What some of our key local auteurs have in store for 2012

These filmmakers are busy people. Some do music videos, some do shorts, and some do commercials. Others specialize in feature films or webcasts. Some do it all. But one thing the following folks have in common is that they are cooking stuff we'll see in 2012. Some you may have heard of, others might be new to you. But you can expect to hear from them all this year. And I don't mean a postcard.

Ya'Ke Smith's Wolf

The acclaimed short Katrina's Son took him to Cannes, and Ya'Ke Smith is now almost ready to show us his first feature. Wolf is a take on church child abuse seen from a non-Catholic, African-American perspective. Shot in San Antonio and starring Irma P. Hall (the Coen Brothers' The Ladykillers), Eugene Lee, and Amelia Jeffries, it is the most awaited local film of the year.

"Making the film was an amazing experience and the fact that it was my feature film directorial debut and was shot in San Antonio was an added bonus," said Smith, a San Antonian living in Fort Worth. "What we were able to create with our very limited resources was nothing short of miraculous and I can't wait for people to have the opportunity to experience the fruits of our labor."

The film is basically done, and Smith and his team are at the final stages of post-production (visual effects, sound design, color correction, and score) and getting ready for a March wrap and San Antonio premiere this summer.

Rod Guajardo's Aftermath revisited

Even though Guajardo's short didn't take any awards at December's 48 Hour Film Experience, those who saw it still remember that damn cave, as creepy as the Hotel Earle in Barton Fink. Aftermath was one of the most talked-about films in the competition, and Guajardo is planning to turn the 7:28 experiment into something bigger. "I am currently working on a complete script for a short film," said Guajardo, who also has music videos and commercial jobs booked in Las Vegas, New York, and SA. "Along with [producer] Ralph Lopez we will be making it more of a chiller, with the cave really becoming a character." Expect a screening by year's end.

Issac Rodríguez's Site 13

"For years the incident has been covered up from the San Antonio public. Until now." How's that for a tagline? The horror/sci-fi Site 13 is based on the actual disappearance of a young woman at Medina River on January 16, 2004. OK. Scratch that. Marketing aside, we have to go with "loosely inspired" by actual events that occurred in the Russian Ural Mountains. What we know for sure is that the film, starring Jamye Cox, was written and directed by Rodríguez, who took home second prize at the SA 2011 48 Hour Film Experience for his gruesome but controlled Harvest.

In building his localized version of the disappearance, Rodríguez writes: "When the police searched the wooded area all they found was light traces of radiation and what appeared to be small clear green rocks scattered around the area. … This is a story not known to many San Antonio locals and I think this is great way to bring it to light." We suggest you just go with it. Harvest indicates he knows how to build tension and make shots look gorgeous — Ural Mountains or no Ural Mountains.

Eric Castillo, Brandon Santiago, and Cedric Thomas Smith's The Interval

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