Las Vegas filmmaker wins honors for ‘Mr. President’

Las Vegas filmmaker Jeff Lester estimates he had about three hours of sleep during the process of filming and editing his short film "Mr. President" for the Elevate Festival of Film and Music.

The film was the result of a challenge the festival's directors, Mikki Willis and Drew Heriot, made to about 20 directors in September. Each director was given a 48-hour time frame to shoot, edit and submit his or her film.

"It was the shortest amount of time I've had to film something," said Lester, 52. "We shot it and then one week later the festival screened the shorts."

"Mr. President," which depicts a fictitious presidential debate between a black senator and President George W. Bush, won three awards at the Oct. 11 award ceremony including the audience award for a narrative and the jury award for most elevating narrative. Lester was honored with best narrative director, an award he shared with Jason Roberts, director of the short "10 Seconds to Midnight."

"The response to our film was so fantastic," said Lester of the cheers that greeted the film after its screening. "To get that kind of reaction was amazing."

Lester, who was invited to participate in the festival after he submitted his short film "The Last Real Cowboys" featuring Billy Bob Thornton to the festival's founders, had more than 30 people working as part of his crew and seven actors for the film roles.

The directors, who usually know the material they will be shooting beforehand, received only a handful of clues from the festival's founders.

"They mentioned, 'You may want a limousine, a stage and a green screen,' " Lester recalled.

The director of three short films and numerous commercials, Lester began his directing career with the program "Sundance Dailies" in 1996 while working with Robert Redford's Sundance Channel. He then did "The Shorts Show," which focused on short-film filmmakers and featured Laura Dern. In 1997, Lester founded Big Picture Studios with his wife, Susan Anton.

"We have four long-form projects and three other features," said Lester who also oversees production with the Golf Network.

"I love directing and creating stuff," he said.

Recently, Lester learned that his short documentary "Speed of Life" has been accepted to the Slamdance Film Festival in Utah and will premiere there Jan. 25. The documentary will be shown with four other short films as part of the "A Chance at Slamdance 2008" contest. The five films were chosen out of more than 115 submissions.

According to Lester, "Mr. President" will eventually be released and it is currently being submitted to other film festivals.

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