Made for a Madball Metropolis
Borscht Film Festival celebrates Miami

A still from the “Downtown” segment of The CCCV Project directed by Carlos Florez with text by Lucas Leyva, part of the Borscht Film Festival’s celebration of Miami

There’s something about the Borscht Film Festival that spells trouble from the get-go. Maybe it’s the website: a blurry cellcam video of the implosion of the old Miami Arena tops the festival’s schedule page. Or maybe it’s the name: Borscht? Really? Borscht? In Miami? Maybe once upon a time, but, ladies and germs, Pumpernik’s sunny heyday is long past.

Check the festival’s staff list: There’s a Minister of the Interior and a Minister of the Exterior, a Master of Publicity, a High Deacon of the Visual, and somebody whose position is listed as “P.O.D.” In the on-screen words of the late lamented Rudy Ray Moore, “Are you for real?

The BFF is for real—or as for real as Miami gets, a yearly gathering of young filmmakers, artists, and musicians who are wrestling with their schizoid hometown, working to hone their craft and get their arms around the manic, Mondo Cane-worthy madball metropolis that is Miami.

MiamiARTzine.com connected with Borscht Film Festival Minister of the Interior and playwright Lucas Leyva by e-mail, and he explained the festival’s unique mission and why Miami artists might finally be getting some respect.

Lucas Leyva, playwright, screenwriter and Minister of the Interior for the Borscht Film Festival

You call the Borscht Film Festival it a "celebration of Miami's specific culture." Describe Miami's culture as you see it. What's distinctive about it?
Our generation is the first to come of age when Miami was already established as a major metropolis. We are this great experiment, mostly first- or second-generation Americans who grew up in a place where we were not only handed the baggage that comes with all major cities, but the baggage of dozens of countries and cultures all mixing and clashing. We are now getting the perspective and education necessary to really explore what this place is about. It is incredibly exciting to be young and artistic and ambitious in Miami right now. Things move fast and it's like the Wild West in that anyone with the balls and grit and talent to do it can get something going, and I think this hustle is a reflection of where the city is at. It seems like the national perception of Miami's culture has always been defined for us by L.A. and New York, but now we are really taking hold and defining all the different things this city is, and can be, for ourselves.

With the Borscht Film Festival, the artists come together to share their work in Miami. But where are they? Why aren't they here?
While attending college in New York, I noticed that I was drawn to work by Miami artists, without even knowing they were from Miami. I also found that I had a similar conversation with nearly all of the Miami artists I encountered about the desire to be based out of and bring our work to our hometown, but there was simply no infrastructure to sustain us. Many of these artists, who are ridiculously successful in major markets, are still ignored by Miami, or can't find work here. Tarell McCraney (one of the CCCV Project screenwriters) is one of the hottest playwrights in America and is getting raves in London as well, but he has yet to have a play produced in Miami. Jen Stark has been producing great work out of Miami for years, but it was a New York Times article that made Miami pay attention.

A still from Medicine for Melancholy, a feature film by Barry Jenkins, which will be screened at the Borscht Film Festival

It goes on and on. Miami is a breeding ground for really remarkable and idiosyncratic artists but it takes recognition by another city to really get noticed. So why stay where you are not appreciated? Luckily it looks like things are changing. There's a real sense of The Moment going on where it seems like so many of us know each other and respect each other and are really serious about bringing some of the success and education back to Miami and building the infrastructure ourselves.

For now, the festival is an attempt to curb the artistic brain drain to these other cities by keeping the artists working in Miami at least once a year. As they finish their education and their individual careers grow wherever they may be, they will continue to be strongly connected to their Miami roots and other Miami artists.

When the time comes, I have no doubt that they can all be a major part of erecting a permanent, distinctive artistic landscape in Miami—not just in visual art (which is well on its way) but in theater, film, music and dance—the true birth of The Miami New Wave.

So to answer your question, they are not here because they eventually want to be here for good, and it's a hell of a process.

Artist Harumi Abe, whose work will be exhibited at the Tower Theatre, part of the Borscht Film Festival Photo: Peggy Levison Nolan

You're screening feature films this year. How are the filmmakers connected to the festival?
We’re screening three features this year. The first is called Pluto: A Father's Tale, which actually evolved from a short that was commissioned for last year's film festival—and the filmmaker, Peter Horn, has been involved with the festival since its first year. The second is called Special Angelz by local filmmaker Aiden Dillard. The last and keynote film is called Medicine for Melancholy, which was recently picked up for distribution by IFC, will be released in theaters in February, and has been nominated for three Independent Spirit Awards.

Art and music are also important to the festival. What's happening with that?
We think of the festival as a showcase for a movement more than anything else, and as such we wanted to showcase the visual art and music that was inspiring and often in dialogue with our film work. The huge lobby of the Tower Theater is being turned into a gallery where the work of more established Miami artists like Jen Stark, Harumi Abe and Vanessa Monokian will be showcased alongside other incredible Miami artists fresh out of school who submitted their work. The burgeoning independent music scene down here has definitely influenced the films, whether it's the ironic bass of Jose el Rey or the whimsy of Rachel Goodrich—you can tell that despite aesthetic differences they are all drawing from the same creative well.

Red-hot playwright Tarell McCraney, one of the The CCCV Project screenwriters

With the CCCV Project, you've got 19 artists creating 17 films, and each of the films is inspired by a different neighborhood in Miami. What neighborhoods are featured in the project?
The neighborhoods we feature are Kendall, Liberty City, Hialeah, Coral Gables, Little Haiti, Coconut Grove, La Habana, South Beach, Downtown, Little Havana, Wynnwood, South Miami, Homestead, The Everglades, Eighth Street, and Key Biscayne. I know some of these aren't Miami neighborhoods per se, but they each have a very specific psycho-geographic space in our community that warrants exploration. The CCCV Project is our way of focusing all these fantastic voices and talent collaborating on one project to tell real Miami stories as only they can tell them. This isn't “Burn Notice” or “CSI: Miami” or “Dexter” or any of those other shows that misuse Miami as a beautiful but shallow backdrop. These are the stories about Miami that have never been told onscreen before.

Is this conceived of as one long film made up of short segments or a collection of shorts? Or was there a different idea?
It's definitely one long film made up of short segments. Structurally, we were inspired in part by Paris, je t'aime, except we don't have a theme. While there isn't one literal story running through the film, it is definitely a cohesive character exploration. The character just happens to be a schizophrenic tri-lingual, multi-racial city going through some growing pains.

Over and Out by Jen Stark, Hand-cut stack of colored paper, 19"x19", 2008. Stark’s work will exhibited in the lobby of the Tower Theatre during the Borscht Film Festival.

When The CCCV Project got started, were the filmmakers asked to work in one idiom or could they find their own way?
The artists commissioned to create short films for The CCCV Project were deliberately chosen from different backgrounds. We have choreographers, music video directors, playwrights, animators, actors, visual artists—you name it, all connected to Miami, creating films. The idea was to create a patchwork film that was as diverse in subject and style as the city itself. Aside from making the film under 305 seconds and thematically linked to their specific neighborhood, filmmakers were encouraged to stretch the concept as far as it could go, and the returns are promising. There are traditional narratives and documentaries alongside more experimental pieces as well as animation, musicals and a science fiction film. They are all very specific worlds but told with an eye towards universality—anyone can relate to the stories and characters but they are placed within the distinctive Miami context, and when placed side by side give you a real sense of the city's character as defined by us.

The Borscht Film Festival runs December 26 and 27 at the Tower Theater in Little Havana. All events are free. For more information visit www.borscht.info.

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