Film festival is funky, fantastic and Florida's own

[Photo: Sony Pictures Classics] The opening-night event at the Florida Film Festival is the East Coast premiere of Sunshine State. Director John Sayles made the movie, with an ensemble cast including Edie Falco, right, in Amelia Island.

© St. Petersburg Times
published May 31, 2002

Florida's Margaritaville image is wasting away, corroded by zealous developers and racial boundaries along the Gold Coast and sex in Gainesville. A woman thinks she's turning into a dog. Backyard wrestlers maim each other, and a squashed bug has big consequences.

Meanwhile, the cultish, quirk-pop music of They Might Be Giants plays on.

Sounds like the latest plot for a Carl Hiassen novel, but this is strictly cinema, a small sampling of the odd pleasures awaiting moviegoers at the 11th annual Florida Film Festival beginning June 7 and continuing for 10 days at three Central Florida venues.

More than 100 features, documentaries, student films and short subjects will be screened at Enzian Theater in Maitland, Loews Colonial Promenade near downtown Orlando and Universal Cineplex at Universal Studios Florida's City Walk district.

Time your visit right and catch forums on topics ranging from color cinematography perception to producer Mike Medavoy's award-winning career. Or just hang around and a party is bound to break out somewhere, from street bashes and bar crawls to a black-tie gala on closing night.

The Florida Film Festival is traditionally the highlight of the state's cinema year, but I'm always disappointed by the reluctance of Tampa Bay area residents to attend. I've heard in the past from readers that they simply didn't know about it.

Now you have a week's notice. Two hours of Central Florida traffic isn't a bad tradeoff for the chance to slip into such a vibe, even for a day. Plus, Orlando's begging for business these days, which means inexpensive lodging is widely available.

Advance ticket sales have been strong, and some of the most appealing offerings may be sold out. Save yourself from long lines and disappointment by visiting the festival's Web site (www.enzian.org/fff/index.html) for complete information and call (407) 629-8587 to order tickets.

As usual, one of the hottest tickets is for the opening night event, the East Coast premiere of John Sayles' Sunshine State, an ensemble piece filmed at Amelia Island and in Jacksonville. Sayles is one of the few filmmakers deserving the title "maverick" for his success outside the studio system and willingness to explore noncommercial subjects.

This time, he's poking around Florida's growth beyond the emotional maturity of its residents, with a cast including Angela Bassett, Timothy Hutton, Edie Falco and Mary Steenburgen. Sunshine State is slated for limited theatrical release June 21, so rushing to Enzian after work on June 7 (even for a chic after-show party) isn't entirely necessary. You'll be reading more in the Times about Sayles and his movie as its Tampa Bay area engagement approaches.

Wake up Saturday morning and beat Interstate 4 traffic instead. A little bit of Internet research -- try www.travelocity.com -- can locate reasonable hotel accommodations near the venues. Spend time before check-in visiting Enzian Theater where the day begins at noon with a screening of the documentary Spellbound, a peek inside the National Spelling Bee.

Other slices of real life on display that afternoon include the antiwar combination of Investigation of a Flame, based on the Catonsville 9 trial of Vietnam protesters, and the Hiroshima eulogy Standing at Ground Zero (both at 3 p.m. at Promenade).

If fiction is more to your taste, the June 8 schedule also features The Dangerous Lives of Altar Boys (7:15 p.m. at Enzian), a coming-of-age drama starring Jodie Foster as a peg-legged nun hassled by two students. Or perhaps you prefer the cockeyed optimism of Cherish (4:45 at Promenade) with Robin Tunney (The Craft) fantasizing her way through house arrest. Much darker is Design (7 p.m. at Promenade), a trilogy of depressed circumstances starring Daniel J. Travanti (Hill Street Blues).

The most enticing mid evening film is The Business of Fancydancing (9:15 p.m. at Promenade), the directorial debut of Sherman Alexie, screenwriter of the American Indian drama Smoke Signals. But save some energy for midnight, when the weekend choices get edgier, including the "Dreams, Nightmares and Nightowls" collection of short subjects June 8 at Promenade.

(I'll get some sleep in anticipation of June 14's midnight highlight, a sequel to Herschell Gordon Lewis' 1963 gore classic Blood Feast titled Blood Feast 2: All U Can Eat. If that's sold out, the documentary Karaoke Fever looks like a nice goofball alternative. On June 15 at midnight, Gigantic: A Tale of Two Johns will delight fans of They Might Be Giants, melodic pranksters who stumbled onto a Grammy for their Malcolm in the Middle theme song.)

Rise and shine on June 8 with the festival's first forum, a 10 a.m. examination of color technology by Kodak at Enzian Theater. Or else, sleep in and return to Colonial Promenade for a 12:30 p.m. showing of Party Animals, a documentary of the 2000 presidential election filmed by Miami's Chaille Stovall when he was 12 years old. Maybe you can get a taste of the festival's international flavor with a 3:15 p.m. screening of Iles Flottantes, a feminist comedy from the Netherlands, before making the trip back to Tampa Bay.

But that means missing the 6:45 p.m. showing of Jimmy Scott: If You Only Knew, tracing the career of a 76-year-old jazz vocalist whose remarkably high voice is the result of a hereditary condition preventing his physical maturation. And there's no way you'll see The Backyard (9 p.m. at Promenade), a bone-crunching expose of amateur masochists inspired by pro wrestling. Maybe William Hurt's new movie, Rare Birds (9:30 p.m.), will make it to a Tampa Bay area theater. Maybe not.

The festival continues through the weekdays with numerous encore screenings and a few notables to be repeated during the second weekend. Raw Deal: A Question of Consent is one of those, a documentary based on a University of Florida fraternity house rape case that reportedly includes footage of the assault. Miss it on Tuesday and you'll get another chance June 16 at 7 p.m., if you're not at the closing night bash ($150 per ticket) at Universal Studios Florida.

Make plans for one weekend at the Florida Film Festival and you'll want two. Get going early June 15 for an opportunity to hear Medavoy's 10:30 a.m. coffee talk about such achievements as One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, Rocky and The Silence of the Lambs. Buy a ticket to see what kind of muck filmmaker Nick Broomfield rakes about the murders of rap legends Tupac and Biggie (June 15, 9:30 p.m. at Enzian). Squeeze in whatever you can before the festival ends June 16 with a revival of the 1957 backstage melodrama Sweet Smell of Success.

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