Ramblings From The Waterfront Film Festival

The Waterfont Film Festival has grown into a fairly big showcase for indie films. The festival focuses on American made indie films, high quality documentaries and iffy major releases. I guess the major studios want to test out the waters before spending alot of cash marketing a film that doesn't play well in the Midwest. We were fortunate enough to be able to check out most of the Saugatuck, Michigan based film festival last week, and for the most part, it was a blast.

Despite our repeated attempts to get media passes to the event, the festival elders chose to ignore us. It would have been nice to at least get a "thanks, but no thanks" e-mail or even a condescending letter for us to frame, but that apparently wasn't to be.

So, at the last minute, without media passes, we decided to go ahead and fork over our own hard earned cash and see some of the films. We saw six films in two days, and got in lots of partying. Maybe a little too much partying but that seems to be part of the whole film festival experience these days. Saugatuck has lots of great restaurants and bars, and by the end of the event, we must have hit them all.

The Waterfront Film Festival is 100% volunteer organized and run. That might account for the slightly unorganized atmosphere and the media pass diss. But despite the all-volunteer workforce, the event still went fairly smoothly. Movies started on time, there were some minor celebrities to be seen, and there were lots of media types milling around. That reminds me - at one point I was psyched to spot a guy wearing a "Boy Howdy" t-shirt at the premiere of In Memorium (more on that clunker of a film later). He explained that he was editor of Creem Magazine (woo-hoo, it's back!) and that you can now check out the legendary magazine online. Sweet. Also, apparently you can buy Boy Howdy t-shirts online at a site callled Worn Free. Who knew?

Okay, back to the festival. One of the biggest downers at this year's Waterfront Film Festival was the return of Emerson Hart as the opening party performer. The opening party is basically a block party, with beer and wine tents, and a performer (Hart) that entertains the crowd before they show a film outdoors. Hart was the lead singer of the band Tonic, and his accoustic sets are the epitome of whiny complaint rock. Ellyn Elm was getting so annoyed with his overly sentimental, pseudo-intellectual meanderings that at one point I actually had to restrain her from rushing the stage and beating him over the head with her Guns N Roses Appetite For Destruction LP... That happens a lot.

Another down side to the Waterfront Film Festival (besides the fact that we had to pay to see movies) were the venues themselves. We saw one film in a high school gym and two others in a boat warehouse. Seriously, we sat on lawn chairs in an empty boat storage barn. I know. But, to be honest, it was worth it. The films that we saw in the warehouse (Word Play and the awesome Sasquatch Dumpling Gang) were top notch. But the festival could use some better venues. Not sure how they can pull that off, but that has to be something they look to improve in the years ahead.

Don't get me wrong, dear readers. The Waterfront Film Festival was a blast. Great films, plenty of parties and lots of activities all weekend long. We will have some reviews for you in the weeks ahead. In the meantime, unless you've got a boat, stay out of the storage barns.

Posted by Scott Standish