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In the early 1980s, Stephen King began giving permission to young independent filmmakers to adapt his short stories into short films for the measly price of a dollar. This was the birth of the “Dollar Babies.” The First Annual Dollar Baby Film Festival was held in DPC 100 on Saturday evening. An eclectic group of short films were showcased, illustrating the diversity of Stephen King’s writing.
As audience members first walked in the door and handed the admission fee of $5 to the young woman sitting at the front door, who happened to be the wife of filmmaker James Renner, hands were marked with a mysterious “19.” It was apparent from the get-go that this was no average film festival. However, despite its small size, the Dollar Baby Film Festival carried that buzz in the lobby area that all film festivals seem to possess.
The mingling of filmmakers and actors alike was in full swing as if it were attended by thousands of festival-goers rather than approximately 100. Clearly, everyone was present, including the filmmakers who came to show their passion for King’s work and for film.
From shoe-string budgets of $1,500 to upwards of $6,000, these shorts drew mostly from independent donations as well as donations from various organizations.
Some of the stand out films at the festival included: “The Woman in the Room,” directed by Frank Darabont, who went on to direct “The Shawshank Redemption.” Jay Holbin’s slickly edited “Paranoid,” which drew from an abstract poem by King entitled “Paranoid: A Chant,” Robert Cochrane’s humorous “Lucky Quarter,” and James Renner’s “All That You Love Will Be Carried Away.” Renner also doubled as the festival’s host.
The festival’s spotlight seemed to be on the final film of the evening, “All That You Love Will Be Carried Away.” Most of the film’s stars, except Joe Bob Briggs, and crew were in attendance. The short was about a traveling salesman, played by Briggs, with a penchant for scribbling down bathroom stall graffiti in a notebook. This notebook, in a sense, had become what his life had been reduced to. Briggs, a cult film legend in his own right, gives a funny and even touching performance that draws the viewer right into the story.
At the festival’s conclusion, a majority of the filmmakers joined each other down front to answer questions and share stories from their filmmaking endeavors.
Some interesting stories were told during this portion of the festival, including Jay Holben’s discovery during the making of “Paranoid” that renting a cockroach for his movie would apparently cost a whopping $100 a day. In an effort to save his money for much more important things, Hoblen simply used a dung beetle that was found outdoors instead. When Robert Cochrane made “Roland Meets Brown,” a lady who owned the barn outside of which they were filming asked if they were stealing the boards for picture frames.
As for the second annual festival, Renner said that he would like to bring it back to the University of Maine because “what better place [to have the festival] than King’s alma mater?”
All in all the First Annual Dollar Baby Film Festival was a rather enjoyable outing and the question and answer session that followed was informative to all was interested in making their own Dollar Baby some day.
And as for the “19,” well, it is a reference to Stephen King’s recently completed epic, “The Dark Tower” series.
Bangor Daily News