After four days of going dark to recover and clean up after the just-completed and stunningly successful 17th annual Florida Film Festival, Enzian Theater is back in business this weekend with yet another great film and some special programming. A huge FFF thank you to all of our die-hard, film-loving patrons as well as our visitors and special guests such as Anthony Bourdain, Malcolm McDowell, Mary Stuart Masterson, Don Mancini, Jennifer Tilly, Rex Reed and dozens of attending filmmakers and panelists—every single one of them was generous with their time, nice, passionate about film, and a helluva lot of fun to be around. Bravo!
Friday April 11th marks the long awaited opening of Eran Kolirin’s THE BAND’S VISIT, once slated to premiere locally back in mid-March but pushed back due to the success of MISS PETTIGREW LIVES FOR A DAY and the impending Florida Film Festival. Never fear—it was worth the wait! This Israeli charmer, winner of over 35 international film awards (and the country’s original choice for Best Foreign Film Oscar consideration until the Academy dissed it for having too much English), is a delightful and gentle dramatic comedy about a small Egyptian police band en route to a gig that gets stranded overnight in a remote Israeli town. Much more than your standard fish-out-of-water tale, this is a cross-cultural fable that resonates with universal truths and lovely moments. And festival burn-out or not, you won’t want to miss it.
And don’t forget that this Sunday afternoon, 4/13, at 1:00 PM, it’s the return of FilmSlam. The fourth edition for 2008 features seven brand new Florida short films, including such provocative titles as POOCH SMOOCH, THE TERROR OF COCKROACH BEACH, and THE MESS. So come on out and support your local indie filmmaker—it’s a lot of entertainment for a mere $5, and you’ll feel glad that you did.
Enzian—back in bidness, dynamite new outside bar and all. Come join the fun.
After 8 months of planning, lots of new faces and energy on the staff, and vast amounts of incredibly hard work, the 17th annual Florida Film Festival is finally here! The Southeast Premiere of YOUNG @ HEART preceded by the World Premiere of THE PLUSH LIFE kicks things off Friday night the 28th and sets the tone for 9 more days of great cinema, parties, food, celebrities, and special events. Anthony Bourdain, Malcolm McDowell, Mary Stuart Masterson, and Jennifer Tilly will all be in town for what is shaping up to be the most exciting and well-attended festival yet.
A total of 159 films will hit the silver screen from March 28 - April 6, including World Premieres of Tom Gustafson’s WERE THE WORLD MINE, Jeremy Zerechak’s LAND OF CONFUSION, and Tony Cane-Honeysett’s MONDO BONDO, along with the North American Premiere of Chris Rodley’s FACTORY: MANCHESTER FROM JOY DIVISION TO HAPPY MONDAYS. And it all culminates in this year’s Closing Night Retro screening, a gorgeous archival print of Roman Polanski’s ROSEMARY’S BABY, playing in conjunction with Jeffrey Schwarz’s SPINE TINGLER! THE WILLIAM CASTLE STORY and a rare 35mm screening of Castle’s own Joan Crawford shocker, STRAIGHT-JACKET (at midnight of course).
Info on the complete line-up is available at http://www.floridafilmfestival.comYou can also check out this week’s Orlando Weekly, Friday’s Calendar section in the Orlando Sentinel, or head on over to Festival HQ at the Best Western - Mt. Vernon Inn, with the infamous Red Fox Lounge featuring Mark & Lorna. Don’t miss it—be sure you’re a part of one of Cenrtral Florida’s great (and most fun!) cultural events.
Two weeks and counting…those of you who out there who still long for the printed page even as you peruse the internet for info will be excited to hear that the 2008 Florida Film Festival Preview Guide insert in the Orlando Sentinel’s weekend Calendar section drops tomorrrow. That’s right—your basic guide to all of the films, food, and fun events at this year’s FFF will be on display (in abridged form; full-length descriptions are available at enzian.org/fff) in hundreds of thousands of copies of the Friday Orlando Sentinel, not to mention a few thousand loose ones that will be available at Enzian and Festival Ticket HQ at the Best Western - Mt. Vernon Inn on 17-92 (that conveniently opens Friday as well) while supplies last.
Be sure to check out all the enticing selections and start making your plans now. Remember—if it sounds really good to you, the same probably applies to lots of other Central Floridians and out-of-towners planning to visit during the 10 days of festivities (March 28 - April 6). Don’t get shut out and don’t mess with “Stand-by Only” shows. Buy early—you’ll be glad you did. See you in a couple…
It wouldn’t be the Florida Film Festival without a healthy dose of our homegrown talent and Sunshine State connections in the lineup, and this year’s 17th annual edition (now a mere 3 weeks away!) is no different. No less than 23 titles out of the 159 films we have lined up beginning March 28 have that Florida association. And it’s not just the 15 films in the Florida Shorts - Best of Brouhaha program that represent both FilmSlam winners from 2007 and works from UCF, FSU, Ringling College of Art & Design, Daytona Beach Community College, and other talented local filmmakers. The incredibly diverse Florida touch can be found in a total of 6 other sections of the festival.
In the American Independent Competition, we’ve got two narrative shorts, one animated short, and a doc feature all ready for their close-ups. Ron Davis and Stewart Halpern’s PAGEANT is the funny and highly entertaining feature-length doc about the 34th Miss Gay America Pageant, and Orlando’s own Robert Martin (aka “Chantel Reshae”) is one of the five men caught following their dream. Robert Scott’s ANATOMY OF A KISS is an extremely clever send-up of Japanese melodramas set on the beach of Tokyo Bay in 1956. Benjamin Piety’s SUNLIT SHADOWS is the other live-action competition short, a well-shot, somewhat experimental visual mix tape of a relationship, complete with a Side A and Side B. Lee Stringer’s ZOMBIE DEAREST, featuring Tofu the Vegan Zombie, plays in the Animated Shorts program and is cute and funny and features some fine CGI and a few homages to the horror greats as well.
Not to be outdone in the horror department, our two in-state consituents in the infamous Midnight Shorts program lay on the gore, the scares, and the laughs. Jason Kupfer’s THE SLEUTH INCIDENT is the bizarre story of a giant stuffed teddy bear out looking for a little buddy. Ryan Spindell’s KIRKSDALE takes no prisoners in its unforgettable take on goings on at an insane asylum in early 1960’s rural Florida—you’ve been warned!
This year’s Florida Sidebar Doc Feature is Vivien Lesnik Weisman’s THE MAN OF TWO HAVANAS, a fascinating and controversial work filmed in both Cuba and Little Havana, Miami, in which the filmmaker explores her father’s role as a revolutionary and rabble-rouser. And last but certainly not least, Stephanie Johnes’ DOUBLETIME is one of this year’s family friendly offerings, a tremendous doc feature about two totally different jump rope teams—one suburban white and one inner-city black—as they train to compete against each other for the very first time. Footage shot in Orlando at Disney’s Wide World of Sports as they compete in the National Championships helps set the tone for their ultimate showdown at the Apollo Theater in Harlem.
This is just a small sampling (w/ a Florida twist) of the many cinematic gems that await at this year’s FFF—can’t wait to see you there.
Congratulations to both Chris Eska and Cynthia Wade for their triumphs this past Saturday and Sunday nights. First Chris wins the John Cassavetes Award (for best feature made for under $500,000) at the Independent Spirit Awards, where his film, AUGUST EVENING, was also nominated for Best Actor. This beautifully shot, touching work about families, children, responsibility, and love focuses on an aging, undocumented farm worker and his young, widowed daughter-in-law as their lives are thrown into upheaval. With its honest relationships and superb acting, this is a stunning feature debut. AUGUST EVENING screens Saturday, March 29 and Friday, April 4 as part of the Narrative Feature Competition in this year’s 17th annual Florida Film Festival.
The next night Chris’ victory was followed by Cynthia Wade’s emotional win of the Best Documentary Short Subject Oscar at the Academy Awards. Her outstanding film, FREEHELD, which I’m proud to say Enzian helped qualify by booking it for a 2-day run this past summer, chronicles the poignant story of terminally ill New Jersey Police Lieutenant Laurel Hester as she struggles to fight discrimination and transfer her pension to her domestic partner Stacie before she dies. Already a winner of the Sundance Special Jury Prize in 2007, it was no surprise that the combination of such an important subject and such skillful filmmaking (already on display years ago when Cynthia’s doc feature, SHELTER DOGS, played the 2003 FFF) brought home the gold.
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