Cactuses is a 2006 open-content motion picture created by the Arc2 Project, which consisted of twenty-four High School

High school

High school is a term used in parts of the English speaking world to describe institutions which provide all or part of secondary education. The term is often incorporated into the name of such institutions....

 school students and five college

College

A college is an educational institution or a constituent part of an educational institution. Usage varies in English-speaking nations...

 students based in Manteca, CA

Manteca, California

Manteca is a city in , USA. As of the 2010 census, the city's population was 67,096.- History :Manteca is a city in the Central Valley of California, 76 miles east of San Francisco. It was founded in 1861 by Joshua Cowell. Cowell claimed around and built houses on what is now the corner of Main...

.

This movie is unique in its content, creation, and distribution. It is one of the first feature-length movies to debut on the Internet

Internet

The Internet is a global system of interconnected computer networks that use the standard Internet protocol suite to serve billions of users worldwide...

 as a free BitTorrent download.

The movie is available as an authorized and legal download at cactusesmovie.com under a Creative Commons

Creative Commons

Creative Commons is a non-profit organization headquartered in Mountain View, California, United States devoted to expanding the range of creative works available for others to build upon legally and to share. The organization has released several copyright-licenses known as Creative Commons...

 Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs license.

The Arc2 Project

The Arc2 Project was the "code" name for a special joint collaboration between Pocket Change Productions and Give Every Child a Chance. The name "The Arc2 Project" stuck after receiving coverage in the local media.

The concept of the project was to turn the production process of a feature length motion picture into a productive learning experience for a crew made up entirely of students. The students developed skills in digital and computer technology through the fun environment of film production.

The secondary goal was a high-quality production, above expected standards for "student drama".

The Crew

The primary crew consisted of the members of the Arc2 Project, led by Matt Hannon and Rick Rapoza, with significant assistance from Joey Trimmer and Jeremy Meyer Other assistance was provided by businesses as well as the friends and relatives of the Arc2 Project.

Plot

Simon Brodigan (Cliff Chamberlain) gives up on just about every aspect of his life, and just about everyone in his life has given up on him. He passes the time in his unfulfilling life by working an honest part-time job with a not-so-honest scam on the side. Simon cuts corners, runs from responsibility, and definitely doesn't want to be helped.

Eventually, he is estranged from everyone in his life except for one person — an eccentric older woman, Mary Beth (Carmencristina Moreno), from whom he steals while in her employ. She is surprisingly tolerant of Simon's self-destructive behaviour, and her persistent interest in Simon's life eventually gets the better of him. While working for Mary Beth at her cactus shop, Simon finds that his reluctance to improve his life and the relationships that he has seemingly ruined turns to willingness, even eagerness.

Flirting with the concept of ambition, Simon tries to mend some of the wreckage of his past by making up with the father who has disowned him. But, things do not go as planned...

With hopes dashed, Simon believes that he is unable to change and quickly retreats to his old ways. He is tired of hurting the people that he loves. He believes that by pushing everyone away once and for all, they will quit pushing him.

The result is a mistake which has bigger consequences than Simon imagined, and even Mary Beth will have a hard time untangling his untimely mess.

Cast

The lead characters in this film are played by Cliff Chamberlain (Simon) and Carmencristina Moreno (Mary Beth). Cliff is known for his stage acting and his one man play, Paper Dreams and Plastic Promises. Carmencristina Moreno is known primarily for her Mexican-American music. She has also appeared in several movies over the years including The Master Gunfighter

The Master Gunfighter

The Master Gunfighter is a film released in 1975, written and produced by Tom Laughlin, who also played the lead as Finley. It is commonly believed Laughlin also directed the film, using the name of his son, Frank Laughlin, as a pseudonym. He had used his children's names in various forms as...

, HICKEY & BOGGS

Hickey & Boggs

Hickey & Boggs is a 1972 neo-noir detective movie written by Walter Hill and directed by Robert Culp. The film marks the first reunion of Culp and Bill Cosby since they starred together in the 1960s television series I Spy.-Plot:...

, and Deal of the Century

Deal of the Century

Deal of the Century is a 1983 American comedy film directed by William Friedkin and starring Chevy Chase, Gregory Hines, and Sigourney Weaver.The film follows the adventures of several arms dealers that compete to sell weapons to a South American dictator....

.

Initial Screenings

In addition to the unique nature of the creation of this film, the distribution method is one of the first for a first-run

First run films

A film is said to be in its first run when it has been just released. In North America most new films earn most of their theatrical viewers in the first few weeks after their release. In North America different movie theatres pay different rates to show films depending on how recently they have...

, American-made motion-picture.

The movie was distributed for free using BitTorrent technology. This will allow everyone to download a copy for themselves. Of course, with the DivX

DivX

DivX is a brand name of products created by DivX, Inc. , including the DivX Codec which has become popular due to its ability to compress lengthy video segments into small sizes while maintaining relatively high visual quality.There are two DivX codecs; the regular MPEG-4 Part 2 DivX codec and the...

 encoded file reaching almost 1 gigabyte in size, it may not be practical for everyone to download it. Probably because of this, the movie was added to Google Video

Google Video

Google Videos is a video search engine, and formerly a free video sharing website, from Google Inc. Before removing user-uploaded content, the service allowed selected videos to be remotely embedded on other websites and provided the necessary HTML code alongside the media, similar to YouTube...

so it could be viewed without download, or downloaded with a smaller file size.