Fantastic Fest lands in Denver under a cloud
Timing has played a key role in the expansion of the Austin, Texas-based Fantastic Fest to Denver this weekend. And not always in a good way.
Cinephiles and film programmers have admired the immaculately curated genre-film event since it began in 2005 at the Alamo Drafthouse Cinema’s home base in Austin. For 2017, organizers decided to test its national appeal with three satellite festivals in Denver, San Francisco and Brooklyn.
“It’s been a plan that’s been around for awhile, and something we’ve been putting the bug in their ear about,” said Steve Bessette, creative manager for Denver’s Alamo Drafthouse locations in Littleton and at Sloan’s Lake. “It’s kind of a big experiment on everyone’s part to see how it’s going to look, and if it will continue to expand next year.”
Denver’s Fantastic Fest runs Sept. 29-Oct. 1 at Sloan’s Lake with 11 films, including hotly anticipated titles such as “Blade of the Immortal,” the improbably violent “Brawl In Cell Block 99” (starring Vince Vaughn) and director Ruben Östlund’s “The Square,” which won the Palme d’Or at this year’s Cannes Film Festival.
But the event’s success in Denver is anything but certain following national scandals
involving Austin-rooted Drafthouse and Fantastic Fest staffers, which have been blowing up in Drafthouse founder Tim League’s face for weeks.
First, League and the Drafthouse faced heavy criticism for hiding the rehiring of ousted employee Devin Faraci, who formerly edited the Alamo’s in-house publication “Birth.Movies.Death,” according to The Austin Chronicle.
Faraci has been accused of multiple instances of sexual assault and harassment. Some Drafthouse staffers and Fantastic Fest participants were dismayed League included Faraci in the event, even in a minimal way (Faraci wrote some of the copy for this year’s program) given the troubling allegations, which Faraci has never denied.
As a result, Fox Searchlight pulled its opening night film “Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri” amid the surprise resignation of highprofile associates Scott Weinberg and Todd Brown, and multiple calls to boycott the event.
Other bombs have dropped since the festival kicked off in Austin on Sept. 21, including the claim that Fantastic Fest co-founder and Ain’t It Cool News head Harry Knowles assaulted a woman on Drafthouse property nearly 20 years ago.
Fantastic Fest officially severed ties with Knowles this week after the Austin Film Critics Association voted to kick Knowles — who has denied the allegations — out of the group.
So what does this have to do with Denver?
Not much, and everything. It’s an unfortunate turn of events for the overwhelming majority of Drafthouse employees whose brand has been dragged through the mud, and who have nothing to do with Faraci or Knowles.
But the Denver event is a direct expansion of the national brand, and it may leave Drafthouse diehards with complicated questions about whether or not they should continue supporting it. (Denver’s Drafthouses are technically a franchise, but have strong ties to the mothership).
“I’ll agree that the timing couldn’t be worse,” said Bessette, in reference to scandals. “And that’s about all I’m allowed to say.”
Other Drafthouse staffers also declined to comment on the ongoing controversies, which led to this week’s cancellation of a secret screening that had originally been advertised for Denver and the other satellites.
To wit: Austin’s Fantastic Fest screened a restored version of infamous B-movie director Ed Wood’s obscure skin-flick “Take It Out in Trade.” It did not go well. “People got very upset that the (Austin) screening, which some people went to expecting to see a horror film, basically turned out to be a softcore sex movie,” said Matt Shiverdecker, who covers Fantastic Fest for the Austin American-Statesman and is a member of the Austin Film Critics Association. “I think the whole thing has been blown out of proportion, but I was at the screening and can see why people were questioning the appropriateness of the timing.”
Still, Denver’s Fantastic Fest deserves a chance to set itself apart from its troubled parent, Shiverdecker said.
“A few of these (films) may not get seen on the big screen outside of a festival screening, so it’s cool to be able to throw that out there in other markets,” he said. “The audiences are super enthusiastic, so it’s a completely different experience than watching it in your living room.”
“I hope people are excited and, if it does well, we can continue it next year,” Bessette said.