Thursday 4/1 and Monday 4/5 – 12 NOON
The ashland independent film festival aims to support local filmmakers, and this year there are many local productions among our official selections.

At 12 noon on Thursday and Monday we will present four of these films in a free program including the world premiere of Crater Lake: Mirror of Heaven produced by Southern Oregon Public Television; the world premiere of Legends From Camp, an animated short by SOU professor Miles Inada; the world premiere of the computer animation Zeo produced at SOU; and Watershed, a film on the Klamath River.

WORLD PREMIERE
Zeo
6 minutes
Student Film/Computer Animated Comedy
Years in the making at our own Southern Oregon University, the dazzling visuals and metaphysics of this computer animation will transport and delight you.

WORLD PREMIERE
Legends From Camp
11 minutes
Short Film/Animated Docu-drama
This is a daring computer animated film inspired by local treasure Lawson Inada’s experience as a young boy in a WWII Japanese Internment camp. Lawson’s son, Miles Inada, translates his father’s poetry into a thought-provoking, purely visual story with help from co-animator Evan Carroll. Original music by Todd Barton of the Oregon Shakespeare Festival works in tandem with the images and summons the eeriness of the experience. Funded, in part, by the Civil Liberties Public Education Fund. [Violence]

Watershed
15 minutes
Documentary/Student Film
A vibrant, evocative view from the Klamath lake to the down river towns, Watershed manages to clearly present three different and opposing viewpoints: agriculturists, environmental activists, and Native Americans. National interest in our local controversy has raised the stakes where both fish and ways of life are endangered. A clear and revealing exploration of the issues that allows the viewer to decide for themselves, and deepens appreciation for our region and the decisions we face.

WORLD PREMIERE
Crater Lake: Mirror of Heaven
58 minutes
Documentary
Stunningly filmed in High Definition, this film highlights William Steel’s 17-year battle to get National Park status for Crater Lake. Textured with Native American mythology, archival photographs, and journal entries from the pioneers who first laid eyes on this natural wonder. The computer-animated sequences showing the birth, growth, and eruption of Mt. Mazama have already garnered several awards.