Friday, June 10, 2005 | 8:25 a.m.
Growing up in Las Vegas as a fan of independent films, Monty Lapica looked forward to the CineVegas Film Festival.
"CineVegas was pretty much one of the only outlets for independent films" in Las Vegas, he said. "I remember watching the CineVegas Film Festival at the Orleans hotel and there were about five people in the audience.
"Now it's grown into one of the foremost festivals."
Just as CineVegas has grown up, so has Lapica - from a teenager with a passion for independent films, to a 27-year-old independent filmmaker.
It's only fitting that Lapica's feature-film debut is at this year's seventh annual CineVegas Film Festival, which begins its nine-day run today at Brenden Theatres Las Vegas 14.
Lapica's film, "Self-Medicated," is one of nearly 100 movies at the festival, including world premieres, feature films, shorts and student films from UNLV. "Self-Medicated" plays at 4 p.m. June 17 and 3:30 p.m. June 18.
Having his movie premiere in his hometown and at the same film festival he attended as a teen is "pretty cool," Lapica acknowledged.
It's also a chance for others beyond his family and close friends to learn about the Bonanza High School graduate's story: That of a troubled teen whose mom, in a last-ditch effort to save him from wasting his life, has him professionally "kidnapped" by a juvenile rehabilitation center.
As Lapica relates his story, it's nearly impossible not to think in cinematic terms: his abduction while he slept; his escape attempts before being flown to the juvenile rehabilitation center in Samoa; his reconciliation with his mother and with himself.
"It was something else," he said. "The whole time it was happening I felt like I was in a movie, it was so unbelievable to me and outside of the realm of anything in my normal life."
While Lapica acknowledged, "It's a little odd to detail my personal escapades and problems on a public display," he said it was an important story to share with others.
Plus, it made for a great film.
"I always had aspirations of being a filmmaker," he said. "Being kidnapped at 17 and put in a rehabilitation institute, I thought, What a great movie to make.' So, I decided to make it my first movie."
After graduating from the Loyola Marymount University School of Film and Television in Los Angeles in 2000, Lapica focused on telling his story through film.
He spent six months writing the screenplay and another year raising money for the film. The entire movie shoot was completed in a year, with periodic breaks in filming necessary for the actors' schedules.
Lapica not only wrote "Self-Medicated," he also directed and plays himself in the film.
The first-time director also relied on an experienced cast and crew to help him with the movie, especially actor Greg Germann ("Ally McBeal," "Down to Earth," "Sweet November"), who plays Keith, a counselor in the rehabilitation institution.
"Making an independent film, any problem can potentially be crippling or threatening to the whole shoot," he said. "(Germann) was tremendous and helped hold the film together during the turbulent moments of the film."
With work on "Self-Medicated" completed in March, Lapica was able to submit the film in time for this year's CineVegas.
"And lo and behold we were accepted, which was the ultimate goal for me," he said. "Nothing can be more rewarding than to show the film to all my friends and family who know how long I've been aspiring to be a filmmaker."
Following is a look at other filmmakers who have movies being screened at this year's festival:
Naughty bits
Penn Jillette's new movie, "The Aristocrats," was a surprise hit at the Sundance Film Festival.
But the comic-magician insists he had nothing to do with the film's success.
Instead, he credits friend and director of the film, Paul Provenza.
"I was making a cult film. Little did I know Paul was making a classic," Jillette said. "It's 'Penn's Half-Ass Project Taken Over by a Genius.' "
The idea for the movie came about when Jillette and Provenza were having a late-night meal at the Peppermill and the conversation turned to comedy as improvisational jazz.
"I was really getting into be-bop when I was playing upright bass," Jillette said. "Jazz soloists are always playing different changes, and you never hear a comedian tell the same joke the same way.
"We said simultaneously, 'We should do "The Aristocrats." ' "
"The Aristocrats," as the anecdote is named, dates to Vaudeville and has been an inside joke among comics ever since.
A free-form creative expression bound to a structured format -- joke set-up and punch line -- "The Aristocrats" is to comedians what jazz is to musicians, allowing the performer plenty of space for improvisation.
When Jillette and Provenza began calling friends to participate in the project, word of the home movie got out to other comedians and the project grew to include the likes of Jason Alexander, Chris Rock, George Carlin, Bill Mahr, Jon Stewart, Drew Carey, Whoopi Goldberg, Tim Conway, Carrie Fisher, Robin Williams, Eric Idle, members of Spinal Tap and staffers on The Onion, as well as Las Vegas performers Rita Rudner, David Brenner, Amazing Johnathan, George Carlin, Carrot Top and Howie Mandel.
Eventually, 120 hours of footage were filmed, which was edited to 87 minutes.
"The Aristocrats" plays CineVegas at 9:30 p.m. Monday, and will be distributed nationally in August.
Despite profane humor that might not have widespread appeal, Jillette said the film isn't controversial.
"It's just if you are bothered by obscenity, you're not going to like it," he said.
And that, Jillette contends, is borderline unpatriotic.
"There's nothing more American than dirty jokes," he said. "Certainly, they do not tell dirty jokes in the Middle East."
Five-year project
Christopher Jaymes is the kind of guy who can do just about anything when he sets his mind to it.
"He's one of those people who, one day, decides to learn how to play guitar, then plays better than people you hear on the radio," Judy Greer, a longtime friend of Jaymes, said. "He's an enormously talented person in every way, shape or form."
So when Jaymes announced to friends, including Greer, that he was bored and wanted to make a movie, she wasn't shocked.
Nor was Greer surprised that Jaymes finished the script in one week and that he wanted her to appear in his film.
What did catch her off guard, though, was how much she enjoyed her role as Judy, the dad's new, young trophy wife.
"Usually when you agree to do a friend a favor, it sometimes will bite you in the (rear end). But this was fun," said the 29-year-old actress, whose credits include "The Village," "Adaptation" and the upcoming Cameron Crowe film "Elizabethtown."
"It was loosely scripted, so much of it was improvised. It was a great experience, acting-wise."
The story of a movie-mogul father who throws a party for himself in his last days while a film crew documents the family's reaction, "In Memory of My Father" was born out of a challenge.
A friend of Jaymes' asked the actor-playwright to come up with a film idea to document the friend's historic home.
Stumped at first, Jaymes said when he finally thought of a story to make the movie, he couldn't put his idea to paper fast enough.
"I wrote the screenplay in five days with absolutely no sleep and in mental chaos," he said.
After his friend gave Jaymes "a little bit of starting money," the first-time director quickly discovered the financing wasn't enough.
As film production dragged on, Jaymes maxed out his credit cards and sold just about everything he owned on eBay in order to continue.
A chance showing of 20 minutes of footage of "In Memory of My Father" to a film producer from Austria gave Jaymes new hope. The producer offered to help Jaymes finish post-production work on the film if Jaymes would come to Vienna.
After taking him up on the offer, Jaymes completed the film four months ago, nearly five years after beginning.
"It started and everything worked really quickly and I ended up with 90 hours of footage and no money," he said. "It took a while to get everything back together and back in some sort of functional shape."
The resulting film has its world premiere at CineVegas.
"I showed an early promotional cut of the film, about a 20-minute section, to Trevor Groth (the Sundance and CineVegas director of programming) and he loved what he saw. He said to keep him posted. I got it to him just before Sundance, but it was a little bit too late for them to slip it in."
Instead, Groth promised Jaymes "In Memory of My Father" would premiere at CineVegas with a prestigious prime-time slot. It plays at 8:30 p.m. Saturday and again at 1 p.m. Monday.
The only problem for Jaymes has been the wait for audiences to see his work.
"I just had to sit and wait these last five months," he said. "I've never had to practice so much patience in my life."
Jaymes will be in attendance at the screening, as will most of the cast, including Greer, who is eager to see the completed film.
"I haven't seen the final cut yet," she said. "I saw it when it was 18 minutes longer and it was pretty amazing then. I can only image how tighter it is now."
Will the novice director's first work be a sign of greatness to come?
"I really hope so for Chris' sake," Greer said. "He spent a good portion of his life working on it. I hope it changes everything for him."
Filmmaker first
Even with a bit role in an upcoming Robin Williams film and a co-starring role in the CBS FBI crime drama "Criminal Minds" alongside Mandy Patinkin, Matthew Gray Gubler doesn't consider himself an actor.
"Filmmaking is what I'm best at, even if I've had more success as an actor," said the 25-year-old Las Vegas native and part-time resident.
A 1998 graduate of the Las Vegas Academy, Gubler went to New York University to learn how to be a filmmaker.
Gubler did well enough that he was able to secure a senior internship with independent filmmaker Wes Anderson while he made "The Life Aquatic With Steve Zissou." Gray even created a documentary on the film that's included as an extra on the DVD.
Despite his success outside of the classroom, Gubler's senior thesis film short, "The Cactus That Looked Just Like a Man," wasn't particularly well-received by his professors.
"My school at NYU wasn't overjoyed with the movie," he said. "It's a bit strange ... it's a macabre fairy tale set in the West."
Filmed at his mom's dude ranch in Sandy Valley, about an hour's drive west of Las Vegas near the Nevada-California state line, "The Cactus That Looked Just Just Like a Man" tells the story of a psychopathic pig farmer-turned-hermit who meets up with a Las Vegas kid who's in search of a friend.
The ending is "brutal," Gubler revealed, and helps strip away the Western film convention of everyone as either hero or villain.
"I don't like a movie where there's a good guy and bad guy," he said. "There's a gray area.
"Just because someone murders people doesn't mean he doesn't have any redemptive qualities." Given the short's subject matter, even Gubler didn't have high hopes for his film.
Then an agent saw "The Cactus That Looked Just Like a Man" and quickly signed Gubler to his firm. The short is premiering at CineVegas at 1:30 p.m. Thursday as part of the Nevada Filmmaking showcase.
"I got a lot of good news pretty much on a daily basis," he said. "It was really cool finding out I'm in Robin Williams' movie, and that my TV show was picked up.
"But the best news is that my short attracted an agent and that CineVegas is playing it."
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