Die offizielle Zusammenfassung! (The official BIFF 2012 wrap-up announcement, y'all!)

[Photo by Ashley Meek]

Boulder was swarmed by film enthusiasts and filmmakers for the eighth annual Boulder International Film Festival (BIFF). The four-day festival featured 50 films as well as a variety of special events, including conversations with Martin Sheen and William H. Macy, the third annual DiMe (Digital Media) Symposium, and filmmaker panels and parties. BIFF saw a 10% percent increase from last year's attendance, with a total audience of 19,514. Award-winning films, celebrity guests and increased attendance continue to establish BIFF as one of the premier international film festivals.

Twelve events sold out during this year's festival, including the Opening Night Gala with "Darling Companion," A Conversation with William H. Macy, "Jeff, Who Lives at Home," "High Ground," "Salmon Fishing in the Yemen," "The Lady," "Surviving Progress," "Lucky," "Kumare," Shorts Programs 1 and 2, and the Closing Night Awards Ceremony and screening of "Chasing Ice."

"We had another outstanding year and provided our audiences with compelling independent films and left them with issues and themes to think about," said Robin Beeck, BIFF's Executive Director. "The 2012 Festival was a huge success made possible by BIFF's unique combination of celebrities, accomplished filmmakers, cinema lovers, sponsors and volunteers, and we thank them all for their important contributions, without which the festival could not succeed."

BIFF 2013 is February 14-17, 2013!

FESTIVAL REPORT: "Love Free or Die"

By Andy McClellan
BIFF DigiComm Commando

Love Free or Die: How the Bishop of New Hampshire is Saving the World is not just a film that chronicles the trials of Bishop Gene Robinson of the New Hampshire Episcopal church as "the first openly gay bishop in Christendom." It is a film about social injustice. It is a film that, inevitably, unavoidably, and purposefully, directly addresses gay rights within a religious frame.

Many in the LGBTQ community struggle with a sexuality that is not accepted by their religion. The director of Love Free or Die, Macky Alston, has a personal connection to the film and the subject. Growing up, religion was the family business, and several generations of Alston men were ministers. But as a gay man, Alston wrestled with the conflict with his faith, the lack of acceptance, for years.

To the question, "Who are we to change 2,000 years of thinking?" Bishop Robinson responds, "Why not us?" This was "something I needed to amplify," says Alston.

"My rights, my freedom, my ability to have my husband and my children, is a fight that's taking place on a religious battlefield," Alston said during the Call 2 Action discussion following the film. "The frame is a religious frame."

"Love Free or Die" director Macky Alston

There is still much resistance within the religious community, and the United States as a whole, to acceptance of LGBTQ individuals and same-sex marriage. "People who love us still vote against us for religious reasons," Alston points out. A change in viewpoint can be extremely difficult. For many people of faith, if same-sex marriage is acceptable, "then everything they've ever believed is wrong. People are wrestling with this stuff, and need help," said Alston.

An important point made by the discussion panel was that people cannot be expected to shed their religion. Acceptance of gay and alternative lifestyles must tally with religion doctrine, and emphasis must be placed on accepting people, and not accepting injustice.

In Love Free or Die, through the efforts of Bishop Robinson and many others, we see the Episcopal church bless gays and lesbians, not only as members of the church, but also as eligible for appointment to official positions, such as bishop, and same-sex marriages. For Alston, this was "God's dream coming true, and certainly mine, and I believe Gene Robinson is right."

Later in the nearly hour-long discussion, Alston added simply, "What it takes to be a moral person is to live justly."

More information can be found at www.livefreeordiemovie.com.

FESTIVAL REPORT: Producing Your Own Documentary Workshop

Abigail Wright, who led Sunday's documentary workshop.

By Kristen Daly
BIFF DigiComm Commando

On Sunday afternoon in the Canyon Theater at the Boulder Public Library, filmmaker Abigail Wright brought up passion early in her discussion of making documentaries.  With all the work that goes into making a documentary, you need a passion which will sustain you for a long time.  The Workshop was a co-production of Boulder Digital Arts and BIFF and was a fascinating look at both the tangible and intangible aspects of documentary filmmaking. 

Wright of Miranda Productions has an award-winning background in documentary film and provided both an inspiring and practical overview of the making of a documentary.  Beginning with intensive and broad-ranging research, Wright covered the preparation that goes into a documentary well before any shooting begins.  She presented a different way of thinking about documentary in terms of classic feature genres like Western, Detective, War (with subsets for Survival and Sports), Science Fiction/Fantasy,  Music & Dance and Art & Culture.  She also stressed the visual nature of the medium, noting that only in recent centuries with widespread literacy have we begun to think in words whereas huge areas of our brain have been hard-wired for thinking and dreaming and even communicating in pictures and gestures. 

Abigail Wright leads the Documentary Workshop. [Photo by Donna Crain]

She also asked for participants' emails, in order to send a package of material to help in making a documentary. From budget to framing, Wright gave an inspiring presentation not to be found in a typical how-to seminar.

FESTIVAL REPORT: Master Animation Class with Bill Plympton

Bill Plympton's drawing for Donna Crain --

By Donna Crain

Workshops and Panels Coordinator and BIFF DigiComm Commando

 

On Saturday, February 18, Academy Award nominee and Cannes-award-winning animator and filmmaker, Bill Plympton, kicked off BIFF's 2012 Workshop Series with a Master Animation Class held in the Canyon Theater at the Boulder Public Library. Plympton charmed the house with drawing demonstrations interspersed with film clips, telling hilarious stories while advising how to make it as an independent artist. 

Bill Plympton addresses his Master Animation Class. [Donna Crain]

Plympton joked, "People say negotiating with Disney is not so much good cop/bad cop as good cop/anti-Christ. I had to say no (to them.) But it's a question we all have to ask ourselves. If you want to work for Disney, you'll make a lot of money, have health benefits (which I don't.) You'll work on a film that is seen by millions of people. But I'm a little underground." He went on to encourage attendees to follow their passion, giving specific advice on how they could make a living if they chose to remain independent as he has done.

He also took questions from the audience. When asked about his process, Plympton noted that he still drew with pencil on paper, having people in his studio scan each hand drawn image into the computer. "I just really love drawing pencil on paper," Plympton shared, "I've been doing it since I was three. There's something precious about the sound and the feel." That is best evidenced by how prolific he is, arriving at his studio around six each morning, and completing between 120 and 150 drawings per day. 

And, while that may seem like a lot of drawing, "a feature length film is about 30,000 images," he told the crowd.

With attendees ranging from kids just starting out as animators, to an older, self-proclaimed lifelong fan, Plympton made himself accessible to all after the workshop. He chatted and signed autographs,  sending everyone off with a "Dog" drawing and the impression that they had just spent a memorable morning with an incredibly cool dude.

Bill doing the sgining thing for fans. [Donna Crain]

FESTIVAL REPORT: B.A.D. PARTY!!!!

Tommy and the Tangerines rock the house at the B.A.D. party. [Photo by Peter Wayne]

The first annual BIFF After Dark (B.A.D.) party took place on Saturday, Feb. 18 at the Odd Fellows Hall in Boulder. This incredible bash was, by unanimous consent, the best BIFF party ever! Here are some photos and footage from that event (no one was injured or arrested). Thanks so much to the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, Chipotle Mexican Grill, Francis Ford Coppola Winery, Avery and Boulder Beers, 303 Vodka, Vodka 14, The Vocal Q's, Tommy and the Tangerines, Hippieman (comedian John Novosad), DJ Space Monkey and everyone who helped make it happen!

Wendy Sakol Goldner (left) and Anne Tengler at play. [Photo by Peter Wayne]

FESTIVAL REPORT: "Make a Short Film" Workshop for Students

[Photo by Donna Crain]

By Kristen Daly
BIFF DigiComm Commando

The student workshop was presented Sunday afternoon by Boulder Digital Arts in conjunction with the Boulder Film Festival.  BDA is an amazing resource providing classes, events, technology and space to creators in the digital arts.  The workshop was free to students 13 to 18 and was well-attended by students in a wide age range and various filmmaking goals. 

The instructor, Antony Cooper, is an award-winning documentary filmmaker who cut his teeth working for MTV shooting rock stars in London and is now based in Colorado.  He shared a number of Colorado-specific notes such as, don’t leave your eyepiece flipped up to the sun if you don’t want to burn a hole in your camera.  And “wind is your enemy.” 

Cooper’s focus was on the technology and logistics of filmmaking and he started by outlining his five steps:  concept, plan, shoot, edit and show.  The workshop was interactive with students coming up to demonstrate casting sessions, recording dramatic dialogue, what colors and patterns to watch out for on an actor or documentary subject, lighting, and the pitfalls of automatic aperture. 

Cooper did a nice job weaving together general information with individual anecdotes and details and also noting what one would absolutely need versus what you might hope for and what would be ideal in filmmaking in terms of equipment.  It was well-directed to the audience.   

In the sound section he gave examples from his work and stressed that although it may make things more complicated that getting the characters out doing what they do, where they do it will make a documentary or corporate video much more compelling.  He also noted and came back to the need to capture close ups and b-roll and other tricks-of-the-trade to make cutting a documentary possible. 

Cooper's low-key nature made for an inspiring workshop that will encourage students to believe that they really can make a short film and get their work out there.

FESTIVAL REPORT: "The Movement"

By Mary Rususky
BIFF DigiComm Commando

Kurt Miller and Greg I. Hamilton both love happy endings.  They recognize that festival films are often calling attention to tragedies, and they were determined to create a film that would be inspiring and give people back something that was lost. Building on a lifetime of high-risk action ski films, Kurt Miller, former head of Warren Miller Entertainment, turns his attention to adaptive sport skiing. This uplifting film shows that even after a disabling tragedy, people can find that their life is not over, they can get something back that they lost, give something back, and go forward.

"The Movement" tells the amazing stories of athletes with disabilities who have regained freedom and brought joy into their life through adaptive sports.  Not being able to do things in the same way, we see a paralyzed athlete build a life again against all odds. When you take away one skill, others compensate and ultimately one becomes whole again. It’s not letting life have the last say and instead saying “this is me now, and I’m excited to be me. I have the last say”. 

“Movies are fun and we will be taking this film in as many directions as possible. The film is not about making money, it’s about giving back.” The film is being shown in sold-out venues at independent film festivals, calling attention to and raising funds for adaptive sport programs throughout the country. It’s being taken to rehab hospitals giving people hope in the midst of their trauma. It’s inspiring adaptive athletes to compete and win against able bodied athletes. And it motivates everyone to be grateful for what we have, our movement, our freedom.
 
Most of the money raised by the film stays in the community to support local adaptive sports programs. For more information visit www.makeahero.org.