Independents’ Day at Fullerton Festival

An all-night poker game, female rodeo stars and a guy attracted to a talking fridge are among the subjects to be explored during Friday’s Main Street Film Festival at Cal State Fullerton.

The event, from 1 to 10 p.m. at the university’s Mackey Auditorium in the Ruby Gerontology Center, offers 15 features, shorts and documentaries, all by independent filmmakers from around the country.

The free program, sponsored by CSUF’s School of Communications, is designed to showcase both amateurs and students who, despite limited money and other resources, are on the cutting edge of cinema, said chief organizer and CSUF assistant communications professor Cheryl D. Harris.

“It is extremely important for aspiring filmmakers as well as the film-going public to have the opportunity to see films and video art created outside the Hollywood mainstream,” she said.

The movies are divided into three categories--feature, documentary, and short and experimental. Entries have been judged by a seven-member panel consisting of CSUF communications school faculty, film and TV producers and writers, with winners selected in each category. First, second place and “special recognition” awards will be presented during brief ceremonies between screenings.

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Among the longer features, Julian Stone from Los Angeles won with “Follow the Bitch” (screening at 8:40 p.m.). The 87-minute film centers on a poker game and tries to “humorously investigate the emotional subtext, politics and sanctity” of that game, according to the festival’s program.

Of the documentaries, Patrick Hennessey of Minneapolis came in first with “The Homeless Home Movie” (2 p.m.), a 104-minute look at seven people living on the streets. Mark Ledzian of New York came in second with his “Lady Bullrider,” a 27-minute piece on female rodeo stars (8:05p.m.).

In the shorts and experimental category, Rossana Jeran of Kansas City, Kan., won for “Wish” (7:10 p.m.), her 7 1/2-minute “videopoem” in which “the fusion of the masculine and feminine aspects of the mind [are] visually underscored by archetypes of earth, water, fire and air.”

John Derevlany of Santa Monica picked up a special-recognition award for “Leftovers” (1 p.m.), his nearly 15-minute short about a “Generation X protagonist” who is drawn to a refrigerator after hearing his girlfriend’s voice coming from it.

* What: Cal State Fullerton’s Main Street Film Festival.

* When: Friday, 1-10 p.m.

* Where: CSUF’s Mackey Auditorium in the Ruby Gerontology Center, 800 N. State College Blvd., Fullerton.

* Whereabouts: Take the Orange (57) Freeway to Nutwood Avenue exit and turn west. The college is on the right.

* Wherewithal: Free.

* Where to call: (714) 449-5305.