Tonight, the 6th Annual Backseat Film Festival gets underway in Northern Liberties. For the unfamiliar, the Backseat fest is pretty much the antidote for every stuffy film fest you’ve ever been to: Here, the trashy, the low-budget and the simply whacked-out are celebrated in much the same way other film fests celebrate things like, oh I don’t know, plot and cinematography. Only, the Backseat has a lot more beer and titties. After the jump, we chat with BFF impresario Doug Sakmann; if you’re digging what he’s on about, check out the full Backseat Film Festival schedule here.

So Doug- thanks so much for taking a minute on opening day to talk with us. For the uninitiated, give us the elevator pitch for the Backseat Film Festival.

We like to call the Backseat Film Fest the “Rock n’ Roll Film Fest.” We aim to screen movies that give the the audience a viseral reaction, films that create excitement and passion. While we have a good portion of films featuring rock, we do have selections of all genres, something for everyone. When we say the Rock n’ Roll Film Fest, we’re talking about the spirit of rock!

So where does the fest pool its films from? Is it pretty much the low-budget and no-budget

We have films of all budgets, from the lowest of the low to big budget stuff. While the quality of the film is important to us, the main thing we look for is fun movies for our audience. It could be shot on VHS or 35mm, if it’s something we think the audience will like, we will screen it. On the other hand, if it’s something we know they wont like, we will destroy it at the annual opening ceremonies (which is tonight)! It’s the 6th year for the festival and we are known in the festival circut so we recieve submissions from all over the world, we have 14 Philly Feature Film Premieres and over 60 shorts and music videos this year, our biggest yet!

What’s the preferred method of destruction?

It changes every year, we keep it a secret until the opening ceremonies… in past years we have smashed with sledghammers, chopped with axes, last year we swung them from flesh hooks attached to my back and the audience could come up and hit them with a baseball bat…it was kinda like a demented version of tee ball. We are doing the opening ceremonies tonight at the M Room at Midnight, so you’ll have to come out to see what we do!

So walk we through it: What are the must-see’s at this year’s fest?

Today we have a great documentary on legendary b-movie director Don Dohler, then a Manson-esque type horror flick called Gimme Skelter. And of course, the big screening everyone is talking about is on Saturday at 7pm, Raiders of the Lost Ark: The Adaptation, a remake shot by 13 year olds in 1981 and finished in 1987…I cant wait to see that one…
One trend in indie movies we cant help but notice is the zombie theme…being a big zombie fan those are some of my favorites…on Sunday the 16the we have a zombie western called Dead Noon at 7pm on Sunday and a Zombie romance called Eat Your Heart Out at 9:30pm…

Last year, you guys had a zombie porno flick, right? That Joanna Angel thing?

Yeah that was actually a special screening, we do one of those every year…last year it was Joanna Angel with Re-Penetrator and The XXXorcist. This year it is the Raiders Adapatation, one of the filmmakers is going to be in attendence, Chris Strompolos, one of the producers and stars.
The special screenings are out of competiton, just something extra we think people will dig
Burning Angel is involved again this year as a sponsor — they are co-sponsoring “Strip For Pain: America’s Most Dangerous Gameshow” with Hotmovies.com. Do you know about the game?

I saw a little something about it, but frankly, I am afraid. Enlighten me while I hold my ears and shake…

Contestants take increasing levels of different types of pain, the more pain they take the more the lovely girls of Burning Angel.com take off, and the winner gets a lapdance!
It’s a show we have been doing live in nightclubs in NYC, Philly and Vegas for 5 years, we just shot a TV Studio Pilot for Hotmovies.com that is up now, the second episode comes out next week. Check it out at: www.stripforpain.com

Hah! Is that link NSFW?

That one is, but I can send you direct links to the safe trailers on Myspace — youtube won’t host it but Myspace will.

There’s a lesson there somewhere. So riddle me this: When it all shakes out, what does the winner of the fest receieve? What do they really come away with?

Awards include the basic ones including Best Feature, Short, etc, and then our specialty categories include Best Drinking Movie & Best Boobs, but as to what that means for the filmmaker..
In addition to receiving awards and prizes, great independent features like Blood Car, Stupid Teenagers Must Die!, Sight, Beer Drinkers in Space, Die You Zombie Bastards!, Pot Zombies and Prison-A-Go-Go have been able to land national distribution deals due in part to their screenings and awards at Backseat Film Festival events.

So even though it’s a “rock n roll” festival, it still does what a film fest should do. Before you go, tell me about the very worst submission you got this year?

Ooooh…we’ve got some bad ones…i try to mentally block those out…for the most part I personally think the ones that take themselves too seriously are the ones that need to be smashed. Films are supposed to be fun! However, this is the first year that we have had so many great movies we just could not fit them all into the schedule, so there are some that will be spared and saved for another screening! We’ll be back in Philly throughout the year with plenty more rockin’ movies, stay tuned to www.backseatfilmfestival.com for the up-to-date info!

Thanks, Doug! And good luck!

This entry was posted on Wednesday, March 12th, 2008 at 1:29 pm.