ALBUQUERQUE JOURNAL JAN 13, 2002

THREE NEW MEXICO FILMAKERS FIND NICHE
Young talents' work found worthy
for prestigious Sundance festivals
Anthony DellaFlora Journal Staff Writer

Moving to New Mexico has paid off artistically for cinematographer John Britt and animator Jeff Drew. Britt moved to the state in 1997 from Nashville, where he polished his skills cranking out music videos.

Since his arrival in New Mexico, he's shot two short independent films and both have been accepted at the Sundance Film Festival in Park City, Utah. This year's entry, " Running on Indian Time, " was shot for Hopi director Duane Humeyestewa. The 18-minute piece about the reconciliation between a fallen tribal leader and his son screens Wednesday and Saturday at the festival.

Drew, an artist, moved here from Indianapolis about three years ago, and enrolled in the digital animation program at Albuquerque Technical Vocational Institute. His six-minute computer-animated short, "Walk," also made it into Sundance. It screens Tuesday, Friday and Saturday. Britt's previous effort, "Storyteller," by Richard Dargan, made it into the 1999 Sundance festival.
In fact, it was a screening of "Storyteller" at Sundance that led to his work on the latest film. Humeyestewa saw "Storyteller" and looked up Britt when it came time to shoot his film.

GROWING INTEREST
Britt hopes this film will lead to work on a feature. "I'm getting a lot of interest in my work from people," Britt said. "People see your work. Don't forget, there are, I think, 2,100 short films that are in that category, that applied to be in Sundance, and 79 got in. So there's a perception that here's the best work and I get a lot of interest out of that."

Britt, who shoots both video and film, learned to work fast, cheap and yet in control, both in Nashville, and in his previous job as a cameraman in Louisiana. His resourcefulness paid off on both movies, the latest, which cost about $15,000, and the former, which cost about $10,000. Both were shot on film.

Despite the low budget, Humeyestewa wanted the look of a major motion picture. Britt rigged a cheap lighting system that gave the film a big budget look.

The film was shot at Zia Pueblo, Laguna Pueblo, Santa Fe and at locations in Albuquerque. Some shots were done in an indie manner quickly and perhaps without all the permits in place.

"We did a little bit of outlawing," Britt said.

"Walk" is a somewhat bawdy piece about the adventures of a dog being taken on a walk through Albuquerque's Nob Hill. It was Drew's first attempt at getting into Sundance.

I'm freaking out," he said. "I almost didn't enter, because I just thought, what's the use, I'm not going to get in."

A third Albuquerque resident, Wesley Meyer, will also get to put Sundance on his resume.
His short film, "More-Inc.," is one of 21 featured films at the second annual Sundance Online Film Festival, which runs concurrently with the Sundance Film Festival.
The online festival features works expressly created for the Internet.
Meyer's piece is an interactive simulation of a Kafka-esque day in the life of an anonymous employee, who works for the allegorical corporation More-Inc..

Meyer creates a nonlinear environment that leads the user through the employee's work life, his domestic experience and into the desperate world of his dreams.
Although the project has been featured at exhibitions around the world, Meyer, a recent graduate of the University of New Mexico's College of Fine Arts, said acceptance at Sundance was the last thing he expected.

"I started 'More-Inc.' as an honors project at school, and then the next thing I know it's garnering major international attention, and then finds its way to something as inaccessible as Sundance," he noted in a press release.

"I say it found its own way because I never actively promoted it."

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