RON SWARNER: THIS SONG IS FOR BRIAN REDMAN >>>

Daniel Blue sings “Death Is The Answer” by Early Man in memory of Brian Redman.

MICHAEL SWAN: SATURDAY, OCT. 3, 2009 >>>

1. The Tacoma Craft Beer Festival will host 44 breweries from noon to 9 p.m. at the Foss Waterway Seaport in downtown Tacoma. In terms of breweries represented, it will be the third largest beer festival held in this state.

2. The BareFoot Collective presents Encounter featuring six dance performances at 8 p.m. inside the Jan Collum Ballroom in the Merlino Art Center.

3. HarvestFest is the annual farm tour when farms across Pierce County open their gates to the public from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.

4. Downtown Puyallup merchants offer food and wine as folks roam the streets full of public art during Fall Art and Wine Walk from 3-7 p.m.

5. The Fucking Eagles, Girl Trouble, and The Plastards play their favorite cover songs at 9 p.m. inside the Acme Grub Cage.

LINK: Live music and DJs in the South Sound

LINK: Local movie starting times

LINK: South Sound Restaurant Guide

BOBBLE TIKI: MALTOBERFEST AT THE JIVE TONIGHT >>>

If you’re new to the Maltoberfest game â€" here’s the brief lowdown: It’s like Oktoberfest propped up with copious amounts of Mad Dog 20/20 â€" think ghetto culture spliced with lederhosen. It’s the most unique of parties, and it seems to be getting stronger by the year.

For this year’s Maltoberfest, which will be held tonight at Bob’s Java Jive, event co-creators Craig Egan and Jen Orr have booked quite a musical lineup, including Q Dot, Paris Spleen, Ten Miles of Bad Road, Faraca, Dandelion Junk Queens, 508 Disturbance and Darrren Selector.

“I must say that our event has been blessed by the gods of intoxication. For inviting Tacoma’s craziest people and feeding them 10,000 ounces of gnarly brew, we’ve had surprisingly little trouble,” says Egan.

[Bob's Java Jive, Maltoberfest IV, Saturday, Oct. 3, 6 p.m., $15, $10 in Maltoberfest attire, 2102 S. Tacoma Way, Tacoma, 253.475.9843]

WEEKLY VOLCANO: MEET WARREN ETHEREDGE >>>

Just because the camera stopped rolling and the editor finished cutting doesn’t mean your job as a filmmaker is done.  Not at all.  For those who wish to get their movies seen, the work has just begun.  Warren Etheredge shares insider secrets for how to work the festival circuit, develop a marketing strategy and corresponding press kit and what to consider when determining your best distribution options as part of the 2009 Tacoma Film Festival.

Warren Etheredge is founder of The Warren Report, an influential film industry tip sheet and film fan club dedicated to the empowering notion that “smarter audiences make better movies!”

 Etheredge is president and head of development for Lockspring Pictures and served for six years as curator of Bumbershoot’s 1 Reel Film Festival, the nation’s best-attended celebration of short cinema.  He has written and directed more than 40 plays off- and off-off-Broadway, penned five books and several short films, and written countless magazine articles on film and related topics.  The Tacoma Film Festival is pleased to have Warren Etheredge as a guest at this year’s festival. 

[The Grand Cinema Lower Lobby, Saturday, Oct. 3, 10 a.m., no cover, 606 Fawcett Ave., Tacoma, 253.593.4474]

NEWS TEAM: GOOD MORNING SOUTH SOUND >>>

Blog Log: Federal Way judge still on the hot seat.

What’s Up With Watada?: The Army discharged him, that’s what.

Happy Birthday, TARP: Up to $200 billion is on us.

Weather Report: Typhoon Parma slams into Philippines.

Creepy Guy Report: Arrest made in ESPN reporter Erin Andrews's voyeur video case.

No Joke: University officials remove zombie plan from site.

Cops: Mass. couple beat man at KFC over slow order.

Where Is Boilerplate?

WEEKLY VOLCANO: YOUR DAILY GUIDE TO THE TACOMA FILM FESTIVAL >>>

The 2009 Tacoma Film Festival runs through Oct. 8 at seven Tacoma venues. Ticket prices and venue addresses are here.

Saturday, Feb. 3
10:30 a.m., Tacoma Art Museum: Blue Tarp City, Beyond Greenaway: The Legacy

12 p.m., Grand Cinema: Family Shorts
Fan Mail, Perchance to Dream, Tooth Fairy, A Fanpire Story, Plunge, In Frame, Ogopogo, Broken Road, Goalball, Small Change   

12:45 p.m., Tacoma Art Museum: Sweet Crude

Sweet Crude
Directed by Sandy Cioffi
Documentary (90 min)
Filmmaker in attendance
Seattle-based filmmaker Sandy Cioffi spent time in a Nigerian prison to make Sweet Crude, a film about the horrors surrounding the oil industry operating on the Niger Delta. There, citizens of an oil-rich nation struggle to eat in a land that can no longer support them. Pollution, degradation of traditional livelihoods, lack of drinkable water and electricity and more has spawned a militant resistance in Nigeria as traditional modes of protest fail again and again. This film is about what happens next.

2 p.m., Grand Cinema: Mountains Don’t Care, but We Do!, Shipyard       

2 p.m., Tacoma School of the Arts: Some International Flavor, Closed Zone, Red, Yellow & Blue, Hungry God, The Barber of Bangalore, Letters in the Sand, Old City, March Point

2:45 p.m., Tacoma Art Museum: Documentary Shorts
Homeless in Hollywood, Dear Dad, It’s in the P-I, Daffodil Dreams, The Herd, Songs from the Tundra, Canoe Pulling: A Lummi Way of Life, 12 Stones Inspired   

4:15 p.m., Grand Cinema: Red Gold, Gates of the Arctic: Alaska’s Brooks Range

4:15 p.m., Tacoma School of the Arts: Comedy Shorts #2
Oh Promise Me, Donation, Instead of Abracadabra, War of the Grandmas, Between Night, The Line, Weekend Warriors

5:30 p.m., First United Methodist Church of Tacoma: Athena, House of Numbers

6:30 p.m., Grand Cinema: Spooner
Spooner
Directed by Drake Doremus
Feature Narrative Comedy (89 min.)
Meet Drake Doremus and screenwriter Lindsay Stidham after the screening
Herman Spooner (Matthew Lillard) is a used car salesman who still lives at home with his parents. Spooner is fairly set in his unfulfilling routine, but turning 30 marks a hard deadline set by his mom and dad to get a place of his own. To top it off, Spooner’s boss is putting on the pressure to bring in some numbers, or face the chopping block. Headed for one of the worst days of his life, Spooner meets the girl of his dreams, Rose (Nora Zehetner). Forgoing all other priorities, Spooner is now working on winning her heart, but on their perfect date, she breaks the news that she is about to leave for the Philippines. How far will Spooner go to keep Rose in town and show her he really knows how to spoon?

6:45 p.m.: Tacoma School of the Arts: In Another Life, How I Got Lost   

7:45 p.m., First United Methodist Church of Tacoma: Certain Adverse Events, Health, Money and Fear

8:45 p.m., Grand Cinema: Freeing Silvia Baraldini
Freeing Silvia Baraldini
Directed by Margo Pelletier and Lisa Thomas
Documentary (102 min) â€" NW Film, Contains some dialogue in Italian with English subtitles, 
Filmmakers in attendance
This documentary, directed by a former Grand Cinema projectionist, follows the life of Silvia Baraldini, a political activist who was arrested by the FBI and sentenced to 43 years in prison after 15 years of radical activism. This film won for Most Principled film at the 2009 Seattle True International Film Festival.

9:00 p.m., Tacoma School of the Arts: Nodutgang, The War Boys

LINK: Tacoma Film Festival on Twitter

LINK: Tacoma Film Festival Web site

LINK: Full film descriptions

LINK: Weekly Volcano Tacoma Film Festival cover story

MICHEL SWAN: THEY'RE WALKING >>>

LINK: Pierce County Start! Heart Walk

MICHAEL SWAN: SUNDAY, OCT. 4, 2009 >>>

1. The Tempest Lounge hosts a Referendum 71 benefit from 4-8 p.m. featuring music by Evan Purcell, Bella Bodacious and the Kim Archer Band.

2. The Steilacoom Apple Squeeze Cider will run from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. at the Town Hall of Steilacoom.

3. The Greek Festival continues at Saint Nicholas Green orthodox Church from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m.

4. The opening reception for printmaker Bill Colby’s new show is from 11:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. at the Mary Boze Gallery inside the Tahoma Unitarian Universalist Church.

5. Junkyard Jane brings its swampabilly blues to The Spar in Old Town Tacoma at 7 p.m.

LINK: Live music and DJs in the South Sound

LINK: Local movie starting times

LINK: South Sound Restaurant Guide

WEEKLY VOLCANO: YOUR DAILY GUIDE TO THE TACOMA FILM FESTIVAL >>>

The 2009 Tacoma Film Festival runs through Oct. 8 at seven Tacoma venues. Ticket prices and venue addresses are here. 

Sunday, Oct. 4
12:15 p.m., Grand Cinema: Growing Awareness   

12:15 p.m., Tacoma Art Museum: Family Matter, No Good Reason, Habits, American Collectors

2 p.m., Tacoma School of the Arts: Psalm Five Oh Four, Carl Wilkens: An Individual Who Made a Difference, I Speak Soccer: a Documentary on the International Language of Pick-Up

2:15 p.m., Tacoma Art Museum: Family History, Finding the Bottom of the Sky: the Making of Air Check, Waiting for Hockney

2:15 p.m., Grand Cinema: Bunky Echo Hawk â€" Profile of a proACTIVE ARTist, I Am a Man: from Memphis, a Lesson in Life, Home, Welcome to Hebron

4:15 p..m., Tacoma School of the Arts: Cut From the Same Cloth, The Checkout Girl, My Mother’s Journey

4:30 p.m., Grand Cinema: Zeitnot, Atom Age Vampire

6:30 p.m., Grand Cinema: The Day My Parents Became Cool, White on Rice
White Rice     
Directed by Dave Boyle
Comedy (90 min) â€" In Japanese with English subtitles
Forty years old and newly divorced, Jimmy (Hiroshi Watanabe, Letters From Iwo Jima) shares the top bunk at his sister’s (Japanese Academy Award-Winner Nae) with his 10-year-old nephew while looking for a new wife. When his brother-in-law’s beautiful niece moves in, he begins an attempt to steal her away from his best friend (James Kyson Lee, Heroes) and sees his plans go hilariously askew. This late-coming-of-age comedy comes from a Tacoma Film Festival alum director, and will begin a major West Coast theatrical run in October 2009.

6:30 p.m., Tacoma School of the Arts: Comedy Shorts
Otis v. Monster, Clones Gone Wild, Cost of Living, The Mouse that Soared, Ten for Grandpa, Missing the Boat, Post-It Love, Schizofredric, Boutonniere, After You   

8:30 p.m., Tacoma School of the Arts: The Ends of the Earth

8:45 p.m., Grand Cinema: 3 Days in L.A.

LINK: Tacoma Film Festival on Twitter

LINK: Tacoma Film Festival Web site

LINK: Full film descriptions

LINK: Weekly Volcano Tacoma Film Festival cover story

WEEKLY VOLCANO: YOUR DAILY GUIDE TO THE TACOMA FILM FESTIVAL >>>

The 2009 Tacoma Film Festival announced the winning films at a brunch this morning hosted by The Hub.

BEST FEATURE FILM
White on Rice
(90 min) â€" Directed by Dave Boyle
SEE IT: Today at 6:30 p.m. at The Grand Cinema

This comedy tracks 40-year-old and newly divorced, Jimmy (Hiroshi Watanabe, Letters from Iwo Jima) who shares a bunk at his sister's (Japanese Academy Award-Winner Nae) with his 10-year-old nephew while looking for a new wife. When his brother-in-law's beautiful niece moves in, he begins an attempt to steal her away from his best friend (James Kyson Lee, Heroes) and sees his plans go hilariously askew. This film will begin a major West Coast Theatrical run in October 2009.
 
BEST REGIONAL FILM
Otis v. Monster
(3 min) â€" Directed by Patrick Neary
SEE IT: Today 6:30pm at SOTA; and Wednesday, Oct. 7, 6:30 p.m. at the Grand Cinema

A hard-luck logger attempts to capture big-foot in this clay-animated short that makes its World Premiere at TFF.
 
BEST DOCUMENTARY
Freeing Silvia Baraldini
(102 min) â€" Directed by Margo Pelletier and Lisa Thomas
This documentary, directed by a former Grand Cinema projectionist, follows the life of Silvia Baraldini, a political activist who was arrested by the FBI and sentenced to 43 years in prison after 15 years of radical activism. This film won for Most Principled film at the 2009 Seattle True International Film Festival.
 
BEST SHORT FILM
Sebastian's Voodoo
(4 min) â€" Directed by Joaquin Baldwin
Winner of over 45 awards, including the Student Academy Award Winner and Festival de Cannes Short Film Corner Winner, this student-made 3D-animation short is about a voodoo doll that must stop its friends from being pinned to death no matter what the cost.

AUDIENCE CHOICE AWARD
The Audience Choice Award will be given out after the Closing Night Celebration on Thursday, Oct. 8. Tickets are still available.
 

LINK: Tacoma Film Festival on Twitter

LINK: Tacoma Film Festival Web site

LINK: Full film descriptions

LINK: Weekly Volcano Tacoma Film Festival cover story