Attending and showcasing a little 2011 Recap (will post video soon)  and updating the State on our growing annual festival in Eastern Oregon.  Along with EOU’s Film Program La Grande and Eastern Oregon are becoming points of interest for the film community and industry in Oregon.

Feel free to join us via Satellite Monday, December 12 at Eastern Oregon University – Inlow Hall Room 013 : The conference will be broadcasted and we will speak to the conference as well.  Support film in Eastern Oregon and check it out. (Wear your hoodie.

Recap 2011

Don’t forget to mark your calendars and come join us and Governor John Kitzhaber for the:

Governor’s Office of Film & Television’s Annual Meeting
Monday, December 12 at 6:00PM.

Come celebrate Oregon’s record breaking year for film and television production!

We will be honoring several people and organizations throughout the state who have played an important role this year in the industry’s success. We also have some exciting announcements to reveal at this event that will be worth celebrating the future of the industry.

You can either join us in person at the Portland location (listed below), meet up with people in your area at one of the three teleconference sites throughout the state, or view a live web-stream of the event online.

Portland: University of Oregon Portland Campus
70 NW Couch Street
Portland, OR 97209

Now confirmed are three teleconference sites:

Ashland: Southern Oregon University – Hannon Library Room 117

Eugene: The Center for Media and Educational Technologies (CMET), in Studio A.
(We’ll start at 5:30 PM to ensure we’re ready for the teleconferenced event.)

La Grande: Eastern Oregon University – Inlow Hall Room 013

*** If you are unable to make it to any of the sites above, you can view the event live online at:
http://pdx.uoregon.edu/index.php?p=webcast and click on the first “Live Webcast” link.***

Industry members and supporters are also invited to attend a
Reception and ”Thank You” Party
beginning at 5:oopm at the Portland location and continuing after the annual meeting.

An exposition of projects developed by student winners of the Digital Media Commission will be on display at that time. Both the Commission and party are generously sponsored by Intel and the Oregon Media Production Association. The reception is free, and attendees are encouraged to bring canned food donation for the Oregon Food Bank. (Details at www.ompa.org)

We hope you will come and celebrate (that is if you’re not too busy working on a project) and demonstrate to ourselves as well as the general public that the film and TV industry is thriving here in Oregon!

Eastern Oregon Film Festival awards five filmmakers with this year’s honors. Bellflower and Dragonslayer received Best Film nods in the narrative and documentary categories, respectively. Cirkus Columbia, and short, Summer Snapshot won audience choice awards. And Bad Fever director, Dustin Guy Defa, was recognized for his ‘Innovation in Directing’.

Jury awards were given to the best narrative and documentary features, as well as a Special Mention for a powerful small independent film that caught everyone’s attention:

Bellflower – 2011 WINNER Best Narrative Feature

DIRECTOR: Evan Glodell

Dragonslayer – 2011 WINNER Best Documentary

DIRECTOR: Tristan Patterson

Cirkus Columbia – Audience Choice, Best Feature Film

DIRECTOR: Danis Tanovic

Summer Snapshot – Audience Choice, Best Short Film

DIRECTOR: IAN MCCLUSKEY

Dustin Guy Defa, Bad Fever — Innovation in Directing

The Eastern Oregon Film Festival owes its success to the incredibly generous and supportive communities of artists and patrons that fuel the event. This year’s fest proved that 2010′s leap was no aberration. EOFF continues to grow in size and scope, and appears to be here to stay.

The 2011 Eastern Oregon Film Festival was a blast. Maybe you caught a film or two, or maybe you were one of the hard-cores who saw all 20 and made it to all the after-parties. But to those of you who were part of EOFF 2011, hats off to you.

Check back tomorrow as we announce the winners of this year’s awards, and in the meantime, check out some photos from last week!

OPENING NIGHT FEATURE
Resurrect Dead: The Mystery of the Toynbee Tiles

Feature Documentary
TRT: 85 min.| U.S.A. | color
A Film By: JON FOY
Awards: 2011 Sundance Director’s Award: Documentary

‘Toynbee Idea in Movie 2001. Resurrect Dead on Planet Jupiter.’

Strangeness is afoot. Most people don’t notice the hundreds of cryptic tiled messages about resurrecting the dead that have been appearing in city streets over the past three decades. But Justin Duerr does. For years, finding an answer to this long-standing urban mystery has been his obsession. He has been collecting clues that the tiler has embedded in the streets of major cities across the U.S. and South America. But as Justin starts piecing together key events of the past he finds a story that is more surreal than he imagined, and one that hits disturbingly close to home.

“The bizarre, yet utterly hypnotic love child of David Lynch and Errol Morris [...] easily one of the most unique and satisfying documentaries of the year.

- Andrew Mack, TWITCH.COM

The Trailer

“You couldn’t write a better mystery story than life did in this documentary”

-Mark Bell, FILM THREAT

SYNOPSIS

Filmmaker Jon Foy and Philadelphia-based artist and musician Justin Duerr began planning a documentary film about the Toynbee Tiles in 2000. Five years later, they began filming their investigation of these strange street plaques embedded in the asphalt of major U.S. and South American urban intersections that had held Duerr’s fascination for over a decade. Having appeared on hundreds of reported examples from the mid-1980s to present, the cryptic four-line message of the Toynbee Tiles read: “Toynbee Idea / In Kubrick’s 2001 / Resurrect Dead / On Planet Jupiter”. While the text on the plaques was clear enough, neither Duerr nor the numerous media outlets that had documented the phenomenon knew what these tiles meant, how or why they were installed, or who was responsible for them.

Duerr’s interest in the tiles began in 1994, when he moved from rural Pennsylvania to Philadelphia and began noticing them while working as a foot courier in the city’s business district. He documented dozens of tiles downtown, and was struck by how little attention the bizarre phenomenon received from other pedestrians. He was shocked when, several years later, he discovered an obscure website on the Internet documenting tile sightings in other cities like New York, Baltimore, St. Louis and Boston, which he would later visit; soon, tile sightings soon appeared as far away as Buenos Aires and Santiago. Despite this prolifacy, Duerr could find no answers as to what the texts meant or who was responsible for them, although marginal clues towards the artist’s identity slowly began to mount. In 2000, his obsession was amplified by a near run-in with the tiler when Duerr found a freshly laid tile in front of a local convenience store late at night. Having missed the tiler by minutes, Duerr vowed to definitively solve the mystery of the Toynbee Tiles.Teaming up with local Toynbee Tile fanatics Steve Weinik and Colin Smith, Duerr began his quest with few clues towards the tiler’s identity. The investigation led the team through a series of strange and unexpected turns from the discovery of a Jupiter colonization organization to the David Mamet play “4 a.m.” and a TV news hijacker with a cryptic message. Along the way, the team met with the eccentric residents in the deepest reaches of South Philadelphia and dedicated shortwave radio buffs for clues and guidance. As the picture of the Toynbee Tiles’ narrative slowly entered into focus, Duerr was shocked by the answers he was uncovering and his unexpected emotional connection to the elusive tiler.

An artfully crafted documentary, Resurrect Dead: The Mystery of the Toynbee Tiles is both an account of Duerr’s own obsession and a meditation on the broadly defined drive towards cathartic realization in the face of towering obscurity. The information age has seen few mysteries as impenetrable as that of the Toynbee Tiles, and the film champions the underdog accomplishments of these unlikely investigators. The documentary creates an atmosphere of magical realism as the unexpected pieces of this complex puzzle click into place.

Resurrect Dead: The Mystery of the Toynbee Tiles is a Land of Missing Parts production. The film is directed, edited, photographed and scored by Jon Foy. It is written and produced by Jon Foy and Colin Smith, and executive produced by Doug Block.

Filmmaker in Attendance: Q&A to follow the film.

Jon Foy

Director, producer, writer, editor, composer

Filmmaker and musical composer Jon Foy started planning his documentary about the mysterious Toynbee tiles with artist Justin Duerr a decade ago, and began filming in 2005 after dropping out of film school in Austin, TX. While working on the film, the Philadelphia native sustained himself by cleaning houses and participating in medical research studies. A seasoned rock musician, Foy taught himself the art of film score composition for Resurrect Dead: The Mystery of the Toynbee Tiles, and also scored 2008′s The Chinese Room. Resurrect Dead is his directorial debut.

One of the perks of having a festival pass is the discounts and promotions by La Grande Merchants. This program is in it’s inaugural year and, along with, La Grande Main Street, we hope to grow this program in future years. Below you will find a list of participating specials — make sure to stop in and show em your pass!

Rodeway Inn of La Grande
402 Adams Ave • La Grande, Oregon
Phone: (541) 962-7143
Web: http://www.rodewayinn.com/hotel/or210

Show your pass and receive 15% off your room

Royal Motor Inn
1510 Adams Ave • La Grande, Oregon
Phone: (541) 963-4154

Show your pass and receive 15% off your room

Mt. Emily Ale House
1202 Adams Avenue • La Grande, Oregon
541-962-7711
*Show your pass and receive $1 off your Ale House Pints

BELLA
1216 Adams Avenue • La Grande, Oregon
Phone: 800.452.8639

Show your EOFF pass at either BELLA location (La Grande or Baker City)and enjoy a FREE wine tasting.
TAKE $2 OFF on any purchase of $15 or more.

The Potter’s House Gallery and Gift Boutique
corner 6th & Penn, LG, 1601 6th st.
15% off any purchase (excluding consignment)

Books and Brew
1118 Adams Ave • La Grande, Oregon
12oz free drink with purchase of bagel sandwich.

Joe & Sugars
1119 Adams Ave • La Grande, Oregon
Free 16oz drink (limit 1 per pass)

Marie Josephine’s
1304 Adams • La Grande, Oregon
Show your pass and get 25% off your purchase

Night Fright Haunted House at the Maridell Center
1124 Washington Avenue, La Grande

$2.00 off a Combo Pass or $1.00 off an individual attraction at the Night Fright Haunted House, featuring Mortis Mansion II and Phantoms of the Deep, open Oct. 21 & 22, 7:00-10:00 pm. OR get $5.00 off the Paranormal Investigation on Oct. 22nd beginning at 11:00 pm. Also enjoy our food, games and live entertainment.

Direct Music
1010 Adams Avenue

Receive 20% off all accessories!