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Socks Cover the Soul of Hardacre
by David Burke
Quad-City Times, July 31, 2005

Socks cover the soul of Hardacre
By David Burke
Sunday, July 31, 2005
(the following was taken from the online version of the article available at qctimes.net)

This year's Hardacre Film Festival has something its previous eight incarnations didn't have.

Socks appeal.

Not one but two of the 25 films selected for the Tipton, Iowa, festival feature socks as their main characters.

One is a student film, "Sock Puppet Fiesta/West Sock Story," where a rumble breaks out on the streets of Iowa City between blacks and whites (socks, that is).

Another takes the film noir genre and jumps in with both feet.

"The Lady from Sockholm" is a private-eye spoof done entirely in hosiery.

"I wanted to do a film noir spoof, but I wanted to do something different," said Lynn Lamousin, an Atlanta filmmaker. "I was trying to think of something easy to do, and it ended up being infinitely harder to do."

"Sockholm" features Terrence M. Cotton, a washed-up gumshoe, finding himself knee-high in debt. He meets Heelda Brum, a finely spun piece of hosiery who hires Cotton to find Darnell, her missing mate.

"It was fun to write," said Lamousin, 38. "I'm still finding puns I can use, wanting to write them down."

She and her director scoured discount and department stores in Atlanta for a day to get the 100 socks needed for their characters. And each sock reflected the character, she said. An immature pretty is an argyle; a habadashery owner is paisley; and an uncouth tough guy is a large soccer sock.

"We tried to pick socks that actually went with the character," Lamousin said.

A newcomer to puppetry, Lamousin found it more difficult than working with human actors, since two different performers had to be hired to do the sock's puppet motions and voiceovers.

But it has taken off on the film festival circuit since its release in March, appearing at festivals in Georgia, Florida, Mississippi, California and Ontario.

It doesn't have a rating, but Lamousin said it's comparable to PG for its story and message.

"I didn't make it for children, but it's kind of made its way into kids film festivals," she said. "It's a little story about prejudice, kind of timely for where we are right now."

"Sockholm" did not go through the entry process, said festival director Troy Peters.

"One of our festival jury members saw it in Atlanta at the Atlanta Film Festival and loved it," he said. "That's how we got ahold of it."

The Hardacre festival, named after the vintage movie theater it's held in, received a record 100 entries this year, Peters said.

"We're getting better quality films, it feels like, every year," he said. "They just seem to be getting better.

"People are considering it more of a regional film festival. They think we're a little bigger than we are. It's our own little secret."

Although the film festival began with only 16mm and 35mm movies, in the past few years it's expanded to include projection video.

"It's just necessary now, with all the independent, low-budget filmmakers who have gone to video," Peters said. "The technology's gotten much better. It can almost look like film."

Peters has his own film experience, having worked as a set dresser on movies such as "Catch Me If You Can," "Twister," "8 Mile" and "Seabiscuit." He said he's entering the University of Iowa this fall to obtain his teaching certificate.

There are several Quad-City area connections to the festival, Peters said. The surf-spy-noir band The Metrolites will play a 90-minute set before the films begin at 7 p.m. Friday.

"They'd like to get into the film community, maybe doing some soundtrack work," he said.

And Muscatine, Iowa, native Max Allan Collins will show his documentary, "Caveman: V.T. Hamlin & Alley Oop," at 1 p.m. Saturday. It's the story of the cartoonist and Iowa native behind the comic-strip character.

Filmmakers and fans from across the country flock to the Cedar County town of 3,200. For those on the coasts, their first taste of small-town Midwestern life comes as a surprise, Peters said.

"They want to come out here to be here for the screenings," Peters said. "But I kind of warn them there's no Starbucks here."

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