What: Three days of independent features, documentaries, animation and shorts, filmmaker panel discussions, and a youth and amateur competition, with 54 films and 20 filmmakers
Where: Historic Elsinore Theatre, Grand Theatre, Salem Cinema, IKE Box and Hallie Ford Museum of Art; opening gala at j. james restaurant
Cost: $75 VIP three-day film and forum pass, $60 Friday evening filmmakers' gala at j. james restaurant; $35 Saturday or Sunday all-access pass; $8 individual film/forum pass; $5 IKE Box pass; individual passes available day of event
Poster Signing: Orville Roth and Janet Taylor will be at DB Foto, 321 Court St.
NE, for First Wednesday, 5 to 6:30 p.m. April 4
April 4, 2007
Salem Mayor Janet Taylor can be a good sport, but she wore a sober black suit to pose for the first of three new film posters for the second annual Salem Film Festival.
Still, she had her own "ruby red" high-heel shoes for a poster paying tribute to "The Wizard of Oz."
The black and white poster, with only the shoes in color, is being released today and will feature Taylor with the line "There's no place like home."
"No," she said, when asked about wearing Dorothy's pigtails and blue-checkered farm girl dress, as actress Judy Garland did.
"I don't have any of those kind of clothes either."
But the mayor was a good sport when she was asked to help kick off a series of three posters themed to classic films to promote the Salem Film Festival, which runs April 20-22 in downtown Salem.
This year's festival will feature 54 films, from documentaries to features and animated films, and 20 filmmakers, as well as a youth/amateur competition and film forums.
Three posters are planned this year, released at weekly intervals.
"We're hoping we're starting something that will go on year after year after year," festival co-coordinator Loretta Miles said.
The effort is part of a drive to put the festival in front of the public in a more eye-catching way.
"We want it to be out there in a more prominent way," co-coordinator Jeff Hart said.
"How can you be out there any more than Salem's mayor? Having some fun with it is the best part.
"
Taylor, who squeezed in a photo shoot at DB Foto last week, before a trip to Washington, D.C., was happy to be part of the promotion.
"I want to promote the film festival," she said. "We had such a successful and exciting film festival last year.
"Thank you for asking me," Taylor told a festival organizer, Kathy Kelemen.
"It was so sweet of you guys."
Kelemen said everything has been donated for the posters, from the photography by Diane Beals, to the model, designer Jeff Nine and the printing by Fox Blueprinting Graphics.
About 100 copies of each poster will be distributed.
"She was a real sport to do this," Kelemen said of Taylor. "We wanted to push for the Salem Film Festival. This is a community film festival.
"
Along that line, the April First Wednesday will kick off the annual series of events with a film theme April 4.
The festival will feature about 14 films and 13 filmmakers, along with a youth/amateur competition, at the Historic Elsinore Theatre, Salem Cinema, the IKE Box and the Grand Theatre.
Two more posters are coming out at weekly intervals.
Orville Roth, the owner of Roth's Family Market, appears in a "Godfather"-themed poster, carrying a violin case filled with goodies from his store, with the line "I'll make him an offer he can't refuse."
Anna and Edwin Peterson will appear in a romantic poster based on "Casablanca," with the line "Here's looking at you, kid." She is a community activist and her husband is former chief justice of the Oregon Supreme Court.
The posters are being distributed, not sold, although Taylor said she would be glad to autograph her poster, if asked.
Both Roth and Taylor will be at DB Foto to sign their posters on First Wednesday, April 4.
News RSS