The 5th Annual Boston International Film Festival was held June 6 through the 13th this year right in the middle of downtown Boston.  It was nestled in the set of buildings next to Emerson College and the Theater District, directly across from the bustle of the Boston Commons.  The festival struck a coup this year screening all films at the mega-multiplex, Lowe’s AMC Theater.  For a festival only in its 5th year - it is doing extremely well.
It is obvious that the success of the festival is due to the hard work, laser focus and solid organizational skills of festival founder and director, Patrick Jerome.  In a few short years Jerome and his core group have managed to grow the festival exponentially.  This year, 2007, they drew well over 1000 entries from 24 countries and 47 nationalities, and brought in a huge percentage of the films’ directors, producer and actors to attend the festival.

I thoroughly enjoy attending film festivals.  They are crazy, creative, collaborative celebrations.  But somehow the gang at the BIFF managed to keep the crazy to a minimum.  I spent all day Saturday, June 9th at the festival, courtesy of Festival Director Jerome and his Public Relations Director Tacuma Vanderpool.  If it’s not too corny or old fashioned to say - I had a blast.

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Most of us are at least a little bit superstitious.   Not you?  Well, you may not carry around a rabbit’s foot or four-leaf clover, but I’ll bet that you don’t walk under ladders, and you make an effort not to break a mirror.  Why “tempt fate,” right?

One common superstition, the phenomena of 3’s - things happening in 3’s (good and bad) - is subject to scrutiny in Courtney Corbett’s original dark comedy, “3’s”—now playing at the Cambridge Y Theater at 820 Mass Ave in Cambridge, Massachusetts.  The characters of the Peripitus Theater Company in the show have a lot of liquor, a boatload of quirks and their own paranoia.  Oh, and a couple of dead bodies.

In the stage play “3’s,” one corpse shows up immediately, and one person in the play, Lorelei, is quite happy about it.  However, Carissa, Lorelei’s roommate, thinks this is a tragedy that has marred the celebration of her twenty-first birthday.  When another character, Jackson, shows up with a second corpse, the phenomena of the 3’s looms large as a fearsome, yet ridiculously funny possibility.  “3’s” quirky, off-center characters cope in their own unique ways as things go from bad to worse…or is it better?  I recommend you see it to find out.

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Last year’s Open Call event was such a great success, we decided to do it again!  Coming this June 25th will be the 2nd annual Open Call event for the Rhode Island Film Collaborative’s 48 Hour Film Project!  Even better is that this year Ahtspot members can pre-register in the members section and skip the line!  Just sign into the members section and click on Open Call Event at the bottom of the page.  Later come back and click here to see where you are in the list order.  Not a member yet?  Sign Up now and as soon as your account has been approved and posted, you can sign up too!  It is first come first serve, so sign up now!  See you all on June 25th at Tazza Café in Providence!