(Photo by J.Maus/BikePortland)
With two weeks and change until the submission deadline for Portland’s all-bike film festival, a jury has been named and plans are taking shape for four days of creativity at the Clinton Street Theater in April.
Founding curator Ayleen Crotty said Friday that the festival may cross a new threshold this year: an epic. At least by festival standards.
“We’ll definitely have that focus on very short movies, but this year we are considering a feature-length film,” Crotty said of the 95-minute submission, which if it’s a contender would get its own night of screening. “It’s just good.”
The independent festival, April 19-22 this year, will dedicate a “special night in the theater that’s not a movie night.” Crotty said that’s all she can say so far. Also new this year is a “watch” page on the festival’s website, a web-based archive of “some of our favorite movies from festival over the years,” Crotty said.
This week, the festival named its 2014 jury, which as usual consists entirely of first-timers. Crotty said this year’s group seems particularly excited for its five-hour prescreening marathon.
“We squirrel ourselves away at the secret theater at Velo Cult for two days of movie-watching,” Crotty said. “We make sure that they’re well imbibed.”
She said the jury has been “changing over the years as a focus not just on people who ride bikes but people who really like film.”
The submission deadline is Jan. 20, but Crotty said they’re willing to push that a few days, especially for a first-timer.
“I encourage them to give us a call,” she said.