Hollywood, interviewed his father on fighting abroad in World War II in his piece, “Michael Possert: A World War II Soldier.” The 12-minute long film documents the elder Possert’s experiences in war, which includes arriving at the Nordhausen concentration camp in Germany. At 87, Possert had remained tight-lipped about his time in Europe until now, the filmmaker said.
“He’s finally gotten to a point where these stories need to be told before him and the others are gone,” Possert said of his father. “I decided it was better to capture it in some format before he stops talking.”
Possert has submitted a film in the PXL This festival for the past seven years, finding the simplicity of the toy camera, which comes with a cassette and an on and off switch, liberating in some ways.
But shooting with such a basic cam-corder can present its challenges.
“You really need to know how to compose it and light it and you need to think more about what is in front of the camera because the camera only does a couple of things,” Possert said.
Lisa Marr and Paulo Davanzo, who founded the Echo Park Film Center, are also perennial film participants, going into their fourth year.
The two partnered to create “King Liquor,” which examines the night life of a notorious liquor store in Echo Park. The filmmakers started playing around with the PXL 2000 after it was donated to the film center a few years ago.
While many PXL 2000 have been modified and enhanced over the years, the film center’s camcorder is still in its original state.
Fisher Price ended up selling about 400,000 units of the PXL 2000, offering a toy camcorder for a little under $100 during a time when regular camcorders went for $1,600.
A few years after Fisher Price halted production, the film festival started up.
“The original concept of the product was to give tools to children so they can be extremely creative and expressive in film media and that is still the venue today,” James Wickstead said on Thursday.
The festival will be held on Saturday at Sponto Gallery, 7 Dudley Ave. in Venice, starting at 7 p.m.
Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on November 16, 2007. Read the original PDF.