Our third short-film festival crowns all new winners
Let's Make a Deal |
Best Documentary: Let’s Make a Deal
Directed by Mike Russell
An older gentleman named Will, who sings, dances, and wheedles his way into our hearts — all in eight and a half minutes! — might have won this category for the film about flea markets, Let's Make a Deal. The Maine vendor is one of those characters whom we documentarians live for — someone who jumps off the screen (or the page) to tell a story. And Russell (along with two fellow students and co-producers from his Maine College of Art documentary-film class, John Curran and Suzi Piker) was skilled enough to find him, and to know a great character when he saw one. "I was inspired by the vivid characters and venues of the flea markets in Maine," Russell says. His short film provides the viewer with a glimpse into that world, and the incredibly kind, funny people who apparently inhabit it. The best part is the honesty he catches on film; the vendors openly admit that they sell, well, junk ... but somehow, I doubt it'll make us any less likely to buy from them.Watch the video: Let's Make a Deal
_Deirdre Fulton
