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…

Read More

BNFF10: The 4th Annual Buffalo Niagara Film Festival Recap

The Buffalo Niagara Film Festival closed out its fourth annual entry, ending a pretty great eight days of cinema. Attendance might have been stunted due to a plethora of activities in Buffalo, including a Salman Rushdie talk that prevented me from going to opening night and the brief return of Sabres hockey to the playoffs, but that did little to dampen the spirits of organizers, volunteers, or filmmakers. What makes this event uniquely great in comparison to an event like the Toronto International Film Festival is that you don’t have…

Read More

BNFF10 REVIEW: Broken Dreams [2010]

“I just roll back out to sea, again and again” Listening to David Crabtree after the Buffalo Niagara Film Festival screening of his film Broken Dreams, you can sense the passion and work ethic that consumes him. Enlisting in an acting class at the Beverly Hills Playhouse to learn how to be an actor’s director, after the television show he is managing editor on, “Psych”, passed him over to helm an episode, Crabtree not only honed his skills, but also made the connections to go for broke on his first…

Read More