On Friday, October 5, come to the Bennington Museum to meet Vermont filmmakers Alexis Holloway and Bill Simmon and enjoy a fascinating evening of short films. The program will start at 7:00 p.m. in the Ada Paresky Education Center at the museum. Tickets are $5.

Alexis Holloway will present four films (total screening time: 21 minutes), one of which - a comedy depicting the trials and tribulations of romance - was awarded an Honorable Mention at the 2004 Vermont International Film Festival. The film contains brief sexual content and some nudity.

Alexis Holloway got involved in filmmaking after moving to Burlington in 1997. As a writer/director, her films generally focus on women and gender roles. In 2001, she created and produced a women's film and performance festival called "Estrogen Fest", which ran for four years. Alexis is also the editor of nationally utilized educational documentaries produced by non-profits and the State of Vermont. She recently completed her first feature length screenplay, which she plans to begin shooting in fall 2008.

Bill Simmon will show six films including narrative shorts, music videos, and a documentary short (total screening time: 32 minutes). One of the music videos, Bye Bye Bye (2006), produced for San Francisco-based indie rockers, Blammos, was shot in Vermont in one day during a stop on the band’s 2006 East Coast tour.

A filmmaker, writer, teacher and blogger living in Burlington’s south end, Bill is currently in post-production on a feature-length documentary about the legendary Vermont rock band, The Pants. Bill is also Production Manager at Vermont Community Access Media, a Burlington-based non-profit community media and technology center. He teaches filmmaking at the Community College of Vermont and has an active freelance film and video business. Readers of Seven Days, Vermont’s Alternative Webweekly twice voted Bill’s filmmaking and culture blog Candleblog “Best Vermont Blog” in 2005 and 2007.

The evening’s final film, The Perfect Goodnight Kiss, is an award-winning romantic comedy directed by three different directors - including Holloway and Simmon - who use the same 6-minute script to depict three variations on a relationship: gay, lesbian, and straight. This experimental collaboration won an Honorable Mention at the 2004 Vermont International Film Festival.