Boston International Film Festival Is a Globetrotter’s Delight
Murderer-poet — and one-time BU student — subject of documentary
One theater — 9 days — 30 countries — and more than 100 movies.
The sixth annual Boston International Film Festival started June 6 at the AMC Loews Boston Common 19 Theatre on Tremont Street, and over the course of nine days is screening more than 100 domestic and foreign features, shorts, and documentaries.
The films come from countries around the world, from Argentina to the United Kingdom, but there’s also material of local interest — specifically the documentary Killer Poet, which profiles Norman Porter, once the Bay State’s most-wanted murderer. Porter, who was enrolled in BU’s Prison Education Program while incarcerated in the 1970s and ’80s, later escaped from prison twice and hid in plain sight for two decades as an antiwar poet in Chicago. He was nabbed in 2005 and brought back to Massachusetts. Killer Poet screens on Saturday, June 14.
The film festival also featured, on June 12, Fratelli Breaks, the short film directed by BU graduate Alex Scigliano (COM’07) that captured first place at this year’s 28th annual Redstone Film Festival.
The festival’s starting lineup included the world premiere of Road to Ingwavuma, which documents a group of American artists traveling through postapartheid South Africa. Carlos Santana, Samuel L. Jackson, Alfre Woodard (CFA’74, Hon.’04), and others join Artists for a New South Africa, former president Nelson Mandela, and Archbishop Desmond Tutu to confront the poverty and AIDS epidemic ravaging the country. Ticket prices most nights are $10 per session. Each session features at least two films of varying lengths, and sometimes as many as five.
The Boston International Film Festival runs through June 14. All films are being screened at the AMC Loews Boston Common 19, 175 Tremont St. For more information, click here, e-mail info@bifilmfestival.com, or call 617-482-3900.
Caleb Daniloff can be reached at cdanilof@bu.edu.
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