Festival has Vegas in New York state of mind

Kirk Baird

Tuesday, Nov. 19, 2002 | 8:27 a.m.

Stuart Alson was a struggling comedian in New York, but only one film away from his big break, he reasoned.

Unfortunately for Alson, at that time, that break was beyond his grasp.

Alson made a documentary about himself as well as other comedians, dancers, singers in the city.

Unfortunately, when he began shopping his work around at various film festivals, instead of a distribution deal for the documentary, the would-be movie-maker received his first lesson about the cinema world: It's not what you know, but who you know.

"I found it very hard to get my film in festivals in market cities like New York and Los Angeles," Alson said.

So he did what any filmmaker desperate to get his or her work shown to the public would do: Alson started his own festival.

In 1993 Alson created the New York International Independent Film and Video Festival, which debuted with 100 films.

The festival now regularly books up to 400 features, shorts, animations and documentaries, and has expanded beyond New York to include Los Angeles and, most recently, Las Vegas.

"It's really a traveling film festival," Alson said from the festival's office in New York. "We have a giant festival every two months and we go to each city twice a year."

The festival begins its six-day run tonight with an opening party at Seven. Brendan Theaters at the Palms will house the festival, with film showings throughout the day and evening. For a complete list of movies and showtimes, check out nyfilmvideo.com.

Alson first had the idea to move the festival to Las Vegas after moving to the city.

"I decided to buy a home here (because) it was the only place I could afford one," he said. "Having moved here, I got tired of explaining what an independent film festival was. I decided to start one in Las Vegas to see how it goes."

Alson said the first New York festival to come to Las Vegas in early April was a big success, in part because it is different than such major international film festivals as, CineVegas, which took place in Las Vegas in June.

While CineVegas is primarily about movies, it's also about the celebrities who make them. This year, for example, the festival put on a celebrity blackjack tournament featuring Dustin Hoffman, Elliot Gould and Michael Rosenbaum (Lex Luthor on "Smallville").

While the New York festival does attract its share of celebrities from time to time -- director Abel Ferrara and supermodel Eva Herzigova, among others -- starwatching is not what the festival is about, Alson said.

"It's not posh, but it's not supposed to be," he said. "We don't have a lot of stars ... but a lot of the films are free, so all the community can come out and find out what's being played."

Robert Cochrane, a Las Vegas resident for 2 1/2 years, attended the first New York festival to visit Las Vegas. The writer and co-star of "The Playaz Court," Cochrane said he felt left out of the proceedings.

"I remember looking around the first night and being upset," he said. "I had a product and, had I been paying attention (and known about the festival), I could have been a part of it."

For this festival, however, he didn't miss the opportunity. "The Playaz Court," an inner-city drama about the impromptu murder trial of a white man by a group of black friends, is playing at 8 p.m. Wednesday.

The film was picked up by Artisan Entertainment more than a year ago and was recently released on DVD. Still, Cochrane said it was important to get his work out to the masses any way he could.

"It's all marketing at this point, (but) I believe in this project," he said. "It will help me get known as a filmmaker and will help me get my other projects made."

But film festivals such as the New York festival and CineVegas go beyond self-promotion, said Stan Armstrong, whose documentary, "Black Confederates: The Forgotten Men in Gray," is being screened at 6:10 p.m. Wednesday.

"We have great talent here," said the documentary filmmaker, a graduate of both Rancho High School and the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. "And with the students that are graduating today out of the UNLV (film) programs, I think it's very important to have a film festival here."