• RiverRun's closing night film, Potiche

By Matt Brunson

SATURDAY-SUNDAY, APRIL 16-17 — My final two days at the 13th Annual RiverRun International Film Festival proved to be just as hectic as the first two, although the plethora of screenings was largely replaced by jury duty and party duty. (To read the Day One Recap, go here. To read the Day Two Recap, go here.)

Saturday began with a jury & filmmaker brunch and ended with an 80’s prom party. The evening bash was a blast, primarily for two reasons: the awesome tunes rockin’ the joint — AC/DC’s “You Shook Me All Night Long,” The J. Geils Band’s ”Centerfold” and, of course, Michael Jackson’s “Thriller,” for starters, but also such largely forgotten wonders like Animotion’s “Obsession” — and the chance to see an old friend and colleague, film critic Mark Burger, for the first time in years. (Presently a writer for Greensboro’s Yes! Weekly, you can read Mark’s movie pieces here.)

[We interrupt our regularly scheduled film festival coverage to bring you the music video for Animotion’s “Obsession." You can’t get more ‘80s than this. Seriously.]

With so much extracurricular activity going on, my viewing slate for Saturday consisted only of the afternoon Documentary Shorts block. Of course, considering I was at the festival to serve on the jury for the Documentary Shorts, this was the most important screening of the fest for me. You can check out the winners selected by the jury panel below, but of the eight shorts shown, these were my personal top three:

* Surpriseville — Charlotteans who rightfully think Ballantyne (i.e. Republican Central) is its own self-contained corner of the city should check out this perceptive documentary that casts its eye at Surprise, Arizona, a gated community in which even the neighbors are largely blocked off from each other thanks to high fences between the properties. With a dictatorial homeowners association and residents who openly fear the world outside their walls (as one white-bread suburban dad paradoxically notes, keeping the rest of humanity at bay helps bring the Surprise residents together), this is simultaneously amusing and chilling, a possible glimpse at the foundation for a Stepford future.

* Mr. Happy Man — Utterly charming, this focuses on Johnny Barnes, a elderly man in Bermuda who spends hours each day waving, blowing kisses and shouting, “I love you!” to all the commuters driving by a busy intersection. Barnes has been doing this for decades, and this “feel-good” short demonstrates how the joy and decency of just one person can inspire — even if just briefly — the mood of a community’s people.

* Mr. Hypnotism — A shyster of the highest order, Ronald Pellar has led an eye-popping life: the seventh and last of Lana Turner’s husbands, a long-timer in the Guinness Book of World Records for having earned the highest fees for a public speaker, countless criminal convictions (most involving mail fraud) and seemingly more aliases than Jennifer Garner on the hit TV series. Most prominent of these fake names was Dr. Ronald Dante, under which he made the rounds as a hypnotist. A full-length documentary (or biopic) could easily be made about Pellar, but until that day arrives, this engaging 14-minute work will suffice quite nicely.

THE FESTIVAL'S FINAL day began with jury deliberations for all the various features and shorts categories. For the Documentary Shorts, discussion took place alongside a great group: German filmmaker Susan Gluth, whose feature documentary Soap and Water earned her a Best Director prize at last year’s RiverRun Festival; Jeff Reichert, co-founder and editor of the online film journal Reverse Shot and managing editor of the SundanceNOW blog (as well as a former Senior VP at Magnolia Pictures); and UNC-Greensboro senior Meredith Duncan. (In a wonderful touch, each jury included a college student as part of the judging committee.) It took approximately 45 minutes for the four of us to settle on the best of the best (for a complete list of festival winners, go to the bottom of this article).

The 10-day festival concluded with the awards presentation, the screening of the entertaining French film Potiche, starring Catherine Deneuve as a trophy housewife in the 1970s who finally asserts her independence and Gerard Depardieu as a Communist politician and Deneuve’s former fling, and a wrap party.

2011 AWARDS

• Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives

NARRATIVE FEATURE

BEST NARRATIVE FEATURE

BAL (Honey), dir. Semih Kaplanoglu

PETER BRUNETTE AWARD FOR BEST DIRECTOR

Apichatpong Weerasethakul (Joe), Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives

BEST ACTOR

Mathieu Amalric, On Tour

BEST ACTRESS

Djeneba Kone, A Screaming Man

BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY

Baris Ozbicer, BAL (Honey)

SPECIAL JURY PRIZE FOR BEST ENSEMBLE CAST

Crab Trap

DOCUMENTARY FEATURE

BEST DOCUMENTARY FEATURE

Armadillo, dir. Janus Metz

BEST DIRECTOR

Nicolas Philibert, Nenette

BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY

Naomi Kawase, Genpin

NARRATIVE SHORT

BEST NARRATIVE SHORT

The Award (El Premio), dir. Leon Siminiani

HONORABLE MENTION

You Too (Na Wewe), dir. Ivan Goldschmidt

DOCUMENTARY SHORT

BEST DOCUMENTARY SHORT

Surpriseville, dir. Tim Travers Hawkins

HONORABLE MENTION

Bathing Micky (Micky Bader), dir. Frida Kempff

HONORABLE MENTION

Mr. Hypnotism, dir. Bradley Beesley

ANIMATED SHORT

BEST ANIMATED SHORT

The Eagleman Stag, dir. Mike Please

HONORABLE MENTION FOR ARTISTIC TECHNIQUE

Madagascar, A Journey Diary (Madagascar, Carnet de Voyage), dir. Bastien Dubois

STUDENT SHORT

BEST STUDENT SHORT

The Eagleman Stag, dir. Mike Please

HONORABLE MENTION

Flip, dir. Jill Hackett

HONORABLE MENTION

Traumdeutung, dir. Lauri Warsta

AUDIENCE AWARDS

BEST NARRATIVE FEATURE

Home For Christmas, dir. Bent Hamer

BEST DOCUMENTARY FEATURE

Kinshasa Symphony, dir. Claus Wischmann and Martin Baer

ALTERED STATES AWARD FOR BEST AMERICAN INDIE

to.get.her, dir. Erica Dunton