As the Buffalo International Film Festival (BIFF) gets underway, another regional film festival is also busy shining a light on some of this area’s talented filmmakers who specialize in horrific, gut wrenching, bizarre, surreal, otherworldly, sci-fi, and spaced out productions.
Altogether, this fantastic feast for the eyes (and ears) will feature 31 films (out of 104 screened) shot in Greater Buffalo. Buffalo Dreams Fantastic Film Festival will take place over the course of eight days, much to the delight of those who love watching wacked out and wondrous films.
While the festival seeks to drum up fan favorites in the realm of science fiction, fantasy, horror, action and thrillers (from across the globe), organizers also give leeway to all genres of film when it comes to local makers.
“I don’t think any other festival in Western New York has ever made this kind of commitment to films produced in the region before,” says Buffalo Dreams co-chair Gregory Lamberson. “Except for the 3D kickoff screening of Aztec Blood at Flix on November 5th, we’re showing a different Western New York feature or short feature every night of the week, in addition to many short films. We’ve got films shot in Buffalo, Niagara Falls, Rochester, Binghamton. The creators of these films will screen their work on a big screen, in the company of other filmmakers. This is why we believe Buffalo Dreams truly serves the community.”
In fact, one regional film is standing out from rest because of the incredible production timeframe that the work underwent. Rochester filmmaker Curt Markham started piecing together The Search for Silverspear upwards of 30 years ago when he was a young boy. Now the film is finally complete, and will be screened for the first time at the festival.
“Curt started his film at the age of 13 in 1987, using a Super 8 camera. The Search for Silverspear is a fantasy epic created using paper cutouts and stop motion animation; he animated the film one frame at a time, and it took him two years to complete that end of the work. Years later, he used modern technology to restore the footage, and added vocals, sound effects and a score. This project took 25 years to complete. It’s a real passion project, and we’re holding its world premiere.”
The Search for Silverspear premieres at 6 pm on Monday, November 9th, as part of a block of animated films from around the world that begins at 5:30. Markham will have a short Q&A after the film.
Other films shot in WNY screening at the festival include the features Model Hunger, directed by actress Debbie Rochon; the drama Sugar Wonder Blues, based on Darryl Schneider’s play Two to the Head; Lamberson’s own comedy Killer Rack; the action opus Dick Johnson & Tommygun vs. the Cannibal Cop; Christopher Seaver’s nerd comedy The Weirdsies; the zombie epic Stand Off; the found footage horror film Wolf House; Frankenstein’s Patchwork Monster, an experimental look at the mad scientist and his creations; and The Outlaw: Virus, the fifth installment of heavy metal musician Aceifer Genovese’s avant garde fantasy series.
“Our festival celebrates imagination, and we have an abundance of that right here in our own backyard,” says Lamberson.
3rd Annual Buffalo Dreams Fantastic Film Festival | November 5th at Flix Stadium 10 | November 6th – 12th at Eastern Hills Cinemas.
For a complete schedule, visit www.buffalodreamsfilmfest.com. Advance tickets are available at dipsontheatres.com.
Special guests to the 2015 festival include:
- Christopher G. Giroux and Chad Archibald from Black Fawn Films, presenting the body horror sensation Bite
- Actress Debbie Rochon, presenting her directorial debut, Model Hunger (filmed in Buffalo)
- Isaac Ezban, screening an encore of his acclaimed first feature El Incidente (“The Incident”) in a filmmaker retrospective that includes his short film Cosas Feas
- Local filmmakers Aceifer and Fawn Genovese, unleashing The Outlaw: Virus
- Paige K. Davis from distributor Alternative Cinema.
“Last year Black Fawn’s The Drownsman won our Best Horror Feature award,” says festival director Greg Lamberson. “At the Q&A, when Christopher Giroux revealed an ambitious plan to produce ten horror films over a two-year period, I wondered if his team could sustain the same quality. Judging by reaction to the their follow up features, Antisocial 2 and Bite, they’ve surpassed it. Black Fawn has become a major company for quality horror, and we look forward to bringing more of their work to Buffalo.”
“Isaac Ezban is truly one of the most talented filmmakers working in cinema today,” says festival co-director Chris Scioli, “and we’re fortunate to have the opportunity to screen these incredible films in Buffalo again. After our El Incidente screening last year, we were deluged with requests to show it again. We’re happy to oblige, with Isaac once again doing a Q&A. It isn’t often that festival goers get the chance to meet an artistic genius, especially one from another country. Isaac will become a world famous filmmaker very soon.”
“Aceifer is from the band Ace in the Hole, and these films he and Fawn Genovese make reflect their heavy metal spirit,” Lamberson says. “The Outlaw series is experimental, erotic, action packed, and wrapped in a grand mythology. Last year’s premiere of The Outlaw: Evil Women proved so popular that we can’t wait to show their latest effort.”
“This year we received over 300 submissions,” says Lamberson, “And we plan to show one third of them. Making our final selections has never been so challenging; even with an expanded eight-day schedule we couldn’t show everything we liked. In the end, we’ve programmed according to our mission statement, with a mixture of North American, international, and local features. We’re excited about this lineup, and can’t wait to announce our two surprise features. Also, for the first time, we’ll be screening a different feature shot in Western New York every day of the week.”
North American Micro-Shorts & Music Videos
Anxiety #5 (US, horror, 5m)
Bloody Mary (US, comedy, 7m)
Fairy Knowledge (US, horror, 5m)
The Falling Off (US, music video, 4m)
Gelato Giallo (US, horror, 5m)
Joke’s On You (US, action, 5m)
Post Partum (US, horror, 6m)
Secrets and Lies (US, MV, 3m)
The Spell Tutor (Canada, fantasy, 5m)
North American Shorts
The Bonesetter (Canada, horror,15m)
Brothers (Canada, horror, 11m)
Carnivore (Canada, horror, 8m)
Chateau Sauvignon: Terroir (US, horror, 14m)
Dog Bowl (US, SF, 19m)
El Aura Azul (US, horror, 8m)
Femur Creek (Canada, horror, 18m)
Guess Who’s Not Coming to Breakfast, Lunch or Dinner? (Canada, horror, 14m)
Iris (US, thriller, 11m)
Lifeline (US, horror, 18m)
Night of the Slasher (US, horror, 12m)
Once, When I Was Dead (US, horror, 19m)
The Peripheral (US, horror, 11m)
Roadside Assistance (US, horror, 8m)
Saint Frankenstein (US, horror,18m)
Spidora: An Eight Legged Love Story (US, fantasy, 15m)
With Your Crooked Heart (US, horror, 13m)
North American Medium Length/Short Features
Mind Sifter (NY, 67m)
Restoration (US, horror, 47m)
Segments of Jonah (US, experimental mixed media, 32m)
International Micro-Shorts, Shorts, Medium Length/Short Features
Ace (UK, children’s, 6m)
Aletko (Switzerland, SF, 23m)
The Autumn of Zao (fantasy, 18m)
Blue Eyed Boy (Iran, fantasy, 18m)
Cosas Feas (Mexico, SF, 29m)
Dawit (Germany, animation, 15m)
The Detectives of Noir Town (7m)
Eternity (South Korea, action horror, 30m)
A Gringo Honeymoon (Mexico, thriller, 14m)
I Am Undone (Australia, horror, 9m)
I’ve Just Had a Dream (Spain, fantasy, 8m)
In Extemis (UK, horror, 14m)
The Junk Girl (Iran, animation, 18m)
Kirk v Picard (Australia, crime comedy, 19m)
Maintenance Required (French/US, comedy thriller,15m)
Mr. Denton (Spain, horror, 9m)
Naive Elisa (Mexico, horror, 15m)
Nopperabou (Japan, horror, 49m)
The Priest (Australia, horror, 10m)
Replika (France/Switzerland, SF, 26m)
Schwarzberg – (Austria, horror, 28m)
Shi (Japan, horror, 8m)
Shiner (UK, comedy, 10m)
Three Rabbits (Mexico, action, 18m)
Therapy (Australia, horror comedy, 15m)
Vicious (UK, horror, 12m)
With Time (Dubai, horror, 14m)
Western New York Micro-Shorts & Music Videos
Failure (7m)
Let’s Kidnap a Fat Guy (6m)
Locomotion (7m)
Love After Death (Lorentz, 7:25)
Written on Your Stone (MV, 5m)
Western New York Shorts
The Amazing Dollar (17m)
Annulment (21)
The Derelict (WNY, 13m)
Discipline (13m)
Dust to Dust (9m)
The Experience Machine (18m)
I come to Bury Daddy (9m)
Kill the Bitch (16m)
Lumberjacked (9m)
The Normal (9m)
Positive Traits – (20m)
She Loves Me (15m)
Silenced (10m)
Siren (WNY, 30m)
Therefore I Am (9m, WNY)
Written in Blood (19m)
Western New York Medium Length/Short Features
The Muse, The Oracle And Baby J (32m)
The Search for Silverspear (59m)
The Weirdsies (68m)
Wolf House (67m)