IFFB BillboardDisclaimer: The following posts were written on site during the Independent Film Festival of Boston which took place April 21-24, 2005.

I'm in South Station and everyone is walking with their hands cupped over their ears. Strobe lights flash and a loud alert echoes through the halls. It's a fire alarm but nobody's running away, this is Boston.

I'm on my way to the Somerville Theater in Davis Square for the opening night film of the Independent Film Festival of Boston. The red line train takes off and the noise is left behind. Was there a fire? No one knows or cares.

Before I begin to tell you about the IFFB, I must first tell you about Boston's other premiere film festival - the Boston Film Festival (BFF). Notice the difference is the word Independent, which is a missing at this other festival in both name and content.
SommervilleThe BFF has been around for 21 years now (just as long as Sundance), and I've attended for the last 5 years. Films show in the Boston Common Loews theater, the best theater in New England. You would imagine the festival would be good. You would think they must have something right. I mean they keep doing it year after year... You'd be wrong.

It's badly run, poorly promoted, horribly managed, and resembles no film festival I've ever heard of. Most of the films are movies that are due out nationally in the following weeks.

Everyone can tell you where they were on September 11th. It's kind of like our generation's Kennedy assassination. I had been to a bunch of screenings on September 10th, so I was asleep. A friend woke me up with a phone call which went something like this:

Me: What!?
Him: You're not going to the Boston Film Festival today....
Me: What are you talking about?

And he told me what happened. The next night I was at the film festival's screening of Training Day. A whole week before the national release. This is the BFF.

You buy individual tickets, they don't offer festival passes. There is no excitement to be found. People show up and see movies and the theaters are half empty at best. Each year they present an award to an A list actor only for the sole purpose of getting them to show up at the festival with their film. These are the only screening that sell out.

In comparison the Independent Film Festival of Boston is only in its third year. An infant by comparison, and only four days in length (compared to BFF's 10 day run). And yet, it feels like a real film festival because it is a real film festival.

You can buy a festival pass (much like a Sundance or any traditional festival) that gets you into all the screenings. This year I'm attending as press (score). At Sundance everyone is talking about the buzz, and you can feel the excitement in the air. Same thing at the IFFB, but to a lesser extent. Boston finally has a film festival to be proud of.

The BIFF has seven theaters in four different venues spread all across Boston. This year they added the MFA, which is a hike. All of the venues are accessible by public transportation but that takes too long. This can be frustrating because you tend to stay at one venue in order to see more films,  missing a lot of the films you want to see in the process. Quantity over quality is the thought process. I think this will be fixed if and when the IFFB expands to a ten day festival which is only inevitable. This is my only complaint thus far.

Over the next four days I will be covering the festival live here on Cinematical with gossip, news, reviews, and the happenings on the street. If you couldn’t make it here to Boston, this is the only place you’ll get a full on experience of being here.
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Contact Peter Sciretta here.