TRI-VALLEY FILMMAKERS will get to show their works at the California Independent Film Festival, which will be held Oct. 26-30 in Livermore.
The 110 films selected to be shown from around the globe include:
• "Fiddley Cat," an animated short produced and directed by Stephanie Brock of San Ramon, in which Roger the Cat and his friends get to know Old Bob and his Dixieband in a singing and dancing extravaganza.
• "Beyond the Soul," produced and directed by Rajiv Anchal of Alamo -- "a gripping quest in the timeless realms of reincarnation."
• "Last Dance," produced and directed by Sean Laskey of Pleasanton, a 50-minute documentary about how "life, career, relationships .... and PASSION!" can all co-exist.
• "AUDIO The Movie," a short directed and produced by Mitch Eason of Livermore, "a real fake look at the behind-the-scenes of the audio guys ... on a real-life cable home improvement show."
• "Dark Destinies," produced by Nathan Trebes of Livermore and directed by Phil Grasso of Pleasanton, a short on what happens when jealousy comes between two Jedi.
• "Chains," produced and directed by Madan Bellam of Livermore, a feature-length drama about Meera, a young Indian woman in an arranged marriage to Ravi, a stern Silicon Valley engineer whom Meera's neighbor Susan suspects is abusing Meera.
• "The Isle Nevis," whose producers include Chris Roberts of Livermore. In this short drama, "the world of pirates comes alive in the imagination of a young boy in this tale of lost treasure and revenge."
For film festival information, go to www.caindiefest.com.
HELPING HANDS -- A young family who lost almost everything when Hurricane Katrina hit is getting all kinds of help from the Livermore Valley Rotary Club and others.
Ryan Willis, his pregnant wife and their 4-year-old daughter arrived in Livermore to stay with Willis' sister just days after Katrina destroyed their home in Metairie, La.
Since then, Rotary members donated a house for a year, including utilities and furniture; fixed their car; and donated clothes, toys and food. Meanwhile, ValleyCare Medical Center in Pleasanton has been giving Willis' wife, Rachel Pitre, prenatal care until she qualifies for MediCal.
"It's amazing," Willis, who has gotten a job, said Wednesday of the help. "We're very grateful."
CONFUSING WEB -- It turns out that consultants for Pardee Homes did what Pardee last week accused foes of its 2,450-unit Livermore Trails project of doing illegally -- buying up Web sites with addresses similar to those of their opponents' sites.
Kim Musgrove of Allan Zucor Advertising Design of San Diego, which works for Pardee, in January bought Web addresses resembling www.friendsoflivermore.com, owned by the anti-Pardee campaign group.
A Pardee attorney last week accused members of Friends of Livermore of illegally engaging in "political cyberfraud" by buying up Web addresses similar to that of Pardee's www.livermoretrails.com, preventing Pardee from buying them. Though the practice has since ceased, Friends of Livermore went a step further by automatically redirecting people typing in those addresses to anti-Pardee sites.
Pardee spokesman Bernie Rhinerson said Pardee consultants bought domain names similar to the opposition's only in reaction to what Friends of Livermore was doing. He said the domains were abandoned several weeks ago, although they still show up as taken on the Web's domain directory.
