The Boston Popcorn team is attending nine films at the 2011 Independent Film Festival of Boston, and we’ll be covering them right here.
For more indepth coverage of not just the IFFB, but also the Boston Irish Film Festival, The Boston Underground Film Festival, and the Boston International film festival, check out a special Boston Festivals edition of our parent site Popcorn N Roses’ weekly podcast Subject:CINEMA, coming up on May 8 – keep an eye out.
OPENING NIGHT – BEING ELMO
IFFB ’11 opened with Being Elmo: A Puppeteer’s Journey, the life story of Muppeteer Kevin Clash, who began his career by becoming interested in making puppets and muppets when he was just ten years old. This documentary features footage of Kevin in his teen years supplied by the classic PBS/Syndicated kids show Big Blue Marble, which documented his first journey to meet Kermit Love, the man who helped Jim Henson design and build many of his early muppet stars, and the man who gave his name to Kermit The Frog.
Being Elmo was the audience award winning doc at this year’s Sundance Film Festival, and seeing it, it’s easy to see why – the film is charming as it chronicles Kevin’s life throughout the years, and as he becomes the man who turned a little red ball of fur into a household icon with the little kid’s voice. Your jaw will ache from smiling so much after seeing this film.
After the screening, Kevin, director Constance Marks, and the production team held court for a fantastic, nearly hour long Q&A session, and of course, Elmo was also in attendance and taking questions as well, providing the sold-out audience some hilarious moments.
Photos of the Q& A are forthcoming; keep watching this space for more.
On The Web: http://beingelmo.com/
For day two, we are heading back out to the Somerville Theatre for The Bengali Detective, a doc about a hard-bitten private investigator who moonlights…as a club dance contestant?!? The film is presently being remade into a narrative feature, due out in 2014.
If you’re out and about at the IFFB, we’d love to meet you! So please, if you see a larger couple walking around or waiting in line, and they look like they might be us, ask! Hee Hee! We will be at The Troll Hunter on Friday night, and will be at SIX films over the weekend, so watch for more info!
