Move over, Cannes!   Staten Island is getting its very own, and very first, Film Festival. 

The Staten Island Economic Development Corp. (SIEDC) is going forward with plans for the very first Staten Island Film Festival.

The Staten Island Board of Realtors (SIBOR) will serve as one of three sponsors contributing to the premiere event.  Representatives from the Building Industry Association of New York as well as the Jewish Community Center (JCC) have also agreed to support this exciting production.

 “The Board of Realtors is enthusiastic about supporting the Staten Island Film Festival because it is both innovative and will stimulate the cultural awareness of Staten Islanders,” says Sari Kingsley, President of the Staten Island Board of Realtors.  “The movies, for us, are part of our lifestyle and of who we are.  Bringing a film festival of this magnitude to our borough proves that we are the borough of choice, not only for housing but for culture. It will serve as an example of our strong commitment to making Staten Island a vibrant and wonderful place to be.” 

The Staten Island Film Festival is scheduled to be a four-day event, and is set to run June 1 to 4, 2006.  Six locations have already enthusiastically made the commitment to serve as venues: The St. George Theatre; the Richmond County Bank Ballpark at St. George; the Atrium Cinema, Eltingville; the College of Staten Island, Willowbrook; and the Snug Harbor Cultural Center along with the Noble Maritime Museum, Livingston.  As part of this event, the venues will cover a range of genres including both short form and feature length films.

Not only will audiences be able to attend the actual venues, but Islanders will also be able to view the films right at home, free of charge on Time Warner Cable’s “Staten Island on Demand” channel 1001.  This is an added convenience so that the festival might be able to reach a larger audience. 

The theme for the event will focus on Staten Island’s “Community and Culture,” says Vincent Lenza, deputy director of the SIEDC.  It is important to remember that Staten Island is an extremely diverse community.  This diversity has impacted the island’s culture greatly.  The “face of Staten Island” is changing rapidly so the theme of “Community and Culture” was chosen as an appropriate indication of how rich the tapestry of our borough really is.  “Staten Island, especially in the last 10 years, has become a more diverse place.  We hope to use these films to explain the quickly changing face of Staten Island.”  While at least one of the films is expected to have a Staten Island focus, generally the films will be acquired from all across the globe, highlighting other cultures as well. 

Lenza is continuing to get more sponsors and has noted the possibility of noting rights for the festival’s awards.   The event is anticipated to attract between 5000 and 7000 people.  Most of the audience will be from Staten Island, while Lenza also thinks that “we’ll get a good contingent of folks from Manhattan.”

While only $25,000 of the $250,000 budget has been raised, the outlook is a positive one that a film festival will prove to be an enormous success on Staten Island.  With many important facets of planning already in place, we can expect this event to become a notable part of our island’s culture.

The film festival will attract a large following; however Islanders should not expect it to be as large as the Tribeca Film Festival, held annually in Manhattan.  It will most likely be similar to the international film festivals in the Hamptons and Brooklyn. 

Lenza also hopes to include a “jazz music component that would be separate from the festival itself.”  This would have local clubs book jazz musicians separately during that time in order to “cultivate the artistic atmosphere” of the four-day film festival.

 “The SIEDC came up with this idea about a year ago to help create an artistic atmosphere on Staten Island, to draw people from the other boroughs and from New Jersey to come here and see what we have to offer,”  according Lenza.  “Having the support of these three organizations with their extensive membership is key… A project like this requires a collaborative community effort.

A forum, open to the general public, will be held July 1, 2005 at the Superior Chocolate Theatre, Bloomfield.  All are encouraged to attend.