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Screen Test
Sure shooting Colorado filmmakers project their talent in one-night benefit
by Alan Dumas
Rocky Mountain News Staff Writer
In the world of cinema, two things that command little respect are the short subject and the unknown independent filmmaker.
That's why short features by local filmmakers, regardless of how worthy of attention they might be, are almost inevitably destined for oblivion.
Steven Luff is trying to change that. The 25-year-old writer and director started making films in high school at Denver's Career Education Center, got a degree in film from the University of California at Santa Barbara, and came back to Denver to make a short feature film called An Encounter.
But there was nowhere to show it.
"I wanted to help myself and other local filmmakers in the same situation, and to do something significant for the community, so I came up with the idea of a benefit," Luff explains.
That's how "Colorado Filmmakers for Literacy" came about. It's a one-night program featuring five short films, all made locally, with admissions benefiting The Open Book, an adult literacy program sponsored by the Tattered Cover book stores.
Luff is acutely aware that local independent film festivals create less interest than bowling tournaments, and he's gone out of his way to put together five films that are narrative rather than abstract in structure, and are made with professional skill.
"The major difference between these films and Hollywood features is that we made these without any money," says Luff. "They aren't meant to be lucrative ventures; they get made because we love film and have something to say. When we shoot, there's no money for lots of retakes; whatever happens has to fit. You have to be free to allow mistakes to become benefits. Whatever you get on a given day might not be exactly what you wanted, but if you work with it, it might turn out to be better."
Following are capsule reviews of the featured films:
An Encounter
by Steven Luff and Robert Newman.
34 minutes. Grade B+.
Luff and Newman are prodigiously talented filmmakers, and have ambition to match. This short film chronicles the breakup of a marriage, a crucial encounter between two boys and an English teacher and a dramatization of a James Joyce short story from which the films gets its title. Amazingly, the filmmakers nearly pull it off. The marriage scenes are searingly acted and directed, and the two boys and their teacher are marvelously relaxed and believable. It's only when they try to do what John Huston did with Joyce's The Dead, with mixed results, that this film stumbles. With an actress reading Joyce as voice-over, the two boys are transported to Ireland (or somewhere), where they act out the events of the story. The results are imperfect, but still well worth watching. This is lovely and affected film.
Stage and screen:  This year's Denver International Film Festival includes a film titled Virginia, which stars none other than HorseChart Theater Company member Brett Aune. The film runs 75 minutes and gives director, producer and editor credits to Steven Luff. I watched a video of the movie, and it's amazing for a first feature-film effort. The story isn't much, but the photography by James Goldsworthy is incredible, and it's always fun to watch a film that's been shot on "home turf." Also in the cast are a few other familiar faces. Nils Swanson plays Virginia's ex-boyfriend, kryssi wyckoff martin portrays Aune's mother, Craig Lundquist (a singer with Central City Opera and the Country Dinner Playhouse) is scary as Virginia's alcoholic father, and Rick Lawson has a small role as Aune's father. Virginia herself is a Los Angeles-based actress by the name of Julie Bruff. The 1:15p.m., Oct. 11 screening is sold out. Another screening has been added at 6:30p.m., Oct. 11. Out Front Colorado
Fall Film Preview
Virginia (DIFF)
Starring Brett Aune, Julie Bruff, kryssi wycoff martin
Written/directed/edited by Steven Luff ***1/2
 Charles is a 19-year-old spoiled brat. Virginia is a 19-year-old underachiever.
Charles' life as a college student is punctuated with stellar achievements in calculus and a future as a physicist. He's bored with life in Denver.
Virginia's life as an office receptionist is predictable and uneventful, and that suits her just fine. She enjoys living in Denver. These two unlikely romantic collaborators hook up in Steven Luff's, Virginia
Charles (Brett Aune) does not appreciate the life he was born into, nor does he appreciate the struggles of people around him, especially his mother (kryssi wycoff martin) who operates a day care center for disadvantaged children, which is failing. The world is all about him.
Virginia (Julie Bruff), whom Charles has known since high school, is embroiled in a painfully unfulfilling life marred by an alcoholic father, patterns of abuse and suppressed ambitions.
These two sound like a mismatched pair, doomed to failure as a romantic couple. Yet, despite the odds, Charles decides to pursue Virginia and the two, well, they fail.
What is surprising is just how long it takes these mismatched lovers to realize they are not suited for one another. Except for their first date, which includes a dinner cooked by Virginia and a night of love-making instigated by Charles, the pair often seem bored and irritated with each other. The one night they spend together appears to be little more than a hormonal impulse on Charles' part. After that night he hardly has time for Virginia using finals and chores at home as excuses. He is broodingly deflective of her attentions.
On the few times they do get together, they both appear angry or impatient with each other. You almost want to scream, "Break up already, why don't you!"
During the course of the film, we meet Virginia's dad (Craig Lundquist), a shadowy, scar-faced character with a deep, grinding voice, an obviously sinister gaze, and a shrine to the Denver Broncos. Right away you think that Virginia has suffered some sort of abuse -- physical or sexual -- by his hands.
The storyline for Virginia raises many questions which it does not answer. Now I certainly don't mind a film allowing me to figure things out for myself. But Virginia points us in too many directions with not enough information to connect the dots.
Writer/director Luff has done a fine job of putting the story to film. However, Virginia is ultimately unfulfilling because Luff's script seems to be merely half a story. More is left out than is included and this becomes frustrating.
Aune does a credible job of portraying handsome spoiled Charles. He creates a character who has done something with his life, yet he seems hollowed out and unsatisfied. Although he admonishes Virginia to so something with her life, what he has accomplished with his seems to have left him particularly uninspired.
Bruff's Virginia is a pained individual with much on her mind and many hidden sorrows. Although Bruff at times is a bit whiny, generally she succeeds in portraying pain and fear.
Virginia does a credible job of capturing the many faces and facades of Denver. I've never seen the city look so good on film. And Jon Hegel's Windom Hill-like score is fabulous. As Luff's first effort at a feature-length film, Virginia is worth seeing. Production and photography are excellent, you'll see many familiar faces (including OFC photographer George Hooper), and much of the production is staffed by familiar Denver names, such as filmmaker Mary-Lyn Chambers as art director. I just wish Luff would have presented a complete story for us to enjoy. -- John Mandas
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