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Alan Inkles Pitches the Stony Brook Film Festival in His Own Words
Stony Brook Film Festival director Alan Inkles is the type of fast-talking, excitable character who can take a simple, 15-word question and talk it into an 1800-word filibuster—that covers pretty much everything. In fact, that’s exactly what happened when MM spoke with him in February, several months prior to the 14th incarnation of his Stony Brook Film Festival. But is it precisely this eagerness and passion that has helped Inkles turn the Stony Brook Film Festival into a formidable presence on the circuit—and precisely the reason you should want him on your side.
Andrew Gnerre (MM): What have been the biggest differences between now and when you started 14 years ago?
Alan Inkles (AI):
[On the formation of the festival]
This year is my 25th year running this [Staller] Arts Center and 15 years ago we got to a point—we were doing an international theater festival in the summer, bringing companies in from around the world—and it got to be impossible with immigration and dealing with costs; a lot of the subsidies from foreign governments were drying up. I said, ‘We got to do something different.’ I said, ‘You know what? Everyone goes to the movies. We’ve got this great big theater—it’s a 1,000-seat theater—we’ve got this wide proscenium, what about the days of the movie theater?! What about making a theater here with a big screen like they used to have in the old days?’
[On figuring out what to screen]
It got some great funding from the university, from some of our donors and we built this screen without knowing what the heck I was going to put on this screen. I said, ‘Let’s do some old movies, let’s do some classics.’ Then I find out of course 35mm prints are impossible to find. So we kind of felt our way through for a couple years. We were showing Spielberg movies and we were showing Miramax films; feeling like I’m a cool guy doing some independent films.
[On his Sundance influence]
Maybe 11 or 12 years ago I went to Sundance. I said, ‘Let’s do something really cool with this. Let turn this into a sort of film festival.’ So I went to Sundance in ‘97 [or] ‘98. From there we just started, over two, three years bringing in some independent films, bringing in some actors who live on the East End; people like Cliff Robertson and Eli Wallach and Rod Steiger and we’d do some talks. We just started, the first few years of this, just building up an audience.
[On how not being pushy has given him a stronger program]
I’m not the guy who has to be, ‘I’m the programmer this year. I want to make my mark this year. Give me your it film.’ I’m the guy going out there and saying, ‘I’m the founder of this festival. I got a team, but I’m basically the guy wearing the hat, wanting to make it work. I want to work with you. If you have a film for me this year, let’s show it. If you don’t, we’ll talk about it next year.’ So I developed relationships with sales agents, distributors, with filmmakers that it came to a point three, four years ago, where we could get some really interesting films and develop an audience to come see these films.
[On year 14]
We’ve hit our groove. I’ll never be the one to say we sit on our laurels, but for a mid-range festival…
In the summer we turn into, for 10 days, all films that are premieres. Now they may not be the first time ever, because I’m not that hung up on that. My feeling is if I have a film that played Tribeca last year but is really great and my audience didn’t see it, I’ll show it. I don’t care that it’s not going to be the first time in New York. Now you and I both know I need a few of those or I’m not going to get any press. You guys aren’t going to write about me if I don’t have a couple little premieres, but I really tried to develop this festival into a real friendly festival that’s about the filmmaker. It’s about showing the films to a very hungry audience that won’t get to see these films anywhere else unless.
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COMMENTS | POST A COMMENT 
- Comment by used cargo vans for sale on 3/25/09 at 8:23 pm
My scripts are always lacking in dialogue. Wish I had the problem Alan has.
- Comment by I'm into project car movies on 4/18/09 at 3:34 pm
If I wasn’t so busy in my business, I would definitely come to the festival. Sounds like a blast.
- Comment by laptop replacement screens on 6/27/09 at 5:52 pm
It is all in the pitch in these big deals.
- Comment by home remedies on 6/30/09 at 8:32 am
I would say it is very difficult to put together a film festival program.
- Comment by Bridesmaid Dresses Under $100 on 9/16/09 at 12:05 pm
Little wonder really why it is becoming so popular with amazing independent films every summer and attendances growing year on year.
- Comment by granit kup tas on 6/22/10 at 4:08 pm
however .. my opinion is that article is pretty well done, keep up the good work
- Comment by Anonymous on 6/22/10 at 4:09 pm
küp taş bizden alınır
- Comment by شات كتابي on 11/22/10 at 1:53 pm
It is all in the pitch in these big deals.
- Comment by Okey oyunu on 5/12/11 at 5:28 am
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- Comment by sniper2 on 9/26/11 at 3:26 pm
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