2009 Hole in the Head - Early Press Release

Yesterday, SF Indiefest issued a press release announcing the 2009 Hole in the Festival.

The festival runs June 5 to 18 at the Roxie.

Among the films mentioned in the press release are -

The best description of the bunch (as well as best title) is Joseph Guzman’s Run! Bitch Run! Catherine and Rebecca are two Catholic School girls going door-to-door selling Religious paraphernalia in order to pay for their books and education. Things go horribly wrong when they knock on the wrong door in the wrong neighborhood. After she is brutally raped and left for dead, Catherine awakes with one thing on her mind: revenge.

In addition, they are presenting a Takashi Miike film - Crows Zero. Miike cuts through the subject matter [high school gang violence] at high-octane speed for a stylized, action-packed, and entertaining schoolyard brawl of a movie. The story centers around the character Genji Takaya (Shun Oguri), a newcomer to Suzuran High School who aims to conquer Suzuran. Genji makes a deal with his father, Hideo Takitani (Goro Kishitani) — if he can conquer the school, he will be allowed to succeed his father as the head of his yakuza syndicate.

Also, Indiefest is presenting Kurando Mitsutake’s Samurai Avenger: The Blind Wolf which screened at this year's Cinequest. While camping in the desert a family gets attacked by a notorious psychopath. The wife and daughter are slaughtered, and the man is forced to remove his own eyes. Eight years after the massacre, the man has returned to the desert town, now a highly trained samurai swordsman ready to seek justice. But he doesn't know there awaits seven assassins hired by his sworn enemy who want the bounty on his head. Set in nowhere, no time, this bloody modern day fable is a new age hybrid action film with a classic samurai essence and a spaghetti western spirit.

Morgue Story - Sangue, Baiacu, & Quadrinhos directed by Brazilian Paulo Biscaia. Ana Argento, an accomplished cartoon artist frustrated with her relationships meets two other lonely characters with peculiar lives. Tom is a chronic cataleptic who makes his living selling life insurance. Daniel Torres is a sociopath and rapist coroner. Their lives could only intersect in one place: the morgue.

Black Devil Doll directed by Jonathan Lewis. A young, moist, buxom teen vixen finds herself hurled into an odyssey of forbidden sex and unspeakable violence after an innocent evening dabbling in the occult. What started as a simple child's game has now become a fight for her life. What is this evil that she has summoned from beyond? And why does it have a ‘fro? What kind of horrific acts will she be subjected to? And what price will her super-hot, half-nude friends have to pay? But more importantly, how much Caucasian blood will have to be shed to stop the Black Devil Doll?!!"

The Pig People starring rapper and former Oakland resident Master P. After multiple unsolved murders took place in a rural community, myths began to spread about pig people who lived in an abandoned cabin hidden deep in the forest. A group of precocious college students decide to research and investigate the legend and head into the forest armed only with a camera and delusions of exposing the Pig People to the world.

Blood River - A nuanced fable that combines horror, drama and western influences. Clark and his pregnant wife Summer are driving through the Nevada desert on the way to deliver the news to her parents when their car breaks down. Taking refuge in a ghost town, the two meet a lone drifter who believes he is God’s avenger and sets his sites on the two to answer for their supposed crimes.

It looks like a good line-up. The festival pass is $100 and individual tickets are $10 (not including handling fee) so I will have to see 10 films to break even.