Editor

The Vampire Film Festival (Vampire Fest) is finally coming home!  "After two years in Los Angeles we wanted to permanently move the festival to the city most connected to the vampire myth - New Orleans.  This glorious city is a place of mystical allure, the city where Anne Rice rethought the myth of the vampire. With its Gothic architecture, above the ground graves, voodoo and colorful history, New Orleans is the perfect location to celebrate the vampire myth and build the foundation for an annual must attend film festival event," announced Festival Director, Asif Ahmed.

The 4- Day Vampire Festival slated for Oct. 23- 26 will showcase films, a vampire ballet, a New Orleans Jazz Style Funeral and a French Quarter scavenger hunt.

Over 50 films will screen from over 11 countries this month in New Orleans.  Vampire Fest has declared 2009 the Year of the International Vampire and will screen films from Japan, Spain, France, Italy, Norway, Austria, Australia, Canada and the United Kingdom. We will screen films that could be classified in the context of vampire, supernatural, the bizarre, the grotesque, the mysterious or the desolate. The legend of the werewolf is interconnected with that of vampire and Vampire Fest is open to films of the Gothic, zombie, werewolf or ghost genre.  

"This will mark Vampire Fest's first time in NOLA!"  Mary Beth Romig, Director of Public Relations and Communications for the New Orleans Convention and Visitors Bureau, recently declared, "We are excited to welcome the Vampire Film Festival to what we think is the perfect city for showcasing this genre. With our reputation for being one of America's most haunted cities and our rich history, we feel our city will be the perfect backdrop for the festival this year and for many years to come, adding another exciting and unique festival to the line up of great events in New Orleans." 

The lineup screening at the Zeitgeist Multi-Disciplinary Arts Center is as follows (tickets are now on sale at http://www.vampirefest.com/):

Oct. 23rd, the Australian short, 1271, opens the festival with a 3:00 p.m. screening.

1271 is followed by the feature film, The Kiss, the story of a high school outcast who heeds the pleas of Santa Maria, the queen of the Snake Clan of Vampires, who has been left for dead under a neighborhood house by her archrival. Unfortunately, after our hero brings Santa Maria back to life with the blood of neighborhood pets, she begins feeding on his high school friends.

At 5 p.m., Vampire Fest presents a series of Gothic shorts including Rakthavira, Dreams, The Music of Eric Zahn, Electra Zen Suite from Italy and The Ward.

The opening night films at 7:30 p.m. include Sucker and Shadowland, the story of a young woman left for dead who encounters a young man who might be her savior or her killer.

At 10 p.m. Vampire Fest will screen the Kathryn Bigelow classic, Near Dark, the tale of a mid-western farm boy reluctantly becomes a member of the undead when a girl he meets turns out to be part of a band of southern vampires who roam the highways in stolen cars.

The Midnight Screening will begin with a costume contest with prizes followed by a program of selected shorts includes Canadian Anime, The Urge, CannibAlien from Japan, Childhood Fears, Exposure, Bloodrayne, Nosferajew . The evening concludes with Blood Bound.  All midnight screenings during the festival will include surprises, and some live entertainment.

Oct. 24th, the program commences at 2:00 p.m. with a series of international vampire shorts including Forgotten Sunrise, from Norway, Here Lies Lucy: A Vampire, from the United Kingdom, Killer from Australia, D'Entre Les Morts from France, Blood Sisters from Austria and Bad Reception from Australia.

At 4:30 p.m., Vampire Fest presents the award-winning feature, The Revenant, a story about an ancient pestilence recurring in modern society that turns the infected into moldy, putrefying, living corpses

The screening is followed at 7:00 p.m. by the Canadian feature, The Death of Alice Blue, the story of Alice, the creative young intern at Raven Advertising, a firm run by vampires and the Canadian short, Initiation.

At 9:30 p.m. Vampire Fest will present a series of mythic-themed short films including College Video #13, Hellcat & Tala, Trojans,  and the mythic feature Mangal Sutra,

Wear your costumes to the Midnight Screening! Vampire Fest is hosting a costume contest complete with prizes then screening an eclectic mix of short films including the Gothic-themed The Blind Date of Coffin Jose, vampire-themed Spanish short, Sweet Blood and mythic-themed short films, Nights Moves and Shrove Tuesday from the United Kingdom. The program ends with a musical short from Samoa, Vauville Dead.

Oct. 25th, the screenings begin at 5:30 p.m. with the Gothic Shorts series, Morella, X-Mess Detritus, A Hammer Fell In Jerusalem, One Dark Night, Café and The Fine Art of Poisoning, a music video by chanteuse, Jill Tracy.

The program begins again at 9:30 p.m. with more vampire short films including Vampire Killers, The Union, Third Shift Mr. Moonlight, and Diaries of a Teenage Vampire.  The short series ends with a musical short by Gothic chanteuse Jill Tracy, Haunted by the Thought of You. 

Vampire Fest presents a cult favorite at the midnight show, the feature, Nadja, filmmaker Michael Almereyda's take on the Dracula myth set in urban New York.

Oct. 26th, at 2:00 p.m., Vampire Fest screens the vampire short, Now That You're Dead followed by the British vampire feature, Strigoi, a unique feature set in a post-communist Romanian village and introduces us to an ancient myth, the Strigoi, souls that rise again after death to seek justice if they have been wronged, their appetites intensified by a hunger for blood.

4:30 p.m., Vampire Fest presents a Gothic double header, Grotesque followed by the feature film, Let Me Die Quietly, a neo-noir thriller in which a brilliant psychiatrist, a beautiful seductress, and a jaded detective unexpectedly crash into the disturbed world of a death-obsessed loner.

The winning entries from the Hunted Contest will be screened at 7:00 pm and audience favorites.

Since vampire literature is interconnected with the movie genre, stretch your mind with best selling writers at Vamp Lit. Vampire Fest will present a literary panel on Sunday, October 25th starting at 2 pm at the Zeitgeist.  Writer Sue Dent will be moderating the event that will feature best-selling writer Erin McCarthy, graphic novelist Van Jensen and Louisiana's own, Nicole Peeler. These established and debut novelists will be happy to detail what it's like to be a part of the astoundingly popular world of vampire and shape-shifter fiction.

This panel will be followed by a Shoot Louisiana Panel in conjunction with the New Orleans Film Commission.  With filmmakers invited from around the world this would be a perfect time to introduce them to the great filmmaker incentive programs in Louisiana.

Both panels end with the Film/Lit Mixer where new and established writers and filmmakers can mingle in the Absinthe Den presented by Le Tourment Vert  and craft films for next years festival!

Pull out your cape, slip on your fangs and join the Big Easy's undead film fanatics at the Zeitgeist Multi-Disciplinary Arts Center on October 23rd,

24th, 25th and 26th.   Zeitgeist has long been the hub of alternative arts scene in New Orleans and is located on 1618 Oretha Castle Haley

Boulevard, New Orleans. 

For more information, call Vampire Fest New Orleans at (504) 298-VAMP or visit our official site, http://www.vampirefilmfestival.com/, an intriguing and provocative door to supernatural based media.

Purchase your tickets now at http://www.vampirefilmfestival.com/! $6.00 in advance, $8.00 at the door.

Get Bitten At Vampire Fest!