit," Lanier notes, explaining the shift from a four- to three-day festival schedule. "We're jam-packed for three days."

And this year, those three jam-packed festival days will take place in "a real theater -- with real theater seats and a proper screening environment," he says.

Festival organizers "had politely asked, in previous years," to hold festival screenings at the vintage theater, Lanier says, "but there were conflicts. This was the first year we were able to get the theater," which was built in 1931 as Boulder City's movie house. (For years, it was the area's only air-conditioned building.)

In 1999, Desi Arnaz Jr. and his wife, Amy, purchased the theater; it since has been restored and now serves as home to the Boulder City Ballet Company.

The first three Dam Short Film Festivals were held at Boulder City's American Legion Hall, requiring "a huge amount of work to convert an empty auditorium space into a theater," Lanier says. "Now we can concentrate on other things."

Such as increasing attendance at the festival, which has "twice as many seats" at the 400-seat Boulder, he notes. Festival attendance has grown between 15 percent and 20 percent annually, but "this year, we can grow by that much more."

The number of films at the festival also has increased.

Compared to the usual number, "barely over 100," this year "it's well over 125," according to Lanier, "and if you count the showcases, it's closer to 150." With no repeats. (Except, of course, for closing-night screenings of festival award winners.)

In addition to new shorts, two retrospectives showcase works by celebrated, but very different, filmmakers.

"Revolutionary Eames" (at 7 tonight) presents nine shorts created by renowned designers Charles and Ray Eames, whose work spanned architecture, industrial and furniture design (the latter including the Eames chair), photography and, in the early '50s, filmmaking. Among the Eames classics scheduled tonight: "Powers of 10" (the first "infinite zoom" film, which begins at the level of an atom and widens to encompass the entire universe) and "Toccata for Toy Trains," which follows a model railroad through a magical world.

On Saturday afternoon, the festival will introduce audiences to "The Amazing Universe of Jim Blashfield," a Grammy-winning filmmaker and animation director whose '80s music videos include collaborations with Michael Jackson ("Leave Me Alone"), Talking Heads ("And She Was") and Paul Simon ("Boy in the Bubble").

The music videos "got such a massive amount of attention," Blashfield recalls in a telephone interview from his Portland, Ore., studio. "They were absolutely unique for their time."

They're on the showcase schedule, along with an assortment of other creations, including "Suspicious Circumstances" (which features cut-out animation of still pictures) and "Dream of the Scarlet Crustaceans," which Blashfield created in 2002 for the Fremont Street Experience's overhead light canopy in downtown Las Vegas.

Clearly, "my interests go in so many directions," says Blashfield, who's scheduled to attend Saturday's showcase. Referring to his Fremont Street Experience piece, "the idea of doing a four-block-long movie -- why wouldn't you want to do it?"

Unlike some who regard shorts as a stepping-stone to feature-length work, Blashfield considers short filmmaking "an art form unto itself."

Much as short stories and novels challenge writers in different ways, "the structural demands are way different" for filmmakers creating shorts rather than features, Blashfield says.

"That's one reason for a short film festival," he adds. "It's like going to a buffet."

The selections for this year's Dam Short Film Festival buffet were chosen from among 335 submissions, Lanier reports.

And while not every movie submitted made the festival lineup, festival audiences still can see them -- along with shorts featured at the first three Dam Short festivals -- on DVD at the festival's film market, in the Boulder Dam Hotel.

From year to year, "we get the same number of submissions," he says, "but the overall quality of film has improved."

In addition to two Nevada showcases, this year's festival lineup features entries from around the world, with budgets ranging from $100 to $75,000.

"It's a definitely higher percentage from overseas" than in previous years, according to Lanier. "The word is getting out."

Contact reporter Carol Cling at ccling@reviewjournal.com or (702) 383-0272.