Local directors are set to showcase their work at the Guam International Film Festival’s Made in the Marianas and Island Spotlight program, which highlights regional films and local talent.
Six years ago, Dallas filmmaker Alex Kinter set out to make
Poolside, a short film set in the 1950s. Starring Anne Beyer, it tells the story of a lonely, isolated high society housewife who starts to hear voices in her indoor swimming pool. The film was completed in early 2021 and is making the rounds on the festival circuit, earning prestigious selections at the Indie Short Awards Cannes and the Prague International Film Festival and collecting numerous laurels (Best Indie Short Film at The New York Movie Awards and Best Thriller Short at Indie Short Fest, to name a few). Yet the journey to bring the movie to audiences has been rife with tumult and heartbreak; it’s not simply a success story, but an example of an artist’s extreme perseverance when life interrupts moviemaking.
Dallas-based director Alex Kinter may be fairly new on the film directing scene, but his new Poolside indie short has already generated serious buzz. The short, which delves deep into the psyche of a lonely high society woman in the 1950s, has been making the rounds through the festival circuit, winning a variety of awards, and is expected to be on Amazon Prime Video in January 2022.
Although Kinter has worked as a freelancer for 15 years, this is his first significant foray into directing a story-based film rather than a commercial one. This cinematography practice he s built up over the years seems to have benefitted his ability to bring a gorgeous story to the big screen, as Poolside has won awards like Gold Award for Best Cinematography at the Independent Shorts Awards and Best Cinematography at Across the Globe Film Festival.