Parents fret over their youngster, the mom relating, “I’m just worried he’s pushing himself too hard,” noting that he’s been “training all year and we haven’t heard anything.”
She observes that her son will be “devastated” if he can’t go.
The father tries to calm her with a dose of objective rationalization: “He’s only 15 and these are the World Games.”
The apartment doorbell rings and before the parents can answer, their young son who’s cradling a basketball in his room runs out and opens the door. A DHL delivery guy hands him an envelope. The youngster opens it, looks at his parents and offers a half smile. The parents facial expressions convey both joy and relief but it’s not for the son holding the DHL envelope.
That boy runs into the next room where his developmentally challenged brother is playing a video game.
“Louis, you’re going to the Games.”
Louis then stands up from the gaming console and the two brothers embrace, joined by their parents.
A message then appears on screen which simply reads, “If we change just one person’s perception, then we’ve delivered.”
An end tag carries the logos for DHL and the Special Olympics.
David Denneen of Filmgraphics Productions, Sydney (Denneen is repped stateside by Los Angeles-based Form) directed “Acceptance” for Ogilvy & Mather, Singapore.
Anna Fawcett exec produced for Filmgraphics, with Matt Stewart the DP. Editor was Toby Denneen.
Does “Hundreds of Beavers” Reflect A New Path Forward In Cinema?
Hard as it may be to believe, changing the future of cinema was not on Mike Cheslik's mind when he was making "Hundreds of Beavers." Cheslik was in the Northwoods of Wisconsin with a crew of four, sometimes six, standing in snow and making his friend, Ryland Tews, fall down funny.
"When we were shooting, I kept thinking: It would be so stupid if this got mythologized," says Cheslik.
And yet, "Hundreds of Beavers" has accrued the stuff of, if not quite myth, then certainly lo-fi legend. Cheslik's film, made for just $150,000 and self-distributed in theaters, has managed to gnaw its way into a movie culture largely dominated by big-budget sequels.
"Hundreds of Beavers" is a wordless black-and-white bonanza of slapstick antics about a stranded 19th century applejack salesman (Tews) at war with a bevy of beavers, all of whom are played by actors in mascot costumes.
No one would call "Hundreds of Beavers" expensive looking, but it's far more inventive than much of what Hollywood produces. With some 1,500 effects shots Cheslik slaved over on his home computer, he crafted something like the human version of Donald Duck's snowball fight, and a low-budget heir to the waning tradition of Buster Keaton and "Naked Gun."
At a time when independent filmmaking is more challenged than ever, "Hundreds of Beavers" has, maybe, suggested a new path forward, albeit a particularly beaver-festooned path.
After no major distributor stepped forward, the filmmakers opted to launch the movie themselves, beginning with carnivalesque roadshow screenings. Since opening in January, "Hundreds of Beavers" has played in at least one theater every week of the year, though never more than 33 at once. (Blockbusters typically play in around 4,000 locations.)... Read More