Each year, just about a month out from the Boulder International Film Festival’s opening night, executive director Robin Beeck utters this sentence: “It’s our best festival ever.” A fan of stand-up and comedy in general, Beeck is fond of a little shtick. This is hers.
Still, for what it’s worth, Beeck — who cofounded the event with sister Kathy — has yet to be wrong.
Headed into its eighth year, the four-day festival (Thursday-Feb. 19) grows in stature and its programmers in know-how. The fest’s mix of the pleasing and the challenging, the darkly funny and the gently illuminating, the sincere and the wry continues to evolve.
And chalk it up to either the allure of the Boulder brand or the in-between season the fest falls in, or the amiable nature of the Beeck sisters (as last year’s honoree Alec Baldwin did), but the fest has a track record of attracting compelling guests.
This year’s honorees include William H. Macy, recipient of the Vanguard Award, and Martin Sheen, who’ll receive the Master of Cinema Award. Legendary indie animator Bill Plympton will be on hand along with a documentary about his work, “Adventures in Plymptoons” by Alexia Anastasio.
The fest opens with “Darling Companion,” starring Diane Keaton, Kevin Kline, Dianne Weist, Richard Jenkins and featuring low-key charmer Mark Duplass (who directed, with brother Jay, another BIFF offering, “Jeff Who Lives at Home”).
Director Lawrence Kasdan co-wrote this ensemble comedy about a woman (Keaton) whose beloved dog goes missing while her less-than-attentive husband (Kline) was walking him. Her angst, while relatable, poses the question for both husband and viewer: Do we love our dogs too much?
“Darling Companion” is set in Colorado, although much of it was shot in Utah. Even so, viewers may recognize the unmistakable grandeur of Colorado’s San Juans and the come-hither charms of Telluride.
“We love Telluride, spend a lot of time there,” Kasdan said on the phone. “We would have shot it in Telluride had the tax breaks been there. But the rebates aren’t as good in Colorado as they are in Utah. So we did the bulk of the shooting in Park City and Sundance. But we had a second unit that shot a lot of the beauty shots and the airport and the surrounding mountain and the town.” (Kasdan, co-writer and wife Meg Kasdan and producer Anthony Bregman are slated to attend the opening-night festivities.)
Closing the fest is Jeff Orlowski’s climate-change documentary “Chasing Ice,” fresh from success at Sundance, where the documentary got a special jury prize for cinematography,
While the film was shot in far flung locales — Iceland, Greenland and Alaska, among them — it is every bit a Boulder production.
The film’s protagonist is Boulder resident James Balog. The intrepid nature photographer founded the Extreme Ice Survey — an organization that has been tracking the retreat of a number of glaciers in the Northern Hemisphere for the past seven years. Front Range stalwarts Paula DuPré Pesmen (producer on “The Cove”) and Jerry Aronson (director of “The Life and Times of Allen Ginsberg”) produced the doc. Local wizard of cinema-tech Wyndham Hannaway and his company GW Hannaway and Associates lent their expertise to the project.
“We love that film. We’ve watched it grow and build over the years,” said Beeck. “It’s one of the most beautiful, amazing films we’ve come across in years, and we couldn’t be more excited to celebrate the Colorado filmmakers behind the film, and James Balog’s ground-breaking work.”
Other issue-engaging films include: “High Ground,” Michael Brown’s wise and moving documentary about injured Iraq and Afghanistan U.S. war vets taking on the LaBouche peak in the Himalayas.
“Monsieur Lazhar,” Canada’s Oscar-nominated drama about an Algerian refugee who becomes a substitute teacher in a grade school after a trauma.
“The Lady,” Luc Besson’s biopic about Burma’s Nobel Laureate Aung San Suu Kyi, starring Michelle Yeoh.
“Love Free or Die,” the timely, well-paced story of gay bishop Eugene Robinson and the agonies and vision of the Episcopal Church.
Indeed, there is no shortage of opportunities to engage contemporary issues, including last week’s Susan G. Komen/Planned Parenthood controversy.
In a recent New York Times column, Ross Douthat wrote “that the fight against breast cancer is unifying and completely uncontroversial, while the provision of abortion may be the most polarizing issue in the United States today.” He may be right about the back end of that statement. But “Pink Ribbons, Inc.” — Léa Pool’s challenging and troubling documentary about the breast cancer awareness industry — will have you doubting the first half of that assertion.
Lisa Kennedy: 303-954-1567 or lkennedy@denverpost.com
BOULDER INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL. In its eighth year, the Front Range’s second-biggest film event opens with “Darling Companion” on Thursday and closes with Boulder-produced documentary “Chasing Ice” on Feb. 19. In between there will be features and shorts, docs and narratives, conversations with stars William H. Macy and Martin Sheen as well as panels with filmmaking and media whizzes (part of the DiMe digital media symposium, Feb. 17). Screening venues include the Boulder Theater, First United Methodist Church and Boulder High School. VIP pass, $345. Tickets vary for special events and talks. Film program tickets, $10-$12. For more info go to and or call 303-786-7030.
