Film is Alive In And Around Philadelphia

A lot going on this Thursday-Sunday – first I’ll be covering the 181/2 Philadelphia Film Festival running Thursday, October 15th-18th. The Opening night film is Law Abiding Citizen (shot in Philadelphia)(Jamie Fox and Gerard Butler) Screening will take place at The Prince Theater, Red Carpet 6pm, 8pm encore. Ritz at the Bourse is the festival’s other venue. And I will now be attending the Opening Night Party at the Radisson Warwick.

I did notice that an earlier e-mail from Philadelphia Film Society used the same program titles as PCA’s CineFest, such as “Danger After Dark”, “Fade To Black” and “American Independents”, however, PFF’s beautiful, easy to navigate program book, doesn’t mention any of these titles; and apart from that little aside, I’ll be completely politically neutral from this point on. As I was not so gently reminded by a reader “M”, this is a blog about finding what’s pleasing, so I have to be careful to always set a mostly positive tone. Although that doesn’t mean everything gets a “Pretty Big Toe”!

Atlantic City has a Cinefest – The Downbeach Film Festival/Atlantic City Cinefest October 16-18. Three days of independent film, from locally made feature films to cutting edge shorts and documentaries. Screenings take place at Resorts Casino.


On Saturday (10/17), in between Film Festival screenings, I’m looking forward to attending independent filmmaker, Raeann Drew’s screening of That’s Sex,an experimental sexumentary
which intertwines intimate documentary-style accounts of sexual experiences among people between the ages of 13 to 65 with an abstract dream narrative of two characters who will decide by the end of the night whether or not they will lose their virginity to each other.
8:30 pm at 1324 Juniper St (block &1/2 South from Federal stop Broad St. Line)

I can’t be everywhere at once, but you may want to check out Captured by directors Jenner Furst, Dan Levin and Ben Solomon Thursday, October 15th 7pm at IHouse:
Since 1979, Clayton Patterson has dedicated his life to documenting the final era of raw creativity and lawlessness in New York City’s Lower East Side, a neighborhood famed for art, music and revolutionary minds. Traversing the outside edge, Patterson recorded a dark and colorful society, from drag to hardcore, heroin, homelessness, political chaos and ultimately gentrification. His odyssey from voyeur to provocateur reveals that it can take losing everything you love to find your own significance.
Project 21 – Watch Trailers and see winners from this 21-Day Filmmaking Competition. All films featured were created in 3 weeks in August, and screened at Project Twenty1 Film Festival this past October 1-4, 2009.

And I’m sure there’s more – feel free to send me notices to post of Film Around Philly!