On the evening of Friday, February 26 MAF held its annual Winter Screening at the Century Center in South Bend, IN. We had a terrific turnout of 70-80 people in the Recital Hall where we started off with a staged reading of six short film scripts by our screenwriters group. During intermission the audience voted on which one should be made into a $100 movie, and the B-movie that won was “Night of the Living Spuds” by Tim Richardson (performed with Mr. Potatohead zombies). MAF provides the funding for the film which will screen at next year’s winter screening.

After intermission, we screened an hour of short films by local filmmakers. We had a wide variety of genres including music videos, horror, documentary and comedy. We also had the World Premiere of David Boyer’s film “5 CM Peter”, which had won last year’s $100 Movie prize. Other film highlights include MAF member Devi Snively’s film “Death in Charge” which was made as part of AFI’s Women’s Writing Workshop in. L.A., as well as “Indiana’s Everglades” by Jeff Manes & Pat Wisniewski, a documentary about the Kankakee River area history, whuch spurred a lot of interest during the Q&A session at the end.

We also raffled off four screenwriting books and hope to see a great turnout for our MAF meeting this Tuesday, March 2 where we’ll have a presentation on “Dymanic Screenwriting” by Rose Waldschmidt at 7:30 p.m.  Out monthly screenwriters meeting will be the following Tuesday, March 9 (Location T.B.A.)

MAF member and Actors Committee Chair Ed Ernstes was just cast in the Indianapolis-based fan film “Fall of Gotham.” Congrats, Ed! Website: http://fallofgotham.com/cast.htm

Pictured left, Ed Ernstes.

MAF president Tim Richardson recently won “Best Local Film” in the first annual Three Minute Film Fest in Mishawaka for his short film “I’m Sorry Llama,” a parody of the Eminem song “Cleanin’ Out My Closet.”  Local filmmaker Jim Yocom won “Best Film” with “Tempus Incognito.” There were 30 films in the festival. Congratulations to you both! Website: http://three-fest.blogspot.com

Indiana University Provost and Executive Vice President Karen Hanson announced today that Jon Vickers has been named the first director of the IU Cinema, pending approval by the IU Board of Trustees. Vickers currently serves as managing director the DeBartolo Performing Arts Center at the University of Notre Dame.

Jon and his wife Jennifer started the Vickers Theatre in Three Oaks, MI in 1996, an independent, art house cinema, where MAF and its members have screened local independent films for almost a decade. The Vickers are also Support Level members of MAF and help with promoting the River Bend Film Festival.

Congratulations, Jon!

Full article at: http://newsinfo.iu.edu/news/page/normal/13466.html

FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 26 at 7 P.M. - We present a 2-hour evening of local and regional short films preceded by a staged reading of short screenplays, which will be voted on to see which one the audience would like to see made into a $100 movie. This year’s theme is “B-Movies”.

$5.00 Admission at the door, free for MAF members. Only $10 to become a member! ($8 for students). The event will be held in the lower level Recital Hall (go down the grand staircase). There is a charge to park in the Century Center lot. 120 South Saint Joseph Street, South Bend, Indiana 46601

Short films we are screening:

“Drop Shot” – Steve Figueiredo & JJ Rees
“Here I Am” – Bryon DeVolder & Justin Jones
“Death in Charge” – Devi Snively
“Harvey Putter preview” – Tim Richardson & Michael Kouroubetes
“All Night” – Jason West
“Indiana’s Everglades” – Jeff Manes & Pat Wisniewski
“5 cm Peter” – David Boyer

Short film scripts for staged reading T.B.A.

TUESDAY, MARCH 2 at 7:30 P.M. – Rose Waldschmidt, chair of the MAF screenwriters group, will talk about the elements of screenwriting, creating strong characters, writing good dialogue, and how to avoid common mistakes. Other members of the screenwriters group will join her.

This free and open to the public presentation will take place at 7:30 p.m. immediately following our regular monthly Mid America Filmmakers meeting which begins at 7:00 p.m. You are welcome to join us for both at the Cellar Door Restaurant, Holiday Inn Downtown at 213 W. Washington St

This is the first in a monthly series of filmmaking workshops. Please visit our website at www.midamericafilmmakers.org for updates and additional workshop listings.