Vampire Film Festival – The Details

Who wouldn’t want to be in New Orleans and talking about vampires?  I know I would love to be there, but since I can’t be, and with Suburban Vampire’s permission, I’m posting the full schedule for the upcoming Vampire Film Festival in case anyone who is in the area wants to go.

Vampire Film Festival: Full Schedule

The 4-day Vampire Film Series and Festival (aka Vampire Fest), slated for Oct. 23- 26, will showcase films, a vampire ballet, a New Orleans jazz-style funeral, a vampire literary panel, and a French Quarter scavenger hunt.

Over 50 films will screen from over 11 countries this month in New Orleans. Vampire Fest has declared 2009 the Year of the International Vampire and will screen films from Japan, Spain, France, Italy, Norway, Austria, Australia, Canada and the United Kingdom. We will screen films that could be classified in the context of vampire, supernatural, the bizarre, the grotesque, the mysterious or the desolate. The legend of the werewolf is interconnected with that of vampire and Vampire Fest is open to films of the Gothic, zombie, werewolf or ghost genre.

The lineup screening at the Zeitgeist Multi-Disciplinary Arts Center is as follows (tickets are now on sale at www.vampirefilmfestival.com):

Oct. 23rd, the Australian short, 1271, opens the festival with a 3:00 p.m. screening.

1271 is followed by the feature film, The Kiss, the story of a high school outcast who heeds the pleas of Santa Maria, the queen of the Snake Clan of Vampires, who has been left for dead under a neighborhood house by her arch rival. Unfortunately, after our hero brings Santa Maria back to life with the blood of neighborhood pets, she begins feeding on his high school friends.

At 5 p.m., Vampire Fest presents a series of Gothic shorts, including Rakthavira, Dreams, The Music of Eric Zahn, Electra Zen Suite from Italy, and The Ward.

The opening night films at 7:30 p.m. include Sucker and Shadowland, the story of a young woman left for dead who encounters a young man who might be her savior or her killer.

At 10 p.m. Vampire Fest will screen the Kathryn Bigelow classic, Near Dark, the tale of a mid-western farm boy reluctantly becomes a member of the undead when a girl he meets turns out to be part of a band of southern vampires who roam the highways in stolen cars.

The Midnight Screening will begin with a costume contest with prizes followed by a program of selected shorts includes Canadian Anime  The Urge, CannibAlien and from Japan, Childhood Fears, Exposure, Bloodrayne, and Nosferajew. The evening concludes with Blood Bound. All midnight screenings during the festival will include surprises, and some live entertainment.

Oct. 24th, the program commences at 2:00 p.m. with a series of international vampire shorts including Forgotten Sunrise from Norway, Here Lies Lucy: A Vampire from the United Kingdom, Killer from Australia, D’Entre Les Morts from France, Blood Sisters from Austria, and Bad Reception from Australia.

At 4:30 p.m., Vampire Fest presents the award-winning feature, The Revenant, a story about an ancient pestilence recurring in modern society that turns the infected into moldy, putrefying, living corpses.

The screening is followed at 7:00 p.m. by the Canadian feature The Death of Alice Blue, the story of Alice, the creative young intern at Raven Advertising, a firm run by vampires, and the Canadian short Initiation.

At 9:30 p.m. Vampire Fest will present a series of mythic-themed short films including College Video #13, Hellcat & Tala, Trojans, and the mythic feature Mangal Sutra.

Wear your costumes to the Midnight Screening! Vampire Fest is hosting a costume contest complete with prizes then screening an eclectic mix of short films including the Gothic-themed The Blind Date of Coffin Jose, vampire-themed Spanish short Sweet Blood, and mythic-themed short films Nights Moves and Shrove Tuesday from the United Kingdom. The program ends with a musical short from Samoa, Vauville Dead.

Oct. 25th, the screenings begin at 5:30 p.m. with the Gothic Shorts series, Morella, X-Mess Detritus, A Hammer Fell In Jerusalem, One Dark Night, Café and The Fine Art of Poisoning, a music video by chanteuse, Jill Tracy.

The program begins again at 9:30 p.m. with more vampire short films including Vampire Killers, The Union, Third Shift Mr. Moonlight and Diaries of a Teenage Vampire. The short series ends with a musical short by Gothic chanteuse Jill Tracy, Haunted by the Thought of You.

Vampire Fest presents a cult favorite at the midnight show, the feature Nadja, filmmaker Michael Almereyda’s take on the Dracula myth set in urban New York.

Oct. 26th, at 2:00 p.m., Vampire Fest screens the vampire short, Now That You’re Dead followed by the British vampire feature Strigoi, a unique feature set in a post-communist Romanian village that introduces us to an ancient myth, the Strigoi, souls that rise again after death to seek justice if they have been wronged, their appetites intensified by a hunger for blood.

4:30 p.m., Vampire Fest presents a Gothic double header, Grotesque followed by the feature film, Let Me Die Quietly, a neo-noir thriller in which a brilliant psychiatrist, a beautiful seductress, and a jaded detective unexpectedly crash into the disturbed world of a death-obsessed loner.

The winning entries from the Hunted Contest will be screened at 7:00 pm and audience favorites.

Since vampire literature is interconnected with the movie genre, stretch your mind with best-selling writers at Vamp Lit. Vampire Fest will present a literary panel on Sunday, October 25th starting at 2 pm at the Zeitgeist. Writer Sue Dent will be moderating the event that will feature best-selling writer Erin McCarthy, graphic novelist Van Jensen and Louisiana’s own Nicole Peeler. These established and debut novelists will be happy to detail what it’s like to be a part of the astoundingly popular world of vampire and shape-shifter fiction.

This panel will be followed by a Shoot Louisiana Panel in conjunction with the New Orleans Film Commission. With filmmakers invited from around the world this would be a perfect time to introduce them to the great filmmaker incentive programs in Louisiana.

Both panels end with the Film/Lit Mixer where new and established writers and filmmakers can mingle in the Absinthe Den presented by Le Tourment Vert and craft films for next years festival!

Pull out your cape, slip on your fangs and join the Big Easy’s undead film fanatics at the Zeitgeist Multi-Disciplinary Arts Center on October 23rd, 24th, 25th and 26th. Zeitgeist has long been the hub of alternative arts scene in New Orleans and is located on 1618 Oretha Castle Haley Boulevard, New Orleans.

For more information, call Vampire Fest New Orleans at (504) 298-VAMP or visit our official site, www.vampirefilmfestival.com, an intriguing and provocative door to supernatural based media.

Purchase your tickets now at www.vampirefilmfestival.com! $6.00 in advance, $8.00 at the door.