Just keeping everyone informed on some of our press or press related to some of the films we’re showing…

The Gays Love Us (or at least some of the gay themed films we’re showing this year)
Eleven Minutes with Jay McCarroll (Bay Windows - April 17, 2008)

Gray Zone - MEADOWLARK (Bay Windows - April 17, 2008)

LIFE.SUPPORT.MUSIC
Darkness Into Light (The Boston Globe - April 18, 2008)

GOLIATH and SEVERED WAYS
IFFBoston Preview (Meet In The Lobby - April 17, 2008)

Hey everyone,

So the festival is just a few short days away now, and tickets are going fast for a number of films. Some films that you might want to get your tickets for sooner rather than later if you are interested in seeing them inculde:
CRAWFORD (Director David Modigliani in attendance)
LIFE.SUPPORT.MUSIC. (director Eric Metzgar in attendance)
THE CAKE EATERS (director Mary Stuart Masterson in attendance)
TURN THE RIVER (director Chris Eigeman and star Famke Janssen in attendance)
MY WINNIPEG (director Guy Maddin in attendance)
WOODPECKER (director Alex Karpovsky in attendance)
LIONESS (directors Daria Sommers and Meg McLagan in attendance)
GOLIATH (directors Nathan and David Zellner in attendance)
and AMERICAN TEEN (director Nanette Burnstein in attendance)

Also, tickets are going very fast for our Opening Night film TRANSSIBERIAN, and you don’t want to miss that!

If you live in the Boston area, then pick up this week’s Boston Phoenix newspaper. It has a 12-page insert about the festival with the complete schedule, descriptions of all the films, and more! There is also a full page of reviews of some of the films in the festival by Peter Keough. He’ll have more coverage in next week’s issue. And congratulations to the filmmaker team of Eric Poydar and Brett Portanova of LARRY (THE ACTOR) for being included in the Phoenix’s “Best of Boston” list.

Other great festival press you should look out for in the area includes this week’s issue of Bay Windows which includes great interviews with ELEVEN MINUTES subject Jay McCarroll and MEADOWLARK director Taylor Greeson. And definitely pick up a copy of this coming Sunday’s Boston Globe to get extensive coverage of the festival.

Do you have a hardhat? If you’ve got a construction-style hardhat and wear it to one of the screenings of THE GREENING OF SOUTHIE, the filmmakers will give you a free copy of the film on dvd to take home with you. So bust out them hardhats!

Tell your friends, co-workers, and family members to get their tickets now. This year’s edition of IFFBoston will be the best one yet and no one should miss it!

One of the goals of our IFFBlog is to give you some behind the scenes information about how we operate and about the inner workings of film festivals. If you’ve been to our festival you know that the Volunteers are a huge part of what makes our fest work and be as cramazing as it is.

Last year, Naomi Greenfield went from long-time volunteer to first-time filmmaker with her documentary TWISTED: A Balloonamentary. We wanted to get her take on how the festival experience changed for her when she went from behind the scenes to in front of the audience. Check it…

At this time last year, every time I walked through Davis Square and saw signs for the Independent Film Festival of Boston, a flutter of excitement ran through my body and I got a huge smile on my face. I was excited about the creative energy and enthusiasm the festival brought to my neighborhood.

I was excited because last year at this time, I was preparing for the Boston premiere of my film, TWISTED: A Balloonamentary, a film I started 4 years prior while living in Somerville. A film that I was inspired to finish each year as I worked as a Festival Volunteer. I was inspired by all the filmmakers and their visions appearing up on the big screen.

For the past 6 years, I’ve always been impressed by IFFBoston. As a volunteer, you appreciate the festival by how incredibly professional and yet homey it feels, with a great attitude and top-notch films. I also loved experiencing the fest as a filmmaker because we were treated so well! From parties, to technical support, to SWAG to the friendliness and supportiveness of the staff.

My film partner and I just last weekend returned from our 11th film festival and our experience in Boston still ranks in the very top amongst filmmaker experiences. We found that only a few festivals really made an effort to create opportunities for filmmakers to get to know one another and to create a tight knit community for the duration of the festival. It’s a pretty solitary and sometimes lonely experience to make a film, so it was great to get to share an experience and hang out with other filmmakers.

This year, I’m returning to the festival to do introductions before the films. Once again, I can’t wait. This year’s my turn to give back to the festival once again for the amazing experience I had last year at our Boston premiere. And I know when I stand in the main theatre in the Coolidge to introduce one of this year’s official selections, I’ll secretly be imagining a packed house full of last year’s audience of TWISTED: A Balloonamentary, awaiting for my vision to appear on the big screen.

Here’s to another great IFFBoston!

For us here at IFFBoston, it’s amazing to have such support from our returning volunteers and filmmakers. To find someone like Naomi who understands our mission, who wanted to work with us and then premiere her film with us is quite incredible. We’re honored to have her back again this year not as a filmmaker or a volunteer but as a ambassador for IFFBoston by being one of our Intro Staff. She’s the face of Independent Film here in Boston so we’re glad she can represent us to you, the audience.

Look Mom, We’re In The News:

War of Independents by Peter Keough (Boston Phoenix - April 16, 2008)

Celebrities & Local Filmmakers (The TAB - April 16, 2008)

IFFBirth (The Berkeley Beacon - April 10, 2008)

IFFBoston Preview (Bostonist - April 10, 2008)

Seriously, the festival begins in one week and just to let everyone know… there is some serious panic attack happening as I type this. 

I cannot believe that in 7 days our opening night film TRANSSIBERIAN will kick off the festival and that Sir Ben Kingsley will probably be gracing us with his presence.  Seriously, he’s frakkin’ Gandhi… how cool is that?  Plus, Brad Anderson of whom I adore… it’s going to be amazing.  But it’s still just one week away.

Back to my panic-pod.

Hi again everybody,

A number of people have been asking “what filmmakers are attending the festival?”. Well, I’m here to answer that question so you can be an informed festival attendee. There will be more filmmakers and celebs confirming over the next week or so, but as of right now this is the confirmed list of attending filmmakers and actors:

34×25x36 - director Jesse Epstein in attendance
American Teen - director Nanette Burnstein in attendance
Aquarium - director Rob Meyer in attendance
Ballast - director Lance Hammer in attendance
Blood Car - director Alex Orr and actress Katie Rowlett (watch the trailer on our homepage!)
The Cake Eaters - director Mary Stuart Masterson in attendance
Crawford - director David Modigliani in attendance
Eleven Minutes - directors Michael Selditch & Rob Tate and Project Runway’s Jay McCarroll in attendance for the Monday April 28th screening only
The Execution of Solomon Harris - directors Wyatt Garfield & Ed Yonaitis in attendance
Film Makes Us Happy - director Bryan Wizemann in attendance
Frontrunner - director Virginia Williams in attendance
Frownland - director Ronnie Bronstein, lead actor Dore Mann, and actress Mary Bronstein in attendance
Glory at Sea - director Ben Zeitlin and producer Dan Janvey in attendance
Goliath - directors David & Nathan Zellner in attendance
The Greening of Southie - director Ian Cheney & producer Curt Ellis in attendance
Intimidad - directors David Redmon & Ashley Sabin in attendance
Jackson Ward - Director Matt Petock in attendance
Jump! - director Helen Hood Scheer in attendance
Kids + Money - director Lauren Greenfield in attendance
Larry (The Actor) - director Eric Poydar and producer Brett Portanova in attendance
Life.Support.Music. - director Eric Metzgar in attendance
The Linguists - director Jeremy Newberger in attendance
Lioness - directors Meg McLagan & Daria Sommers in attendance

Many More Filmmakers and Actors after the jump…

Read the rest of this entry »

The festival draws ever nearer and we’re running around trying to get it all ready, but I wanted to tell everyone about another of my fave films at the festival this year, Alexander Voulgaris’s PINK. This film reminds me at times of Fellini, other times of Michel Gondry’s SCIENCE OF SLEEP. It is beautifully shot, has an amazing score, and has pitch-perfect performances by everyone in it. This will most likely be the only chance that you will have to see this film on the big screen in the Boston area (and maybe the only time on the East Coast) so please don’t miss this opportunity to see this great film. Both screenings are at the Somerville Theatre in Davis Square, one Saturday morning and the other Sunday evening. The film works well, day or night.
Hope to see you at one of the screenings.

Adam, Program Director for the festival here. This is the first of many daily spotlights that I will be writing here on the IFFBoston blog to bring attention to some film, panel discussion, or other event that should not be missed.

Every once in a while there comes a film that we know 10 minutes in is going to be a film for IFFBoston. The first time this happened was with Ondi Timoner’s DIG! in 2004. The most recent example is David and Nathan Zellner’s GOLIATH, which will screen at the Brattle and Somerville Theatres during the festival. I don’t want to give anything away about the film, but I can say that it is both hilarious and insightful, and you’ll be kicking yourself later if you don’t see this film on the big screen at the festival. If you’re a fan of either OFFICE SPACE or the Duplass Brother’s THE PUFFY CHAIR, then I think you will get into this movie. You can watch the trailer on our homepage if you scroll down through the trailers, and I suggest you do.

We are expecting one or both of the directors, who are also the stars of the film, to be in attendance to do Q&As after their screenings. Don’t miss this chance to meet two of the best up-and-coming filmmakers in the country and see a thoroughly enjoyable film. Tickets are on sale now and they are going fast.

For any of you volunteers out there, just a reminder that in the next week there are 2 options for New Volunteer Orientation meetings.

Option 1:
Date: Sunday April 13th
Time: 10:00am-11:00am
Place: The Coolidge Corner Theatre

Option 2:
Date: Thursday April 17th
Time: 7:00pm-8:00pm
Place: The Somerville Theatre (Upstairs in our Filmmakers Lounge)

If you’re a new volunteer we need you to come to one of these meetings. Please log-in to Shiftboard and RSVP for one of the dates on the Calendar.

Don’t make me hunt you down! Worse, don’t let Tania come for you. She’s small but she’s got great knowledge of torture and burping, not a pretty combo. See you there!

Hi all,

This is a historic day ladies and gentlemen. This is my first official blog post…EVER! Anyway, on to my post and posts to come, where I hope to bring a little insight into the inner workings of this film festival. So let’s start with something that often draws gasps of the open mouth variety. IFFBoston has a core staff of seven people (Adam, Brian, Christine, Dan, Nancy, Scott, and myself) who work essentially full time to put on IFFBoston as well as the monthly screening series. The surprising element is that we all have other full-time jobs. Of course we also have a tremendous support staff that comes onboard in the months leading up to the festival to coordinate parties (YES!!!), volunteers, box office operations, filmmaker travel and more. When all is said and done it takes close to 300 people to make this thing run smoothly.

So have I mastered the art of mind control so I can coax people to volunteer hundreds of hours in a given year for nothing but the promise of late nights and free Utz potato chips? Not exactly. The truth is we share a passion of sharing the works of filmmakers that move us so intensely with as many people as we can.

This year, with our new web site, we are implementing tools that allow you more access to the films, our sponsors, our staff (with this blog) and your fellow attendees. So browse the site, buy some tickets (or a pass for the marathon watchers) and come out and support this non-profit endeavor that is looking to connect a community of film-goers together.

See you in a couple weeks.