Miami International Film Festival 2013
I had the great opportunity to attend a bunch of movies during the Miami International Film Festival this year (Thanks Rachel!) This 10 day festival features 138 international films, showing at 10 theaters around Miami, parties, galas, and a whole bunch of awesome people.
Over the last few years, my interest in film has grown drastically, I’ll pretty much watch everything and anything. After working on sets, making my own short videos and studying the role of director of photography, attending MIFF was completely inspiring. This was the first film festival that I actually experienced as a full on festival go-er. I saw movies every day, talked to viewers, listened to Q & As and had a blast doing it all. I saw a handful of great movies, and also a few that were just not for me. I’m not here to give movie reviews, but I am here to give you a little peek into what MIFF is all about….
Some highlights from my MIFF week –
My favorite venue to attend was (of course), the Olympia Theater at the Gusman center. Built in the 1920′s as a silent movie theater and now used to showcase performing arts in South Florida, this place makes you feel like you’re in a movie.
I had a chance to see the only screening of Dark Blood, which was River Phoenix’s last film before he died (while they were still shooting.) It was wild to listen to the director, George Sluizer, talk about some strange occurrences on set prior to his death, along with the difficulties completing the film, which took almost 20 years to finish.
The attendees! Fashionable, funky, swanky, old, young, international, local. So many interesting people who come from all over to check out the limited screenings of these films. I wanted to chat with everyone, but found it pretty difficult to bombard people as they were rushing to get a good seat.
I would definitely recommend checking out MIFF next year, March 7-16th, 2014. Considering that there were 138 movies shown, it was so hard to pick and choose what to see. Next year I will start planning a bit earlier….I suggest you do the same!
See more of Shayna Batya’s work here.
