Sunday, November 23, 2014

Buffalo Dreams Fantastic Film Festival 2014 at Eastern Hills Mall, Nov. 7 - 13

NOTE: A large portion of this post was re-edited from a status on my Facebook page.

Last week, from Friday Nov. 7 – Thursday, Nov. 13, the second annual Buffalo Dreams Fantastic Film Festival was held in Buffalo. Actually, to be precise, it was at the Eastern Hills Mall Dipson theaters, a local art film theater with three screens and Buffalo Dreams took up residence for the week at one of them. During that week, all I was thinking about was how to make it to the festival every day and see as many movies as I could while also dancing around my work schedule at times, plus other personal responsibilities on the calendar (like, my wife’s birthday, etc.). I did alright, but I still missed a number of films that I had hoped to catch. Eh, whatchoo gonna do, you know?
But, now, a week later, the big news item is not trying to see movies but instead, it’s snow. Lots and LOTS of snow.
The Buffalo area and its southtowns have literally been buried under lake effect snow since early Tuesday (Nov. 18). There are the traditional so-called “snow belt” areas in Buffalo and usually when it snows everyone gets snow, but the belts get a lot more due to their geographical placement along Lake Erie (it’s all very meteorological) but we’re not even talking about that dynamic this time, because these last few days (starting Tuesday) there’s been a genuine curtain of weather cutting through the area and so, you’ve either been blasted with snow that would not let up OR you’ve had… nothing. Zilcheroo.
I live north of the city, and we got some very fluffy snow yesterday (Wednesday), but I also can still see some leaves in my backyard. Meanwhile, where I work, 27 miles south and in the Cheektowaga area (a Buffalo suburb), they were HAMMERED.
In fact, my department supervisor drove in to work earlier than usual Tuesday morning to check out the circumstances because they had been predicting a huge snowfall since last weekend and this was the first snow of the season. Since August I’ve been working in the maintenance/janitorial dept., which is made up of just my boss and myself. In other words, we’re the company shovelers. My cellphone rang at 5:30 am, just as I was about to leave for work myself, and I heard my boss say, “Stay home. It’s nuts out here.” Still driving through the streets while on his phone, he said that where he lived north of Buffalo (Tonawanda, not nearly as north as me) they had nothing snow-wise, but at the exit off the thruway (the I-90) near work, there was a wall of snow coming down. He was still negotiating the streets in his family van as he spoke, saying it was already pretty bad and he was slowly winding around the occasional car already stuck or trying to get moving again until suddenly I heard him say he had to stop behind a guy with his flashers on. That’s when we hung up. Later that day in the early evening I called him back and discovered he wound up being stranded since I last talked to him -- over 12 hours earlier! But, fortunately, local residents of a senior apartment complex came to the rescue and invited him and other trapped motorists to stay inside their building in their Common room, which is what they did, sleeping on the floor through the night. Eventually, after 30 hours of being a metaphorical fly in the snowy ointment, my boss made it back home Wednesday.
Now, it’s Thursday, my third snow day, and there’s a bit of a respite in terms of actual snowfall coming down. But travel bans are still in place as local towns and villages frantically try to catch up and clear roads of snow and cars before another predicted wave of snowfall hits tonight.
There have been eight deaths so far, a couple from heart attacks sustained while shoveling and at least one fatality due to ambulances being unable to reach the victim.
So, I’ve been very fortunate considering everything. We’ve had very little snow, just a few inches yesterday, and lots of wind and cold. My wife’s been sick since last Friday and has been trying to recuperate, but that’s been slow. At this point, I haven’t caught whatever she’s had, at least I don’t think so, other than my head feels a little sore when I touch it and maybe I’m starting to get a sore throat.
Anyway, I’m trying to utilize the unexpected down time to do some… writing.
Every time I attend a film festival (or any film for that matter), I automatically hope to write some review or feedback of what I saw. This strong impulse usually results in, well… nada, actually, at least here in this blog. Sometimes I get something down in a Facebook status, a rambling long-ass FB status, so that’s something at least.
Anyway, inspired by Mermaid Heather’s recent(ish) reviews of movies she saw at the (I think), HorrorHound Weekend in Indianapolis in September, I plan to do the same.

Whenever the subject of the Buffalo Dreams Fantastic Film Festival comes up, I’m usually fond of mentioning that this Buffalo film festival is easily my favorite, although I genuinely enjoy going to any of the other film festivals in town (if I do go). When I do fondly say that, I’m usually thinking that the “other” film festivals are the BNFF (Buffalo Niagara Film Festival, founded by filmmaker Bill Cowell) and the BIFF (Buffalo International Film Festival, founded by Edward Summer). There are additional smaller scale themed festivals, like the Jewish Film Festival, for instance, which schedules a series of films spread over a few weekends, for instance, and I’m pretty sure that there are more annual festivals and film series going on in the area that I’m just not aware of. Having said that, in my head, Buffalo Dreams, BNFF and BIFF are the three most prominent film festivals in town.
Coincidentally, I also happen to be friends with the two founders of Buffalo Dreams (I guess I’m making a disclaimer here), Greg Lamberson and Chris Scioli. If that is why Buffalo Dreams is my favorite film festival, or it’s my favorite because the founders of the fest share the same film festival sensibilities that I do, well, I don’t know. Whatever.
Buffalo Dreams evolved out of an earlier and now defunct festival, the Buffalo Screams Horror Film Festival, which was also founded by Greg and Chris and a third gentleman (and friend), Emil Novak, who also happens to own the oldest comic book store in Buffalo, Queen City Book Store. After three years of Buffalo Screams, Emil decided to focus his energies on his business. Greg and Chris started a new festival the following year, Buffalo Dreams, this time expanding the programming to include multiple genres, meaning (almost) pretty much anything: horror, sci-fi, musicals, comedy, fantasy, fan films, music videos, action films, whatever. Plus, they still focused on bringing a wide variety of films from around the world and made in WNY. If you look at the five years of programming between Buffalo Screams and Buffalo Dreams, presenting global and local entries has always been an important part of their mission statement and they’ve always been successful achieving that and improving on it each year. They also get a good amount of filmmakers to attend and talk about their films, not only from the Western New York area, but out of town, too.
One of the filmmakers who visited from afar is Isaac Ezban, whom Buffalo was first introduced to a few years ago at Buffalo Screams when he showed his really crazy short subject, COSAS FEAS (NASTY STUFF). Isaac came in all the way from Mexico City along with Mijael Askenazi, his 11 year old star of the film.
Anyway, I hope to post some reviews or at least some kind of feedback on those films I did manage to see. But as an appetizer, here’s my introductory overview of this year’s Buffalo Dreams festival.

Right off the bat, let me say this: this year’s Buffalo Dreams Fantastic Film Festival had a particularly great slate of films throughout the week. Generally, even when I don't like some of the films -- for instance, last year, there were a few I couldn't get into (WRATH OF THE CROWS) or downright hated (Albert Pyun's ROAD TO HELL, an unofficial sequel to Walter Hill’s STREETS OF FIRE) -- I still enjoy the festival. Any film festival, for that matter. I figure the quality of the films is just a small part of the festival programming crapshoot.
But, holy cow, THIS year all the films I made it to were either pretty good or excellent! I only wish I could've seen them all.

Highlights:
- Local co-writer/director Korey Green's THE ROMANS had its movie premiere and started off Buffalo Dreams with a bang by not only being the first film screened at the fest, but also completely selling out the theater. Featuring an epic cast of characters and storytelling, it’s an urban re-telling of Julius Caesar. Excellent performances throughout, including Jon Cesar as patriarch Earl Roman, Jennifer Lynette Holmes as his wife, plus  Stephen McKinley Henderson and others. My personal favorite is first time actor Tony Littles as Cicero. Co-written with former Buffalo Sabres executive/part owner Larry Quinn and sporting some stylish visuals from cinematographer Matt Quinn. I was impressed with Korey's soft-spoken confidence a week earlier when he was on the Screenwriting Panel at the Buffalo Film Expo. At that time he showed the trailer for THE ROMANS which he used to generate fundraising. Simply but effectively shot, the trailer proved to be equally effective interesting investors. The film ultimately cost around $250,000. Some day I also want to check out Korey’s 2006 documentary on the Buffalo East Side, THE FORGOTTEN CITY, made with fellow Knuckle City Films filmmaker, Addison Henderson.

- 6 BULLETS TO HELL - This movie was so much fun channeling the 70's spaghetti western so authentically, that any fan of Sergio Leone and Ennio Morricone would be hard-pressed to resist it's charm. Added bonus was co-director and star villain Tanner Beard who came in from Texas. Tanner regaled the appreciative audience during the Q&A with great stories from behind the scenes. For instance, Terence Hill's horse from the THEY CALL ME NOBODY movies was in the equine cast (he was the slower horse)! (NOTE: Maybe it wasn’t Nobody’s actual horse, but the horse was definitely in those movies. Equine spaghetti street cred!)

- Although I enjoyed filmmaker Brett Kelly's James Bond spoof, SPYFALL (my favorite gag was the guy stabbed in the back), I found his Q&A fascinating as he discussed the film and also what it's like being a director/producer with a reputation for being able to crank out low-budget films "to order." “Everybody wants to call me when they have $25,000. Nobody calls me when they have a million.” Last year, Brett showed his musical zom-com, MY FAIR ZOMBIE.

- EL INCIDENTE/THE INCIDENT - An anticipated highlight when it was announced as a festival selection, it did not disappoint. It was great seeing writer/director Isaac Ezban back in Buffalo from Mexico City after having first met him at Buffalo Screams showing his memorable short subject COSA FEAS twice. Ezban's first feature had a strangely simple premise that asked a lot of questions and offered lots for the audience to contemplate during the film and afterwards. Excellent cast and performances, and great production design throughout. What made the screening even more memorable was the lengthy Q&A afterwards with Isaac who shared some really great stories, including casting the older actors, coming up with a great promo item to hand out at festivals ("I just saw EL INCIDENTE and all I got was this shit"-- and I JUST got the pun!) and about transporting those items across the border. On a personal note, I kept bumping into Isaac in the bathroom upstairs, three days in a row. We'd have these great little conversations every day, so he was sorely missed when he returned to Mexico and the festival circuit halfway through the festival. But, SOME day, I hope to make it to Mexico City and check out the drive-in he's a co-owner of.

- THE SHOWER - Writer/director Alex Drummond's excellent ensemble cast horror movie was a definite highlight, with thoughtful writing that focused on character and direction. And his parents were in the audience!

-Tuesday's block of medium-length local films, HANDS LIKE SUITCASES (director Chris Cosgrave), SCOPE OF PRACTICE (Brandyn T. Williams) and THE OUTLAW: EVIL WOMEN (Aceifer and Fawn Genovese) was quite a spectrum of material.
HANDS LIKE SUITCASES was a literal blast from the past, made 17 years ago and showing a radically transformed Chris Cosgrave, who, in his youth, looked a lot like Ryan Gosling-- weirdly fascinating. But the filmmaking and its Asian film influences (John Woo most emphatically and some Jackie Chan in spirit) was phenomenal and a total shot of adrenalin. Unbelievably, I found Chris's Q&A and discussion of how he made some of the effects work and the various generations of dubbing and formats he used to get it from Hi-8 to DVD for the festival also a thrilling and inspirational segment. I know Chris only in the most superficial sense, but I came away from this screening really impressed by him as a filmmaker.
SCOPE OF PRACTICE was a solidly put together drama and Brandyn is another local filmmaker whom I've only spoken to and know briefly. But from what I've been reading over the past couple years from his FB posts and related social media, he always struck me as being very serious about wanting to be a quality filmmaker and always striving to achieve a high standard with any project he's associated. SCOPE was a good example of that, showing excellent production values all the way around in front and behind the camera. Bobby Gott had a small part in the film and came up during the Q&A as well, and that seems appropriate, because it seems all the films Bobby's been involved with also have a distinct higher level of production value (like B.O.Y.D. and BROKEN WINGS).
Aceifer Genovese’s EVIL WOMEN episode of THE OUTLAW continues the series' reputation for insane plotting, characters and visuals. Sometimes the low-budget, bare bones crew dynamic of the filmmaking would peek through, but for the most part it offered several memorable moments, including the casting of Penthouse's Jolene Hexx and also Bill Brown's brain searing appearance, the latter being something difficult to forget even when I saw him briefly on-screen the next day as a poet at open mic in FRIENDS DON'T LET FRIENDS DATE FRIENDS. I met Ace a few years ago when he was involved with the filming of DefTone Pictures’ THE FINAL NIGHT AND DAY. Cool to know that Ace plans on continuing the Outlaw series “forever..!”

- Speaking of FRIENDS DON'T LET FRIENDS DATE FRIENDS, local (Albion, NY) writer/director Rhonda Parker’s feature debut and student thesis was a delightful ensemble character study anchored by actress Amelia Favata and featuring solid performances all around. A romantic comedy with some dramatic elements, with nods overt and subliminal to filmmakers John Hughes and Kevin Smith, which Rhonda acknowledged were major creative influences during her Q&A (with a huge line of the film's cast at her side). The film also does a nice job of having an upbeat ending without tying up things too neatly. I really look forward to Rhonda's future projects, which should be interesting on their own, but also I hope to get to know her more as well because she seems like an intriguing personality.

- ELIZABETH BATHORY - I saw this locally made film once before at the Buffalo Niagara Film Festival earlier this year and that's where I also met one of the stars of it, Tilke Hill, who, not surprisingly, won a Buffalo Dreams acting award for her part in it. This film is a good example of the acting talent in the area and also how the local horror genre film has many more possibilities to explore than the most obvious display of blood and screams (not that I'm complaining about blood and screams, I'm just saying that's not the only method of effectively working the genre). The film has excellent production values and an inventive use of its locations to get across the time period of its historical subject, including the Armory on Niagara St. in Buffalo acquitting itself nicely as Queen Bathory’s castle.

- There were also several short subjects worth noting, including:
- THE HEEBIE-JEEBIES, about two kids having problems getting to sleep because they think there’s a monster under the bed was pretty damn entertaining;
- GAVE UP THE GHOST - Thrilled I was able to finally see this Gregory Lamberson helmed, Jeff Strand written film (based on Strand’s short story) because I missed its premiere screening a few months ago. Shot locally (and in Greg’s house), the entire cast was delightful, but always glad to see John R Renna on the screen working that ridiculous magic of his, and although I only knew Drew Bialy's name from FB, it was great to actually see him in action, because he was pretty good! I think I also saw Drew in a short subject or two at a student screening of films at Buff State College earlier in the year as well;
- I finally saw 13 yr old Hope Muehlbauer's short film ZOMBIE KIDS, and man, not only did it not disappoint, it was one of my personal favorite films of the fest. Yes, this is the movie that choked me up. At the beginning, part of its charm is knowing the film is made by a young filmmaker, and there are moments you can point out that indicate that. But as Gregory Lamberson has also pointed out, the last act is astounding. Hope's choice and use of metal music throughout is excellent, but her filmmaking actually matures before your eyes and the timing of it provides an emotional wallop. And it's a freaking zombie movie featuring a cast of kids! Unbelievable awesome moment of the festival for me;
- CHOMP, from writer/director Lynne Hansen. It looked great and was very amusing, set in a world where some people think that zombies actually exist. Featuring a funny cast of experienced and inexperienced talent and a clever script, it was also interesting to hear the struggles Lynne had during the production to get the film made;
- A MALEVOLENT MOON – Writer/director Kenneth Yung’s film presents a young man, Will Mutka, riding a wave of good luck and ready to propose to his girlfriend but then has doubts which leads to some unexpected consequences. Fairly straightforward at the beginning but then takes a surprising turn and goes to an unexpected, darker conclusion. Yet another recurring festival example of me discovering a local filmmaker (this time from South Buffalo) whom I never heard of before (like Sam Qualiana and  Aleksandar Ivicic (among others) from past festivals) and whose work was pretty cool;
- SIGN was actually a commercial promoting local writer, filmmaker and Buff State professor Lou Rera's new book, SIGN and it was extremely well done, with great production values, two involving performances and shot in Silo City and directed by Joe Blodgett;
- Jamestown filmmaker Nigel Eastman's STARS was a very short film (5 minutes), somewhat experimental in tone, that was extremely well made and showed an atypical filmmaking sensibility that was partly a result of the original restrictions imposed on the filmmaker (there was a tight deadline for a previous contest), but during the Q&A, you got a sense that Nigel just looked at things a little differently already, and definitely not in a bad way. Hopefully we'll see more of this young dude's films in the future.

Finally, I also enjoyed talking to local actress Kim Piazza and host of WHAT’S THE BUZZ IN WESTERN NEW YORK on WBBZ-TV and hearing her issues with understanding Twitter, which amused me to no end, because I'm usually the odd man out with new technologies. Kim also hosted the Buffalo Dreams awards ceremony.
The only real “downside” to the festival was not making it to all the film screenings, a real impossibility for a variety of reasons. So, I'm still looking forward to seeing (SOME day) ARMY OF FRANKENSTEINS, CALL GIRL OF CTHULHU, THE DROWNSMAN, SEPULCHER, CHANNELING, AXE TO GRIND, ATHENA, JULIA, THE SEARCH FOR SIMON, THE GOD QUESTION, and definitely WITHIN. Also all the short subjects I missed. ARGGH!

Okay, hopefully more in-depth reviews of the films coming up! Except now I’m catching my wife’s cold or flu…



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