Film festival brings music, film, fashion and art to Boulder
A project that started as a simple short film called “The Absence of Autonomy” has turned into an annual international event over the last three years.
The festival, the Toofy Film Fest 2006, will be celebrating independent films, music, fashion and fine art here in Boulder from Sept. 28 to Oct. 1.
Toofy was created when two brothers, Mark and Jeff Siebert, decided to create their own film festival after a short film Mark created as a senior thesis project was not accepted into any independent film festivals. The character Toofy, who has become the symbol of the film festival, is a cartoon fashioned after Mark.
“We didn’t know what we were doing, it wasn’t until later that we could look back and see that we created something,” Jeff said.
It took the brothers a year to put together their first film festival, since they had to base everything off of research they did on other festivals.
Planning for next year’s festival will begin again in November, when Toofy will be accepting film entries for the coming festival.
When asked what they are looking for in a film, Jeff said that “the story is number one, but the biggest thing we notice is that films are too long-try to be concise.”
“There are very few times that a submitted film has been too short,” Mark said.
Both brothers went to college in Colorado. Mark graduated from Metropolitan State College of Denver, and Jeff studied film and video production at University of Colorado at Denver.
Although they both went to colleges in Denver, they said they plan to keep Toofy in Boulder.
“We like being able to reach CU students, and the city of Boulder seems really appropriate for the event,” Jeff said.
The brothers agreed that the Boulder Theater was a good venue to attract attention for their films.
The Toofy Film Fest allows people to see artwork and films that they may not be able to see anywhere else.
However, the film festival is “not just for ‘hoity-toity’ artists,” Jeff said. “Everyone can enjoy these films.”
Looking back on Mark’s film project that started it all, the brothers laugh.
“The film would not have gotten into our film festival now. We didn’t realize how much amazing stuff is out there,” Jeff said.
Tickets for the event can be bought at the Boulder Theater box office. A Toofy Film Pass sells for $25.
You can find out more about the film fest online at toofy.com, which includes a movie clip, schedule of events, prices, merchandise and profiles of the creators.
