101°F
weather icon Windy

Film festival unites new, old talents

Along with bringing new faces to Boulder City, the Dam Short Film Festival is bringing back some familiar ones.

Brothers Evan, 34, and Adam Nix, 31, who launched their film career at the first Dam Short Film Festival in 2005, are returning after about a decade.

“It kicked this off for us,” Evan said.

Their short film, “Fortune Cookie,” earned the audience award at that festival.

The brothers, who grew up and attended school in Boulder City, screened more films at later festivals and moved to Los Angeles to work full-time in the film industry.

“For us, it’s a very fun and almost nostalgic event, because we get to hang out in our hometown downtown,” Evan said.

In addition, Adam said that it’s a good place to “make creative connections,” and it’s where he and Evan met a lot of their “film friends.”

Their film at this year’s festival is a three-minute adult comedy about a man remembering his best day ever. It will be screened Saturday, Feb. 10, in the last film block of the day, which starts at 9:15 p.m.

“I’m just excited to return,” Evan said.

“I’m also excited to see the local scene,” Adam said.

In addition to the film festival, the duo credits the classes they took at the College of Southern Nevada and the contacts they made there and throughout the state with starting their film career.

Since their start in the industry, they have worked on different shows, movies and projects, including “Those Who Can’t” on TruTV, “Deadbeat” on Hulu and “Other Space” on Yahoo Screen.

Not only does the Dam Short Film Festival allow some filmmakers to return home, but it allows others to showcase their work for the first time.

Filmmaker Shahab Zargari grew up in California and moved to Las Vegas almost 10 years ago with his wife.

The music video he made for Las Vegas artist Jesse Pino &The Vital Signs’ song “Evergreen” will be screened at the festival in its brand-new music video category.

“I have submitted before, but this is the first year I’ve had one screening,” Zargari said. “It’s exciting.”

The song is based on a breakup Pino went through.

Zargari talked to Pino about it, and despite being mutual, the breakup was still a tough situation that included love and sadness. Zargari worked to portray that in the video by filming the characters in different cities. The girl portraying the ex-girlfriend was filmed in Oklahoma, and Pino was filmed in Las Vegas.

“Even if you are familiar with the area, you get the feeling that they are worlds apart,” he said.

In addition to music videos, Zargari works on other freelance film projects and commissioned commercials. He is also the communications coordinator for the College of Fine Arts and the Performing Arts Center at UNLV. He’s also had some of his films screened at festivals throughout the country.

His music video will screened Feb. 9 in the last block of the night, which begins at 9:15.

The 14th annual Dam Short Film Festival takes places Feb. 8-11 at the Boulder Theatre, 1225 Arizona St. For a complete schedule and more details, visit www.damshortfilm.org.

Contact reporter Celia Shortt Goodyear at cgoodyear@bouldercityreview.com or at 702-586-9401. Follow her on Twitter @csgoodyear.

MOST READ
LISTEN TO THE TOP FIVE HERE
THE LATEST
Council confusion: The leash law saga continues

Three statements — notably, none of them from members of the city council — best illustrated the difficulties residents (both dog-loving and not) have had for at least four years when it comes to the issue of off-leash dogs in public parks.

Breeding in BC? Probably not

Unlike the discussion later in the meeting Tuesday night in which the city council appeared determined to make sure no one was angry at them about the issue of off-leash dogs, they directed staff to take very strong action on the issue of pet breeding.

Lifejacket donations aim to save lives

Greg Bell’s memory lives on by way of a generous donation that may saves lives.

Huge crowd turns out to honor Patton

It was brought up during Saturday’s unveiling of the Shane Patton Memorial Monument as to why Shane’s statue stands 11 feet tall.

Disaster in China affects Damboree fireworks show

As the city prepares for Damboree, one of our biggest celebrations of the year, a tragedy in China is having an impact on the annual fireworks show.

City Celebrates First Responders

Photos courtesy City of Boulder City

Toll Brothers gets split decision

The development of the area near Boulder Creek Golf Course known as Tract 350 (the sale of which is slated to pay for the majority of the planned replacement for the aging municipal pool) may have hit a snag last week as the planning commission voted 5-1 to deny the developers’ request to build houses closer to the street than is allowed under current law.