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FeedMo’ film fests, mo’ problems
Quick: Which film festival was most recently held in the Queen City? Was it the Buffalo International Film Festival or the Buffalo Niagara Film Festival?
If you can answer that, I give you a hell of a lot of credit. (The answer is the Buffalo International Film Festival.)
Let’s be honest: These film festivals are cannibalizing each other and confusing the locals. I’m not sure Buffalo can support one film festival, let alone two.
What’s truly frustrating is that both fests have a great deal to offer. The Buffalo Niagara Film Festival offered a pretty interesting film premiere of What Goes Up, starring the great Brit Steve Coogan (he’s Alan Partridge), as well young stars Hilary Duff, Josh Peck, and Olivia Thirlby. That the film itself turned out to be an awkward, jumbled mess is really beside the point; it’s the sheer idea of a real, non-Gallo-starring premiere, here, that was thrilling. There were some fun events, such as an American Graffiti tribute, and a two-day “film school.”
But the film list left much to be desired. Admittedly, I was unable to make it to any of the BNFF screenings, but Spree’s Jared Mobarak did attend a couple. He says both Roses Have Thorns and Boppin’ at the Glue Factory (which he was very impressed with; it’s now called Junkie Nurse) drew about five or so people. (What Goes Up did manage to sell out two shows.)
Bill Cowell, the organizer of the BNFF, has a real enthusiasm for film, and for WNY. This was evident in the several unique WNY-made documentary shorts. And the Buffalo International Film Festival’s Ed Summers is also up to some very cool, more history-centric things, scheduling screenings of Welles’s Touch of Evil and tributes to Walt Disney. But there’s a distinct lack of glitz, and daring, and the Disney love strikes me as tired. (For truly ambitious selections, see any semester of the Buffalo Film Seminars.)
I’d be very anxious to see turnout numbers for each. Smartly, most BIFF events were scheduled for evenings, or weekends. But is there a film following in WNY capable of attending, night after night, for two weeks? I’d love to be wrong. But I doubt I am.
Can they be combined? I’m not sure, but as a Western New Yorker, and an avid film buff, I can barely keep them separate, and I’m paying close attention. How is a casual Saturday-night-moviegoer supposed to?
