As spring finally settles in, the burgeoning Independent Film Festival (IFF) of Boston brings viewers a fresh alternative to the often stale blockbusters of Hollywood cinema. IFF Boston celebrates its sixth birthday this year with a more impressive lineup than ever before. So forget the beautiful weather - what finer way to spend your weekend other than cooped up inside a dark movie theater?
Last night, the East Coast premiere of Brad Anderson's "Transsiberian" (2008) opened the festival, which runs through next Tuesday. The Somerville Theatre in Davis Square, the Brattle Theatre in Harvard Square and the Coolidge Corner Theatre in Brookline will host screenings of 96 different narrative features, documentaries and short films. Eighty percent of the directors are scheduled to attend question-and-answer sessions, including many big names in the independent film scene.
A host of celebrity guests
Harmony Korine, the writer behind Larry Clark's controversial "Kids" (1995), will present his latest movie, "Mister Lonely" (2007), at the Somerville Theatre tonight. The film tells the story of a solitary Michael Jackson look-alike (played by Diego Luna) wandering the streets of Paris until he unexpectedly finds a new home in a bizarre community of celebrity impersonators in the highlands of Scotland. It should be an interesting departure from Korine's previous work, which focuses heavily on the throes of adolescence.
Chris Eigeman - who you may recognize as the snotty New Yorker in "Metropolitan" (1990) - will appear in Boston on Saturday and Sunday for the screenings of his directorial debut, "Turn the River" (2007). The movie stars Famke Janssen, who is also attending the festival, in the role of a pool shark desperate to get her son back from an abusive ex-husband.
Unprecedented expansion
Every year, IFF Boston gains prestige by attracting more and more high-profile filmmakers. In turn, the festival has experienced an explosion in size over the last six years. A whopping 25,000 festival-goers are expected this weekend.
IFF Boston's extraordinary growth is largely thanks to its hardworking all-volunteer staff members. They prepare for the festival year-round by looking for films and sponsors as well as researching new ways to improve. The screening committee is responsible for the tedious task of watching roughly 2,000 submissions and picking the official entries.
"It seems like a lot? It is," said Adam Roffman, the program's director. "There are some weekends where that's what we do from the time we get up until the time we go to bed. Each year, I take off four months of work just to watch movies."
"Any personal recommendations? I've got four," he added. "'Goliath' (2008), 'Songs Sung Blue' (2008), 'Woodpecker' (2008) and 'Time Crimes' (2007). All four of those are 'can't miss.'"
A promotional platform
The country's numerous film festivals offer a unique opportunity for young aspiring filmmakers to show their work in front of thousands of people across America. "It's been great to go around and meet the other filmmakers who have done similar work making movies that they're really passionate about with very little money, and also getting audience reactions in the different cities," said Barry Jenkins, director of "Medicine for Melancholy" (2008). The film - a love story between two young blacks set against the backdrop of San Francisco's gentrification issues - "is like 'Before Sunset' (2004) and 'Do the Right Thing' (1989), with a little bit of 'Breathless' (1960) thrown in," Jenkins said.
For many of these up-and-coming directors, IFF Boston is one of the many stops on a festival circuit that often includes Slamdance and South by Southwest, but that doesn't mean they aren't enthusiastic about coming to Beantown. "All of the filmmakers I've talked to said the Independent Film Festival of Boston was a good time," said Tom Quinn, director of "The New Year Parade" (2008). "They pick good films, they treat the filmmakers really nicely and the people of Boston are really excited about seeing the films. It sounds like it's going to be a blast."
The challenges of independent cinema
"The New Year Parade," about a brother and sister's experiences as they come to terms with their parents' divorce, is a prime example of indie filmmaking. Quinn was in charge of writing, directing, shooting and editing the movie, while his partner Mark Doyle mostly took care of the lighting and sound. "Every once in a while, for a bigger shoot, we might have two or three extra people come in, but probably about 70 percent of the movie was just Mark and [me]," Quinn said. "I think we stretched it pretty far." The two-man crew worked with several professional actors, but newcomers were cast in the four lead roles.
The process of filming "Natural Causes" (2008) also demonstrates the ways in which directors overcome the limitations of a small budget. "We wanted to prove that you don't need a lot of money," co-director Michael Lerman said. "You just have to be devoted to doing it." Described as an "anti-romantic drama," the movie portrays an entire relationship from beginning to end. It was shot in a period of 10 20-hour days. The three directors - Lerman, Alex Cannon and Paul Cannon - traded off responsibilities, but the cinematographer, Assif Siddiky, shot every frame. "He was a real trooper, and it looks really good," Lerman said.
Documentarians join the fray
A variety of fascinating documentaries will complement the narrative full-length features at this year's festival. The subjects range from nerdcore hip-hop to wizard rock to the subculture of massive multiplayer online role-playing games like "Second Life" and "World of Warcraft."
"Documentary has always interested me," said Jeremy Newberger, co-director of "The Linguists" (2008). "Before all of these ridiculous reality shows, this was your introduction to the realities of our planet - sometimes funny, sometimes shocking, sometimes horrible." For more than a decade, Newberger has been making documentary films for PBS with Seth Kramer and Daniel Miller.
In "The Linguists," David Harrison and Gregory Anderson travel the world, documenting and recording languages on the brink of extinction. "It's not the sexiest topic," Newberger said. "When you think of endangered things, languages are pretty far down on the list of 'who cares.' Way below 'Save the Whales' and 'Save the Dolphins.'" Yet the film has appealed to many audiences because of its lighthearted approach.
"We followed these two linguists, David and Greg, who are these young, funny, human scientists," Newberger said. "They're not robots. They will occasionally fight with each other or struggle in the field. They're fallible, and that's what makes it a real entertaining film."
Occasionally, there comes a movie that doesn't quite fit into a particular genre or style of filmmaking. Alex Karpovsky's "Woodpecker" (2008) follows poet Johnny Neander in his quest to track down the ivory-billed woodpecker. The bird was thought to be extinct since the 1940s until someone supposedly spotted it in the eastern Arkansas bayous several years ago. Since the sighting, many scientists and expert birdwatchers have poured into the area with their minds set on finding this elusive creature.
The film isn't really about the woodpecker, but rather its soul-searching fictitious protagonist. "He's looking for something related to a notion of identity, a notion of worth, a notion of meaning," Karpovsky said. "So it's very much an existential journey, but it's also a comedy."
Part character study, part real-life situation, "Woodpecker" is "a hybrid [that] interweaves documentary and narrative components," Karpovsky said. "The woodpecker flies in this twilight of uncertainty between fact and fiction. I really wanted the film itself to resonate in a similar way. I wanted the audience themselves to wonder whether the film is real or not real."
With the film event of the year just a 10-minute walk away, there's no reason not to support the local indie scene by catching a few movies. Better yet, buy a pass and you'll never have to leave the cinema.
For the full program, visit the Web site at www.iffboston.org.
