Submitted photo"Subtext" is on the slate of films for the 2014 BendFilm Festival.

A Japanese woman searches for buried treasure seen in a fictional film (“Kumiko the Treasure Hunter”). A couple of lesbian hookers have an adventure (“The Foxy Merkins”). And a struggling Seattle rock band called Tennis Pro makes one last go of it (“Big in Japan”).

These are just a few of the subjects tackled by filmmakers accepted into the 2014 BendFilm Festival, which begins tonight and continues through the weekend around Bend (see “If you go”). More than 90 full-length documentaries, feature films, short films, student shorts, animated and conservation films will screen at six venues in Bend and one in Warm Springs during the 11th annual festival.

A few weeks back, The Bulletin sat down with the festival’s executive director, Todd Looby, who discussed a few of the indie films he’d already seen. Among them: the full-length narrative “The Sublime and Beautiful.” The film stars Blake Robbins, who also wrote and directed it, as a college professor facing down a family tragedy.

“I keep saying Blake Robbins’ performance in ‘The Sublime and Beautiful,’ the only thing I can compare it to is Billy Bob Thornton in ‘Sling Blade,’” Looby said.

He continued: “‘Five Star’ is a really great movie by this guy Keith Miller, who’s doing some really interesting things. He uses non-actors … this one’s about a guy who’s really high up in the Bloods (gang) in real life. This guy puts on this crazy performance. It’s about trying to straighten out his life and become a family man, at the same time he’s running a business and (nurturing) this other kid whose dad was in the gang world for a while. It’s really a complicated thing, but … it’s a look into a part of American culture that we just do not see.”

Also on Looby’s mind was “Uncertain Terms,” a full-length narrative about a man who leaves New York City to stay with his aunt, who runs a home for pregnant teens. Its maker, Nathan Silver, “is a guy who has this kind of Tarantino-esque energy,” Looby said.

“He just bangs out these movies, like one movie a year, for next to nothing and they just have this really great energy.”

Looby has a filmmaking background himself, and he appreciates the improvisatory approach Silver takes. “The things he pulls off, for no money and no star power … (are) really remarkable.”

These, of course, just scratch the surface of the independent films in the festival, which also includes locally made films, shorts, animated films and more.

Previous years of the BendFilm pulled in big names such as John Waters or C. Thomas Howell, but celebrities being in attendance — or on the screen — aren’t necessarily the draw anymore with the festival, Looby said.

“It’s not needed,” he said. “That stuff, it’s an easier sell (and) an easier way to market the fest, but I don’t think we need that anymore, because the fest is so beloved as it is, and because people get excited about it anyway, and our audiences don’t really care.

“That stuff doesn’t really dictate how good or bad a fest is,” he continued. “I think this town just loves seeing movies.”

— Reporter: 541-383-0349, djasper@bendbulletin.com