The Queens Scene

Only four years old but already sporting grown-ups' clothes, the 2006 Queens International Film Festival launches today with mandate to create a world-class international showcase for underexposed voices and local cinematic talent. Forty percent of the films being featured at QIFF were either produced by New York natives or filmed at New York locations, said festival founder and director Marie Castaldo, and this year's event has expanded its menu to include over 200 international and national films.

The understudies of Debra Eisenstadt's The Limbo Room, screening this week at the Queens International Film Festival

Additionally, Castaldo told The Reeler that this year's diverse festival emphases will be on women, films from emerging foreign countries and hip-hop music. "Music and films go together, and hip-hop has been influencing music and films," said Castaldo, who also programmed a music video category this year for the first time. "We wanted to add something that would be fun and see where it takes us."

Women's issues are highlighted in a variety of films, including the documentary The Shape of Water. Narrated by Susan Sarandon, it focuses on courageous women throughout the world who are struggling to make positive political or cultural changes. Two entries that skillfully and intelligently tackle the delicate subject of rape are Debra Eisenstadt's feature The Limbo Room and Rape, a documentary short directed by Michael Savage. Filmed in a mere nine days and inspired by many of Eisenstadt's real life experiences as an understudy, The Limbo Room examines the stalled career and long-term love relationship of aging actress Ann Joseph (Andrea Powell) projected against the backdrop of an Off-Broadway theater production's thorny sexual and political undercurrents. But while The Limbo Room is ultimately fiction, Rape unfolds over nine very real, intense minutes. Savage's spur-of-the-moment filming of Justine Elise Flores' recital of her poem "It Can Be Anyone" -- written about an acquaintance rape she'd experienced several years before -- exemplifies the groundbreaking films that are being featured this year. "I was ready to share," Flores said about allowing Savage to film her spontaneous poetry reading -- her first from memory. "I was able to let go of that piece of paper."

Perhaps QIFF's quirkiest cinematic gem is David Patton's Rhapsody in Red, a sick and twisted stroll through the dark valley of demented romance. Featuring love-scarred Babette (Caitlin Berry) as the unlikely wife of convicted serial killer Darryl Jacobi (Travis Boswell), Rhapsody in Red may be pure fiction, but Patton said his source of inspiration was the "stranger than fiction" world of reality. "What inspired this film were the true stories of women who write to, fall in love with, and marry men in prison," he said. "Go to the Internet and Google 'prison want-ads,' and you'll see that we could have gone even further in the film. But people wouldn't believe us."

In addition to screenings of shorts, features, documentaries, animated films and music videos, QIFF will be offering a retrospective of Oscar-winning Greek filmmaker Costa Gavras, a Women in Film panel discussion, a NYC-themed film competition and networking opportunities for filmmakers. -- Rachelle Nones

The Queens International Film Festival runs Nov. 15 - Nov. 19 at eight venues in Queens. For additional information, including ticket sales and a full schedule of the festival's screenings and special events, visit the QIFF Web site.

Posted at November 15, 2006 1:11 PM