POSTED: Wednesday, August 11, 2010, 12:32 AM
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| John L. Langsford III |
| Goldbloom |
Despite their troubling economics, the
Prince Music Theater will play host to the
Josh Goldbloom and his
Philadelphia Underground Film Festival. Goldbloom previously set up shop at NoLibs'
Media Bureau and
produced weekly outdoor screenings at the Piazza — where he is currently in talks to extend his contract for next summer. While the Prince has been
screening first-run Hollywood features sporadically since the beginning of July, Goldbloom will bring the same independently minded sensibility to the Center City theater.
Beginning Fri., Aug. 20, Goldbloom will screen
Cropsey, a documentary about a Staten Island urban legend about a boogieman who stole children. But that hit a little too close to home for filmmakers
Barbara Brancaccio and
Joshua Zeman, who were kids when mentally disabled children actually started disappearing. Goldbloom was scheduled to screen Cropsey earlier this year (hence
my Crit Mass review of the film), but had to cancel due to Snowpocalypse 2010.
The enthusiastic Goldbloom has been monitoring
Cropsey since it premiered at the 2009
Tribeca Film Festival but was disheartened when there was no local release. "You see a film like this opening up in every city but Philadelphia," says Goldbloom, "There's no reason we shouldn't be a part of the fun."
Brancaccio and Zeman, who were scheduled to make to appear for the previously scheduled screening, will participate a Q&A at the 8:45 p.m. show on Fri., Aug. 20 and make an appearance at a special midnight screenings. The rest of the showings in
Cropsey's week-long Philly run (expect for the aforementioned Q&A) will take place in the Prince's black box theater, while
The Other Guys screens in the main house. Tickets will be $10.
But the Prince isn't exactly the most stable venue to start to up a new screening series. It was up for sheriff's sale as recently as July 13, and was only given a reprieve because TD Bank, who holds the bank's mortgages, failed to advertise the property properly. The Prince's producing director,
Majorie Samoff,
told the Inquirer that the earliest a sale could go through is October, which doesn't leave much time for Goldbloom's "machine-gun pace" plans that include premieres of local films, live music and mini-film festivals.
But Goldbloom doesn't care. He just want to bring independent film to Philadelphia. "My goal is always been to keep film alive in Philly and not to worry about the politics. I screen every film with urgency. I don't have time to waste on risk assessment. I'm all about the movies and I'll find a way to show them," Goldbloom says. "The Prince is the cream of the crop and I'm honored to be a part of that team. If the ship is going down, I'm going with it."
