Worlds, genres and stories will collide this week at the Syracuse International Film Festival.

For the festival’s 15th anniversary, several video genres will be showcased, including fiction, nonfiction and even music videos. The event will be held from Oct. 10 to 14, with different films showcased on each day.

The festival will commence with opening words from Deputy Mayor Sharon Owens on Wednesday. The first night, named “Grace Jones Night” is at the Redhouse Arts Center and will feature the most recent work from Grace Jones, a Syracuse native.

Her documentary “Bloodlight and Bami” will be shown in one theater, and two of her other films will be shown in other theaters at Redhouse. The showing will be then followed by a Q&A session with Jones via Skype.

La Shaun (LS) Jones, festival chair and one of the directors of the festival, said, “What you’re going to look forward to is five days of entertainment for all cultures and ethnicities.”

The second night, Thursday, called the “Jeremy Garelick Film Night,” will be held at the Palace Theatre. The night will include work from Liverpool native Jeremy Garelick, creator of “American High,” a new high school comedy series. Garelick wrote and directed “Wedding Ringer,” which will be shown at the festival.

Owen Shapiro, program coordinator in the College of Visual and Performing Arts at Syracuse University and the co-founder and artistic director of the Syracuse International Film Festival, said they hoped to show two of Garelick’s films that were shot in Syracuse, but they aren’t finished yet. Garelick has shot four films in Syracuse and is currently working on his fifth.

Garelick will be at the festival discussing “Wedding Ringer,” “American High” and his other films, Shapiro said.

Friday night’s festivities will also be held at the Palace Theatre and is the “Music & Silent Film Night,” which will feature live music and a music video competition. The four artists scheduled to perform are Dusty Pascal, Leo Crandall, Hove Morebuks and Dashe.

There will be judges for the music video competition, who will award prizes for the videos. Some prizes include $500 and free time at Subcat Studios.

Lynea D’Aprix is the director and dancer in her music video “Project Sandman,” which will be in the competition. D’Aprix worked with filmmaker Ben Cleeton on editing and producing this video. This is her first time creating a film, but she said it’s definitely something she hopes to do in the future.

“This will be a great test to see what the film festival is like, what the competition is like, honestly, to see what people in this area are doing, and then see how I can make it even more crazy,” D’Aprix said.

Friday night will also feature work from Reggie Seigler, who’s part of the Soft Spoken Band who will be playing and providing the scores for three live silent films. Jones said his music will be playing over silent films by Charlie Chaplin, Buster Keaton and Harold Lloyd.

Crandall, adjunct professor at Syracuse University and former interim director and board member of the festival, will be playing his music on Friday night. He said he has been involved in the festival for a number of years and he created a music video with Cleeton for his song, “I, Boxer,” which won first place at the Festival’s Spring Fest in the spring of 2018.

Crandall said he will play his music for about 20 minutes and will be playing a 1927 Mandocello and an electric guitar. Crandall will be playing with six to eight other musicians.

“I never know what’s going to happen, like I’m not one of those people where everything’s rehearsed, and that makes it more fun for me,” Crandall said.

Saturday’s event will be held at Redhouse from 10 a.m. to midnight. Starting at noon, all three theaters will be showing different films ranging from competitions films that were accepted into the festival and invitational films as well.

More than 40 films will be shown on Saturday, but some include “American Dresser” and “Pottersville” which were filmed in the Syracuse area, and “Hudson,” by Sean Cunningham, a Syracuse native.

At 10 a.m. there will be the “Filmmakers Forum,” where filmmakers who are presenting at the festival will speak with other local filmmakers. They will speak on how the economy of independent cinema works and will provide feedback on the work of filmmakers in central New York, Shapiro said.

Then at 11 a.m. they are featuring a new aspect this year with a 48-hour film making competition featuring student groups and there will be a cash prize for the winner of that competition.

Sunday’s portion of the festival will be held in Shaffer Art Building’s Shemin Auditorium starting at 1 p.m., which will show work from SU film students. 3 p.m. is the Imaging Disability in Film showcase and a Skype interview with the director of one of the films.

There will also be a Native American showcase with four short films by Native American filmmakers. The festival ends around 6 p.m. with a showing of the film “Sami Blood,” which Shapiro said “has won more awards than almost any film ever.”

Tickets range from $15 to $75. SU andLe Monye College students will be admitted for free with a student ID, except for the Grace Jones night. For more information and tickets visit their website.

Published on October 9, 2018 at 9:59 pm

Contact Sarah: srslavin@syr.edu