Starting tonight and continuing on until Columbus Day, Oct. 9–12, 2008, the fourth annual Tucson Film and Music Festival is taking over downtown this weekend. Actually, it’s going on right as Dub and Club Crawl pack downtown streets so TFMF is kind of like the warm-up and cool down to Friday and Saturday night’s Crawl festivities.
TFMF is stealing much of the limelight from Club Crawl. Especially the Saturday night concert at Plush featuring Bang Camaro, which is going to be huge—considering they have like 22 people in the band. TFMF is also going to be premiering Bang Camaro’s video for “Night Lies” the next day at the Loft around 3:30 p.m. (and I’ll be posting my review and interview with the band).
Another fantastic event on Sunday is the closing night film and Southwest premiere of “Nerdcore For Life,” a documentary about nerdcore rappers MC Chris (Aqua Teen Hunger Force), YTCracker, MC Lars, Doc Popular—more nerds than you could throw a 20-sided die at. There will also be Q&A with some of the nerdcore artists featured in “Nerdcore For Life” and if you want to throw something at them after the film, you can go to the after party at Plush after the 7:30 p.m. screening, and hear some actual nerdcore featuring MC Lars and YTCracker with special guest, Tucson’s own Paul Jenkins from …Music Video?, who can throw down some rappin’ with the best of them.
TFMF wristbands are $40 and provide entrance to all screenings, opening and closing night films and special music events or you can pay as you go and participate in select screenings and concerts on a budget.
Below, festival director Michael Toubassi talks details of his film production company, how he got here and what is up with TFMF, so listen and learn.
AZNB: Tell us about the Los Angeles-based Upstairs Film and what was the company’s impetus for starting Tucson’s own film and music festival?
MT: Upstairs Film is a production company focusing on documentary, promotional and behind the scenes entertainment projects along with producing the Tucson Film & Music Festival. The festival started in 2005 with the premiere of a feature-length music documentary that I directed called “High And Dry,” about the Tucson music scene.
Tell us a little bit about you.
MT: I was born in Chicago, Illi., grew up in the mountains of New Jersey near NYC and moved to Phoenix in the mid-80s. After high school in Scottsdale, I moved to Tucson in the ’90s to attend the University of Arizona. I stayed in Tucson for 10 years working all different types of jobs within the music industry – as a booking agent, concert promoter, band manager, major label A&R rep, indie label manager, record store clerk, major label college rep, tour manager and college radio marketing director. At one point, I was even a video store clerk. And at the same time I also was heavily involved in the local theater scene and I was the managing director of the Upstairs Theater Company.
It seems like an awful lot of work to bring a festival like this together. Was it difficult organizing the event?
MT: Yes, putting together the festival was a ton of work for a small company like ours, especially as we have a limited budget. The first year of the festival, we had just the one screening but coordinating the bands took a lot of time and I worked with David Slutes at Hotel Congress to book the bands. Not only was I responsible for putting the festival together and promoting it, I was focused on completing the documentary and making sure it was technically and thematically ready to screen.
Who were your most helpful patrons and benefactors?
MT: I have enjoyed working with the Tucson Film Office. Both Shelli Hall and Peter Catalanotte have been extremely supportive and encourage me to continue to operate and develop TFMF. Kris Kerry and Maebelle Reed of Plush, who are new to the festival, have been great and we’re excited to have Plush as our new festival HQ/music venue. Lastly, Vicky Westover at The Hanson Film Institute has also been wonderful and helps keep us in touch with the Media Arts department at the U of A.
This is the 4th annual TFMF. How has the festival changed? What’s different compared to when you first started?
MT: We are excited about the move to our new festival dates Oct. 9 –12 over Columbus Day weekend. We also have a new main music venue and festival HQ at Plush, 340 E 6th Street, which is a very cool downtown bar and club. We’ve also expanded our theater line-up to include all the theaters we’ve worked with since 2005. We’re happy to be returning to screen at the Loft Cinema, Rialto Theater and the Screening Room. Plus, we’ve added a new venue, the Berger Performing Arts Center, which is more known for its music, but now we hope people will like seeing films there. Each year we have received more film and music submissions, the work continues to grow every year.
Tucson has followed in the footsteps of Austin before by co-opting the abbreviation WXSW for a March festival of music. I was wondering if you based TFMF on similar festivals in other cities or are you trying to construct something that has more local, Tucson sensibilities and is more off the cuff?
MT: Well anything we do in Tucson is going to inherently have a quirky, eclectic and unique element to it, that is going to be fun, cool and unlike any other festival. Tucson is an amazing and inspirational place and is the perfect backdrop for a film and music festival. Festivals like ours have been around for years in cities like Seattle, New York, Portland and, of course, Austin. Having attended many festivals around the world as a filmmaker, of course you see what works and you take note.
Where would you like to see the festival go?
MT: I would like to see the festival grow by incorporating more music venues and additional downtown theaters. We would like to be the first stop festival for independent filmmakers when coming to Arizona and hopefully filmmaker attendance will in turn continue to increase as well.
How do you justify showing some films, which have nothing to do with film or music that is going on in Tucson?
MT: I think if we restricted the film selection to just Tucson-related music or filmmakers, it would be a pretty narrow selection of films. We’re proud that we are able to offer Tucsonans a look at the work of filmmakers from around the world—which is what a film festival is all about!
The highlight for me might be when Bang Camaro takes the stage on Saturday night at Plush. How was it getting them to play?
MT: It was a great experience working with Kris Kerry, the talent booker at Plush. We were able to collaborate seamlessly on the music booking and Bang Camaro was one of the first bands confirmed for TFMF. We also enjoyed working with participating sponsor Charlie Levy and Stateside Presents, who helped put together the Margot and The Nuclear So & So’s show on Friday night.
What are you most excited about seeing?
MT: I’m excited about all the films we are screening at TFMF 08! We are also thrilled to have so many visiting filmmakers at the festival including Ari Gold, writer/director/actor of the Sundance hit comedy “Adventures Of Power,” Don DiNicola, the director of “Nowhere Now—The Ballad of Joshua Tree” and Tamar Halpern, the director of “Your Name Here.” It’s also great to have all the local filmmakers participating like Mark Betancourt (Birds), Mischa Cantu (music video “Kill Box”) and Billups Allen (Vinyl Scrapyard).
What are your ambitions for the festival in the upcoming years?
MT: To be the go-to film festival for Arizona and the Southwest!
For more information, visit the Tucson Film and Music Festival’s Web site and we’ll see you out one of these nights. There’s truly something for everyone.
