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The 2005 Greensboro Film and Video Festival wound up another impressive lineup of intriguing features and short films.

It included Emily Edwards' "Root Doctor," a look at the continuing practice of the remnants of African religion and superstition that survives to this day, often called hoodoo or voodoo. Its moody cinematography and appropriately spooky harmonica score give the film a feel one local reviewer called "the heebie jeebies."

Pat Hingle, now a Wilmington resident, received the first annual Distinguished Filmmaker award.

The 28th annual Carolina Film & Video Festival in Greensboro, Feb. 23-26, 2005 honored indie film champion Pat Hingle.

Many of the filmmakers appeared throughout the festival. Visit the festival site for a list of winners.

The Greensboro festival presents a wide variety of awards, honoring screenplays, cinematography (Kodak Award) and independently made narrative and documentary, student and UNCG Showcase films as well as awards for direction and animation.

The winning films shared relatively high production values and we saw them from the first row.

2+1, by Phillippe Safir, won the Cinefilm Award for direction. It combines sophisticated and effective technique to tell a relatively simple, funny and touching story.

An American in Paris splits from his girlfriend and then finds himself accidentally locked behind iron gates with a crazed Parisian cab driver and a winsome Japanese girl during a drenching rainstorm.

While the simple drama that ensues, often charming and funny throughout, is told using spilt screens that are interesting rather than annoying: a shift from past to present and from black and white to color, at times from split screen to split screen with the changes from black and white to color uniting past and present in a single narrative.

It suggests more than it states, suggesting the connections between past and present, between reality and the movies, between lovers and the environment, whether a rainstorm or the Eiffel Tower.

This is one case where the award for direction was certainly deserved. It's an enjoyable short film that also deserves a wide audience and will likely see continuing festival runs.

"Skippy," an experimental college animation by Amanda Spalinski, lets a child tell the story of how his dog Skippy learned to wink. Children tell stories in a distinct way, with little stops and starts and occasional substitutions (at one point the child narrator of Skippy says "cat" instead of "dog," and the animation follows his narration, little goofs and all.) The film is far from a little goof, though. It's genuinely funny, evokes out-loud-laughs and drew strong applause.

"Just Pray," by Tiffani Thiessen, winner of honorable mention for independent narrative, tells the story of a chubby freckled boy who prays to God for relief from the bullying of his brother and kids at school for being "fat" and "queer."

His anchor is his dying mother, played by Janel Moloney , who is Josh Lyman's aide Donna Moss in the TV series "West Wing." Moloney's performance anchors this production, as well.

Her movie son gets little relief from God or this film, although his mother's hairdresser, also "different," becomes something of a guardian angel to him.

All in all, it's a plea for tolerance of human differences we found a touch cloying.

It has its moments, though. In particular, the boy's prayers to God, in which he offers trades for favors, "I'll stop looking at those pictures if \ You'll make mom get better," types of trades, is very much the bargaining with God kids do. Not to mention a few adults, still.

The melodramatic "Shelter" by Benno Schoberth won the independent narrative award and highest praise of at the awards ceremony for its story of a homeless black teenage boy who finds a temporary home.

But we rather enjoyed the UNCG Showcase offering "Consistency" by Greg Robbins, who accepted his award saying he just wanted something on the Carolina Theatre's screen.

Acted straight-faced, even deadpan by Robbins, the film portrays a slave to rigid and boring routine who, finally, escapes the clock and…big effort…talks to a girl.

Well acted and effectively directed, "Consistency" reveals multi-dimensional talent on the parts of both Robbins and his associates, and we think you'll see more of his work. "Consistency" itself certainly deserves much wider exposure.

"Fascist Dogs," a rather bizarre short satire in which an Asian pitchman forces gigantic and disgusting sausages on people, is a satire on advertising and the way it shoves things we neither need nor really want down our throats. I think. Or maybe it's a satire on government shoving crap down our throats. Or maybe…

Well, I can say this for sure. It is short.

"Island," by Alexander Livingston won the Kodak cinematography award with its rich color work.

A good many other films screened at the festival and you could watch hours of them without encountering a clunker. Those that made the winner's circle stand up against any festival offerings anywhere in their quirky, independent viewpoints and very strong production values.

Something's happening out here in the film hinterlands, and you better pay attention, Hollywoodland.

Chad Phillips, director of the festival

For information on the next Carolina Film and Video Festival...