2011 YoungCuts Film Festival Selection: MeJohn

2011 YoungCuts Film Festival Selection
MeJohn

The YoungCuts Film Festival is pleased to announce that it has selected Phillip Bernardino-Gomez' short film MeJohn as one of our Top 100 International Short Films for 2011. The film is also shortlisted for consideration as Best Teen Film.

MeJohn and Painting

*****

The Official Final Deadline of the YoungCuts Film Festival was June 15th. 

We are in the process of finalizing our Top 100. There is still an opportunity for films that we haven't received yet to trickle in after the deadline, we thought that we would begin announcing some of the films that we know will be included in our Top 100.

These won't be announced in any kind of order and they should not be interpreted as any kind of ranking, just that we have all the material for this particular film and that we do consider it one of the Top 100 short films by filmmakers 25 and under that we have seen (and will see) out of more than a thousand films that we have screened from more than 30 countries.

This week, we will be announcing some of our favourite Teen films leading to the announcement of all the films that will play in our Teen screening. 

Announced so far as Best Teen films:
Francesca Abbondanza-Bergeron's Switching Worlds
Jeremiah James' Send Me To Babylon 
Nic Weinfeld's The 36 

*****

MeJohn

Phillip Bernardino-Gomez

Directed and Written by Phillip Bernardino-Gomez


This film is a part of Reel Voices, a 12-week summer internship program of the San Diego Asian Film Foundation that empowers local high school students to learn the art of documentary filmmaking, become socially conscious storytellers, learn Final Cut Pro editing, and experience all stages of production and post-production. 

MeJohn is a fine short doc in the tradition of Errol Morris. It neither praises, condemns or judges. It lets MeJohn tell his story and assists him to tell it well. It helps that the director has chosen a fascinating subject for his film.

*****

Runtime: 5 min
Completion: September 2010
Country of Origin: USA (California)
Synopsis: An eccentric man goes through life collecting strange items such as pantyhose, his own brand of miniature cars, and anything else he believes that has a special value to it.

*****

MeJohn's storage room

Filmmaker Bio: I was born and raised in San Diego. I am an aspiring cinematographer. I spend most of my days playing video games, listening to music, reading, playing basketball and watching B horror movies (Yay Thankskilling). Some people think that my life has been hard, but I find my life to be funny. I graduated last year from Garfield High School, which is my 5th high school in 4 years, and I watch MMA religiously. Because of the standards I set for myself, I always wanted to go to USC (dreams do come true sometimes), so I'm going to transfer there from a community college.

Filmmaker Age: 19

*****

MeJohn and his treasures

The 2011 YoungCuts Film Festival will begin on Thursday, September 29th. Screenings will be at the Guzzo Spheretech beginning on Friday, September 30th. The Teen Screening will be on Friday September 30th at 1PM. This will be a free screening presented as part of Les Journées de la Culture (Culture Days). The screening will end with presentation of the award Best Teen film. Stay tuned for details on how to enjoy the amazing films that we will be presenting including MeJohn!