Film festival 101: a guide to BIFF and Boulder

OK, you've got your tickets ordered. Your tux is pressed. You're ready to be amazed. You're going to all four days of the Boulder International Film Festival. You're going to see everyone and do everything. Without the aid of illegal drugs.

How?

Here is our grab bag of tips, tricks and references for first-timers, culled from the memories and expertise of veteran BIFF staffers and festivarians:

1. Boulder

Welcome to the People's Republic. Boulder, Colorado has a reputation as "25 square miles surrounded by reality." This is true.

It is stereotpyped as a bastion of outdoors-loving, super-healthy, eco-conscious, social-activist, medial-marijuana-dispensary-frequenting, hippy dippy trippy tie-dyed, bandana-wearing dreadlocked Croc-lovers.
This is NOT true -- some of us don't own a pair of Crocs. (And there are a few Republicans.)

Actually, Boulder is much more diverse and complex than that. Here are five websites that, collectively, tell you everything you need to know about the city: it history, food, lodging, recreation, and more:

City of Boulder
Colorado Convention and Visitors Bureau -- Boulder
Boulder Chamber of Commerce

Downtown Boulder Inc.
GetBoulder (courtesy Boulder Magazine)


2. Weather

Here's link to the National Weather Service's Boulder page: looks pretty good for this weekend, by and large. Still, the adage is true: "If you don't like the weather around here, wait 15 minutes." Colorado weather is CHANGEABLE. It can be 70 degrees and sunny on a Februrary day, then change to blizzard mode by sunset. Whether you are flying in, driving in, or walking over from your house, wear layers, please. It's bulky and uncomfortable, but it's handy to have a sweater or jacket to throw on in the evening.

3. Altitude

We are 5,430 feet above sea level. That's more than a mile high, (so there, Denver!). Unless you live around her or are Lance Armstrong, the altitude will affect you -- and four days is not long enough to acclimatize yourself. Take it easy -- pace yourself -- DRINK WATER. Not coffee, not soda, H2O. This is the most effective way to keep from becoming fatigued, disoriented and nauseated. Unless of course that' the feeling you're after.

4. Boulder International Film Festival

We hope that our customer service is exceptional! We have a number of locales, reference points and services to help you with any and all questions related to BIFF. First and foremost, there's the website. It contains all the BIFF info, including an online program, maps, an FAQ sheet and more.

Second, look around town and you're likely to spot a paper program. Many people like to carry these around and keep tracks of things that way. If you don't, try our mobile site! It's new this year and contains much the same info as the program.

Our Info Booth is located this year at The Tent, at 14th and Pearls Streets downtown, near to all the festival venues. It is open during festival hours, and staffed by friendly and knowledgeable people. Also, our Festival Registration suite is located on the first floor of the St. Julien Hotel at 900 Walnut St. It's where VIPS check in, volunteers start their day, and special guests cruise by. It's open today until 6 p.m., Thursday from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m., Friday and Saturday from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., and Sunday from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.

For live updates as to ticket availability, photos, news items and breaking events, you can turn to our Facebook page (Boulder International Film Festival) and Twitter feed (BoulderFilmFest and #BIFF1)-- these will be buzzing throughout the festival. And of course we are creating a file of stories here on our blog to help serve as a handy reference guide!

5. Survival

At a film festival, two virtues are paramount -- prioritizing and organizing. You can't possibly see everything, no matter how hard you try (buying a VIP pass is still the best way to get in and out of screenings quickly!). You've got to make a plan and stick to it. However, sprinkle in some random choices with the films you are determined to see -- sometimes it's the ones we didn't expect anything from that blew us away most profoundly.

Maintain energy. Fortunately, all our venues are close together, and the way is punctuated by eateries. As Grandma always says, KEEP EATING. Don't wait until late afternoon to dine.

Pace yourself. Give yourself a few time-holes to sit down, take a breather, chat about what you've seen, and clear your mind for the next film encounter. Don't party like a rock star on Opening Night! Save something for Closing Night, please. Put your feet up periodically, and really rest when you can. Wear comfortable shoes!

That's it! Welcome, and enjoy yourself!

A note of thanks from our BIFF volunteers!

Dear Friends,

Thank you so much for your support of the Boulder International Film Festival. Without your help, these amazing films that help educate, integrate and inspire our local community would not be seen.


The festival is this weekend, February 17 - 20 - what does your film "dance card" look like?


One of BIFF's most unique aspects honors our Boulder-activist sensibility. BIFF's Call 2 Action films and programming marries selected films' issues and causes with local community groups' efforts. Be sure to check out these very special films at www.biff1.com/call-to-action.html, and add YOUR voice to the conversation!

Here's a friendly reminder to get your tickets now, as many shows can sell out. Tickets are available on the website http://www.biff1.comand at the Boulder Theater box office and seating is limited. Tickets are $12/adults, $10/students/seniors, and special pricing is available for groups of 10 or more.

As an extra incentive, anyone with a BIFF ticket stub can attend the Keen Footwear Happy Hour, Friday and Saturday, Feb 18 and 19, from 4:00 - 6:00 at the Lazy Dog in Boulder for FREE wine, beer and appetizers. Also, they'll receive a FREE BIFF appetizer by presenting their ticket stub to any one of these great sponsoring Boulder restaurants: Centro Latin Kitchen & Refreshment Palace, Happy Noodle House, Jax Fish House Boulder, The West End Tavern, Zolo Southwestern Grill.
So buy your tickets, start tweeting, posting and shouting out your love for BIFF. We're sending the love right back at you!
The entire volunteer staff at the Boulder International Film Festival thanks you.


See you at the movies!

Five BIFF films you can see for FREE!

Of course there's a catch! You have to be a student older than 12, and younger than 19. That's it!

Here at BIFF, we want to encourage young people not only to get into movies -- but movies with VITAMINS. Yeah, movies that engage you and make you think . . . without being the kind of films that you are forced to watch that are so boring and stupid that you fall asleep in the back.

We have good ones this year! Take a look! There are two on Friday, two on Saturday and one on Sunday:

FRIDAY

THE FIRST GRADER
Noon, Boulder Theater
United Kingdom
Directed by Justin Chadwick
2010
103 min.

People’s Choice Award Runner-Up at the Toronto Film Festival
Closing Night Film at the 2011 Palm Springs Int’l Film Festival

When the Kenyan government declared free public education for all in 2002, 84-year-old tribesman and former Mau Mau warrior during the Kenyan war of independence from colonial rule, Kimani Maruge, shows up at school. This beautiful, unforgettable film tells Maruge’s true, sometimes shocking story, through flashbacks, and we find out why school officials had no chance against this warrior’s ferocity of purpose.

CALL 2 ACTION: Join us for a brief Q&A after the film, and visit the Call 2 Action tent to learn more about adult literacy from Diana Sherry of Boulder Reads! – and how you can help make a difference.

From National Geographic Entertainment
Colorado Premiere
www.thefirstgradermovie.com

THESE AMAZING SHADOWS
5 p.m., First United Methodist Church
USA
Feature Documentary
Directed by Kurt Norton
2010
88 min.

Direct to BIFF from Sundance

What do the films "Casablanca," "Blazing Saddles," "West Side Story" and "This Is Spinal Tap" have in common? They have been deemed “culturally, historically or aesthetically significant” by the Library of Congress and listed on the National Film Registry. "These Amazing Shadows" tells the history and importance of The Registry, a roll call of American cinema treasures that reflects the diversity of film and, indeed, the American experience itself. The current list of 525 films includes selections from every genre—documentaries, home movies, Hollywood classics, avant-garde, newsreels and silent films. This film reveals how American movies tell us so much about ourselves—not just what we did, but what we thought, what we felt and what we aspired to.

Colorado Premiere
Director Kurt Norton in person

SATURDAY


THE LAST LIONS
10 a.m., Boulder Theater
Botswana
Directed by Dereck and Beverly Joubert
Feature Documentary
2010
88 min.

Renowned naturalists, Dereck and Beverly Joubert, track Ma di Tau (Mother of Lions) on her perilous, 3-year journey with her cubs, during her titanic primal bid to preserve the thing that matters most—the future of her bloodline. Spectacular, close-up filming and narration by Jeremy Irons, makes this a “must see” for everyone. And find out how you can work to preserve the King of Beasts who will be extinct in 20 years if they are not protected.

CALL 2ACTION: Join us for a Q&A with WILD Foundation’s Vance Martin, and visit the Call 2 Action tent to hear more about his recent trip to the very community this film depicts.

From National Geographic Entertainment
Colorado Premiere

BAG IT!

12:30 p.m., First United Methodist Church
USA
Feature Documentary
Directed by Suzan Beraza
2010
78 min.

Winner at the Telluride Mountainfilm Festival 2010

Come see where all the 500 billion plastic bags used on Earth every year end up! In this humorous and unsettling documentary, narrator, Jeb Berrier, travels around the world to find better possible models for getting rid of plastic bags.

CALL 2 ACTION: Join filmmaker Suzan Beraza after the film for a Q & A and visit the Call 2 Action tent to continue the conversation with her, and with representatives from New Vista High School’s EARTH TASK FORCE and ECOCYCLE about all the small ways we can make a huge difference.

Boulder Premiere
Suzan Beraza in person

SUNDAY

STUDENTS ONLY!

FREEDOM RIDERS
12:30 p.m., Boulder Public Library
USA

Feature Documentary
Directed by Stanley Nelson
2010
113 min.

Share the experience of Civil Rights activists who rode buses from Washington D.C. to Jackson, Misssissippi during the height of segregation. Along the way they encountered the hatred of white segregationists and were beaten, fire-bombed and tear-gassed. Their triumphant efforts are recorded in this amazing documentary. Join U.S.-Rep.(GA) John Lewis, after the film for an intimate conversation about his experience as a Freedom Rider!

Students should arrive 20 minutes prior to seating
Contact Ruth @ ruthe@biff1.com for group reservations or questions.

Boulder Premiere
Congressman John Lewis will be introduced by Senator Mark Udall and Congressman Jared Polis

Spotlight on: “Armadillo”

A Danish soldier stares in shock after being shot in the documentary "Armadillo."

When the killing commences, you’re as taken aback as the men in the middle of it.

The cameraman dives to the ground – we see nothing but flashes of sky, the ground, sky again. Then he orients himself, gets vertical again, and runs toward the shooting, taking us with him.

This is the epicenter of “Armadillo,” a documentary feature that takes its place alongside “The Battle of San Pietro,” “Hearts and Minds,” “Taxi to the Dark Side” and “Restrepo” as one of the most eloquent stories of mankind’s most tragic enterprise – warfare.

The irony of tiny Denmark sending peace-keeping troops to Afghanistan is quickly undermined by the day-to-day realities of life on the front lines. The Danes are sitting ducks – sharing an advance post with the British, surrounded by fields and foothills, an unfriendly and frightened populace, and an enemy that can’t be seen.

Despite what look to be the most sophisticated detection and assault devices available, the Taliban enemy is maddeningly hard to find and engage. If they are confronted, they strike and retreat into the dull brown-and-gray landscape, indistinguishable from civilians.

The gradual reversion of the troops on their six-month mission to aggressive, reactive thinking is plain and painful to watch. The constant stream of aggrieved farmers who have lost crops, animals, friends and relatives to the stray and misguided shells of the “good guys,” the embattled desperation of their position, the vulnerability to sabotage – all grind away at the soldiers’ nerves.

When they get a clear shot at the enemy in the film’s central sequence, their relief at overcoming their enemies and their joy at still being alive is hard to dismiss. When repercussions threaten them, they close ranks and become stubborn and defensive. For better and worse, they are in full combat mode.

No matter what your politics are, “Armadillo” will move you. It makes clear that, if you survive battle, you will never be the same after it.

Armadillo

Denmark

Dir: Janus Metz Pedersen

Feature Documentary

2010

100 min.

Presented at the First United Methodist Church

Saturday, Feb. 19, 9:30 p.m.

Spotlight on: “Hand Held”

Mike Carroll (right) and friend.

If you don’t cry at some point during this film, check your pulse. You may be dead.

“Hand Held” is the new documentary directed by two-time Boulder International Film Festival guest Don Hahn, the Oscar-winning producer of Disney’s “Beauty and the Beast,” who brought us the wonderful documentary “Waking Sleeping Beauty” last year.

His offering this year is entirely different – probing and lacerating, asking hard-hitting questions about political decisions that impact innocent lives, and even the nature of do-gooding itself.

The work centers on Mike Carroll, a photojournalist who uncovered the nightmare of government orphanages in Romania after the downfall of dictator Ceausescu in 1989. Here, underfed, un-cared for and AIDS-infected children languished, victimized by the whims of a leader who demanded record amounts of reproduction from his people while keeping them in abject poverty.

Carroll’s eyes become ours, as he walks us through his increasing involvement in a mission to save these kids.

What’s most intriguing about the film is the fact Carroll does question his motives, especially as his personal life starts to fall apart as a result of his commitment to the cause. Hahn has the good sense and commitment to truth to keep this footage in the film – as aspect of social action not often brought up or considered in film.

Too, Carroll wonders about the exploitative nature of using photos – and by extension, the film he’s in – to arouse sympathy and gather support for Romania’s unfortunate. Does the act of witnessing reduce the complex human beings in the viewfinder to stereotypes of need? What gets lost in the process? “Hand Held” looks bravely at the cost on both sides of the camera.

We are very fortunate to host, not only director Hahn, but Mike Carroll as well at this screening. After the film, we’ll sit down with them to discuss this remarkable project.

Hand Held

USA/Romania

Dir: Don Hahn

Feature Documentary

2010

85 min.

Presented at the First United Methodist Church

Saturday, Feb. 19, 7:15 p.m.

Co-presented by Romanian Children’s Relief (rcr.org) and the Boulder County AIDS Project (bcap.org)

Introduction by Jenny Borys, Boulder County AIDS Project

Post-screening interview and Q & A conducted by Brad Weismann, BIFF Social Media Director

A BIFF CALL 2 ACTION FILM

“’Carmen’ in 3D’ joins the BIFF roster

Christine Rice as Carmen, Bryan Hymel as Don José and Maija Kovalevska as Micaëla in "Carmen' in 3D," newly added to the schedule at the Boulder International Film Festival.

Photo credit: RealD and The Royal Opera/Ollie Upton

Top tunes, sex and death! In depth!

Now that we have your attention . . .

The Boulder International Film Festival is proud to add Film Number 55 and Program Number 40 to its program. “’Carmen’ in 3D” will be screened on Sunday, 2/20 at 11 a.m. at the Cinemark Century Theaters at 29^th and Canyon in Boulder.

The film opens in more than 750 theaters nationwide on March 5, but BIFF gets a chance to give its ticketholders a sneak preview.

Now, stay with us – it’s an opera.

Yes, many of you just flinched. We could feel it. All right, hold on just a minute. Despite the genre’s reputation as a diversion fit only for the rich and bored, we’d like you to know that operas for decades were the equivalent of “Avatar” – flocked to by the masses, and considered by some an overwhelming (and vulgar) spectacle that overloaded and disoriented the senses.

In other words, it’s already a party. Operas routinely traffic in melodramatic situations, betrayals, passions, acres of violence, perversity and the like. “Carmen” is no exception. Its wild and willful heroine, a Spanish gypsy, triggers all manner of chaos that she blithely leaves in her wake, until her past catches up with her in a stunning final scene.

"If you don't love me, I love you -- if I love you, guard yourself!"

Of course, she's hot -- so hot that the Seville Fire Dept. had to stop by and hose her down periodically. (A mousy Carmen would be a contradiction in terms.) In fact, the first production of “Carmen” was booed by a scandalized audience. The composer, Georges Bizet, tragically died at the age of 36 before he could see the second production of “Carmen” triumph and sweep into the repertory of opera houses everywhere.

Christine Rice as Carmen -- the original Bad Girl.

The idea of a strong central female character that makes her own choices and controls her own sexual life, can still be seen as disturbingly transgressive today. In “Carmen,” the male characters are the ones who tag along and suffer (Carmen’s pathetic, clingy and desperate lover Don Jose), or who serve as eye candy (the studly Escamillo, who struts around singing the familiar “Toreador” song). Here's Ruggerio Raimondi singing it in Francesco Rosi's 1984 film of the work --

The point is, this show’s for everyone mature enough to handle its themes. The tradition of broadcasting “Live from the Met in HD,” and other cultural events, is five years old now, and has proved remarkably successful. In this sense, presenting a production in 3D is not so much a gimmick as it is a logical extension of the medium. “Carmen,” full of action, dance and song, is a prime candidate for rendition in three dimensions.

The production, staged at the Royal Opera House in London and helmed by top-flight director Francesca Zambello, is thought as the first true verismo opera – a gritty approach that traffics in real characters and emotions rather than overblown plot points and stiffly sung arias.

"Carmen" stage director Francesca Zambello in front of the prestigious Glimmerglass Opera, which she recently took over as Artistic & General Director. Julian Napier directed the film of "Carmen' in 3D."

The screening will attract the usual fan base of dedicated opera-lovers in the region, but we encourage all our festivarians to put it on their schedules this weekend. The music is thrilling, the knives are sharp, the emotions are naked (and so are some of the extras, evidently.)

And, hey, cognoscenti – this performance text uses the spoken dialogue passages, not the recitatives interpolated later, which many think weakens the impact and Bizet and his librettists intended the show to have.

So, come one, come all! Let’s get Bizet!

"The chain which binds us will bind us until death!"

As a final treat, here's the divine Maria Callas singing the famous Habanera from "Carmen" in a recital at Covent Garden in 1962.



(P.S. During my research, I recalled listening to a recording of this obscure and bizarre pop number. It was the flip side of the 1955, 78 rpm hit cover of "Sh-Boom" by the Crew-Cuts. I could not find that recording, but here's the Andrew Sisters' version of "Carmen's Boogie" from 1952 -- solid, cats!)

Merch madness

So you want to be in the Cool Club? Then you gotta don the gear.

BIFF merchandise is back, and it's better than ever! We have got some swell items for you this year, available ONLY during BIFF 2011. In addition to our classic short- and long-sleeved T-shirts, we are featuring a hit from last year, the BIFF ball cap:

AND we are adding new items: the BIFF tote, and the hoodie (not pictured yet -- coming soon!)

These high-quality items will be available throughout the festival at three locations -- the Boulder Theater, our Info Booth at The Tent at 14th and Pearl Streets, and via our registration office in the St. Julien Hotel.

This year, our hats come to us from Hat Tails, and will include a handy zipper cord on the back. Why is this cool? 'Cause you can attach your hat to your jacket, and when those howling Chinook winds come lashing down the canyons in the spring -- your hat doesn't fly to Kingdom Come!

The rest of the gear comes from Anvil Knitwear, which is proud to announce that Anvil Organic is amde from 100% certified organic cotton. A cradle-to-grave grenhouse-gass product life-cycle assessment of this T-shirt yields 3.09kgCO2e per T-shirt.

AnvilSustainable tees are made from a blend of RPET (recycled plastic bottles) and cotton in conversion to organic farming methods. It takes about three plastic bottles to produce enough polyester to make the AnvilSustainable tee. A cradle-to-grave greenhouse-gas product life-cycle assessment of this T-shirt yields 3.29kgCO2e per T-shirt. AnvilSustainable hoodies are made from a blend of RPET and organic cotton. It takes about eight plastic bottles to produce enough polyester to make the AnvilSustainable hoodie. (Thanks to our printers as well, Anthem Branding!)

All of our merchandise will be available for purchase via cash, check or money order. We want you to leave the festival with only memories -- and a double handful of stuff you can wear that proves you were there!