Indie film fest invades the Hub
If you're concerned over last week's box office success of Prom Night, your faith in film can now be restored: the Independent Film Festival of Boston is back. The Brattle, Somerville and Coolidge Corner Theaters will be screening the country's best independent flicks - including many local ones - from April 23 through 29.
The festival has 96 independent films slated for its sixth year of operation. In addition to 150 screenings, the festival will also feature more than 100 filmmaker Q&A sessions, panel discussions and appearances by filmmakers and stars. In attendance will be Famke Janssen (X-Men's Jean Grey), who stars in Chris Eigeman's directorial debut Turn The River.
This year will be special for the IFF because of a few firsts: Nacho Vigalondo's time-travel thriller Time Crimes will have its east coast premiere and the festival will show its first anime feature ever with Vexille, a fast-paced sci-fi flick.
Yesterday's opening night screening of Transsiberian, directed by Brad Anderson and starring Woody Harrelson, Emily Mortimer and Sir Ben Kingsley, kicked off the festival. Anderson, who filmed some of his other features in Boston, made a return trip for the screening. Also in attendance will be Jessica Yu with the comedy Ping Pong Playa, her narrative directing debut screening Saturday at the Coolidge Corner Theatre.
The films cover a wide variety of genres and subjects, and while all festivalgoers will be sure to find something to match their tastes, some films shouldn't be missed: breakout Juno star Ellen Page appears in Bruce McDonald's trippy drama The Tracey Fragments. Mister Lonely, directed by Harmony Korine, features the dreamy Diego Luna as a Michael Jackson impersonator in Paris who is invited by a Marilyn Monroe impersonator to a commune in Scotland run by a Charlie Chaplin imitator. Korine will be at tonight's screening at the Somerville Theater.
Films aren't the only entertainment to be found at the festival, though. After Saturday's Somerville screening of We Are Wizards, a documentary about the Harry Potter-inspired wizard rock phenomenon. Harry & the Potters, Draco & the Malfoys, The Whomping Willows and The Hungarian Horntails are lined up to play a show after the film. New music devotees will be sure to check out nerdcore hip-hop artist MC Frontalot and Prince Paul of De La Soul, who will perform at the IFFBoston Awards Party the next day.
Tickets to all screenings can be purchased at www.iffboston.org