BIFF will be here next week and $150 All-Access passes are sold-out!! Pittsfield Passes, Tribute Event and Opening Night Passes, as well as All-Inclusive Passes are still available. But don't wait. Get your pass today! Individual tickets are on sale and are available on the website at www.biffma.org, by calling 866-811-4111, or at the site-specific venues. BIFF will be here before you know it. Don't miss out on the fifth anniversary year. Get your tickets and passes today!
LIVE THE BIFF
BIFF programs are all over town! Pick them up at the Triplex and Beacon Cinemas, as well as the Mahawie Theater and Berkshire Museum Little Cinema. Programs are available at various locations throughout the county including coffee shops, stores, libraries, post offices, etc... or stop by our offices at 40 Railroad Street in Great Barrington and grab one!
It's been a full year since BIFF 2009! REEL FRIENDS who joined last year and would like to continue recieving invites to screenings and parties this summer and fall renew your membership on biffma.org or by calling 413-528-8030.
THANK YOU TO MATT CARLINO AND HIS PAINTING CREW AS WELL AS OUR WONDERFUL AND AMAZING VOLUNTEERS WHO HELPED TO PAINT THE OLD GREAT BARRINGTON FIREHOUSE THIS PAST WEEKEND for parties during the festival!! It was a big job and we couldn't have done it without you! It looks great!
If you have yet to purchase your pass and are interested in BIFF's brand-new Pittsfield Pass, keep in mind that all pass-holders are invited to a pre-Opening Night cocktail party at trendy Ferrin Gallery on North Street with delicious treats catered by Mission!
Don't forget to cast your vote for best short on Berkshire Bank's website! Tell us what you think. You choose who will win the $5,000 prize!
You could win an Apple iPad or $1,000 donation to your favorite charity! Just by voting, you will be automatically entered into a drawing to win 1 of 5 Exciting prizes, which include 2 Apple iPads and three $1,000 grant awards to your favorite charity in your name from among eligible non-profit organizations within one our four Berkshire Bank markets.
Prior to the Opening Night Film presentation on June 3 at 7:30pm, there will be a special celebration of Hollywood legend Marge Champion and a screening of Greg Vander Veer and Douglas Turnbaugh's short film KEEP DANCING in which she appears alongside Donald Saddler. KEEP DANCING seamlessly blends 9 decades of archival film and photographs with present day footage to tell a story through dance of the passing of time and the beauty of aging. Recently, BIFF had a chance to speak with Ms. Champion and ask her a few questions about growing up in Hollywood.
Born in 1919, Ms. Champion was raised in the center of the dance and movie world. She had her first tutu before she was a year-old and says, “I never remember a time when I wasn’t dancing.” Her father, Ernest Belcher, was the "dean" of the West Coast dance masters and staged many dance sequences for the movies. Ms. Champion explains that they did not call them choreographers then, but dance directors, and her father “was the first dance director in motion pictures”. He trained stars like Shirley Temple, Cyd Charisse, and Gwen Verdon.
Marge explains that in a way she was “very lucky” to have grown up during the depression. Times were tight, and her father could not pay for an assistant, and so Marge stepped into that role at age 13 becoming his chief assistant and demonstrator. It was in this way that she grew up alongside stars such as Shirley Temple with whom she became very good friends. Ms. Champion describes her experience as having “grown up on the edge of Hollywood”.
Ms. Champion began her dance career with Walt Disney as the live action model for SNOW WHITE, the Blue Fairy in PINNOCHIO, and the Hippopotamus ballerina in FANTASIA. Of Disney, Ms. Champion says, “My father knew Walt very well, Uncle Walt I had to call him”.
Later on Ms. Champion moved to New York to pursue her career. She had “always wanted to be a Rockette” but quickly discovered she was “much too short”. However, this did not stop Ms. Champion from going on, with then husband, Gower Champion, to become the most famous married dancing couple of the 1950s. Their film appearances included MR. MUSIC with Bing Crosby, SHOW BOAT, LOVELY TO LOOK AT, THAT’S DANCIN’, and THAT’S ENTERTAINMENT, PART II, and on the television shows Toast of the Town, The Dinah Shore Show, and The Marge and Gower Champion Show. The Champions were awarded the 2002 Career Achievement Award of the 8th Annual American Choreography Awards. Ms. Champion was also the choreographer for WHOSE LIFE IS IT ANYWAY?, THE DAY OF THE LOCUST, and QUEEN OF THE STARDUST BALLROOM, for which she received an Emmy Award.
BIFF is proud to be honoring Marge Champion as part of the fifth anniversary celebration, and looking forward to kicking off the Opening Night Presentation with KEEP DANCING.
Special Event- WAMC's THE ROUNDTABLE
 
The BIFF is excited to announce that WAMC's The Roundtable with Joe Donahue will be airing live from the Triplex Friday, June 4 and will include Chris Noth and Peter Dufault, Patricia Clarkson and the director of her film, CAIRO TIME, Ruba Nadda, Karen Allen and Peter Riegert, a well as a selection of filmmakers who are not too be missed! Come down to the Triplex and catch the action or just tune in and listen live!
One of the featured drinks at BIFF this year will be Berkshire Mountain Distiller's Moscow Mule pictured above. Get your passes today and don't miss out on parties and events during the BIFF's Fifth!
On Opening Night, Thursday June 3 at 5:30 PM Castle Street Cafe will host a private reception generously underwritten by Jacqueline and Al Togut exclusively for REEL FRIENDS and BFFs in appreciation of your amazing support of the festival. All REEL FRIENDS and BFFs check your emails for the invite and RSVP by June 1!
All-Access Passes are all sold out! So don't wait too long! Get your BIFF pass now! The Pittsfield, Tribute Event, Opening Night, and All-Inclusive Passes are still available.
About BIFFMA
The Berkshire International Film Festival aims to create a world-class festival as an integral part of the cultural fabric of the Berkshires. BIFF will showcase not only the latest in independent feature, documentary, short, and family films but also lively panel discussions and special events focusing on filmmakers and talented artists from both sides of the camera.
| |
Connecting to Facebook
