Southern Winds Film Festival 2008

NOMINATIONS: Best Feature Narrative: Sympathetic Details Production Office, A Thousand Hills, Treasure Blind, The Dark Horse, War Eagle, Arkansas. Best Feature Documentary: Alcatraz Reunion River Ways Helldrivers Okie Noodling II Kilowatt Ours The Genius Sperm Bank SO YOU WANT MICHAEL MADSEN? Best Short Narrative: The Strange Case of Salman abd al Haqq Direct Mail Man's Best Friend August Silver Tongues Pink Shorts Keys The Darkest WHITE Ancestor Eyes Al's Beef Contest Best Short Documentary: Sunlight and Babies Punch Clock I Know You Clean Freak Joel's Journey Best Animation: Raccoon and Crawfish First Memories When The World Goes Dark Street Musician The Cave: An adaptation of Plato's Allegory in Clay Native Spirit: Coyote's Journey: The Elder's Cut Ancestor Eyes Contest Woven Ways Best Okie Feature: (Judged by the Oklahoma Film & Music Commission) North of Austin, West of Nashville Okie Noodling II The Stanton Family Grave Robbery Treasure Blind Oklahoma Rocks! Best Okie Short: (Judged by the Oklahoma Film & Music Commission) Joel's Journey Pink Shorts A Beautiful Day Home Invasion! A Ridiculously Good Movie: The Importance Of Being Russell The Stanton Family Grave Robbery Black Lightning Clean Freak Raccoon and Crawfish A Seriously Good Movie: (Feature) War Eagle, Arkansas Alcatraz Reunion Production Office River Ways A Thousand Hills A Seriously Good Movie: (Short) Al's Beef August China The Darkest White Joel's Journey Pink Shorts Punch Clock Future Threat (student): Rabia - Muhammad Ali Hasan Keys - Christopher Babers Machete Massacre - Lacy Trogdon First Memories - Soo Hee Han Sunlight and Babies - Kimberly Craig Street Musician - Sooyun Jang The Adventures of Captain Thunder: Intergalactic Enforcer - Jacob Burns Unsolved - Lance McDaniel Audience Choice: TBD Festival Director's Choice: TBD Best of Fest: TBD

In the late 1970s, with the help of expert sperm banker, Steve Broder, Robert Klark Graham secretly set up his Repository for Germinal Choice using an underground bunker in the backyard of his ranch in San Diego. He sought the cleverest sperm he could get his hands on and so asked Nobel Laureates for a donation. It wasn't long before LA Times Journalist Edwin Chen sniffed out the clandestine sperm bank, and on March 2nd 1980, exposed the 73-year-old tycoon's controversial project to the world. Nobel Prize winner and notorious racist William Shockley was also outed as a donor to the bank, and Graham got slammed. Accused of being a Nazi, his other donors left him and his dream was all but destroyed. Yet still the women came flocking.Over its 20 years of operation, Graham's Repository was beset by problems, not least, there was never enough sperm. Graham contacted high achievers personally, seeking donations. Donor Jim Bidlack recounts how, over dinner, Graham invited him back to his hotel room to provide a donation there and then. Much like a date, Jim was worried he might not be able to perform, but having got comfy in the bathroom, he was able to provide a specimen. Nominated for Best Feature Documentary!