Flick Pic

Inside an inconspicuous storage unit in North Spokane is a hallucinatory, dungeon-like chamber composed of half-rotted papier-mâché, littered with chocolate syrup, beer cans, chicken feathers, pages from the Bible and the heads of Santa and the Easter Bunny.

It’s the set that local filmmaker Derrick King, one of the four men behind the local film outfit HeadJuice Productions, helped build for their latest project, tentatively called “Last Supper.” The set’s been up for 18 months and it smells absolutely putrid: A hearty undercurrent of souring papier-mâché permeates the room. Piles of meat, rotten eggs and other mysteries add rancid flourishes to the stink. There are mice. The whole spectacle is breathtaking and, without doubt, the manifestation of a true passion for film.

In the same way, the films of the Flicker Spokane Film Festival — which King co-organizes with Lonny Waddle, Travis Hiibner and Gary McLeod — are the end products from people who truly love film. All films submitted must originate on film (regular 8mm, Super 8mm, 16mm or Super 16mm) and must clock in at less than 15 minutes.

King champions the aesthetic qualities and technical challenges that accompany shooting with small-gauge film. While the source material must originate on film, the films are often edited digitally and are projected digitally from a DVD at the showing.

A handful of short films will show at this year’s Flicker, now in its seventh year, and “all of them are must-sees,” according to King. German filmmaker Max Sacker’s “The Secret Adventures of the Projectionist” stars Klaus Kinski’s nephew, Nikolai. “Repeat Photography & the Albedo Effect,” a film by Austin, Texas, filmmaker Caroline Koebel, makes stunning use of hand-developed film. There’s a short by Spokane filmmaker Rick E. Pukis called “Eau.” They’re just a few of more than a dozen films that will grace the Flicker screen this year.

Flicker is usually the place to catch HeadJuice’s nightmarish creations, but “Last Supper” won’t be ready to show this year. Instead, HeadJuice takes a backseat (only showing a time-lapse short of the set construction of “Last Supper”), stepping aside to show the work of other short filmmakers. It’s all in hopes of fostering the local filmmaking community, giving local and independent film freaks a time to shine on screen.

Flicker Spokane Film Festival screens on Sunday, Nov. 1, at the Magic Lantern Theatre at 2 pm and 5 pm. Tickets: $5. Email: derrick@flickerspokane.com