Zach Shipko as Curtis Jackson in Why Are You Weird?

We’re sending out snaps to Pasadena’s own Zach Shipko, whose new feature-length video-format film, Why Are You Weird?, is getting a lot of attention. Interview magazine’s film site said it “might just be the best VHS feature film to be made in 2009,” and that it “sets a high bar in the world of straight-to-YouTube features.”

Shipko, an alum of Sequoyah School and St. Francis High School (and the son of Hometown Pasadena‘s Mary Jane Horton, who makes a cameo in the film) is a BFA candidate at the San Francisco Art Institute, and he made the pixely, low-tech film with fellow student Tucker Bennett. It follows nerdy art student Curtis Jackson (a spot-on performance by Shipko) as he navigates the sometimes-pretentious, sometimes-stultifying, sometimes-hilarious world of an elite art school. There’s a girl, of course, and stoners, and obnoxious artists, and a hilarious product placement. It’s slow, quirky and the opposite of slick, and for anyone who’s ever spent any time at art school, it’s a must-watch.

Here’s a link to the review on Interview.

And here’s a link to the film itself, which shows in nine-minute segments: jstchillin.org.

And one more link to another YouTube-based site showing the film: nextwave4u.info.

Finally, we just want to say that we gave Zach his first photography gig, on the first edition of Hometown Pasadena. Just wanted you to know that.