Category — Film Festivals

The Delray Beach Film Festival, located in Delray Beach, Florida, slightly north of Boca Raton, is a good place to screen a movie, but a superb place to be pampered by Michael Polsner and his wonderful staff. With discounted rental cars and hotel rooms for the week, you are set to enjoy the 7-day spectacle at a very low cost: screenings all-day, every day, complimentary cocktails and food from 4 – 6pm and 10pm – 12am every evening at a different, fun venue.

I screened Williamsburg down there with Will Sargent (Director of Photography) and Penny Bittone (Actor) in March of 2007. Due to popular demand, we were able to screen the film three times at the Delray Regal Cinemas to excellent receptions. The Saturday night party was at the director of the festival Michael Polsner’s House. There was free liquor pouring, a sword-wielding Belly Dancer, lobster claws, king crab legs, sushi, and BBQ. Simply put, these peole know how to take care of filmmakers.

Below is a pic of us with the the production team of Before I Say Goodbye the most fun picture that we saw down there, but also the coolest people we met.

(Left to Right) Amanda Brown (Producer BISG); Evan Lee (actor BISG); Penny Bittone (actor Williamsburg); myself; Will Sargent (DP Williamsburg) and Kevin Flores (Writer/Co-Director BISG)

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Myself and actor, Russ Russo

I think Williamsburg was ultimately selected for the Queens International Film Festival because we were to be their “token art picture with substance,” along with some dreadful, spoken-word, experimental shorts about Iraq, etc, etc…  

We had a good crowd, the film was received well, but, technically, the exhibition, sound-wise, was a nightmare.  I had to stop the picture 30 seconds in because sound was only coming out of one side of the theatre.  When I asked the projectionist to put all the speakers to use, she appeared put-out, as though I was needy or something.  

And, I should add, that, because of our crowd, and “substance”, Marie Castaldo’s (the director of the festival) husband, Robert Davi (Advisory Board of the Festival), billed on the web-site as “one of the film industry’s most recognized tough guys, whether on the big screen or on television,” was kind enough to put his shitty acting reel in front of my movie, in between the wretched, ultra-violent-rape short that had preceded that.  The result, thankfully, was laughter and understand on the part of the audience.  And it also allowed me to deal with the sound problems, before they affected my movie.  

Ultimately not the best experience at a film festival, due to the overall lack of professionalism and organization on the part of its staff, but there was lots of Stella Artois and tapas to be had every night. Every night was a party in Astoria, and, as it turns out, Astoria’s not such a bad place to party.    

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