Picture this: A film screening under the stars with the sound of the waves on the background accompanied with great people and delicious food.
That is a typical night at the Rincon International Film Festival (RIFF), where films were put to the test this past week from April 7 through 13. In case you have been living under a rock, RIFF is a festival held annually in beautiful beachfront resorts at Rincón, Puerto Rico where local and international films are screened .
The week was packed with handpicked films. Each day had a different theme: fright night, comedy night, Puerto Rican shorts and so on. The screening of the films was not all, a lot of filmmakers- local and international- attended the festival and participated in Q&A’s where the public had the opportunity to ask questions about their films. It was a great venue for students who are involved or want to get involved in film to meet people in the industry and ask as many questions that came to mind.
Inspiring students was actually one of the reasons why Doug Lanz decided to launch this project. He, as a documentary filmmaker, traveled the world from film festival to film festival and wondered if festivals such as those would be something that Puerto Ricans would enjoy. For the seventh year in a row he and his team has provided locals a unique perspective of film screenings.
The festival is also a great place to go root for our team! Seven projects from students and graduates from the UPRM Certificate in Film Studies competed this year.
Enhancing our movie viewing experience is also another of the RIFF’s team objectives. The experience is not just a one time in the year activity, they actually have a Film Society where members meet year-round to watch films submitted to the festival. You can learn more about this at their page.
If you did not had the opportunity to attend the festival this year, be on the look out next year for this eclectic outing. In the mean time here are some fun shorts featured on the Rincón International Film Festival:
All of the photos where taken from the RIFF Facebook page