The Mayor did manage to get filmed with his arm around Billy Dee Williams – so I guess he is now a star by association. If you want to see some of the red carpet and closing event, the Jersey Journal, one of the Festival sponsors, has a short video at the following link:
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Interestingly, the story in the paperdidn’t mention that Roberts was slated to receive the NJ “Professional Leadership Award.” Maybe too embarrassing?

By the time I left, at about 7:30, there were only a few dozen people inside the tent – mostly seemed to be those directly involved in the films that were shown, and hoping to win one of the awards. So I don’t know if Festival Chairman Del Vecchio ended up with very many $100 ticket payers. The only onlookers I saw from town were two ladies from my senior building who were trying hard to recognize any celebrities walking to the tent, and kept saying “wannabes!” I asked if they thought the event had “All the Excitement and Glamour you see at the Oscars!” as advertised. They made a sarcastic comment and walked away out of boredom.

A couple of final thoughts: Everyone may not realize that a major venue for the Festival was the Hoboken Multi-Service Center, where films were screened in 2-hour blocks, starting from noon and ending at midnight on Saturday and Sunday, and running from 4 pm to midnight during the week. There was a $9 admission fee for each 2-hour block – usually a full-length and a short film. I happened to run into Del Vecchio in the tent early in the week, and asked him if he realized that the room being used in the Center was generally used for senior-citizen activities, and if there would be any senior discount considered. He said he knew that, but no, it was a flat charge, and it was a low admission cost for film festivals. I thought it would just be a common courtesy to extend to local seniors – and he wouldn’t be likely to lose much money that way.

The community room at the Multi-Service Center, was set up with about 50 foldings chairs for the screening (although it didn’t look quite half filled when I looked in at one of the screening times on Wednesday), and the films were shown on a crappy, little portable screen. Del Vecchio could have pulled in a few thousand bucks from those showings. Not a lot of money – but my question is whether he got away with using that space without paying any rental fee, and if so who approved the deal.

At this “Festival” most of the film plots (as summarized in the program) were just variations on hackneyed themes seen countless times. If they had any claim to “pushing the envelope,” it had mostly to do with being more violent or sexually explicit than is normally seen in major films or allowed on network tv. To be clear – as far as I am concerned there is nothing generally obscene about nudity or sexual scenes, as such. What I find offensive is the portayal of women, or men, as sexual objects rather than human beings, the use of violence as an aphrodisiac, and the pushing of stereotypes as a way of funneling anger towards certain groups.

But still, I have no objection to films catering to a wide range of tastes, being available. People’s idea of what is offensive, or their definition of obscenity, varies greatly across the board, and censorship, especially by the government, is to be avoided. Criticism, on the other hand, is not the same as censorship, and some of the attitudes encouraged in certain films shown here deserve to be criticized and combated with opposing points of view.

WHAT’S REALLY OBSCENE is the use of our precious open space on Pier A, with a part of it covered for a week with a large, ugly tent for what has been, in many ways a private activity, and not really a community event, which I had mistakenly been led into calling it in the past. In fact, it mainly catered to an audience of people who were, as far as I could see, predominantly from out of town.

As someone who was among those who fought to keep that land on the pier for public use, rather than filled with another private, concrete tower – it aggravates me greatly that Del Vecchio & Co. are going to get away with charging $100 a head for anyone to go into that tent tonight for the “Gala Awards Ceremony” – and Roberts happily goes along with it! The rest of us will be left with the “pleasure” of watching their mutual masturbation, from the outside.

What incredible gall! I feel like ripping through the side of the tent and yelling, “this land belongs to the people of Hoboken, not to you x@#$zzzs (censored).”

hoboken411 wrote:

Now you know why I didn’t waste my time? Billy Dee Williams or not, I just didn’t feel right about it… The same way our hospital shouldn’t be called a “university” hospital, I felt this “film festival” was was over-hyped for the benefit of only a certain few. No offense to their film-making efforts, but the whole operation stunk from a mile away.

I only wonder if Clearview Cinemas will even allow this to be shown next year in lieu of real Hollywood movies.

Yeah – as if Clearview will last that long w/o a bailout from the Hoboken taxpayers. No parking usually means no patrons. And if you were in the area of the festival, you would have seen that there was even less parking than usual down there all week.

I only wonder if Clearview Cinemas will even allow this to be shown next year in lieu of real Hollywood movies.

Yeah, the 50-page Festival program is also predominantly self-promotional material, where throughout its pages, Del Vecchio refers to himself with phrases such as “Renaissance Man,” “Critically Acclaimed Filmmaker/Best-Selling Author,” and, oh yes, ” the illustrious Kenneth Del Vecchio”! (Oh, I forgot – these accolades were supposedly written by others.) And then, multiple times in the program, there is effusive praise for Mayor Roberts, and a self-serving welcoming statement from him (with the requisite Hoboken-government-style typo: “I am honored to support the eclectic works of so many new and innovative media artist [sic!] …”

And Hoboken411 is correct (under the “Week in Review” section) to line-out the word “International” in the name of the Festival. Of the 80+ films and tv-pilots shown, 40 were from NJ and NYC, 20 from California, and fewer than eight were really foreign films (some films listed with another country’s name were clearly made by U.S.-based directors, but were just shot elsewhere.) It is surely fine to have a Festival with “independent” films primarily made locally and from the rest of the country, and there were probably some interesting ones among those shown here. But one of the reasons for going to a truly international festival is to get some other perspectives, fresh types of stories, and points-of-view that would be different from what you would usually find. That was sorely missing here. Instead we certainly got a gigantic dose of hype!

Ironically, one of the main features shown on Monday night was the William Castle Story, “the last great American showman, a movie director and master of ballyhoo…” Now tonight we get treated to the ballyhoo of the “Gala Awards Ceremony” touted for its “Oscar-like class and fanfare.” It’s only $100 per person to be admitted into the tent on our Pier A! I have seen no indication that the city gets a dime out of this, but on the contrary is stuck with the costs of providing security, maintenance, cleanup and repair of the damage done to the grass by the stakes holding the tent down.

Did anyone notice that the list of “Festival Organizers” included the following people on the city payroll: Director John Pope, Police Captain Anthony Falco, and Corporate Council Steve Kleinman(!)? How much of their participation was on city time?

Did anyone on this board find anything interesting enough to attend any of the screenings? Was there some real benefit to the town sufficient to justify the expense and disruption of city facilities?

johndoe wrote:

So how many films does the festival’s oganizer have in the festival year?

I see three:

1. The very FIRST film shown was the television pilot the produced.

2. Then at 3pm on Sunday he will show his film.

3. Then the LAST film will be his also.

The Hoboken International Film Festival? How about the Kenneth Del Vecchio Film Festival brought to you by the taxpayers of the City of Hoboken instead?

That’s the most giggle worthy thing up there.