MOVIEMAKER.COM 77COURTESY OF ITHACA FANTASTIK FILM FESTIVAL
FESTIVAL BEAT
WINTER 2019ITHACA FANTASTIK
FILM FESTIVAL 2018Support system of peers
and boundary-pushing
international fare amid
foliage of upstate New YorkA sleepy college town in late
fall. Changing leaves and crisp
air. It’s a peaceful autumn idyll
for some, a John Carpenter-esque
slasher setup for others. For the
industry and genre enthusiasts
gathered for the seventh annual
Ithaca Fantastik Film Festival,
the atmosphere is a bit of both.
Ithaca Fantastik has flourished
under co-founder and artistic
director Hugues Barbier, growing
from three days to a week since
its 2012 launch (this year’s fest
ran October 26 through Novem-
ber 4). A picturesque five-hour
drive from New York City, Ithaca
presents an ideal location for
weird-cinema watching, industry
networking, and “leaf peeping.”
Indie theater Cinemapolis
plays host as the primary venue.
Between films, guests convene
in the lobby to chat, work, and
browse merch from independent
retailers (like genre preservation
house Vinegar Syndrome). The
easy, centralized location facili-
tates the sociable atmosphere—a
smaller and more relaxed version
of the one-cinema format thatmakes some larger genre festivals
(like Fantastic Fest) so effective.
There are no pop-up venues, no
overlapping screenings. Without
the need to rush between the-
aters, people are free to hang out
and discuss the films with col-
leagues. By the time the industry
brunch rolls around on the final
Sunday, people are laughing like
old friends. Says The Rusalka
director Perry Blackshear: “I’ve
been to festivals where people
show up to see things just to fill
the time slot, but what was fun
and exciting about our screen-
ing here is that every person in
the audience was there to see
this exact movie. It felt like I was
speaking to a commu-
nity of peers.”
Due credit goes to
Barbier, who creates
a welcoming atmo-
sphere. Events are congenial
(such as the U.S. premiere of
“Drunken Cinema,” in which
audiences play a drinking game
during a screening of a repertory
film; the Ithaca 2018 pick was
Halloween H20: 20 Years Later).
Attendees, including Starfish
director A.T. White and
Girls with Balls star
Anne-Solenne Hatte, were
encouraged to hang out over a
beverage. “It feels very much like
family,” Blackshear says.
Short films have op-
portunity to shine, with
standouts like thedark romantic comedy Fetish
(Best Comedy Short and
Short Audience Award winner,
directed by David Lee Hess and
Richard H. Perry) and Leah Galant’s
Death Metal Grandma (part of the
“Necessary Voices” shorts). The lat-
ter details 96-year-old Holocaust
survivor Inge Ginsberg’s transfor-
mation into a nonagenarian metal
icon, neatly encapsulating Ithaca’s
artistic m.o.—to curate interna-
tional films that push boundaries
with thought and care.
Closing night’s documentary,
Boiled Angels: The Trial of
Mike Diana, chronicles the only
occasion in U.S. history in which
an illustrator was tried and
convicted of obscenity
charges. Diana was
on hand, signing his
genitalia-festooned
zines alongside
producer Mike Hunchback and
director Frank Henenlotter. He’s
wry, funny, reserved: an inadver-
tent hero for free speech in our
modern times.
At the closing night party,
guests gather for karaoke.
Diana sings
Lionel Richie’s“All Night Long (All Night)” while
Hunchback mans the sound sys-
tem. By evening’s end—walking
back to the Airbnb past the fad-
ing jack-o-’lanterns, chatting it up
with friends new and old—you
know bright things are waiting
for this fest ‘round the bend.
—Jennifer BlairINDIE MEMPHIS
FILM FESTIVAL 2018Auteur-driven programming,
live music, and rich banana
pudding at the Home of the
Blues’ stalwart cinema spotWhen you’re finishing a movie,
the rest of the world fades into
white noise. That doesn’t
mean I wasn’t thinking
about where the
film would> MASKED FEST-GOERS
SCARE UP SOME FUN ON
HALLOWEEN NIGHT AT
ITHACA FANTASTIK 2018