BUFFALO, N.Y. — The Buffalo International Film Festival runs from October 7 through October 11, and 2 On Your Side spoke with the organizers at the North Park Theatre ahead of opening night.
Kelly Dudzik: Time now for our Most Buffalo story of the day. Joining me now are Anna and John from the Buffalo International Film Festival. It starts tonight, so if people are coming tonight what can they expect?
Anna Scime: They can expect a really great party at Bar Della Citta just down the street, block and a half, and there's a wonderful film tonight, "Laguna Ave." It's going to start here at 9:30, and then Friday morning we're in full swing here, at the Burchfield Penney Art Center, at Duende at Silo City, and at the Tralf Music Hall.
Kelly: What are some of your favorite films so far this year?
John Fink: I really love our opening night movie "Catch the Fair One," which plays tomorrow night at 7:30 at the North Park. We also have our centerpiece this year is the Rick James, "The Sound and Fury of Rick James." That's here at 7 on Saturday night, and then we close with a really phenomenal movie called "We Burn Like This" at 7 on Monday.
Kelly: What does it mean for you to be able to do stuff in-person this year because everything had to be virtual or drive-in last year, right?
Anne: Yes, so we're really excited. Obviously, we love the cinema. We wouldn't be here if we didn't. So collecting here at the North Park. My favorite theater in all of Buffalo. It is, you know, just fantastic, and it's a wonderful place if you're a filmmaker or an audience to listen to as well as watch a film. It's phenomenal quality. The Burchfield Penney Arts Center is also gorgeous. Their auditorium is phenomenal. There's wonderful art shows up there right now. Susan Stearn, who directed another fantastic film that we'll show here tomorrow, "Bad Attitude the Art of Spain Rodriguez"; we'll also have some of his work on display there. So, we're really excited to have everything in-person from the off-screen events for art and music, to the parties and most of all here at the cinema. We did love doing work online, though, and so we are hybrid this year. We want everyone from our community and beyond to be able to visit the festival in whatever way they feel most comfortable and celebrate with us. We will be requiring masks in the theater, and we would ask that people try and social distance because we are still aware of the fact that we are coming out of a pandemic, but we're going to have a lot of fun. It's going to be amazing. I'm so excited, personally.
Kelly: How important is it to make this kind of experience accessible to as many people as possible?
John: Well, you know, we always try every year so as have our all access pass which is only $45. It includes parties, online screenings, in-theater screenings, we also participate in the arts access program through arts services initiative here in Western New York where we give away free tickets to the community members that are eligible for that program and it's just really exciting. We have filmmakers coming in from all over the country and we welcome them back to Buffalo to a city that we love and to show them a great Buffalo time where we couldn't be any more thrilled.
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