The office: Volunteers for the Syracuse International Film Festival might be able to lend a hand at the organization’s swanky offices inside the Hotel Syracuse, 500 S. Warren St. Here a WSYR-AM 570 reporter interviews SIFF executive director Owen Shapiro upon the opening of the office in December 2006.
According to volunteer coordinator Deborah Borenstein, 150 to 200 volunteers are needed for this year’s festival, considerably more than the 50 required during the first festival in 2004. “This year we have more venues than in the past,” Borenstein said. “The festival has gotten bigger and grown every year, which translates into more volunteers.”
Borenstein, a DeWitt resident for 25 years, explained that she has had a lifelong passion for volunteering in her community as a sidecar to her career as an educational consultant for Random House and Contact Community Services. After she left CCS about five years ago Borenstein sought a project to keep her busy, so she got in touch with festival organizers Owen Shapiro and Christine Fawcett to offer her assistance.
“When I heard they were looking last year {2007} for a volunteer coordinator for the festival I thought, ‘I know how to organize volunteers and I love the arts in general,’ and I thought it could be fun,” Borenstein recalled. “I have met creative, interesting people that I never would have had the opportunity to meet before, and I have found that very energizing.”
While volunteers are doing their thing, Borenstein noted that they often get to check out the festival’s films. As a bonus tacked onto their terms of service, volunteers will receive a pass to see a movie for every shift they work.
Although festival volunteers primarily staff the ticket booths at the eight venues that comprise the stomping grounds of the festival, volunteers may also greet moviemakers at their hotel, or even drive them around town. That situation in particular has boded well for local filmmaker wannabes, according to Borenstein.
She recalled that last year, Ben Bours, a Syracuse University film student, had a chance to hobnob with the festival’s stars after they showed him how working for peanuts is fine, but a better time could be had. “He went to our Web site and filled out an application, and he said he would like to drive people around,” she noted. “He became very good friends with a few filmmakers and they took him to a party and they had a really good time.”
Shapiro recalled a similar chain of events happening to Colin Bannon, also a student volunteer at the 2007 festival. “{Bannon} met two filmmakers from the Netherlands, and he took them down to Amsterdam, N.Y., because they were from Amsterdam, and Colin documented it all on video and ended up making a fantastic video of it himself,” Shapiro said. Bannon’s True Stories from Rug City went on to win top honors during the 2007 festival’s Carol North Schmuckler New Filmmakers Showcase.
However, Shapiro also explained that his hopes for volunteers were mostly aimed at ensuring a good time for all involved. “I mean, they’re the key to the success of the festival,” Shapiro stated. “We hope the volunteers are having a good time and learning something and enjoying what they’re doing. We know we wouldn’t have a festival without them impressing filmmakers from around the world with their hospitality.”
Those who hope to volunteer for this year’s festival should visit the SIFF’s Web site, www.syrfilm.com, or call the festival office at 443-8826 by April 18. The festival itself will take place from Friday, April 25, to Sunday, May 4, throughout the city.
To further whet appetites for the fest, a program titled “Flavor & Film” will be presented on Sunday, April 13, at Grimaldi’s Luna Park, 6430 Yorktown Circle, East Syracuse. Menu selections, short films from Italy and a sneak preview of a 2008 festival entry will be offered. A cash bar starts things off at 5 p.m., with dinner at 5:30 p.m. and dessert and movie screenings at 6:30 p.m. A $50 donation is requested; for reservations, call the SIFF office at the aforementioned number or Luna Park, 432-4614.
—Matt Mumau
