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festing on a budget

“Cinema is an art form that encompasses everything, but it’s so affordable,” says Jesse Rodriguez, the new Executive Director of the Jacksonville Film Events office and the Jacksonville Film Festival.
Less esoteric, more cinematic and more like a real film festival. These are some of the goals he has for the 6th annual Jacksonville Film Festival. Rodriguez is not new to the JFF, in fact he has been a part of it since its inception, but this is his first year as the Executive Director of the festival. In years past he has been responsible for some of the Fest’s more unique showings, including last year’s Viva Cinema, which brought some Latin films that proved to be among the most heralded of the JFF. If you were one of the people that considered themselves something of a cinephile at last year’s festival, but still didn’t “get” a good bit of the films you watched, you are exactly who Rodriguez is thinking of as he programs this year’s festival.
“It’s so important to reflect the community. [Last year’s festival] didn’t really reflect the community. At least the community that I have come to know that Jacksonville is now. Being here and doing the research on the demographics and learning about the people that are living here, there is a large Latino population and an Asian population and a Middle Eastern population. I would never have known that by watching the films at the film festival. We are here to serve the community and should be a mirror of the community,” said Rodriguez when EU spoke with him at Festival headquarters in the Florida Theatre building.
Expect a number of changes to the Fest, but most of them will work to your advantage. Whereas in year’s past you have been forced to pick one of up to three movies that were playing simultaneously on various sides of town to watch, forgoing the others perhaps forever, since many of the films that play the JFF never come back through our art-house-less market, this year Rodriguez promises to program the festival in a way that allows you to catch every feature-length movie showing.
The first step toward making this possible was to extend the JFF from a four day weekend to a week-long event. The second step was to make sure that overlapping films get replayed so that if you were forced to pick one during an original screening, you can select the other for it’s second showing. The third step was to make showtimes a little more spaced out so that film fans have time to make it from one theater to the next between screenings.
The final step was to create a sort of “film festival village,” making the venues that are used the most all close together, so that attendees don’t have to race to their cars and scramble across town to see their next flick, they can simply stroll through our beautiful Downtown from one presentation to the next. He does still intend to utilize San Marco and 5 Points for some of the films that will play during the week, but this year’s event will have a far greater concentration on Downtown.
“It’s walking distance from the Florida Theatre to the Library, and those venues are confirmed, so what we might be doing is creating a film festival village so that people can just walk. Park your car for the whole day and just see films… Every film festival’s ideal situation is a village, where people can just walk. It cuts down on confusion, on the operations, on the stress of it.”
These may all seem like intuitive decisions, but the Fest has been surprisingly void of this sort of pragmatism in years past. One possible explanation for this could be Rodriguez’s experience.
“This is the only festival I had ever attended that only showed films once. There are your hardcore film fans that would see every film playing if they could. And if they can’t, it’s because of the programming,” said Rodriguez. “Now every audience member and film lover will be able to see any film they should choose to and not have to miss anything.”
Rodriguez started his career in film with a genuine love for the Chicago International Film Festival. When he was younger in Chicago, he volunteered his time every year to be a part of that event, which is one of the country’s largest competitive film festivals. He would coordinate his vacation time to coincide with the festival every year and fell increasingly in love with the experience.
Before long Rodriguez found himself hosting the filmmakers that traveled from around the world to the Chicago International. He would constantly be in the company of filmmakers discussing their craft. From critiques of film to technical advice, he learned as much from being around those filmmakers as he would later learn becoming an actual filmmaker.
In addition to working his way up from volunteer to finance manager in the Chicago International Film Festival, all while juggling real employment the rest of the year, he also got to the point that he was representing films and programming portions of that festival. It was a slow and steady process that led him to working for the Chicago International full-time and eventually to make films himself.
Rodriguez wasn’t an auteur, but he found films and scripts that he saw a good feature in, then he would come on board as a producer and help bring the film to completion and then get it the distribution or exposure it needed. So Rodriguez comes to Jacksonville not only experienced as management, but also with the sensibilities of a filmmaker.
This experience is crucial to the success of the Jacksonville Film Festival because it isn’t just about showing great films that people want to see, it is about cultivating an event that the international community of filmmakers talks about, thus spreading good will among filmmakers and making them want to bring their best films to our festival.
“How you are treated and how your host treats you transcends. That will determine whether that filmmaker goes back to Paris or to LA or to DeMoines, Iowa and says ‘I had the best time in Jacksonville.’ Its important that they be treated well and eat well, because most of them are very poor. One of the filmmakers is literally living out of his car, but his film was in Sundance and it’s coming here. It is so very, very important that they don’t have to worry about eating. They can come here with no money and still have a good time. It’s up to us to make sure that happens. ”
So is everything that Rodriguez is bringing to the JFF better than previous years? Is there any downside to this changing of the guard? Well actually, quite possibly yes. For one thing, Rodriguez stepped into the Director’s chair of a festival that was already in a deficit from last year. This meant he had to cut a lot of corners and rely a lot heavier on partnerships and sponsorships. His charge was essentially to recover from last year’s debt while forging ahead with this year’s event, all while making this year bigger and better than ever before. But the challenge of operating on no budget is that marketing and publicity suffers, hence there still being no information at jacksonvillefilmfestival.com, no posters around town and little-to-no word on the streets, even though the festival is next month. Rodriguez is counting heavily on the appeal of the films to make up for that lack of awareness.
“In Jacksonville, there is a craving for international and independent cinema. I really feel that. Our objective here at the Film Festival is to make anyone that is dropping eight dollars or ten dollars to come out of that saying ‘That was an amazing film, I’m glad I came,’ instead of being risk-takers and thinking ‘I don’t know if this film will be any good.’ I want to establish a reputation. If it’s at the Jacksonville Film Festival, it’s gonna be good.”
For longtime attendees of the JFF, there will be some sacrifices. Among them is the absence of Tim Massett. When Massett came here from Austin many years ago, he brought his love for cinema to a town that only knew megaplex fodder and big-budget Hollywood celluloid. But through his diligent work, Massett exposed local cinephiles to great film, through midnight movies at the San Marco Theatre, Subterranean Cinema showings at his warehouse, also known as The Pit, and through programming the film festival the last couple of years. Not only did he bring through groundbreaking cinema that Jacksonville would have never otherwise seen, but he also created The Talkies.
The Talkies was originally an event of the JFF, which brought an historic filmmaker to Jacksonville to watch one of their pinnacle works displayed in the historic San Marco Theatre’s big screen with running live commentary from the filmmaker. So far this event, which has never been done outside of Jacksonville, has brought George Romero, John Waters and Herschell Gordon Lewis to town. This event gave the JFF a much-needed sense of film history, rather than just a glimpse at contemporary cinema. Without the frame of reference of what made films of the past great, local audiences cannot understand what makes current cinema great.
Another loss will be those hilariously low-budget horror films that Massett was always able to bring to the JFF. You can expect less films like Blood Car and The Creature of the Sunny Side Up Trailer Park and more international and mainstream indie fare. You can also expect more glamour and glitz than in previous years.
“The theme of the whole festival is Rolling out the Red. Of course on Saturday night we’ll have the film [at the Florida Theatre], The Year of Getting to Know Us, and then we’ll have the gala at the courtyard in the new library.”
This year’s festival is promising to be even better than last year’s, although we won’t really know until after it has passed whether Rodriguez can live up to his stated intentions. He is certain that Jacksonville audiences will appreciate the way that the film selection process this year is going through a committee to better reflect the community.
“We have a film selection committee that is comprised of ten people and they come from all different backgrounds… I have a mixture of people. They are educators, filmmakers, and film lovers. Everyone looks at cinema differently. We have a Parisian that is a guest artist here at the Douglas Anderson School of the Arts. He is a choreographer that has done a lot of film work in dance and choreography in film. We have a Brazilian educator. We have a hairdresser that when she talks about movies her eyes pop out. So we get a nice mix.”
Another benefit will be the way the various programs are defined. Each film in the festival will be part of a sub-series, programs such as “Europa Europa” for the European fare, “Black Cinema” for the African-American offerings and “Made in Jacksonville” for films made locally and several other categories, including, for the first time in the JFF, a program of Asian films.
“North Star is the anchor for our Black Cinema program. It won an award at Sundance. That one is confirmed. It is one of those films that, I don’t care what other films come in, this one is amazing.”
Just as the JFF has enjoyed the premieres of Jacksonville-made films Lonely Hearts (starring John Travolta) and last year’s Throwing Stars, this year’s Fest will premiere the Jimmy Fallon and Lucy Liu vehicle that was being shot here last year. Formerly called “Rocket” the film’s current title is The Year of Getting to Know Us. Some other standout films that were mentioned during the interview with Rodriguez include Crazy, Just Before Eleven, Inside the Circle, and Meteoro.
“The opening night film, Crazy, is a special film for many reasons. If anyone loves music or the music industry, they’re gonna love this film. If anyone loves country music or jazz music, they’re gonna love this film. It’s in the vein of Walk the Line or Coal Miner’s Daughter… People that come to this movie will love it as cinema… This film is also a film that’s going to be embraced by the people of Jacksonville, not only because of the subject, Hank Garland lived his last forty years [in Jacksonville], but because it is a film that’s accessible and people can feel comfortable in, anyone in Jacksonville. Rather than having this pretentious art house opening film that no one can relate to, best to have a great film that can appeal to a wider audience. It’s a wonderful film. And the filmmakers have been so nice and they are so excited about being in Jacksonville.”
Nominees for the annual Tortuga Award (past recipients include Bill Murray and John Waters) are being kept under tight lips around the Fest’s Forsyth Street offices, but rumor has it we can expect another luminary to attend the event this year and accept Jacksonville’s Tortuga for their Hollywood mantle. Even though our event runs up against Cannes, one of cinema’s most prestigious international festivals, this year. You’ll just have to wait until the Saturday night of the gala event to find out.
“I do feel that Jacksonville as a city is a wonderful host. The look of the city, the vibe of the city, the enthusiasm of the audience, and of course, the potential. Jacksonville does everything with growth in mind. The new library Downtown, for instance, was not built for the Jacksonville of today, but for the Jacksonville of tomorrow.”
The Jacksonville Film Festival will occur May 15th through May 21st and will include 35 to 40 feature-length films as well as a number of shorts, several workshops and nightly parties. Films will be shown at the Florida Theatre, the Jacksonville Main Branch Library and the Terry Theatre inside of the Times-Union Center for the Performing Arts, as well as some yet-to-be determined venues which are likely to include the San Marco Theatre, MOCA Jacksonville and Fuel in 5 Points. Around 30% of the festival will be international films, the rest will be American independents. Set the dates on your calendar and let your boss know you won’t be in that week. Since all the golf enthusiasts took off for the TPC, the following week will be your turn to take off of work and check out the 2008 Jacksonville Film Festival.