by kellie abrahamson kabrahamson1@aol.com
The Jacksonville Film Festival is still six months away but that doesn’t mean you and I can’t enjoy bingeing on indie cinema for days on end here and now. The International Festival of Cinema and Technology rolls into town this week, bringing with it dozens of shorts from all over the world.
According to the IFCT’s website, the festival started in 2002 in order to “gain exposure for the ‘undiscovered film.’” The event is held in cities all over the world and features shorts on a wide variety of subjects, created on a wide variety of formats. This where the “Technology” part of the festival comes in. At any given screening you could see one movie shot on 35mm, and the next shot digitally. This is the first year the IFCT will stop in Jacksonville, and our little town is one of only a handful of cities on the 2007 schedule to have screenings on multiple days in true film fest form. First HBO comes to shoot here, now this. It looks like we’re inching closer to reclaiming our “Winter Film Capital of the World” title!
So, what can you expect to see at the IFCT this weekend? Well, a little of everything. On Thursday evening the festival opens with “Short Dramas: Travels to Far off Lands,” where filmmakers from Switzerland to Australia to the good ol’ USA will have their characters either visiting new places or plotting to do just that. From there you can see films with a “Focus on Murder and Intrigue,” some microbudget films and experimental shorts. Friday will bring dramatic shorts, psychological dramas and horror films. There will also be a screening of comedies on Friday, where you can see everything from an updated re-imagining of Hansel and Gretel to one woman’s quest for the perfect pair of shoes to a widower’s accidental introduction to international drug trafficking. The three-day festival wraps up on Saturday with love stories, animated shorts, documentaries, movies with a focus on family relationships, Sci-Fi shorts, and dark and experimental films. If all those movies aren’t enough to get you to come out to the IFCT, there will also be half-off drinks for all ticket-holding festival goers throughout the event and live music on Friday night.
Between the cheap drinks, the free music and the chance to support independent cinema, there’s no reason to stay in this weekend! The International Festival of Cinema and Technology will be held at the Rusted Hinge at 9th and Main (1850 N. Main St) from Thursday, December 6th to Saturday, December 8th. Tickets for each screening are just $6 ($3 for students). For more information on the IFCT and the films that will be screened, visit ifct.org/jax.
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