Sticks of Fire: a Tampa blog

I’m one happy film fan. Santa left a stack of DVDs under my Christmas tree, the frivolous-but-yet addictive film award season is in mid-swing, and the Tampa Bay area’s film festival season is now open. It kicks off at the International Bazaar in Ybor City on Friday, January 11, with the fourth-anniversary celebration of the Tampa Film Review. The screening is at 8 p.m., but the party starts at 7 p.m. This event is open to the public and it’s FREE.

Four years ago local filmmakers Paul Guzzo and Pete Guzzo launched the TFR as a showcase for local independent film. Local filmmakers could show their movies to an audience, get some feedback, meet other local filmmakers, and have their films reviewed on the pop culture website CrazedFanBoy.com. Over the years, word spread, audiences grew, the local film community blossomed, and what was once an audience of 30-40 people (mostly family, friends, filmmakers and a few hard-core film fans) grew to a regular crowd of 150-200 who arrive early so they can get a seat.

Purists will argue that the TFR is not really a film festival, because it happens once a month instead of once a year. The dozen or so people who read my blog on a regular basis will note that I usually refer to the TFR as a film series. So why do I think that this Friday’s Tampa Film Review is the start of our local film festival season?

Because this month’s TFR covers both the “film” and the “festival” parts without question. The film part is covered every month, of course. Over the past couple of years, I’ve seen a wide variety of movies at these monthly screenings. Some films made me laugh, some made me cry, some bored me, some moved me, some made me want to jump off the Sunshine Skyway, but most of them I wouldn’t have seen without the TFR. Being exposed to interesting, unusual, hard-to-find-otherwise movies is what I love most about film festivals.

As part of the TFR’s anniversary celebration, the Guzzo brothers are presenting “Best of 2007” awards that are named after legendary Tampa artists like Bud Lee, Rondo Hatton and Rene Gonzalez. They want to congratulate the newer crop of local talent and honor the local creatives who have inspired and motivated this generation. (This is the festival part, by the way.) The full list of award winners and namesakes is available here.

Food, film and a celebration of Tampa artists and filmmakers, plus a special announcement by the Tampa Theatre about a new initiative planned for 2008…sounds pretty festive to me. Hope to see you there.

Visit www.thetampafilmreview.com for more information.