Chicago International Film Festival’s Raul Benitez On Genre Film Programming
Even in the age of COVID, genre film festivals still thrive (though it requires flexibility and mutation). Fantastic Fest had an @Home aspect to their annual gathering while Nightstream brought together the efforts of multiple festival teams to deliver genre fare. Fantasia still presented some great titles, TIFF’s Midnight Madness went strong again, and there is an uptick in focus (and, dare I say, respectability) of these midnight programs with sci-fi, horror, and action appealing to cinephiles and those audiences that previously didn’t attend such festivals.
With this change in mind, I spoke with programmer Raul Benitez of the Chicago International Film Festival’s After Dark portion. We discussed how festivals can set themselves apart in this growing age, what trends seem to be on the rise in genre filmmaking (worldwide), and why the once low brow disreputable branch of movies is gaining importance and prominence.
Chicago International Film Festival (CIFF) just announced its 2021 festival award winners, but there are still showings happening today (October 22), tomorrow (October 23), and ending on Sunday (October 24). And today is Raul’s birthday! So give him the gift of your presence at the following in-person screenings this weekend:
Neon Splatter: What do you think sets Chicago International Film festival’s After Dark apart from the other genre programs or festivals?
Raul Benitez: I'll be honest, the main difference between our fest and others is that we're not strictly a genre festival. Because we’re international. we show a bunch of stuff...I mean, we're opening with THE FRENCH DISPATCH. So in that respect, the genre part of it is just kind of like a sidebar for the festival.
In the past it had different programmers coming out to program the After Dark programs, but this year they hired me specifically for After Dark. And I think that's kind of indicative of this resurgence and interest in genre films. TITIANE won the Palme d’Or at Cannes—and that's totally a genre movie; it’s a body horror film!
The festival is kind of realizing that this is a thing that people are interested in more than ever. In a weird way, you kind of have to thank Disney for this because, y’know, all their genre films piqued all this interest. Before, genre films were mostly just seen as B-Movies. Or people only considered them as summer blockbusters or not serious.
But now there's a crop of filmmakers that are taking genre films seriously and putting the message behind—a social sentiment behind them.
Genre always had that view in the past, usually in a kind of a sneaky way. But I think now it’s more up front.
So when [CIFF] hired me. they specifically asked, “would you like to do the After Dark program?” And so obviously I couldn't say no. There is a challenge doing genre programming for this festival because we're a little bit later in the year. A lot of genre films, once they do Fantasia and Fantastic Fest, then after that they just do the release (and/or go on streaming). Distributors haven't really thought about our festival because we're so late in the year and not really known for genre film (in general). But I'm hoping to change that.
NS: Was there any sort of “mantra” you had or a guiding principle in either seeking out a title or accepting a film? Was there anything that shaped your thinking like “if I'm doing programming After Dark, this is what I want to present to people?”
RB: First of all, obviously I wanted the best movies I could get. Because we’re so late in the season, it would be a challenge to find some pretty good titles that hadn’t already played and finished their festival run. But two things worked in our favor:
Because so many films were pushed back because of the pandemic, I think there were more choices of films from which to choose this year and I think not just us, but I think other film festivals had more stuff to look at because there's so much has been pushed back. And because of that, there were some films I was able to get that maybe, in previous years, I wouldn’t have been able to get because of the [festival] schedule. And then, after fall, the season just starts again for next year, with festivals beginning January and February. So when it comes to festivals it’s kind of the end of the season., people have already moved on to the next year and distribution.
A lot of films were also wrapping up filming in August and September, so that was in our favor because, they just started reaching out to festivals when so many had gone by.
In my opinion, if you do good programming, film distributors do notice. They notice and say, “oh, maybe we should offer this film to them since they had an impressive selection or such a great reaction.” So I was able to get some good and interesting films. Some played other festivals, but they haven’t played in Chicago yet—
NS: And I'm sure there's not that much of a crossover between genre die-hards and CIFF audiences.
RS: Most of them have not heard of, let alone even seen these films before. Film nerds like us are in the thick of the genre stuff, but most audiences aren’t as involved or already aware of most of these titles until they’re playing locally. To them this is all new.
In reality, I’m not really programming After Dark exclusively for genre people, but I’m trying to program mostly for people who want to discover new things—in genre or not. I think a lot more film festival attendees are more attuned to genre output now because these sorts of films have become a focus in the past three or four years.
NS: I have a guess but, out of all the titles you’re showing this year at After Dark, what do you think will be the most polarizing or, maybe not polarizing, but certainly get the biggest reaction?
RB: Probably THE SADNESS.
NS: Yep, that was my guess.
(Laughs)
RB: The film was recommended to me, it wasn’t even on my radar. I watched THE SADNESS and I was like “Oh my god – I have to show this movie!” We have another programmer who watched it and was like “this isn’t my cup of tea.” So I had to point out that this isn’t for you guys, but for people looking for transgressive, boundary pushing stuff. It’s wall-to-wall gore. Almost all practical effects. This is what like genre people look for. There are scenes where, right before they happen, you ask yourself “are they going to go there?” And then THEY GO THERE. So after experiencing Jabbaz’s movie, I was like “This is it. I gotta show this movie and it is going to blow people’s minds.”
THE SADNESS isn’t a movie that would have been programmed for Chicago International in the past, so I was lucky that they trusted my take. I'm excited to watch the audience reaction in this at the theater—and I'm just excited to watch it IN a theater!
I think that one is going to be talked about a lot. I think MAD GOD is another one of those films that genre people will really love because the world that [Phil Tippett] created is so amazing. So intricate. That’s another I’m really excited to watch on a big screen, plus MAD GOD has this amazing soundscape at work. If it was that cool on my TV, I can’t even begin to imagine how it’s going to look and sound and feel in a theater.
NS: A lot of the films you’ve programmed have pretty odd narrative aspects to them, to various degrees. Is that something you have to broach with an audience before the movie starts playing? Kind of brace them that it’s a bit weirder than the norm. Or do you just throw them in the deep end and hope they enjoy the swim?
RB: I think it's gonna be two types of audiences that are coming: people that are expecting the weird and people that are looking to be surprised by the weird.
Again, genre people don't typically look to Chicago international for that type of programming. But I think there are genre folks that look at the line-up and go “oh, this is actually pretty good. I might want to come and see these.” And then there's people that are not plugged into the scene, but the movie looks super interesting and so they want to go see it.
BROADCAST SIGNAL INTRUSTION, for example, has a really strong Chicago tie. The whole plot is around those two pirate intrusions—and one was a WGN broadcast and another one was during a Doctor Who episode on the local PBS station.
NS: I forgot that that's where that was! The Max Headroom intrusions.
RB: I think Chicago people will be interested in coming to see that one because of that local element.
NS: Do you think the person that did those intrusions will show up?
RB: That would be amazing.
NS: How will you determine if the program was successful (in your opinion)? Is it literally ticket sales? “Buzz”? Feedback you get directly from the audience or filmmakers? Are there certain, not metrics per se, but some element you are using to gauge how well you think 2021’s After Dark program did?
RB: I know for [CIFF], ticket sales are the thing, the way they measure interest and all that. But for me, I think that that you know the interactions and conversations you have with the audience happening around the movie is important. That kind of measures success—we have people talking and, as a programmer, you like for those interactions afterwards. People asking about the movie or filmmaker or telling you what they loved that they saw. Or saying that the movie was crazy—because then you know you did your job because you got people to think about the films and got them to react.
NS: How do you gauge if something is too challenging for an audience? Obviously, each audience is different and/or you don't typically know who's in the audience. But in terms of something really abstract or deals with incredibly dark subject matter, is there a way you determine that a movie is too challenging? Or do you welcome sharing that experience in a certain way?
RB: I program at an art gallery. We had a screening there every Wednesday (before COVID). So that you know you have to come up with titles to play from March to November.As a programmer, you're like trying to figure out like what should I program?
So in that case, I'm able to try things out. Oh, I'm gonna do this and then see what happens. If people come, that’s great. If they don’t, that's fine because we’re not really making money on these screenings. This gives me a chance to kind of test the waters and see what works. I’ll pick something that I know and it might be polarizing or it might not.
One time, a local filmmaker made a documentary about conspiracy theory videos on YouTube. And he just kind of threw in tons of clips of these conspiracy videos and we showed that. And people at the end of it were...mesmerized by the whole thing and shocked.
As a programmer, I feel like programs should not shy away from controversial topics. If you’re not shocking or inspiring audiences—making them talk about the films in some way, then you're not really doing your job.
I mean, I could show FERRIS BUELLER’S DAY OFF, with all the Chicago stuff in it. But that’s not really going to inspire any new reactions or conversations.
NS: Going through all the submissions or possible titles, are there any trends you’ve noticed in current genre filmmaking?
RB: I think a couple things I’ve noticed. First of all, in general I think genre films are becoming more prominent. You know, and there's they're being talked about more and more, I think studios are making more of these films. And they’re winning awards, Oscars and at Cannes. So this recognition elevates genre films a bit and leads to, I don’t want to say “smarter” genre films, but there’s more genre fare with clear artistic endeavor and aspirations as a result of this success critically and commercially. this, this, uh, this this John or films and you know, I think.
Not just in style, but also stronger messaging behind them about specific topics than ever before. There’s been messaging and deeper themes in horror for decades—just that now it’s more common to find a film that has a larger point to make and that point is usually a bit louder than previous subtext. But also, on the other hand, there's still crazy movies being made, you know, which is great. I mean, THE SADNESS is a crazy, bloody zombie film. And sometimes, you just need to watch that.
But I do think that there's more thoughtful approaches in genre now. [DaCosta’s] CANDYMAN is a great example as well.
NS: What efforts do you see being taken, or you are taking, or you recommend other programs take to seek out underrepresented voices and artists in genre filmmaking?
RB: Actually, honestly, I think it's been easier to kind of identify these films the past couple years.
And I think more and more filmmakers from underrepresented communities are more aware of how to get their films out there than in the past.
But there's a lot of work to do and you know, I think distributors are kind of catching on slowly and trying to find new talent a lot. A lot of times, with a lot of these films, there's a lot of word of mouth with programmers talking to each other, saying what they saw and encouraging others to include them. And I think putting more films made by underrepresented groups in festivals like ours can inspire other filmmakers to go ahead and try it for themselves.
There are a few things we definitely need to work on more. Obviously, we need more programmers of color, and we definitely need more BIPOC critics, and those from the LGBTQIA+ community, I think that's important. Because we all bring a different view into these movies.
For the first time this year, the Chicago International Festival contracted programmers. My friend Emily Eddy got contracted and my friend Amir George got hired—so I think festivals are starting to recognize that a more diverse group could bring in more voices and go through films using their point of view that's different than others.
A lot of times you know programmers that have been in that position for 15, 20, 30 years. You kind of get lost in like what’s really being made. A fresh programming team, younger with different backgrounds, definitely makes a huge difference in the programming itself.
I think a lot of events are making a real effort to kind of bring in new voices, and I think we definitely need to encourage that and keep doing more of it.
Thanks to Raul for his time and insights! Remember there are still After Dark titles playing this weekend: