CINEMA: The Second Coming Of Cinefest

After a yearlong hiatus due to lack of funds and internal rifts, Philadelphia Cinefest is back, and promises more festival hoopla than ever before. From April 7th-14th, somewhere between 60-75 feature films will be screened at a number of Philadelphia venues, including the Ritz, the Trocadero, the Painted Bride, and the Piazza. Josh Goldbloom, (who also runs the Philadelphia Underground Film Festival) took over as art director for this year’s Cinefest. His goal: to structure a themed party around every single feature. Goldbloom said, “We’re really focused on getting a community together, based around film […] we could turn this into another New York, LA, Austin Texas — there’s no reason why we can’t.” One of the main events will be a tribute to the Thai martial arts star of Ong-Jak fame, Tony Jaa—who, as Goldbloom described it, “did like four movies, kicked thousands of asses, and then got sick of Hollywood and rode an elephant into a Buddhist temple,” where he remained as a monk.”We’re screening three of his movies; we’ll have Thai boxing demos; we’re going to turn the whole Piazza, hopefully, into a Thai market,” Goldbloom said. Additional fetes include a street festival outside of the Ritz 5, outdoor screenings, guest artists, filmmakers and speakers—the details of which, says Goldbloom, will be announced closer to the opening date. A web site is coming soon, but in the mean time check out Philadelphia Cinema Alliance‘s site for updates.Goldbloom says that a heavyweight guest-speaker will be announced soon, and while he’s not ready to tip his hand just yet, he hints that it’s someone  associated with, “one of our generation’s favorite old-school films.” After all of this talk about theatrical celebration, my only question was: will there be any costume parties? Goldbloom’s response was, “Costume parties! You know what—now there are. Now that you mention it.” You’re welcome. — CAROLINE SCHMIDT