The 30.5 Theses YEAR TWO

The 30.5 Theses

(30.5 reasons why the Borscht Film Festival should be named the Film Festival of choice in the New Times’ “Best of Miami” issue.)

So last year we lost out to the Jewish Film Festival, but that doesn't mean we are giving up this year. In fact, this is a chance to bring justice to the world. Here is a slightly updated list from last year.

Vote for us as Best Festival (it’s on the 3rd or 4th page) here:
http://polls.miaminewtimes.com/polls/mia/bestof10/

If you happen to be an editor of the New Times, read carefully. If you happen to know an editor of the New Times or have access to where they work, please nail to their doors. Tape is not acceptable.

The last day to vote is June 2nd!

1. We are the only festival that caters exclusively to local talent. Some small efforts to reach out (Miami International Film Festival, Miami Underground Film Festival) and some claim to be interested in local talent (such as the Miami Short film Festival, where only 4 out of the 86 films screened in 2008 were by locals, that’s 4.6%) but we are the only festival that shows, commissions and promotes 100% local work.

2. We are free. Not just admission- submitting is free, showing is free, drinks and booze and snacks are free.

3. Speaking of booze, we invented a drink. It has Jupina in it. It is called “the CCCV.” It is Jupina and rum, preferably served in an “I Survived the Montu” collector’s cup. (We have given it away before and will do so again.)

4. While the Miami International Film Festival is the Miami Herald (largest audience, somewhat bland, cloudy economic future) we are the ideological film festival equivalent to the New Times (hippest audience, free, scrappy, cynical, funded in part by escort services).

5. Our movies are about Miami, but you won’t see rollerbladers on Ocean Drive, or glossy Michael Bay shoot outs- we tell stories about things like why Hotwheels changed their name to Superwheels, what the crack heads in downtown think of the construction boom, and what the hipsters gentrifying Little Haiti do when they’re not at Sweat Records.

6. The festival isn’t held at an AMC. Or a movie theater, usually. It’s held at places like the Planetarium, the Tower Theater on Calle Ocho, or Gusman. This year it may be held at Miami Jai-Alai. We’re working on it, so no promises.

7. We are the only film festival in the world with a Naval Armada. Through a series of shady coincidences (and despite a theft that robbed us of some of naval might) we still have two boats in our possession, and are ready to battle any other film festival on the high seas.

8. We’re not only involved in visual arts and film; we are part of the CCCV (the Roman numeral for 305), an arts collective that is devoted to creating dance (Mandra Danceprojects) and theater (Foryoucansee Theater) works for Miami as well.

9. Most of Miami’s talent bolts for L.A. and NY. While we can’t do much about that yet, we make sure some of our best work in Miami at least once a year keeping them artistically interested in their home town.

10. We see ourselves as part of a movement of 20something Miami artists coming into their own at once, together, defining what it is to be a Miamian as opposed to allowing ourselves to be defined by outside media sources.

11. Even our shitty movies have something redeemable about them. While bad movies at other local festivals are clichéd and vacuous, our bad movies fail because they were made by a 19-year-old in Hialeah on a budget of $12. And they’re still interesting.

12. We’re growing. Last year people were scalping our free tickets to get into the oversold Gusman Center. We have finally been getting recognized by grants from organizations such as the Downtown Development Authority, Miami-Dade Cultural Affairs, and we are a finalist for a Knight Arts Challenge Grant.

13. We have money now. 6 to 10 Miami-based filmmakers will be given fully funded productions. What other festival is so committed to developing local talent that they will pay them to make films for them?

14. We’re young. A 17-year-old founded it in 2005. Our oldest filmmaker is under 30. And also the best looking film festival. Seriously, compare our headshots to other local fests.

15. We are the only organization who would hire Milton Garcia, our recently paroled, Miami-themed tattooed Master of Communications who rarely shows his face for obvious reasons.

16. Borscht is a Ukrainian soup, and can be served hot or cold.

17. While Miami has plenty of quality specialty film festivals (Gay and Lesbian, various national and ethnic festivals) we seek to encompass all of the Miami experience, and therefore have a touch of flavor from all the niche festivals, and…

18. Our form is just as diverse as the subject matter. Yes, we’ve shown dance on film before (Dictadura), next to heady mainstream indie films (Medicine for Melancholy), next to cartoons that went on to play at SXSW, next to trash cinema.

19. We are the only festival seeking out and promoting work that depicts the 1st and 2nd generation American experience without resorting to cheap clichés. As many of our parents came to Miami from their respective countries and helped build the city through their defining immigrant experiences, we are the first generation to define the native Miami experience.

20. Our website features both a shirtless Udonis Haslem and a French situationist map restructured to reflect the psycho-geography of Miami.

21. We’re hard.

22. Our artists work across disciplines- we’ve shown work done by young choreographers, architects, graffiti artists, playwrights, and aspiring astronauts (no joke).

23. Every one of our festivals has included a robot. One hosted the first Borscht, and every one since has had a robot that gives hugs, created by Juan Griego. This year, we will be hosting a robot battle.

24. We are not communists. This is a common misconception, as…

25. We do not have a president but a Minister of the Interior, and no mission statement but a…

26. Manifesto. http://www.borscht.info/manifesto.html Yes, irony?

27. Some among us are militantly Anti-Broward County. The principal job of the Minister of Defense is to uphold this tradition.

28. Many films in Miami get away with being low quality because it is accepted in our incubated community. We seek to raise the quality to a professional level. We’re not competing with each other, but with other regional film scenes.

29. We are working towards the goal of creating a viable independent film scene- not an industry, a scene that provides consistent work to local artists (making it viable to be based out of Miami) and has an idiosyncratic voice unlike any in the world. We want to tell Miami stories to a global audience. It sounds like every other pipe dream shared by most young people in Miami, but we are actually working our asses off to make it happen, and getting more people involved every day. Already we have screened Miami stories we've created to international audiences at festivals like Cannes, Sundance, Tribeca, SXSW and more, not to mention fans from 30 different countries who have watched our work online.

30. We love the New Times, not just because they gave us a Mastermind Grant.

30.5 We, more than any other festival, could use the title of “Best of Miami.” It would give us a sense of legitimacy without having to cater to more mainstream media. And we would probably put it in all our bios, or something.

Vote now, the last day to vote is June 2nd!
http://polls.miaminewtimes.com/polls/mia/bestof10/

Ahol got caught Sniffing Glue

If you did not know already Ahol Sniffs Glue is having a show at Butter Gallery in a little over the week. Show some love!

A Man Named Ahol Sniffs Glue
by John Hood

If you live in Dade County, you’ve seen the tags everywhere: a blocked stencil, a starred sticker, a dashed black marker or a swift spray of paint. AHOL. SNIFFS. GLUE. But signing his nom de guerre to the city he loves is only a part of what this Miami born and bred visualist does in the wild world. The rest, as they say, is suitable for framing.

But there’s no frame in all of art land that can contain the vivid multitudes of the man known as Ahol Sniffs Glue. Hell, not even whole walls can contain what’s inside this cat.

A forlorn troll atop a maze of spilled guts; A Twombly-like scribble overriding a subway of spray; a truck-sized tropical fish made up for a night on the streets; a bare chestful of iridescent signage that begins with a starfish and ends in a molten moment. These are just some of the many and varied images rendered for your pleasure. Some of them can be found on the street; others belong in a museum; others still trace the contours of the bodies upon which they’ve been inked, and there they remain – forever.

Each though bares the mark of a single man – and a singular mind. “I am here,” they say. “The rest is on you.”

At Butter Gallery this March 11, Ahol Sniffs Glue will unveil his first solo exhibition. It’s called "7.625 Fl Oz." There’s no telling what will be hung there; and he would tell you if there was. But one thing is certain: you will be walled with the chemical compounds found in the work of – and the man named – Ahol Sniffs Glue.

Heres the vimeo trailer done by pest...

http://vimeo.com/9653461

Ahol Sniffs Glue "7.625 Fl Oz" Opens March 11 at Butter Gallery
2301-2303 NW 2nd Avenue, Wynwood. (7-11 PM)

Post Exhibit Celebration at the Vagabond ((Shake))
with DJ Tony Touch (Doors open at 11PM)

I heard rumors that Milton Was going to hit up the gallery and the partys, if you see him, tell that dude to stop ignoring my calls.

Rachel Goodrich Light Bulb Music Video Pretentious Artist Statement

So despite several setbacks and a very limited amount of time, I managed to slap together an entry for the Sweat Records Rachel Goodrich Music Video contest. While it's true the video's concept was a way to avoid competing in the head-to-head whimsy duel, there is actually some thought behind it, as expressed in this highfalutin, pretentious video statement. Enjoy?


Light Bulb: An Unlikely Hood Anthem
by Lucas Leyva

The simplistic lyrics of “Light Bulb” by Rachel Goodrich are a paean to a child’s worldview. Joy is expressed through the acknowledgment of things most adults don’t notice in their day-to-day existence: blue skies outdoors, rooftops and light bulbs indoors. More than acknowledgement, gratitude to these basic objects is expressed, and when coupled with an awareness that all of these objects may no longer be around one day, we realize the speaker is all too aware of her and her world’s mortality. Despite addressing the inanimate items directly, we begin to suspect the speaker is either a particularly precocious child or perhaps not a child at all. By the time she expresses gratitude for the halo over her head, and even the demons she “hopes will never come out,” and with it a self-awareness of innocence that no child possesses, we realize that the narrator is an adult attempting to speak in a child’s voice, and the song becomes about yearning for a lost innocence that may never be regained.


Upon first listen it is easy to enjoy the song on this level, reveling in the whimsical sounds of the kazoo and charango and perhaps even be transported to the state of child-like innocence that the speaker yearns for. To do so, however, would belie the important underlying social message of the song. Rachel Goodrich is an active member of Miami's young artistic community, most of which is based out of neighborhoods like Little Haiti and Wynwood. Despite the influx of artistic activity, these neighborhoods are predominantly populated by immigrant families of low socio-economic status. It is impossible to exist in these neighborhoods without being overwhelmed by the poverty and its impact on the children of the community.


Just as William Blake created "Songs of Innocence and of Experience" to express his dismay at the loss of childhood innocence in turn of 18th century London, Rachel seems to have created "Lightbulb" to express the same sentiment. Blake's work, while written with a child-like simplicity and joy, explores the loss of virtue through the exploitation of the industrial revolution. Rachel's work comes in a similar package, replacing London with 21st century Miami, but still exploring the theme of urban youth stripped of innocence in the shadow of a different sort of economic boom. By highlighting the ugly stereotypes of popular "hood culture" that denigrates the youth, we are metaphysically witnessing the cause (the video itself) and effect (corrupted children); the action (lifestyle of the children) and the reaction (Rachel's song).


Whatever, here it is:





Come out to Sweat Records this Saturday night to watch it not win. As long as Fro emerges victorious in the whimsy wars I will be happy. Here is his video:

Borscht Film Festival 2009 Reviews are in!

This comes a bit late, but here's a taste of the feedback we got for last year's festival, collected in one tidy place. The 2009 Borscht Film Festival took place at Gusman Center in DWNTWN Miami on November 28th:


“Borscht Film Festival is Miami alt-culture summit”

“The Gusman stayed full to the gilded rafters…a theater full of chilled out, fabulously varied looking and mostly 20-something culture lovers and makers. Jupina soda was flowing and the mood was elated.”

“I've been watching culture in Miami for two decades now, and this felt like a critical mass that was new…. Miami's always bred talent - but it doesn't usually manage to keep it. Too hard to get produced, too hard to make the power brokers pay attention to anything new and young, too hard to find a new space when the few available resources are taken up by figures that have been ensconced for a long time. Maybe the Borscht Festival, and its like, can change that - not just for film, but for theater and performance and music.”

-Miami Herald


“Borscht Film Festival Delivers”

“Many people complain that Miami has no creativity, no soul, no talent. All of these things were disproved this past weekend at the Borscht Film Festival.”

“the Film Festival has evolved and developed into the triumph that was the 2009 Borscht Film Festival”

“There were many… brilliant films this year, and one can only dream that these film makers continue on with their trade, and push to make Miami a force in the independent film world.”

-Made in Miami Music


“Borscht is big-screen gold”

“Borscht has been injecting the life jism into the local indie scene almost single-handedly”

“Borscht is true to its name, there are about a million other ancillary events, surprises, and mind-fucks planned for the festival”

-Miami New Times


“Tarell Alvin McCraney returns to Miami at the Borscht Film Festival”

“…McCraney is different. At 28 years old, he has already had three plays running simultaneously in London, he won the first New York Times Outstanding Playwright Award this year, and he earned a master's from the Yale School of Drama and a Hodder Fellowship from Princeton University. His trilogy of plays, collectively titled The Brothers Size, is getting the Broadway treatment at the Public Theater in New York City before the production moves to the Steppenwolf Theatre in Chicago in early 2010. It's not a stretch to say he's the most celebrated playwright in the world under age 30, and even in this economy, he could work in any theater in the world.

Yet this summer, there was McCraney, back on Martin Luther King Boulevard and 11th and 12th avenues, just blocks from the streets where he was pelted with rocks, helping shoot a short film he wrote for this year's Borscht Film Festival, which opens this Saturday night at the Gusman Theater in downtown Miami. The film, Day N Night Out, is directed by McCraney's friend and Borscht cofounder, Lucas Leyva, a fellow Miami native, and chronicles several hours in Liberty City.

True to Borscht's mission of making films by, for, and about Miami, Day N Night Out stars 16-year-old Anthony Arias, a Liberty City kid whom McCraney and Leyva met while teaching theater at a summer program in Homestead for underprivileged kids called Artists Striving to End Poverty (ASTEP). Like McCraney, Arias had a rough upbringing, enduring one stint of homelessness during which he slept in a graveyard. The two hit it off, and McCraney wrote the film about Arias, though it also incorporates a lot of McCraney's firsthand knowledge of Liberty City's brutality.”

-Miami New Times


“Today is a good day for independent film lovers living in the county of Dade. The Borscht Film Festival is back for another year, and it’s better than ever. Miami’s independent film festival, thrown by a group of ambitious twenty-somethings, celebrates emerging artists and filmmakers from Miami through free screenings and a bumping party.

The organizers of Borscht are building a small but strengthening film community in South Florida and people are starting to take notice. This year, funding from the Miami World Cinema Center and DWNTWN, the Downtown Development Authority, have allowed this homegrown fest to reach new heights. “

“BORSCHT US TO DEATH: Boring is definitely NOT the word we would use to describe this festival. “

-NBC Miami


“The Borscht Film Fest is not, as its unfortunate name might suggest, dedicated to films celebrating Ukrainian beet soup, but rather a sampling of short films from some of Miami's best young filmmakers under the age of 30.”

-Miami.com


“Under the indoor twinkling stars of the Gusman Center in Downtown Miami, the Borscht Film Festival managed to do the almost impossible. A full theater sat waiting over an hour to watch two and a half hours of homemade, independent films.

There were so many little things about this event that just radiated love for Miami. Although most of us grow up wishing we were somewhere else, we are still truly dedicated to this sometimes lame, mostly strange, very non-traditional American city. Our humor and perspective is so unique. Miamians are easily amused; we love to laugh. Each film made a nod to our hometown in a way we, the audience, could appreciate, and Miami, bro loved it.”

-Miami bro blog



“By Miamians, for Miamians.”
-Rene Rodriguiez, Miami Herald Movie Critic



“Unleashes cinematic wonders…it’s completely and utterly local filmmakers relating their Miami experiences. I am always one to give credit where credit is due, and I can identify with anyone taking on the task of putting Miami on the map for anything other than mindless house music and bedazzled jeans.”

“The Borscht Film Festival will be showcases that experience that is unique to those of us who have lived here long enough to scrape beneath the surface”

-Wasabi Fashion Kult



“Art Basel Can wait… A movement is certainly under way to ensure that Miami's artists get the recognition they deserve.”
-Metromix



“Dale! Go get the projector in Hialeah then! These were words spoken at some point in the night at the premiere of the Borscht Film Festival.
The scene was 1500 people seated in the floor and mezzanine of the historical Gusman Theater. There we sat with drinks in hand and anticipation in our hearts to see a compilation of the best and brightest film and animation work by and of Miami.”

-Afrobeta Blog



‘Celebrate the “Miami New Wave” of emerging film artists’
-South Beach USA



“…a great kickoff to..Art Basel…

“The Borscht Film Festival is a yearly event that takes a fresh spin and showcases arts and films of local artists telling the stories of the many cultures and people that makeup Miami, uniting all Miami.”

-DJ Zelda blog



“Catch the next Brett Ratner (pre-Rush Hour franchise) at this indie fest “
-All Purpose Dark



“The Borscht Film Festival was a hit!”

“I was so excited to hang out with my friends and watch all the talent Miami has to offer. This place was seriously packed with all kinds of people…I really enjoyed the films, they were all creative. “

“I drank Jupiña till I felt I was turning into a pineapple”

“Miami at its finest.”

“Held at the impressive, historic Gusman this was a peak of what could be to come in Miami: a thriving Downtown scene, a return to the Gusman, a locally raised film culture, and a sense of a thriving, uprising community.”

“When the lights finally came down I was floored! I had no idea my fellow Miamians had all of this in them. I laughed, cried and scratched my head at the films all of which gave us a look at a different place and scenario without leaving subject matter we could relate to.”

-Yelp! Reviews

It's a whimsy duel!

I feel like every blog post starts with me apologizing for not blogging more, but damn.

Damn.


Anyway, I would like to make everyone aware that one of our favorite local musicians is having a contest to make a music video for one of our favorite songs.

Sweat Records has more info.

The song is "Lightbulb" by Rachel Goodrich; the winner gets $500 and a premiere at her show on February 20th at Sweat!


I know at least two of the Borschtians are trying to make a video, so don't try to bullshit.

(Note to 85% of Miami music video directors: Bad green screen work isn't ironic, it just sucks.)


!

2 busy 2 blog

But here is a video courtesy of Andrew and your local PBS affiliate.




Goddamn, Youtube is ugly.

This should air the friday before the fest on November 28th.

Have I mentioned that on this thing? If not, check out the event and don't forget to RSVP, otherwise there won't be enough free stuff to give everyone.

Borscht Film Festival 2009

Also- here is an exclusive tidbit of info/rumors/possible lies to reward the precious few readers of this blog- we are in talks with 2live Crew for a surprise performance.

Except for the readers of this blog, that is.

Milton Garcia of the Borscht Film Festival Named Most Elligible Bachelor in South Florida Film Industry (M2=PD)

They played a mean trick on me. A certain publicity person asked a certain Minister of the Interior to write a small article about the Borscht Film Festival to publish in InFocus Magazine, an online magazine about the South Florida Film Industry. Apparently, this certain Minister of the Interior did not like the website or something, said it one or two glittery dancing GIFs away from being a cat fan page or paranormal conspiracy page from the late 90's or something. Knowing that I would not want to write an article, I was told that I was named the most elligible bachelor by this magazine, and would have to thank them and tell them about the festival in an essay.

Naturally, I wrote the essay. Naturally, the publicity person did not like it- and no such article was ever sent or published. Anyway, here it is. Enjoy.

Why the Ladies Love Me and How I Make so Many Beautiful Babies
By Milton Garcia

I am honored to be named the most eligible bachelor in the Florida Film Industry by InFocus Magazine. It is an award I have coveted since I first clicked on the website by mistake late one night when redtube.com was shut down and I was looking for online entertainment without the usual blurriness seen in free internet pornography. Although your website lacked the Latina housewives I desired, I found your articles about SAG and 5 stages of blocking a scene to be just as satisfying.

While I was born with a rugged charm that ensured I would never want for the ladies, I could not have become the most eligible bachelor in the Florida Film Industry alone. I would like to thank Maite at Phat Joe tattoo on Bird Road for inking me up right, Chi-chi at the Knight Correction Center for teaching me the angle that makes sure they get pregnant, Juan at Dolphin Mall for hooking me up with the airbrush job when I got out, and last but not least, the Borscht Film Festival for getting me involved in the movie making scene.

If most people involved in the industry didn’t look like carnival hands at Santa’s Enchanted Forest, they would know the secret formula of filmmaking. That formula is “movie makin’= panty droppin,’” or “M2=PD.” That’s what I like best about the Borscht Film Festival. They understand this formula. They are really good looking, young, and know that the most important part of making movies is getting naked afterwards.

This is why they are based out of Miami, where M2=PD can best be applied to the most beautiful people without competition or having to take care of the kids after. Catholic ladies love the babies, and hate the rubbers.

In order to continue my mastery of M2=PD, I am going to get serious and tell you what we are about.

Miami got the nickname of “the Magic City” for the seemingly supernatural way in which it grew from a mostly-uninhabited swampland to metropolis of over 5 million people in under 100 years. This explosive period of growth has seen the city go through changes that would take much longer in cities that are not as magical. As a result, the only defining feature of a city that is completely different every twenty years is its mercurial nature, further compounded by the fact that Miami has always been a transient city, with less than half its inhabitants being natives to the country, much less the city.

The motion picture industry loves to tell stories that take place in Miami because there is something inherently sexy about a city that is so outwardly gorgeous that has a dark seediness lurking just below the veneer of the beaches and parties. As a result South Beach vistas are well represented in film, and the portrayal of Miami as a beautiful but vapid backdrop to generic stories has cemented its reputation as a shallow party town.

While the tourism industry was exploding based on this portrayal, something interesting was happening in the greater Miami area: millions of the transient inhabitants, many of whom had only intended to stay in the city until economic or political turmoil in their native countries subsided, began to accept Miami as a more permanent residence where they would raise their children.

This generation of Miamians, born in the height of the 80’s cocaine boom, came to grow up in a city shaped not by the party scene, but by the various waves of Cuban refugees (post-revolution, post-Mariel) colliding with Haitian and Central and South American refugees colliding with the established Jewish and retired communities to create an environment unlike any in the world.

The generation of Miamians between 20 and 30 years old is the first major boom born into a Miami with- occasional race riot, hurricane, or South American revolution aside- some form of cultural stability (it’s still Miami, after all). Many of the artists of this generation grew up with a desire to leave their perceived cultural wasteland in the tropics to move to New York or Los Angeles, which are portrayed as meccas of creation. In fact, the pattern has been for our best artists to leave town to attend college and never return, staying in LA or NY and losing the very essence of Miami that made their artistic voices special to begin with.

The Borscht Film Festival is trying to change this. Its founders were following this path until they realized that growing up surrounded by extreme poverty and excessive wealth, by mystical storytelling of Haitian santeros and old Cuban men and daily newspaper headlines that would be taken as fiction in any other city, that the ugly and beautiful of the city had irrevocably shaped them as artists, and while many were escaping to try to make a career in other cities, the very city that fueled their creativity was rife with opportunity to create.

Their mission then, is to create video and film works that tell Miami stories that only Miamians can tell. They wish to go beyond the typical cinematic notions of Miami as a beautiful but vapid backdrop to tell the stories that only happen in Miami. We hope to do for our city what the original American New Wave and the French New Wave before them did: create a collaborative independent film scene telling stories of our city in an innovative and professional fashion, giving Miami stories to the world. We feel that if done right, there is a global audience for our unique stories.

In the last thirty years Miami has become a world-class, international metropolis- and our voices hope to usher in the next era of Miami, where the city’s nuanced and fascinating culture is shared with the world.

This is why the ladies love me, and why I have so many kids. Again, thank you to In Focus Magazine for this honor, and if you are naïve and beautiful, hit me up on myspace.

-Milton g.