Festival Required

Since it’s called “No Festival Required” rather than “No Festival Allowed,” perhaps Steve Weiss’ downtown film series doesn’t lose all credibility in sheepishly admitting to sponsorship of, well, a festival. Especially since the subject of No Fest’s Alex Karpovsky Film Festival, one Alex Karpovsky, has such indie chops. The festival’s...

By M.V. Moorhead

November 26, 2009

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Since it’s called “No Festival Required” rather than “No Festival Allowed,” perhaps Steve Weiss’ downtown film series doesn’t lose all credibility in sheepishly admitting to sponsorship of, well, a festival. Especially since the subject of No Fest’s Alex Karpovsky Film Festival, one Alex Karpovsky, has such indie chops.

The festival’s opening selection is 2008’s Woodpecker. Working with a budget considerably below the Jurassic Park level, Karpovsky nonetheless crafted a movie in which characters travel to a remote area in search of a creature thought extinct: the ivory-billed woodpecker, declared extinct in the ’40s but supposedly spotted several times in recent years in rural Arkansas. The movie follows the efforts of a hardcore birdwatcher to add this ultimate rara avis to his life list.

Karpovsky is scheduled to be present and answer questions.

Sat., Nov. 28, 8 p.m., 2009

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