CFP's first feature film, premiered at the Denver International Film Festival on October 11, 1998.
   Inspired by the minimalist filmmaking of the Italian Neorealists, Virginia captures with razor-sharp precision the life of nineteen-year-old physics student Charles Sarrison (Brett Aune).
   Determined to get out of his hometown of Denver, Charles couldn't care less about anyone but himself. Take, for instance, his mother, Jean (kryssi wyckoff martin), a humanitarian trying desperately to hold together a failing day care for disadvantaged kids. Charles cannot understand her or her devotion to her cause, and it shows in their relationship.
   Begrudgingly taking some daycare kids on a field trip one day, Charles crosses paths with Virginia Culver (Julie Bruff), a beautiful young woman whom he has known since high school. When he finds her she is crying and alone, inexplicably concealing an inflamed left cheek. Inviting her on his trip, Charles begins a relationship that takes him deep into a new world.
   This new world is filled with Virginia's uneventful job, suppressed ambitions, and alcoholic father (Craig Lundquist). Charles's life is very different from Virginia's yet he makes the mistake of engaging romantically. The friction of their romance eventually lays bare the violent mysteries of Virginia's past, a past that teaches Charles to cherish what he has been given in life, and appreciate what others were not.
   With an original jazz score, Virginia is a movie that lifts its story out of the skyscrapers, red-brick houses and mountain skyline of its unique Western setting.
   John Mandas of Out Front Colorado says that "Virginia does a fabulous job of capturing the many faces and facades of Denver. I've never seen the city look so good on film." And Tom Wise of the Rocky Mountain News noted, "It's amazing for a first-feature effort...the photography by James Goldsworthy is incredible."






1996 -- An Encounter, 35 min., color

CFP's most successful short fim. Premiered at the Blue Bird Theater February 5, 1996 and played at the Denver International Film Festival on October 19, 1996. An Encounter garnered Steven Luff the 1997 Westword Magazine Best New Colorado Filmmaker Award.
   An Encounter tells the story of Jacob Anderson, a twelve-year-old boy dealing with the emotional struggle of his parent's divorce as expressed through a special evening out with his favorite school teacher on the eve of her retirement.
   Told in two parts, the film begins with Jim and Catherine Anderson, the parents of young Jacob. We witness their emotional detachment, their separate lives, and ultimately Jim's affair with a younger woman. By chance, Catherine stumbles upon her husband and his mistress as they are at home making love. Jacob, fresh from his last day of school, converges on this scene and the explosive aftermath of his mother's discovery.
   The second part of the film opens two weeks later and takes us through Jacob and his best friend Timothy's evening out with their school teacher, Mrs. Cohen. After dinner at a Western-style restaurant, the trio returns to Mrs. Cohen's house to discuss her life, art, and travel. When Timothy asks about Mrs. Cohen's library, Mrs. Cohen plucks a volume from her shelf and reads them James Joyce's An Encounter (enacted), an oddly resonant piece of literature in light of Jacob's current troubles.
   When Mrs. Cohen drops Jacob off at his house that night they have a talk. Jacob reveals the new complexities of his life; his parent's dicorce, his impending move to a new city, and his discomfiture with recent events. Mrs. Cohen is shocked and saddened by this news and attempts to console. But without becoming involved, or remaining within the fray as a teacher, there is little Mrs. Cohen can do to ease the pain of yet another child lost to the selfish distractions of adults.
    Alan Dumas of the Rocky Mountain News pegged it as "lovely and affecting filmmaking".



2000 -- Denver Center for the Performing Arts, PSAs

Wrote, producted, and directed five public service announcements for the Denver Center for the Performing Arts. Organizations featured included Emergency Family Assistance Association, Colorado Women's Employment and Education, Bridgeway Homes, Colorado Rural Health Association, and The Colorado Neurological Institute.

1996 -- Colorado Literacy Coalition, PSA

A public service announcement for Colorado Literacy Coalition, a corporate-sponsored program structured to help fund non-profit adult-literacy organizations. Aired locally on television station KCNC during April, 1996.