It’d be an understatement to say that Matthew Ray has had his work cut out for him these last few weeks. As the PR flack for the TLA Video side of the Philadelphia Film Festival — which had long been a partnership between TLA, headed by Ray Murray, and the Philadelphia Film Society — Matthew Ray, we’re guessing, has been cringing left and right as the tale of the epic bitchfest between Murray and the PFS has played out in the media. But for the first time in weeks, Ray has some good news to spread today: At what seems like the last possible moment — and more than a week after it had been declared that a spring ’09 film festival in Philly was dead in the water — the two parties have put aside their differences, and are going ahead with the festival after all. Yay! The resulting event, now called the Philadelphia Cinefest, announced yesterday its opening and closing night films, as well as some other details. After the jump, we grill Matthew Ray about snatching victory from the jaws of defeat and other publicist-hair-raising adventures.

Clearly, what we’ve seen in the last 48 hours is that your boss, Ray Murray, has been talked down from the edge. Can you tell me (and everyone else) what exactly the central beef between Murray and the Philadelphia Film Society is/was?

I think there were some operational and artitistic differences. PFS had a vision, Ray and the programming team had a vision – and for a while it didn’t look like those visions could mesh. When differences arise like that, it can quickly escalate and create a fracture in the organization.

How much of that do you think was about squeezing TLA releasing titles into the Fest?

Honestly, very very little. TLA Releasing is pretty much (at this point) gay-gay-gay and horror, and for this Fest – that makes up such a small portion of the product. Speaking personally, I have never been given a directive to give a “push” to a TLA movie over another studios.

Fair enough – at some other time, I’m going to have to get you to parse the “gay-gay-gay” film genre. But for now, thank God, the city does indeed have a film festival this March, albeit in this new half-breed form that bears two names. How long before TLA and PFS bury the hatchet completely? Or is that really not going to happen, and instead, we’ll just see several film festivals per year?

I think like every conflict, the healing process takes some time. Not to sound “new agey” – but we are all working together again, smiling, talking, communicating, sharing ideas, that sort of thing. I think that type of collaboration goes a long way to mending fences. There is so much freaking work, we have no time to bicker. So, for all of us, peace has begun.
To the future, I think all the organizationa involved are going to use this very public spat to really look at what they want, what they want to do, and reevaluate their missions. I think Philadelphia deserves world class film festivals, but I am hesitant to say that it can support two to four gigantic ones. I think there is plenty of room for creative growth, collaboration, and more independent projects though – I just am not sure (or smart enough) to know exactly where that is going to go after this festival

Mission accomplished! But yeah, you are touching on something we’ve written about — that the spat, and the very real prospect that there would be no film fest at all this spring, could have been a tremendous loss to a city that has been a loyal and devoted audience to this festival for more than 17 years. But nowhere in any of this did we hear the fest’s organizers on either side acknowledge that, in some ways, the film festival is a kind of public entity. But one can’t help but think that must have been a motivating factor in tabling this whole pissing match and getting on with it. Is that a correct assessment?

I personally regret not trying to make any messages from me indicate how important it was that this Fest happen – for Philadelphia. I think in the heat of the battle, sometimes the point got lost that people do this, work on this, and were fighting over this not so much over egos – but over “the product”… They all truly want the best product for the city. It was similar to a run-wild custody battle. The population of loyal film fans that have made these festivals success, was never far from the minds of either side…I can assure you. Did we do a poor job or sending that message? Yes… I am a Philadelphian, from my Temple degree to my new South Philly home. I wanted the best for the city – and I can promise you that the staff feels the same way. I don’t pick the films – it is tremendously personal to the programmers and to Ray (as artistic director) what is shown and how the public reacts – so they really do care about the city.

I’ll take that as a “yes,” then. All that said, if early indicators are anything to go by, the Philadelphia Film Fest/Cinefest seems like it’s going to look a lot like PFF’s of yore. Where exactly does the Cinefest part come in this year? What’s new and different?

This is going to be an amazing festival. The movie slate is truly exceptional. I try to remain neutral, but most people who have seen many of the films feel this is one of the best Fests in years. That isn’t necessary a difference, but it is worth stating. Significantly different, this Festival has some new partnerships and sponsors. We are workign with WHYY, the Kimmel Center, and other organizations to reconnect with parts fo the community we might have missed over the years. Chief difference amongst the programming is the new Fade To Black- which is movies created and programmed by leading African American experts. It is a new piece of the pie that really reinvigorates the whole project. Besides that – it is really the same Festival – I’m not going to BS you…The name? That’s just some new branding we inherited from the back-n-forth of the last few months. Philadelphians can expect the same great films, and the same great events. Just after a few years we are all making some new tweaks.

Awesome. Matthew, thank you very much for your candor, and your time. I really appreciate it.

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This entry was posted on Tuesday, February 24th, 2009 at 2:27 pm.