Answering Strange

I. For this, the two thousand and fourteenth Year of Our Lord, Jim/Joyce had to consider three hundred and fifty films for programming. All of them shorts, as that is all they will accept.

II. They number they strive to show varies from year to year. They are allowed roughly six and a half hours at ManBites Dog Theater, so the number depends on how many entries push the thirty-minute limit. Additionally, they have been pushing for more time and accepting more and more entries since Strange Beauty began. Ambition is parabolic, and they are beginning to mount the bell.

III to V. Jim/Joyce personally watch each and every entrant's work, making observations and jotting down inclinations, and possibly interpretations, on index cards. They often must first expunge artists attempting to sneak in installation pieces. Films only, goddammit.

VI. There is no quantitatively oriented template/rubric for the selection process. The films that are selected are those that strike Jim/Joyce in a unique, highly subjective fashion. Quoth the Haverkamp: "Weird Alchemy." Each however must be endowed with a vibrant emotional core.

VII. There is no jury. There never was. There is only Jim, there is only Joyce.

VIII. The call for entries is sounded some five months prior to the festival. In the beginning, near all films came in as the deadline loomed. Now, filmmakers previously showcased tend to send in their latest work shortly after they hear the call, resulting in two waves of entrants: one in the beginning, and one in the end.

IX. There are no paid employees. There are no volunteers. No apprentices, journeymen, tyros, nor even minions. There is only Jim and Joyce.

X. No real need for elaborate software measures. The festival itself is generally conducted via an iTunes playlist or Vimeo streams, depending on how the films were submitted.

XI. Strange Beauty does not indulge in fundraisers. Most off-season awareness comes in the form of requests from art galleries for Jim and Joyce to curate visual accompaniment to a program. Occasionally "Best Of Strange Beauty" screenings are held.

XII. There is always some material consideration gifted to the filmmakers. Little things, cheap, kitschy, funny. In the first year the bags were filled with the detritus of Dollar Tree. Once a filmmaker from Winnipeg attended the festival and was given a Durham license plate.

XIII to XIV. They do not, but neither are they given assistance in paying for travel and lodging. Strange Beauty must be low-key to function in accordance with its purpose.

XV. Entrants get to drink deep from the well of Jim and Joyce's knowledge of Durham, given suggestions for restaurants and venues of art and/or entertainment.

XVI. To have donor perks would require donors. One may consider ManBites Dog Theater a donor, as they are donating space and time. Their perk is forty percent of ticket sales.

XVII. Jim's heart is not particularly heavy with regret. At least not concerning Strange Beauty. So far the festival has kept to the desire that seeded its gestation.

XVIII. Strange Beauty still runs annually. May it always do so.

XIX. Keep it simple. A festival exists for the films, not for itself. Tailor it to the needs and wants of the type of person that could make the type of film you are seeking. Always provide some consideration, regardless of price. And let the filmmakers know how appreciative you are of them during the festival and afterwards.

Questioning Beauty

I. I interrogated Jim Haverkamp, co-creator and co-runner of Strange Beauty, on Friday the Twelfth at 10:00.

II. Strange Beauty was begun by Jim Haverkamp and his wife, Joyce Ventimiglia, and continues to be under their auspices.

III. Researching Strange Beauty I found no mission statement. There was however an epigram, a Sir Francis Bacon quotation: "There is no excellent beauty, which hath not some strangeness in the proportion." Interviewing the man, Haverkamp that is, I initiated by working with him to shape a mission statement. Thus: "To showcase twilight films that are intriguing, challenging, and possess a potent emotional soul which evoke a sense of faint familiarity like dreams."

IV. Hitherto Jim/Joyce have held to their vision for Strange Beauty. Each year their selections are at least accented with abstraction and many plunge headlong all giddy into the depths. A lot of animation is featured, and each film animated or not is anchored by concentrated emotional evocation. Reading over the descriptions such words as "fear""anxiety" "nostalgia" appear over and over again.

V. The venue so far has always been The Manbites Dog Theater in Durham, NC.

VI. The event keeps shifting its season. This year it was held in June from the Twelfth to the Fourteenth.

VII. Each hopeful entrant must complete an entry form to be found on their website. The films themselves may be delivered either via a URL link or a DVD mailed in to Jim/Joyce.

VIII. There is only one deadline for entry. This year it was the First of March.

IX. The fee is but ten American dollars. Surrender your Hamilton.

X. Strange Beauty enforces no descriptions on their filmmakers. The films must be films thirty minutes or less, strangely beautiful and/or beautifully strange.

XI. There is no student category. All submissions are judged equally.

XII. I may have fed this question to Question VII. Either an online stream or a DVD.

XIII. Look you to Questions VII and XII.

XIV. Forty-Five films were screened.

XV. There are no paper presentations. Film blocks tend to be eighty to ninety minutes. The goal seems to be an hour and half.

XVI. Somewhere in the vicinity of ten films per block, varying based on length of films presented to maintain the target of an hour and a half.

XVII. No registration, only ticket purchasing to access these pretties. Tickets are purchased on Manbites Dog Theater's website. Twelve dollars per block, or forty dollars for a pass to all blocks.

XVIII. No sponsorship page to be found. Not a terribly common phenomenon for Strange Beauty is censorship.

XIX. Look to Question XVIII.

XX. No Kickstarter. No Indiegogo.

XXI. Each year the flood of film abates for a thirty minute Aural Fixation, a soundscape showcase.

XXII. Strange Beauty remains concentrated on film appreciation in a theater setting.

XXIII. The website for Strange Beauty proved to be a smooth buttery sea for these eyes on account of its minimalist aesthetic and simplicity.

XXIV. No difficulties to report, captain.

XXV. I could scrounge up all I needed, excepting the Entry guidelines and form, as this year's festival is done and that particular service is not currently required. I received direct links to those from Jim Haverkamp.

XXVI. The barebones banality of the site pleases me.

XXVII. The barebones banality of the site displeases me. Apparently it is making me ambivalent. I feel split.

XXVIII. I fail to see what is necessary that is not already present.

XXIX. I fail to see what is present that is not already necessary.

XXX. To better evoke the intention of the vague familiarity of dreams I would adopt a color scheme of saturated cool colors.

XXXI. I would keep its simplicity of content. We need not burden eyes to make minds soar.

Unconfirming The Unconfirmation

Mr. Jim Haverkamp and I will be discussing Strange Beauty Friday the Twelfth of September at approximately 10:00.

Confirm The Unconfirmed

I have no date and no time of festival director interview to post. I have called Jim Haverkamp, that Strange Beauty Man, and left messages as he did not answer. I will try again when the sun comes again.

I admit I forgot to leave my phone's number the first time I called.

Comes Dancingly

I am an octopus dreaming he is an ape in early summer.

Let your senses give you the details of my body. Let my works give you the details of my mind.

I seem incapable of making straight lines. I have stopped trying to make them.

I am older than I was. I am younger than I will be. Thus I have power.

Eight is my number. It has infinite potential.

Film and the Woman I Love are the dual deities of my religion.

I want the films I will make to be colorful, syrupy, lurid, psychosexual, and melismatic.

I also dream of directing a James Bond film. And a musical.

I am.

You may call me Joshua.