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.

ticket sales are getting ever closer. we’re using a brand new system this year, so there’s a bit of a learning curve for us to climb. we know the wait can be a big drag, but we think it will be well worth it.

that said, we know a lot of you want to start planning your festival, so we’ve posted a pdf schedule you can download and print. we hope you’re as excited about it as we are.

Download the schedule now.

Hey everyone, Dan here and while TTown (Tania, our new Volunteer Coordinator) has been away on her honeymoon I had the pleasure of finalizing all of the Volunteers for the festival this month. After much chaos, chai tea and even a crying fit or two, all 200 volunteers were plugged into their slots (wait, that sounds dirty) and notified…

Or were they? Seems like we had a couple technical glitches where some volunteers were sent the wrong information, some never received anything and some just down right had no clue what we were talking about thanks to a software snafu. While I’m a technology whore, sometimes I wish I had a chisel and a stone tablet or knew a sky writer. I curse you technology!

Regardless, notifications have been sent and if you’ve applied to volunteer but were not accepted, we’ve placed you on the Wait List and over the next two weeks we may be calling your name to be the next contestant on… you get the idea.

For those newbies, the hazing rituals have been postponed for this year but we still need for you to come to our New Volunteer Orientation! Volunteers can choose between two orientations.

The first will be Sunday, April 13th from 10:00 - 11:00am (Coolidge Corner Theatre) and the other option is Thursday, April 17th from 7:00 - 8:00pm at the Somerville Theatre in Davis Square. You can log-in to Shiftboard and RSVP for the time and location that works best for you.

Back to work…

Hey everyone, intro posts are usually totally lame and this one will not be an exception…

What To Expect:

• IFFBoston Staff will be contributing posts (whether they like it or not) on this here bloggy-blog so you’ll get some insight into the mania and insomnia that is IFFBoston.
• Some of our 2008 Filmmakers will be contributing posts, how cool is that?
• Returning Volunteers will give their take on working for IFFBoston (the good, the bad, and the ugly of it all).

Check back for updates as well as information on the festival as we get closer to our Opening Night (think Sir Ben Kinglsey and swoon)!