Reelheart Film Festival Showcases Masters and Proteges from Brooks Institute

The film festival’s stated goal is to put emerging filmmakers alongside master filmmakers – the ideal showcase for aspiring director Kuhlein and his partner Basta to be showcased along with Brooks Insitute mentor and former teacher seasoned media craftsman Beard.

Santa Barabara, Calif. (PRWEB) June 5, 2006 -- Glynn Beard, Film and Video Production program director for Brooks Institute of Photography, announced today that he and independent film director and former Brooks student Arno Kuhlein, along with Brooks graduate and film cinematographer Yvette Basta, have been selected to screen their recent projects at the international ReelHeart Film Festival to be held June 16-24, 2006, in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. The festival’s stated goal is to put emerging filmmakers alongside master filmmakers – the ideal showcase for aspiring director Kuhlein and his partner Basta to be showcased along with Brooks mentor and seasoned media craftsman Beard.

Beard’s Award-Winning ‘Son’ Chosen as Director’s Choice at ReelHeart
Beard is not new to the festival circuit, nor to critical acclaim. Earlier this year, his movie ‘Son’ was selected as Best Overall Short film at the Lake County Film Festival in Illinois. In addition, Beard has screened the film at the New York International Film Festival, Flicker Festival and others. As Director’s Choice at the ReelHeart festival, ‘Son’ once again is shining the spotlight on Beard’s writing and directorial talents.

The movie ‘Son’ is the second of a nine-film series entitled ‘Ocean of Storms’. The series, itself, revolves around the human experience. It began with ‘Success’, a film that tells the story of a father who has failed in life and pressures his son to succeed. It begs the question, ‘At what price for success?’

‘Son’ is about a dying father who videotapes himself giving advice to his child.

Beard notes that the inspiration for ‘Ocean of Storms’ really came with the birth of his son in 1998, Glyn Montgomery Beard. As his legacy to his own child, all of the films in the series will speak to and be dedicated to the younger Beard.

Beard was born in Vancouver, Canada, and his personal film career began with a mad scientist horror movie created on a Super 8 camera when he was 10-years-old. He graduated from Brooks Institute with a Bachelor’s degree in 1987 (later earning a Master’s degree from the school) and several years later co-wrote, directed, produced and acted in the feature film ‘Murdered’ based on upon the real-life homicide of his childhood friend. Subsequently, Beard has been involved in numerous film and video projects, and is currently working on the third film in the ‘Ocean of Storms’ series, entitled ‘Exit’. For more information, visit www.glynnbeard.com

Kuhlein’s ‘Wolves’ Script Presages Real-Life
Kuhlein’s film, ‘The Wolves’ Alphabet’, chosen as ‘Programmer’s Pick’ for the festival, explores the concepts of human endurance and discovery. The movie, which was recently screened at festivals in Alabama and Arizona, began as a six-minute class project while Kuhlein pursued his Bachelor of Arts degree in Film and Video Production at Brooks Institute. It ultimately evolved into a feature-length movie.

The story focuses on a young hitchhiker, Dante (played by Kuhlein) and his companion wolf who are dropped off in a small, gold-mining ‘ghost town’, Ransberg, in the California desert. There, they encounter an isolated cluster of villagers who decide to play a deadly cat-and-mouse game with the two. As the tale progresses and as the antagonists and protagonists pit their mental and physical wills against each other, the starkly beautiful and treacherous desert becomes less of a backdrop and more of a main character in the film.

“The shortcut message of the film is ‘until you discover yourself, testing your limits, you are just a ghost,” says Kuhlein. The script became a parable for the reality. He describes the arduous two-year process that saw him and his exhausted crew arguing and facing financial doom. Perhaps the darkest time came when they realized that the entire script needed reworking – a critical moment which potentially could have seen the dissolution of cast and crew.

Salvation did, indeed, arrive from the desert: The real-life villagers of Ransberg, who had both participated and observed the filming process, stepped up and offered financing. Explains Kuhlein, “Tom and Faith Abbott, actors in the movie and proprietors of The Silver Dollar Bar, told us ‘We would be very sad to see you go without completing this movie.’” The two became the film’s ‘angels’ and three months later, the project was completed.

Kuhlein and his partner Yvette Basta, both of whom spent more than 14 months living in the Mojave desert during the filming, returned to their native France to complete post-production on the movie. For the past several months, he has traveled throughout the U.S. and Canada screening his project to critical reviews.

About Brooks Institute
Brooks Institute offers a Master of Science degree program in Photography; Bachelor of Arts degree programs in Professional Photography, Film & Video Production, Visual Communication and Visual Journalism; an Associate of Arts degree program in Visual Journalism, and diploma programs in Professional Photography and Film & Video Production.

Graduates from Brooks have gone on to work for distinguished organizations including National Geographic, Smithsonian, the Los Angeles Times and other national media outlets, Hallmark Publishing, Cousteau Society, HBO, Kodak and literally scores of other leaders in visual media fields. For more information about Brooks Institute of Photography, go to www.brooks.edu or call the school at 888-304-3456.

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