By George Weinstein
Towering behind the Boston International Film Festival (BIFF) is a man of average height, better than average intelligence and a beautiful smile.
Patrick Jerome is the Founder and Organizer to this day of the BIFF, which opens for the fifteenth time with its traditional Red Carpet photo-op extravaganza in front of the Loews Boston Common Theater on April 13, 2017. Though the BIFF runs through April 27, 2017, the Red Carpet event encapsulates what the BIFF is all about. Indie filmmakers from Roxbury, MA to Iran get their moment in the sun (camera flashguns) in front of a BIFF back drop.
It all began for Patrick Jerome in Haiti where he was born. It was there that he first saw motion pictures and knew then that making movies was his destiny. After leaving a volatile political climate in Haiti, Patrick finally settled in Boston and is now a U.S. citizen. It was here that he became aware of a lack in the local cinema scene of a perspective on international films.
He presented his idea of a Boston International Film Festival first to then Boston Mayor Thomas Menino who gave Patrick an enthusiastically positive response. From there it was a relatively smooth sailing through the required hoops of Boston bureaucracy.
BIFF begins April 13th and runs through April 27th. Their opening night will be THE LOST CITY OF Z from the writer and director James Gray (THE IMMIGRANT, TWO LOVERS), who will be present). The film, being distributed by Amazon Studios and Bleeker Street, stars Charlie Hunnam, Robert Pattinson, Sienna Miller, Tom Holland and Angus Macfadyen. Brad Pitt is the Executive Producer.
