One thing the Dallas International Film Festival has always known how to do well is hospitality, and this, their fifth year, was certainly no exception. This year, the fest was headquartered downtown at the lovely Hotel Joule. While the hotel for the previous two years, The Palomar, is very nice and is conveniently located right across from Mockingbird Station and the Angelika Theater, it’s also a big night spot for the SMU beautiful people crowd, which could get to be a bit much on Friday and Saturday nights. Also? The crosswalk you take to get across the very busy intersection is very busy, and it’s a right next to the highway off-ramp and seriously potentially deadly.
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Posts Tagged ‘Dallas IFF’
Dallas IFF Dispatch: Parties, Programming, and the Future
Monday, April 11th, 2011Dallas IFF Dispatch: Murder Songs and Warlords
Thursday, April 7th, 2011After a long day of travel, I finally made it to Dallas this afternoon for a couple days at the Dallas International Film Festival, just in time to check into my hotel room (replete with round bed and zebra rug), change into something more appropriate for the warmer Dallas weather (the sun! my eyes!) and hit the ground running with a couple screenings.
First up was Small Town Murder Songs, a Canadian film directed by Ed Gass-Donnelly. The film stars vet Swedish actor Peter Stomare (sporting a ‘stache that would be right at home on a 1970s porn set) as Walter, a cop in a small Mennonite town in Ontario. A murdered stripper (the first murder the town’s police force has ever had to deal with) is the catalyst for the story, as Walter almost immediately targets Steve (Stephen Eric McIntyre), the seedy white-trash lover of his ex-mistress Rita (Jill Hennessy, terrific here). Martha Plimpton is quietly powerful in a less showy role as Walter’s current girlfriend (or maybe wife? This isn’t made explicitly clear).
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Pay No Attention to What’s Behind the Curtain …
Monday, April 4th, 2011How should a journalist handle reporting information that a film festival might prefer not be written about?
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On Regional Film Fests as Agents of Change
Thursday, March 24th, 2011I wrote a little while back about the Sarasota Film Festival and their kick-ass education and outreach program, which I’m looking forward to seeing up close when I’m at that fest next month.
I’m also going back to Dallas IFF this year — I’ve been going to that fest every year since it started, and I’m continually impressed with how this fest has grown and shifted and survived in spite ending their co-branding with AFI and losing some sponsors and gaining others. Somehow, they always pull off a hell of a fest for the Dallas-Fort Worth area.
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