Phoenix Film Festival 2009

Mark Arnett starts “Baby Boomerang” with a simple goal: Make a documentary about World War II for people, like himself, who don’t like documentaries. He wants to tell the story of his father’s World War II experience to the spoiled, pretentious, and ungrateful baby boomer generation that he belongs to. So, he begins the film in a way that he is sure baby boomers can relate to: he makes the film about himself. Luckily for Mark, the film takes so long in production, fourteen years, to be precise, that by the time he gets to the heart of his father’s story, he loses the self-centered vision, and both Mark and the audience get sucked into the compelling events of his father’s crash landing in German-occupied Holland, his eleven months as a prisoner of war, and his return home to marry the girl who pinned his wings on him in pilot training. Mark could never seem to get the footage he shot to come together, but when his father passed away, Mark finished the film in a week. While Mark fails to finish the film that he started, he succeeds in drawing us into a very personal story that explores faith, courage, love, and the inescapable fact that, in many ways, we all turn into our parents in the end.

Screening and Awards from the IFP-Phoenix Beat the Clock Challenge 18 films (6 from the 48-Hour, 6 from the 36-Hour, 6 from the 24-Hour) are competing for BEST FILM, as chosen by the Phoenix Film Critics Society. Films competing are: Television Noir: Cigarettes Kill - Mike Red and the Dr. Rev. Stephen Strange, Producers/Directors Catbrain Film Factory: Tunesia- Paul Hoeprich, Director/Producer Phoenix Independent Filmmakers: Five Minutes- Jay Lee, Director; Tamara McDaniel, Producer Bassline Digital: Following Suit- Joel Cranson, Director, Webb Pickersgill, Producer Two Handed Productions: The Silent Treatment- Robert Garcia, Director; Amber Garcia, Producer Sailbear: Rochambeau- Bob Marquis, Director/Producer Phoenix Independent Filmmakers: The Mating Game- Jay Lee, Director; Tamara McDaniel, Producer Sooner Or Later Films: Happy Little Secret- Josh Watlman, Director/Producer Bassline Digital: Appetite for Justice- Webb Pickersgill, Director/Producer Aviator Productions: Breakfast in Bed Catbrain Film Factory: The After Vows- Paul Hoeprich, Director/Producer The Two-Day Show: Neighborhood Spat- Chris Barron, Director Markers in Motion: Detective Braeden Brave- Christopher G. Ferman, Director; Betsey Ferman, Producer Phoenix Independent Filmmakers: Consider the Apple- Jay Lee, Director; Tamara McDaniel, Producer Mixed Nuts: Stage Fright- Austin James, Director; Brian Kohatsu - Producer Bassline Digital: The Guilty- Joel Cranson, Director/Producer; Webb Pickersgill, Producer Mechanically Separated Chicken Parts: Core Values- Mark Pechman, Director; Suzy Stein - Producer Wire City Productions: Fruit Basket- J.C. Henager, Director/Producer; Ronald Vasquez, Director; Liz Muluihill, Producer

Synopsis: The FuneralOn a grey winters morning a small family gathers in a church for the funeral of Jesper. Both his mother, father, grandmother, his pregnant widowed wife as well as his brother, sister in law and their son are all waiting in the church while the bells toll solemnly. As the priest begins his sermon, he is suddenly interrupted by sounds of knocking from inside the coffin. The knocking is followed by yelling, and to its great terror the small gathering now realizes that it is Jesper trying to get out. The priest faints and the family is terrified. As Henning, the father, opens the coffin with a crowbar, Jesper pops out, alive and kicking. He is miraculously arisen from the dead! - he announces in excitement to the stunned audience. But to Jespers's surprise his family doesn't quite respond to the miracle with the same enthusiasm as him. It turns out that they were all beginning to move on with their lives, and the fact that Jesper is not dead after all, doesn't really fit into their plans for the future. Actually the family finds Jesper's coming back to life rather rude and they decide to take matters in to their own hands....

After truck driver, Roy Tidrow, cuts off a random car on the freeway (Joe O'Neil's,) a complaint is phoned in and Roy is immediately fired, sending him into a violent tailspin. Roy threatens his wife (Valerie,) who works reception at the trucking company, forcing her to supply him with the name of the complainer. Days later...Valerie realizes she's made a horrible mistake. Not only has Roy murdered the man who Valerie identified (Andrew Williams,) but she mistakenly supplied the wrong information and a completely 'innocent' person was killed. When Valerie confronts Roy, he attacks her and gets the correct identity of the complainer (Joe O'Neil.) However, this time Valerie calls to warn the stranger... Joe O'Neill, a straight-laced, nine-to-fiver, is filled with paranoia and fear. He buys a gun to protect himself and is forced into using it when Roy Tidrow attacks him in his home. In a strange twist of fate, it is Roy who is shot and killed. In the end, Valerie, as the sole beneficiary of her husband Roy's life insurance policy, collects a large settlement. Joe O'Neil is questioned by the police and forever scarred. And Andrew Williams' widow, Margaret, receives an envelope of cash, leading us to believe that Valerie may have orchestrated this bizarre collision of lives, whereby no one is a beneficiary.

When Kim realizes she wants to meet the son she's never known, it may already be too late. Just a few years earlier Luke would have given anything to meet his birth mother, but now he's turning twenty-one and he's done looking back. When Luke refuses to meet her, Kim takes her one chance to meet him and will have to learn to live with the consequences.

A train, a pursuit, only one way to escape.

A film about a man who wakes up every morning only to be killed later that day.

In the basement lies Susan, Devon's soon-to-be ex-wife who has been kidnapped, as well as Nikki, a prostitute Devon has a really dark plan for. The line between reality and nightmarish images will disappear.