"It Came From Thon!" Boston Sci Fi Film Fest

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Parent Category: Film Festivals

Category: Previews

Published on Saturday, 06 February 2010 07:02

Written by L E Shannon

The 35th Annual Boston Science Fiction Film Festival is being held February 5-15, 2010 at the Somerville Theatre, located at 55 Davis Square, Somerville, Massachusetts (adjacent to Boston). This year, the Festival expands to 10 days with over 70 films submitted from all over the world. The venerable genre fest will highlight a new feature or shorts program every night, culminating in the traditional non-stop 24 hour marathon starting noon on February 14.

The 'Thon, as it affectionately came to be called, is something special. It began as a 24-hour film marathon when, in 1976, the now-defunct Orson Welles Cinemas held a 24-hour science-fiction retrospective. SF1 started at noon on the Sunday of Presidents Day weekend and ended at noon the following day.

Every year since then, 'Thon has bloomed in winter to bring a community of SF lovers together, sharing one room for 24 straight hours of classics, premieres, cartoon, schlockers and everything in-between.

This year's highlights:

The opening-night film is Sleep Dealer, an award-winner out of Mexico directed by Alex Rivera.  In this visually stunning film, water is used for blackmail, security has reached new dimensions, and "sleep dealers" work in factories.

One of the New England premieres is Mutant Swinger from Mars, directed by Michael Kallio.  Here, Martians come to Earth and force a mad scientist to create a "chick magnet."  This lovingly rendered sci-fi spoof parodies films like Young Frankenstein, The Ape Man and The Nutty Professor, with equal measures of Ed Wood and William Castle thrown in.

Making its world premiere is Caller ID, directed by Eric Zimmerman, a psychological sci-fi thriller based on real voicemail messages received from a disturbed woman. A group of graduate students study advanced techniques in psychopathology while their professor leads them through a series of bizarre experiments and perverse sexual research involving mind control. Each student must explore the caller's hidden psyche — as well as their own id. It stars James Duval (Donnie Darko, Independence Day), Nathan Bexton (Go, Nowhere) and Peter Greene (Pulp Fiction, The Mask).  A Q&A follows with the director and Bexton.

Another world premiere is Luopolis, directed by Matthew Avant. A conspiracy radio show caller claims that people from the future live on the moon and control our every action. Filmmakers Matt and Sonny chase the story deep into Louisiana’s Atchafalaya Basin, where an ominous underground compound raises more questions than answers. A Q&A with the director follows.

The Shorts Program has three tracks:

Little Space Oddities
Extra-Terrestrial Extravaganza
Planetary Paranoia

This year's selections for The 'Thon are:

Lathe of Heaven
District 9
Moon
The Thing
Godzilla Vs. Mothra
Night of the Creeps
9
The Day the Sky Exploded
Night of the Comet
Colossus: The Forbin Project
The Giant Gila Monster
Rabid

Of all the ways to be cooped up during a cold winter, this Festival has to be one of the best.

For more information, visit www.bostonsci-fi.com.  

Boston Science Fiction Film Festival ('THON)
February 5-15, 2010

Somerville Theatre
55 Davis Square
Somerville, MA

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