This latest collection of short films will feature mostly short film from Citizen Video's own shelves. But Jones says, "I also just found a short film
The Extended Stay by
Pamela Littky on the Wholphin site. I contacted the filmmaker and she has agreed to let me screen it." Jones even contacted Littky for an interview that's posted on the
Citizen Video site.
Littky is an L.A. based commercial photographer. In addition to snapping pix of rock stars she also has a personal project collecting portraits of accountants. Her film project Extended Stay serves up a portrait of an unlikely subject--a Hollywood extra. Jim Jenson left Texas in 1990 to pursue a career in Hollywood. Littky says, "I met Jim Jenson when he was cast to play the role of 'bathroom attendant' in a music video I was directing. I had seen him out of the corner of my eye all day and noticed how patiently he sat, quietly reading his book, waiting for his scene to shoot. His call time was 9am and we didn't end up shooting his scene until around 4pm. I was intrigued by someone who would sit around all day to shoot a scene for five minutes for 100 bucks. It wasn't until I was sitting in editing watching the footage of him, that I became really fascinated by who he was and how he got here, that I decided I'd love to shadow him for a week and see what his day to day life was like."
Jenson (who took his screen name from the backpacking equipment he was using but changed one letter to avoid brand infringement) is an amiable guy who works hard at being a nameless extra in movies and television. He takes the work seriously as he tries to decide how to look busy and engaged in the crowd at a tennis match or in a party. Littky at one point assembles a montage of clips from the Hollywood films he's been in--O Brother Where Art Thou? to Little Nicky--and has a big arrow pointing out Jenson's location in each of the big wide shots of crowds. Littky finds humor but doesn't mock Jenson. He's doing a job and taking it seriously even if it does sound funny to be auditioning to be an extra or Tommy Lee Jones' body double. Littsky's film is breezily observant of Jenson's life. She displays a relaxed style that allows Jenson to be himself.
Other short films to screen during the evening are Run Wrake's stop animation piece Rabbit and Alfonso Cuaron's You Owe Me One . The evening will be rounded out with music by neon dreampie musicians the Fantastic Magic. So with holiday shopping in full swing, avoid the mall theaters and swing by the Whistle Stop for Extended Stay.
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