Who wants to check out the Toofy Film Festival in September?

Posted: 12:00 AM, Mon, Jul 09 2007

As you may have heard, the Toofy Film Festival is coming up September 6-9. If you haven't been before, these guys throw a truly intenseteresting party with elements of everything from everywhere (see article below). I am in the process of organizing a bus party that will bring Denver peeps up to peep some the shows and events at The Boulder Theater. If you think this sounds like a fun time, check out the Toofy website, www.toofy.com , and send me an email letting me know which day(s)/events look the most appealing. We'll plan on making at least one bus trip up on whatever day people are most enthusiastic about, so vote early and vote often.

Also, here's an article from last year's Toofy Film Festival, just to give you a taste:

By DUSTIN HUTH For the Colorado Daily
Wednesday, September 27, 2006 9:09 PM MDT

A film festival / fashion show / fine art opening / rock concert / T-shirt screen printing extravaganza. It sounds like the kind of answer a six-year-old would give when asked what it wants to do when it grows up. How cute, the little tyke must have been eating mommy's nail polish again.

As delusionally ambitious as this concept may seem, brothers Mark and Jeff Siebert are successfully hosting that exact combination of events this weekend at the Boulder Theater and several other satellite locations around town. The Event as a whole is called the Toofy Film Fest, and it has been a perennial happening in Boulder since 2004.

"I think that's what makes us unique," explains festival director, Jeff Siebert. "I mean, yeah, we are a film festival--that's mostly what we are--but we also like to highlight the arts.... My brother and I are interested in all of those things, so that's why we wanted to do the fashion and fine art and music as well," says Jeff.

Interest level aside, it is also one hell of a promotion strategy. "It gets people excited about the events," says Jeff, "You get to go out and drink and listen to good music and see the ladies on the runway and everything else. And then, you know, you can watch the films the following days after that."

The opening ceremonies were held at Trilogy Wine Bar and Lounge last night, and took the form of a concert featuring lyric-driven Canadian based, Waiting for Roger, and local rock favorites, Storytyme.

Also at the opening was a performance of another type: live screen printing. Denver based arts collaborative and online magazine, Japan Implosion (www.japanimplosion.com), set up their silk screening press and let the ink flow freely onto the blank T-Shirts of anyone who remembered to bring them, and only slightly less freely onto those who forgot and had to purchase them at the event. The design for the shirts, like the event itself, is a "mash-up" of different elements that combine the styles of multiple innovators into one product.

Other creative visionaries that have lent their talents to this year's Toofy include, Strhess Clothing out of Cleveland, and Cypher 13 which shares studio space and creative mission with the Joy Engine clothing and art boutique on13th and Pearl in Boulder.

Tonight, the clothing of these independent fashion designers will be dawned upon the bodies of beautiful people, and strutted down the runway at Seven Eurobar during the Toofy Un-Tied Fashion and Music Showcase. These stunning visual stimuli will be supplemented by the sounds of Sol'Jibe's flamenco-rock-jazziness and DJ Symmetry's wicky-scratchology. Show starts at 9 PM.

So how does an event as varied and far-reaching as this get off the ground?

"It all has come together pretty organically," says Jeff. "Definitely, we had the, 'we're going to go out and conquer the world and this and that,' and then you kind of get kicked in the pants, because you realize, it's not that easy, and it really is a lot of work. So there're a lot of humbling experiences along the way. But based on the people that we've been able to work and the groups and associations that we're partnered with, I'm really happy with where we've come."

But just because it has come a long way, doesn't mean that it doesn't have a long way to go.

"See, we work full-time to pay the bills, and we do Toofy in the off hours, so Toofy is not our full-time gig. We're definitely working to get it there, but right now all the work is done in the evenings mornings and weekends, so it gets a little rough sometimes.

This year's staff was made up of five core members, one of whom recently left for graduate school at Chapman University's School of Film and Television. The rest of the work at the actual event is done by a team of roughly ten volunteers

Of course undertaking a task like this requires a lot of work. Sometimes the brothers don't know if they are running Toofy, or if Toofy is running them.

"It's kind of like riding a bull. Sometimes you can get it under control, and other times it's trying to kick you off.... It's definitely a huge job, much larger than we had anticipated, which is fine, I like doing it." Says, Jeff.

And the brothers are aware that there will always be those random unforeseen challenges to prove their ability to cope with crisis.

"Last year we were setting up at the Boulder Theater, and the projector we were using wouldn't focus," recalls, Jeff. "I had no idea what I was going to do. The first showing was going to start in about 40 minutes. And as far as I knew, we didn't have a projector that would project an image onto the screen, and I was freaking out. And then I realized that what had happened was that the focus mechanism in the projector was stuck on a little piece of plastic, so I just had to pop it out and then, bah-dah-boom, there we go. So, it's those little things. I thought we were going to have to close up shop, and refund everyone's tickets and call it a year. It's those little hang ups, where you're like, 'What? How is this causing so much of a problem?'"

As a result of their past successes, Team Toofy is preparing for their largest turnout to date.

"We're hoping for about 2500 people this year...all events combined," says Jeff. The largest crowd-puller, will of course be the film festival itself. "I'm really excited about the films that we have. Every film that we're playing is really good. All the movies I like watching over and over again. I've already seen them several times, and I'll watch them again when I build the programs and then watch them again when they actually play in the theater. And I actually look forward to seeing them again, so that's good."

And for any film fans who are watching their budgets, there is more good news.

"This year, tickets are really really reasonably priced. We tried to make them as inexpensive as possible for students. A single showing is $6.50. A one day pass that'll get you into four films is 15 dollars. And then a two day pass that will get you into all eight films is 25 dollars." For more information, visit www.toofy.com.