Post your ideas on how to improve the Marathon. Your suggested film titles and what have you.

I don't know about October as there are many local Halloween events including horror marathons by the Coolidge and the Somerville as well as Rock and Shock horror weekend in Worcester.  Many folks that attend our thon also attend one or more of these other events.

Patriot's Day. Saturday - Sunday.

April used to be a dead zone, but not so much any more.  Plus, it's already a crowded day on the schedule.

Weather is going to be foremost on our minds, but I don't think it's something that needs too much worrying about.  This winter has been a crazy outlier, and the chances of storms hitting a relatively small target like the thon versus a larger one like the festival are not big enough to upend things for.

The marathon is pretty much fine.  I think we had one of the strongest line-ups in recent memory, which would have been even better if the festival selection had been Boy 7 as was planned.

The festival, on the other hand, still needs a lot of work, and I'm losing patience and any sort of confidence here.  I mean, how am I supposed to when Garen flat-out responds to me saying that the people who pay money to attend deserve good movies with comments that there should be some crap, and that them booking Blessid means it plays some European festivals is just as important. 

He said this to the four or five us who were there on Tuesday, despite the weather, in practically the same breath as telling us we wouldn't be able to watch that night's movie because somebody left it at home, the night after the two of us who were there watched a Dutch movie without subtitles.  That the fact that those in the audience paid good money doesn't mean we deserved to see good movies, while at the same time castigating me for not respecting his investment.

I mean...  What are we supposed to do with that as attendees?  What are we supposed to do with him introducing movies opening night talking about how they weren't exactly great?  Am I being unreasonable for comparing the festival to BUFF, Fantasia, Fantastic Fest, and all the other great genre festivals out there and wanting to feel like ours even aspires to that, rather than just being a means to other ends?

Jay Seaver wrote on Feb 17^th, 2015 at 11:51pm:


How did the Dr Who double feature do? Maybe the fest should add more rare screenings rather than try to do almost all new films.
I also suggested doing a night of Silent Sci-Fi to Garen who thought was a good idea.

Frank wrote on Feb 18^th, 2015 at 2:26am:


I was at the second Doctor Who movie (more on that below) and saw maybe 10 people. 11 if you count the guy loudly snoring through the whole movie in the corner.

The biggest issue with the festival from my experience was lack of coordination on timing. It's good that Garen got someone else to curate the shorts, but the schedule throughout assumed that people would attend shorts OR movies and not want some of each. This was an issue for nearly every night and would have been fixed with 5 minutes of Garen and the shorts curator comparing notes and runtimes.

Example - the second Dr Who movie started at 9, a full ten to fifteen minutes before the shorts that started at 730 were over.

It would be easy to move it ahead a little to allow people to walk down the hall, but somehow no one looked at the schedule and saw the issue. Because of this, a friend of mine bought standalone tickets (spending something upwards of $30 for one night) and missed the beginning of the movie.

Nearly everyone missed the beginning of the very first movie, The Well because... Hell if I know, it just started 20 minutes early and no explanation from anyone. At the time, I went, found Garen, pointed out the time and that the film had started early. Never got any response at all.

Overall, I feel I got my money's worth for the additional cost of the fest ticket. But I won't be back and I won't ever recommend anyone I know attend a stand-alone screening until the showings are better managed.

I generally went to shorts rather than features, and what I saw was markedly better than previous years in terms of overall quality. There isn't a single short film I saw that I wouldn't want to see again.

The films.. Garen does seem to have a weakness for military SF and it's getting old.. Alien Outpost was pretty awful. Robot Overlords and I Was A Teenage Superhero Sidekick were both good fun, and Fade To White and Uncanny were the highlights for me

I feel I do need to call out Garen in a positive way for the showing of The Noah and the gathering afterward -- everyone at the movie was invited to Orleans and got some excellent free food and a chance to blow off a little steam and socialize with each other and the director. That doesn't quite top getting to see WD Richter in person, but it's right up there/

A couple of points.  While a Saturday-Sunday 'thon works for the event, it means that the theatre must give up a Saturday night rather than a Sunday night.  That's far less attractive from the theatre's perspective.

Also note that in 2017, 2022 and 2025 Patriots Day weekend is also Easter weekend.  Not an issue for everyone, but it could be a problem for enough folks to impact attendance.  Also 2020 and 2023 have Easter weekend at what would be the opening weekend of the Festival.  Easter and Mothers Day are dates I'd try to stay away from.

Metaluna wrote on Feb 22^nd, 2015 at 3:46pm:


And, if he have to move the date one week up to avoid a conflict with a religious holiday, so be it. What's more difficult, freaking out about the weather and whether there might be a postponment or having a WHOLE YEAR to get the date out in public?!

Heck, we got the word out that the Marathon was starting at 4pm rather than Noon in less than 24 HOURS, let alone 52 weeks!

P.S. And, I talked to Ian and he seems amenable to Saturday-Sunday (which we have done before), so that's not a huge issue.