BNFF14 PREVIEW: The 8th Annual Buffalo Niagara Film Festival

It’s eight years later and The Buffalo Niagara International Film Festival is still going strong April 24th through May 3rd. I personally missed organizer and filmmaker Bill Cowell‘s inaugural season, but have been attending off and on as both a ticket holder and member of the press since. My first experience was in 2008 at the Riviera Theatre in Tonawanda. I drove over mostly because that night’s feature had a cast consisting of Bruce Dern and Kristen Stewart (pre-Twilight). While director Mary Stewart Masterson‘s The Cake Eaters proved worthy of…

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BNFF13 REVIEW: Submit the Documentary: The Virtual Reality of Cyberbullying [2013]

“Perhaps we were unprepared. Or maybe just naïve.” After the tragic events surrounding Williamsville teen Jamey Rodemeyer’s 2011 suicide helped spark a public outcry against the phenomenon known as cyberbullying, it’s only fitting to see Muta’Ali Muhammad’s Submit the Documentary: The Virtual Reality of Cyberbullying make its second appearance on the festival circuit here in Buffalo, New York. Inspired by Lady Gaga’s music, this openly bisexual young man posted on YouTube, Formspring, and other Social Media sites to share his experiences and work towards preventing the act of which he…

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BNFF12 REVIEW: The Delray Story [2011]

“What the Sam Heck?” Shot on $3000 to satisfy his graduate thesis, Nelson Cuellar‘s The Delray Story is a love letter to a bygone era of music. In a world filled with electronic beats and rehashed styles, where the kids fawn over celebrity images instead of good voices and quality sounds, accepting that the music died when Buddy Holly‘s plane crashed isn’t as hyperbolic as you may initially think. There seems to be little room these days for anything that’s not being played on the Top 40 or easily juxtaposed…

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BNFF12 REVIEW: Moon Point [2012]

“My grandmother doesn’t let me out of the house without coupons” If quirky indie had a handbook, Moon Point would be a film ripped from its pages. Beginning with a handmade credit sequence of cardboard Valentine’s cards with names of the cast and crew a la Napoleon Dynamite‘s geek chic, you know what to expect very early on. And when the opening line deals with the crass recollection of childbirth as though the funniest subject on Earth, perverted ice cream truck drivers, homicidal karaoke contest winners, and the weirdest innkeeper…

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BNFF12 REVIEW: Chercher le courant [Seeking the Current] [2011]

“The nationalization of energy” The documentary Chercher le courant [Seeking the Current] is a very interesting project. Both a labor of love to document the gorgeous natural expanse of the 500-kilometer Romaine River in Quebec as well as a look into the alternative energy methods that could replace its forthcoming destruction, we are educated on a visceral and intellectual level in man’s ability to remorselessly carve through our environment. With Hydro-Québec positioned as an enemy to Mother Nature itself, the film plays as a liberal cry for justice against big…

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BNFF12 REVIEW: Ordinary Joe [2012]

“For an easier path we give up life” Men like Joe Sciacca are a rare breed. A blue-collar roofer from Long Island, NY, Joe is a Vietnam War veteran who has returned each year for months at a time to facilitate charitable donations by his community and bring smiles to the impoverished and sick he visits. Ordinary Joe tells us he was in Vietnam during the war rather than in it because his experience with the country’s citizens was one of hospitality and friendship. The people he helped as a…

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BNFF12 REVIEW: 10Terrorists! [2012]

“What’s the difference between a terrorist and a person?” It’s not a matter of if we’ll ever get to the point where reality television tackles a subject like terrorism for entertainment, but when. Preempting that unfortunate day, writer/director Dee McLachlan gives us the very funny and timely game show entitled “Who Wants to be a Terrorist” as the premise to her satiric look at salacious media and the warped minds it reaches, 10Terrorists! Mocking the likes of “American Idol”, “The Amazing Race”, “The Apprentice”, and “Iron Chef” amongst others, the…

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BNFF12 REVIEW: Brother Time [2012]

“Better to sleep in the cold than be killed” Westerners look at a country like Kenya and see turmoil, violence, and poverty. Most could care less about what happens in Africa because it doesn’t matter in the grand scheme of their lives. But watching a documentary like Wesley Shrum‘s Brother Time shows how universal humanity is along the large and varied spectrums of economics and sociology. Just because we see ourselves as civilized doesn’t make others not. Even amidst the horrific tribal wars that raged inside the Rift Valley after…

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BNFF12 REVIEW: Living River: The Ganges [2012]

“She is worshiped by Demons and Gods alike” Having just been to India last summer, the pollution of the Ganges in Vinit Parmar‘s documentary Living River: The Ganges is something I witnessed first-hand. Taking a gondola ride down the ghat-filled bank of Varanasi’s portion of the holy river, I saw hundreds of men, women, and children bathing, drinking, and performing rituals to the Goddess Ganga. Having heard the facts about the water before visiting, I tried my hardest to cover every square inch of flesh from even a splash courtesy…

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BNFF12 REVIEW: Caught [2011]

“I don’t cheat” Using baseball as the metaphor to an underdog life of disrespect, the short film Caught utilizes a recreation league’s championship game as the release of starting catcher Hannah’s (Lori Martini) naïve reliance on her family for a love they’ll never share. Trash-talking her brother Robbie (Daniel Braver)—stuck in a leg brace and batting for the opposing team—we see the strained bond of the present mixed with flashbacks full of disappointing letdowns from the past. Words spoken and characters’ actions witnessed at the game are explained by these…

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BNFF12 REVIEW: Fractured Minds [2011]

“Sometimes I want to smash your face into a window” The horror genre has been used to speak on political matters, mask psychological traumas, signify an internal struggle through manifested pain, and to just plain scare audiences with a healthy portion of blood and guts. Frank Battiston‘s Fractured Minds wants to feed into the more than meets the eye mentality, but I’m not sure if the multi-narrative finds the sure-footing to do more than portray the usual backwoods cretins and a quartet of city folk unknowingly walking into their lair.…

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