Cuban Sandwich Show, Part IX: The Film Shorts. Tampa Motion Media

Grown Man Studio

On Wednesday, June 15th, the Tampa Motion Media Show was held at Grown Man Studios, on Central Street.






First shown was a film by Sam Cosmo, "Learning Lingo", about learning the technical terms that are necessary to function smoothly while making a film. It featured Mikey Heddison  going through lingo, while showing the viewer what he was talking about, or having others bring by the items. My favorites were the "apple" and "half apple" [Link]. There were lessons 1,2,3 and then with his characteristic deadpan manner, he dismissed the class.

David Audet

The film short that was embodied in David Audet's Greco poster piece (reviewed here) at the HCC Ybor Art gallery Cuban Sandwich/Wired show
was shown. Using a lot of stills with dissolves, the poster size remains constant while the background/context shifts constantly, but it is still Boliche Boulevard.  It was made the day after the mayoral election.




"Production Day" was a funny short made with kids centered on production politics and problems. One thing that was unique about this film, it that it was made in the same room in which it was shown. It was made by Fred Smith.

Mark Rosa, doing the elevator pitch.

Chapel Hill film maker Mark Rosa, who used to live in Tampa, talked about the real problems of funding and making Documentary films. A few tips gleaned from his talk: Make sure you have strong characters. Harlequin Romance-style documentaries are popular. He is here scouting and getting some footage for a project on....yes, the Cuban Sandwich in terms of its being encoded with the history of the immigrants.

Mark brainstormed with the audience regarding his Cuban Sandwich Documentary, with some interesting suggestions made by the attendees.

 "Ground Zero", a nostalgic film made on the last night David Audet's place was open, back in 1988, featured some memorable Tampa performers. There's a great sequence of Norman B. doing a free association monologue that often teeters on getting lost, but he reels it back again. And again. Remarkable.

A music video featuring Jeff Norton singing a paean to Sulfur Springs that Karen Zack later sang at the concert at Gram's Place soon to be reviewed here , with excellent footage of bygone days, before things were homogenized. Jeff singing while drifting in a canoe on the Hillsborough.

Jeff was a locally beloved actor and theater teacher/manager who taught at USF and Shorecrest Prep who was murdered.  It was wonderful though bittersweet to see him in his prime in the video. [Link]. Here, a tribute to Jeff Norton [Link].


Gordon Myhre's "Artie Infinger, A Portrait" was the longest short of the evening. Made in 1997, the film follows a man who appears to be paranoid to the extent of wearing aluminum foil on his head b elow his hat, and like a corset around his waist. Artie, who has quite a limp, walks from Tampa Heights, through downtown Tampa, where he puts money in others' meters (now illegal, btw). A funeral procession goes by on Florida, a lengthy one with several limos. Artie eats at the Sandwich shop next to the Zack street newsstand, then makes his way down Bayshore, to Ballast Point, where he comments before the Jules Verne sign (Verne landed there, and spent his few days here in a whorehouse around where Badcock furniture used to be on Franklin Street making notes for his book(s).  Then Artie hops in a cab, leaving the documentary crew behind and beats it back to his apartment. The thing is that this is a film in the documentary style, much like Walker Evans' FSA photographs. It's not real. Artie was acted out by Jim Rayfield, who really had that limp.

A few more pictures from the evening...

Congratulations to David Audet, Grown Man Studios and all the filmakers who showed their films at this micro-festival.... and to the attendees... for a wonderful evening.

--- Luis