2011 Albany FilmFest Rolls Out Red Carpet This Saturday

The silver screen is shining, and the red carpet is getting ready to unroll: is happening Saturday.

Films will be screened all day long, from noon to 9 p.m., at the , and a $5 admission ticket ($1 for kids) will allow come-and-go privileges.

More than 100 entries were submitted from filmmakers around the state.

“It was way more than we expected,” said Jack Kenny, a festival organizer and member of the , the group that originated the festival. Entries fell into one of four categories: Short Films (30 minutes or less), Animation, Everything Albany and Tiny Films (3 minutes or less).

From all the entries, 45 films were selected for screening at Saturday’s event. A group of finalists has been submitted to the panel of judges, who will announce winners by category at the festival. 

The schedule of screening and award times is posted on the festival’s website and will be updated as the weekend draws closer.

In addition to the films themselves, several special guests will be on hand to speak and take questions after each of the screening sessions; at the end of the second screening session, for example, the Academy Award-nominated animator Geefwee Boedoe will discuss his film Let’s Pollute, which will then be screened.

Legendary local filmmaker Les Blank and cinematographer Shane King will take questions after the third and fourth screening sessions.

After the fifth—which is scheduled to begin at 6 p.m. and contains all of the films with “mature content”—the festival finale is a screening of The Archeology of Memory. This documentary features Chilean exile Quique Cruz, a Bay Area musician who journeys back to Chile and creates a multimedia art piece in hopes of helping to heal the damage done by the Pinochet regime’s state-sponsored torture.

The Archeology of Memory’s co-producer and co-director, Marilyn Mulford, who is also an Albany FilmFest judge, will answer questions after the film.

As if all this excitement wasn’t enough for the price of a ticket, there will also be food, drink, music and a raffle…and, of course, popcorn!  Plus the right to say you were there from the beginning, at the First Annual Albany FilmFest.

Everybody makes mistakes ... ! If there's something in this article you think should be corrected, or if something else is amiss, call editor Emilie Raguso at 510-459-8325 or email her at emilier@patch.com.