YOUR DAILY GUIDE TO THE 2011 TACOMA FILM FESTIVAL >>>

While the 6th Annual Tacoma Film Festival offers a huge range of art house films from all over the world, there's also a great selection of films by local filmmakers, providing an opportunity for them to showcase their work on the big screen. Today, four local films will fill The Grand Cinema's screen at 4:50 p.m. for 72 minutes.

Paint

Directed by Mick Flaaen, documentary (20 minutes)
Paint is a documentary-style study of the impact of graffiti in downtown Tacoma.

The FullCircle Project 

Directed by Aidan Haley, documentary (29 minutes)
The FullCircle Project is a group of three professional freeskiers and one professional telemark athlete with the desire to change the way they travel to and enjoy the snow they ski on in different countries. With service as the backbone of the trip, and the snows of the northern hemisphere melting, in July of 2010, they traveled to a small town near Concepcion, called Las Salinas, Chile. There they started a nine day service project to aid a community that had been displaced by the earthquake and tsunami of February 2010 before heading up to the mountains of the Biobio region of Chile.

It Came First

Directed by Jeff Axtman and Christopher Wood, comedy (5 minutes)
Two roommates must fight for their survival after one of them uses his superpower to bring an ornery egg to life. *Audience Choice award winner at The Grand Cinema's 2011 72 Hour Film Competition.

Magnificent Abstraction

Directed by Leonard Haggarty, documentary (18 minutes) Tacoma artist Teddy M. Haggarty explores his "abstract art form" in a narrative, culminating in the play, Magnificent Abstraction, revealing the descriptive inner-workings of his mind. The film ends with a avant-garde play that gives a visual look into the mind of this famous Tacoma artist. The soundtrack is all original music composed by The Ventures solely for this film.

Today's film recommendation

Tacoma Film Festival Director Emily Alm recommends you hit the following film today:

SPLINTERS(6 p.m., FREE, Rausch Auditorium at the University of Puget Sound): Like many other films on this list, Splinters snuck up and floored me. The seemingly innocent documentary about the introduction and development of surfing in Papua New Guinea has a lot more meat to it than you'd think. Sure, it's entertaining to watch the surfers practice and prepare for battle in the island nation's first-ever surfing competition. But it's ever more fascinating to get a peek into their culture and social dynamics.

Today's Highlights

Dancing on the Edge (6:30 p.m., The Grand Cinema): A coming of age story about a teenage girl's struggle with addiction and her dream of being a ballet dancer. Filmed entirely in Vancouver, Washington and Happy Valley, Ore. The film was an official selection at the 2011 New York City International Film Festival.

Fantastic Confabulations (8:30 p.m., The Grand Cinema): When Wes's marriage dissolves, he moves in with his childhood best friend, Ray, but a sudden aneurysm puts Ray in a coma for weeks. Wes, despite himself, finds a sense of peace in the situation, but Ray's eventual return home strains their friendship as one friend clings to the past and the other focuses on the future. 

Film added today

Young Goethe In Love, which screens Friday night to a big Blue Mouse Theatre crowd, will screen again today at 1:45 p.m. at The Grand Cinema.

For a complete list of today's films, click here.

LINK: 2011 TFF award winners

LINK: Opening Night Gala photos

LINK: Three stories behind the stories

LINK: Big stars at the Tacoma Film Festival 2011

LINK: Our Tacoma Film Festival preview

LINK: TFF Director Emily Alm's picks

LINK: TFF on twitter 

LINK: TFF website