As Boulder gets ready to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the Boulder International Film Festival (Feb. 29 – March 3), we sat down to ask co-founder Kathy Beeck what was the inspiration for bringing a festival to Boulder, how she navigates sibling dynamics and how she manages to watch 1,800 films each year.
What was the inspiration for the festival?
We [sisters Robin and Kathy] began our careers as documentary filmmakers showing our films at festivals. And Robin said, ‘Boulder is the perfect place for a film festival. I wonder why there isn’t one? Oh someone will start one.’ Robin then had a job stall out and she said to me, ‘You know, why don’t we start that festival? And so we did!
Who was part of that first year?
It was Robin and I with our mom and dad. My dad wrote all of the synopses for the program, and still does, while my mom entered the films into the database. Robin and I were frantically calling around to get sponsors and recruit films, which we were just getting to understand the process of, and would be amazed when a sponsor would say, ‘Yes, we would love to help out.’
We were very fortunate to land Danny Boyle’s “Millions” as our opening night film, and that film is so inspirational and heartwarming, which set the tone for that first year. We recruited 12 volunteers and all of the films were shown at the Boulder Theater and Boulder library, but the amazing thing about Boulder is that four of the original sponsors have now been with us for 20 years. Robin and I just watched the video of that first year and it is classic, with Robin announcing, ‘Welcome to year one, volume one of the Boulder Film Festival.’ We just wanted to bring great films, and great stories to Boulder. Our attitude was: We’ll just figure it out as we go along.
What is it like doing this with your sister?
It’s great because we can be honest with each other, and we do not have to agree as most siblings don’t! Two heads are better than one because she does programming and has that skill set and mine is in marketing. We always say, ‘A family that makes films together, fights a lot.’ But we do not do this alone. There are so many who make this work. A lot of the people are behind the scenes and are volunteers. We started that first year with just 12 who were listed in that first program and now it is over 400.
How many films do you watch each year?
We go through 1,800 films each year. We get over a thousand entries alone to our festival while also attending other festivals and seeing which films speak to us. We show 74 films during the festival so it is a long process of elimination. In those early days, everything was submitted on a VHS tape — the post office would bring us these bins of tapes. They must have hated us. It seems like ancient history, doesn’t it? Nowadays, it is so much more accessible with digital. Everyone can make a film by just pressing a button on your phone, which is great because you can now get a diversity of stories and storytelling. It’s just a richer selection.
How has the festival evolved over 20 years?
One of the wonderful things about film festivals is that you go to the film, and then right after viewing it, you get to meet the filmmaker. That is so unique and that has been something we pride ourselves on. The inclusion of film stars started with Chevy Chase who was introduced to us through Oak Thorne, his good friend. From there, we have hosted many celebrities: Emilio Estevez, Robbie Robertson, Maria Bello, F. Murray Abraham, Alec Baldwin. It is such a great way for the audience to have an engagement with the star and filmmaker. The festival now has evolved into community programs, such as a Call2Action program, senior outreach program, singer-songwriter program, youth program Cine Chef with local restaurants and The Hollywood Reporter Podcast with Scott Feinberg. But the bottom line is to bring great storytelling.
What is the aim of this year’s festival?
This year’s theme is a thank you to Boulder and all about giving back to our community. It’s just so dang fun! During the festival we have a free community day at eTown on Saturday, March 2, where we picked five films that we loved over these past 20 years, fan favorites such as The Biggest Little Farm and Muscle Shoals. We will be handing out a free birthday cake on the [Pearl Street] Mall. We are hosting Laura Linney as one of our headliners and the 5280 Brass Band will kickstart the festival in front of the Boulder Theater showing the film, “Ezra” starring Bobby Cannavale and Robert De Niro.
Most importantly, we want to thank Boulder. We wouldn’t be here without donors, sponsors, attendees, volunteers, filmmakers, all these people have kept it going. They are not doing it for us. They are doing it for the love of the festival. That’s the only reason we’re still here.
