West Hollywood International Film Festival 2008

As a talented broker living in Seattle, Peter Hathaway receives a business proposal from Nigeria. Well scripted and extremely tempting in the same time, the proposal is suppose to bring into Peter?s pockets $720,000. Married with children, Peter falls into the trap of investing into nothing and spends almost $80,000 ? all of his family?s savings and loans from different people.After the viewer is introduced to the ?419 Scam? (named by authorities after a relevant section of the Criminal Code of Nigeria) the movie starts with Peter Hathaway narrating the day when he got the e-mail. Then, throughout the movie - presented as a video journal - he narrates the events how they took place. As he tells the story, he gets to the present day while still waiting for his share. Also, as he?s telling the story he acknowledges that the things go worse and worse, but he still hopes that is not a scam and tries to take advantage of the bit of confidence that?s left.The end is unexpected.The movie reveals in detail how the Internet scam works and it is intended to have educational purposes. Documents from the real correspondence with the scammers are used in this beautiful work of art - must-see movie.

A steam locomotive pulls a ramshackle string of carriages through the blazing heat of the Australian desert. One of the wagons is a refrigerated cooler used for transporting animal carcasses from the outback abattoirs to the markets in the city. Inside this otherwise empty cooler a man keeps a grim journal, writing on the walls a detailed log of his gruesome decline as he slowly succumbs to the cold. The man, a railway worker trapped inside the wagon at the start of the journey and having resigned himself to his fate, writes that he hopes this firsthand account of death by hypothermia will be of use to science ? and that his death will therefore not have been entirely without purpose.Only much later is it discovered that the refrigeration unit hadn?t been operating during the time of his demise and that the temperature inside the wagon never fell below 68?F. Yet the man dutifully manifests, and records, the specific symptoms of hypothermia as he dies a needless, painful death.The story is told using a combination of archival and imagined material to speculate on the man's final hours.

The quirky, touching stories of two tough Latina gang girls who find life-changing inspiration in the heart of a childhood icon: Peter Pan's 'Tinker Bell.'Tossed out of numerous L.A. schools for fighting, truancy, and drug abuse, 'Noemi' and 'Ashley' meet at a radical tough-love high school in the Valley. As they leave their gangs and party crews behind----they discover a secret they share--an obsession for a little fairy called 'Tink.'Both girls cherish the headstrong pixie as a supportive spiritual guide, in the face of dysfunctional, abusive lives at home.17-year-old Ashley invites us to her bedroom shrine that glorifies the pixie she adores, and in whom she confides. At first blush, it's a colorful, happy place. But as we hear her personal story of childhood neglect, it becomes clear Tinker Bell offers friendship, safety, and comfort that family could not. Then, in a chilling confrontation, their religious, tough-love teacher tries to strip the girls of their extreme devotion to 'a fairy going nowhere.' Mr. White paints over a school mural the girls meticulously created in honor of Tinker Bell, and orders them to find their spiritual foundation somewhere else. Filmmaker Lonnie Lardner was so intrigued by the girls' steadfast commitment, that she embarked on a 3-year quest to find out why. Watch the girls transform from failing teens into determined career-bound women, as they find guidance, love, and support from a most unlikely source.

The Art of the Tease follows the story of Sadie Powell a sultry burlesque dancer. On the night she has to deliver the performance of her lifetime she finds herself drawn to a handsome stranger. Faced with the reality of agreeing to be the prize in a financially beneficial deal between a rich patron, the club owner and herself, Sadie is forced to examine her life choices and battle her true desires.

High Tide is a 7 min short film about finding hope and faith in life again. When a storm brews and life crashes toward you, in waves, with the threat of overwhelming you, the best thing to do is take a deep breath, duck for cover, and hold onto anything you can. You will, eventually, come up for air.

Imprisoned for a crime she didn't commit, Alexandra entrusts the care of Rebecca into the hands of her best friend, Kelly.While in prison, Alexandra fights to survive the trauma of the separation from her daughter. She must learn to stand up for herself if she ever has hopes of seeing Rebecca again. After a year of incarceration and many futile calls and letters, Kelly reluctantly brings Rebecca to visit her mother. Disgusted with Alexandra's imprisonment, Kelly never returns, keeping Rebecca from Alexandra.Two years later, Alexandra is released on account of her good behavior and is now on her way to reclaim her daughter...

The only things standing between a Rent-A-Cop and true love are the guard dogs on a used-car lot.