I recently heard about Etienne!, a quirky little indie film that's apparently been turning heads on the film festival circuit. Written and directed by Jeff Mizushima, he was recently awarded with the "Filmmaker to Watch Award" at the CineVegas Film Festival. The movie is the story of a man and his hamster.

After Richard's best and only friend, a hamster named Etienne, is diagnosed with terminal cancer, he decides to take him on a bicycle road trip up the California coast to show him the world before he must put him to sleep.

The film has been described to me as "original, weird and just plain sweet..." and after watching the trailer, I'm pretty intrigued (and already convinced about the "weird" part). According to the website, the film is screening next on July 14 at the Silent Movie Theatre in Los Angeles. To learn more, go here.