Finding hope in surprising places at this year's IFFBoston
Andrea Gibson, left, and Megan Falley in "Come See Me in the Good Light," the opening-night feature at this year's Independent Film Festival Boston.
Independent Film Festival Boston
Early audiences, White said in a recent telephone interview, have emerged from the theater 'with a big smile, not with tears in their eyes.
'The number one comment we've been hearing is 'I'm going to call my husband-wife-mother-son immediately.' They want to tell that person how much they love them.'
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The festival's closing night film, 'Sorry, Baby,' also premiered to an enthusiastic reception at Sundance. Shot in and around Ipswich, the film marks the directorial debut of its lead actor, Eva Victor.
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'Opening with an alum is exciting,' said Brian Tamm, the festival's executive director. 'Closing with a new voice is also exciting. The fact that 'Sorry, Baby' was made locally is extra special.'
Tim Robinson, left, and Paul Rudd in "Friendship."
Independent Film Festival Boston
This year's festival will showcase 15 feature films (including the forthcoming cringe comedy 'Friendship,' starring Paul Rudd and Tim Robinson) and more than 20 feature-length documentaries (including the highly anticipated 'Pavements,' a doc about
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In 'Sorry, Baby,' Victor plays a young woman who has been sexually assaulted by a professor she thought she trusted.
'I am acting a role,' said Victor, who had a recurring part on the Showtime series 'Billions,' on the phone recently. 'It isn't me, but there are elements of her that I feel deeply connected with.
'This person is really struggling with feeling very stuck, trying to heal from something they're still wrapping their mind around.'
Agnes, the lead character, may be stuck, but she's also appealingly awkward, and often funny. One of the film's producers is the Oscar-winning director Barry Jenkins ('Moonlight,' 2016), who first became aware of Victor through the
'He was the first person to say to me, 'What you're doing online with your videos is a form of directing,'' she said. ''You just don't know it yet.''
Eva Victor at the Sundance Film Festival in January.
Chris Pizzello/Chris Pizzello/Invision/AP
Although Victor was born in Paris and grew up in San Francisco, there's a distinct Massachusetts flavor to 'Sorry, Baby.' A cottage at Appleton Farms in Ipswich serves as the protagonist's home. One key scene was filmed at J.T. Farnham's clam shop in Essex. And one of Victor's costars is Lucas Hedges, who had his breakthrough playing a surly teenager in 'Manchester by the Sea' (2016), which Victor calls one of her favorite films.
Like that film, 'Sorry, Baby' is immersed in gray.
'It's meant to be a wintry film,' Victor explained. 'It felt like it could lean romance or horror, depending on how you shoot it. I like that versatility.'
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For Tamm and Campbell, it's important to strike a balance between honoring Boston's long history of independent cinema and helping to promote fresh voices in film.
The Somerville Theatre is over 100 years old, Tamm noted. The festival's other venues, the Coolidge Corner Theatre and the Brattle Theatre, have been showing movies since the 1930s and 1950s, respectively.
'We do feel part of this continuum,' he said. 'We see ourselves as a kind of caretaker. But you don't want to become calcified, either.'
From "Free Leonard Peltier."
Independent Film Festival Boston
The fact that IFFBoston attracts a younger audience than many comparable film festivals has served it well since its founding, in 2003. This year, both 'Sorry, Baby' and 'Friendship' are distributed by A24, the production company that has become a major player in Hollywood in recent years following its humble beginnings a little over a decade ago. A24 has remained loyal to IFFBoston since those early years.
'We saw A24 like Sub Pop or 4AD,' said Tamm, referring to two independent record labels that developed reputations as aesthetic visionaries in the 1980s and '90s. 'We do kind of share a vision, trying to find that indefinable thing: 'Who's got great stories to tell?''
Other highlights of this year's IFFBoston include the documentaries 'Free Leonard Peltier,' from co-directors Jesse Short Bull and David France; 'Night Fight,' an exploration of race and survival from Tufts professor Khary Saeed Jones; and 'Deaf President Now!,' a documentary from Nyle DiMarco and Davis Guggenheim about a series of historic protests at Gallaudet University, a school for the deaf, in 1988. The festival will also screen 'Zoo,' Frederick Wiseman's 1993 film, as part of the
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From "Zoo."
Independent Film Festival Boston
Tamm said that opening the festival with 'Come See Me in the Good Light' was an intentional choice — an attempt to prove to audiences that there's plenty to celebrate in a film about someone who may be dying with cancer.
'There's a reason to watch this film, and it's not to wallow in the misery,' he said. 'It's about living in the moment.'
'The secret ingredient in this film is that it's joyful,' White agreed. 'It is sad, but not so sad that sadness has to overtake the humor and joy that we can still find in the limited amount of time that we might have left here on earth.'
He'd been asking his friend Tig Notaro — she's the comedian
Ryan White and Tig Notaro at the Sundance Film Festival in January.for Vox Media
'When Tig approached us with this idea of her friend who's a poet with cancer, it was like, 'Oh, Tig, that doesn't sound very funny at all.''
But it turned out that the relationship between Gibson, who is a rock-star-level performer, and their longtime partner Megan Falley was ideally suited to the camera.
'The idea that they were going through something so scary, but that they could make a beautiful piece of art out of it, was really attractive to them,' said White.
'It was a magical shoot,' he recalled. 'Meg likes to joke that we made a rom-com.'
Worried that they might be racing against the clock, White and his team worked overtime to submit the film to Sundance. When it was accepted, he called Gibson with the good news.
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'Are you telling me there's a chance I'll actually see this film?,' Gibson asked, sobbing.
Gibson is hoping to appear on Zoom for the audience Q&A after the IFFBoston screening.
INDEPENDENT FILM FESTIVAL BOSTON
April 23-30 at the Somerville, Coolidge Corner, and Brattle theaters. Go to
James Sullivan can be reached at
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