Dramas, Docs and Shorts in Annapolis

In "Across the Hall," Julian, played by Adrian Grenier of the HBO show "Entourage," tries to calm his best friend, Terry, played by James Oliver, who is staking out his unfaithful fiancee in a seedy hotel. The 25-minute film ends abruptly, leaving viewers shocked.

Funding for the film came from Samsung, whose video cellphone customers can download "Across the Hall" through http://www.anyfilms.net .

'I Will Not'

By day, Annapolitan David Butler makes commercials. But his aspiration is to work on films. So this summer, Butler participated in Baltimore's 48 Hour Film Project.

Butler, 45, and his team had to write a script and shoot the film in two days. The guidelines required that the film include a detective, medication as a prop and a character named Jo or Joanne, who is a physical education teacher, and use the line "Just give her some time, she will figure it out." Butler and his writing partner, Sean Murphy, created a comedy that won accolades from the Annapolis organizers.

"When it was first shown, the whole room broke out in laughter. It was really great," Butler said.

Although Butler is hoping for a similar reaction this weekend, he is also just happy to have been selected for his hometown film festival.

"You usually have to go across the country, and there is no one you know and a room full of strangers," he said.

'Disarm'

Washington-based graphic designer Brian Liu teamed up with humanitarian Mary Wareham to shoot one of the most provocative documentaries to be shown this year at the festival. "Disarm" looks at the challenges of achieving a land-mine-free world and includes graphic and harrowing images from a dozen countries. The filmmakers traveled to Burma, Iraq, Colombia, Thailand, Afghanistan, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Cambodia and Kyrgyzstan.

"The film is supposed to not be just about land mines, but about how we think about what is ethical in warfare," Liu said.

The feature-length film won awards at the Newport Beach Film Festival in California and the Jackson Hole Film Festival in Wyoming. Liu said he has been approached by people who want to distribute it.

Liu and Wareham, who was part of the team that won the Nobel Peace Prize for the International Campaign to Ban Landmines, filmed for 10 months.

"Our goal was to finish the film and not get hurt," Liu said. "A lot of filmmakers don't finish films. We just wanted to get the word out.

"The Annapolis Film Festival is a continuation of getting the word out," he said. "The more people that see the film, the more people who will understand the situation and what we are trying to get at with the film."