The DV Film Festival may not be the largest fest in town, but it offers filmmakers a quality place to show their economical, creative flicks. Dave Kapoor, director of The DV Film Festival, expanded the DV Expo West to include the Festival. Kapoor wanted people who were interested in DV cameras to be able to see the quality that digital could produce and give them a venue to show their work. The event has doubled from last year receiving over 400 short entries and over 250 feature length film entries. Fifteen shorts and three feature films were selected to be screened. Since most theaters are not equipped for DV, using the Beaudry Theater in Los Angeles Center Studios seemed like the perfect fit. It allowed the shorts and feature length films from the festival to be celebrated on the big screen.

The DV Expo provided a wealth of knowledge for those wanting to investigate cameras, training and performance. There were a weeks worth of seminars and booths at the Los Angeles Convention Center to keep any independent filmmaker busy and the evenings were filled with festival movies and parties. Kapoor is planning to expand the Festival every year. He is also a filmmaker and jokingly claims that he needs a place to show his movies. When asked if he thought that DV would negate film his response was a firm, “NO.” He does feel, however, that DV is a way to get a low-cost, high quality product and that fact alone will keep people flocking to DV.

On the last night of the Festival, the best feature award was handed out. The winner was a very deserving and talented, twenty-two year old, Samuel Abrahams. He was raised in the UK and fine-tuned his talent at Chelsea College of Art in London. His film “Charlie White” was written based on his experience with the socialites around him and the picture he portrays is not pretty. It is a movie about high society, young punks who have no talent and consume excessive amounts of drugs and alcohol. The movie is shot in black and white and cleverly edited.
Tracie Donahue