Backseat Viewing

The Backseat Film Festival

by Tiffany Jackson

Mix a rock concert and the movie theater together, and you have the Backseat Film Festival. This annual event, which prides itself on being the "working man's film festival," is back with a batch of brand-new films for your viewing pleasure.

"Last year was graphic torture movies, but this year there is a lot more diversity," says fest co-founder Doug Sakmann, who adds that the purpose of the festival is to expose people to movies they wouldn't see otherwise. "We chose movies that are fun to watch. It didn't matter genre or content — instead, we based it on what people would have a good reaction to."

This year's docket include 14 feature films, as well as 50 shorts and music videos that were submitted from around the world. Among the features is Bam Margera's screwball comedy Minghags the Movie! Made as a follow-up to the Margera-directed Haggard: the Movie, Minghags stars Margera with cameos by MTV friends Ryan Dunn and Don Vito, skater Terry Kennedy and Margera's much-harassed parents. The film follows two trailer-trash rockers who set out for revenge against a billionaire who stole their prized invention — The Garbage Juicer. Joe Frantz, writer and co-producer of Minghags, says there was a huge demand for a follow-up to Haggard, but filming was delayed because of Margera's obligations to his MTV show Viva La Bam. "It's a great hybrid between underground fest and a mainstream festival," says Fontz of Backseat. "Plus, they're allowing beer during the viewing, which I'm pretty happy about."

Free booze is one of the big mainstays at the festival. The main beer sponsor is Pabst Blue Ribbon, but this year's special guest drink gizmo is a liquor filter. "We're using Grey Kangaroo Personal Liquor Filter which takes the impurities out of liquor and makes it more natural," says Sakmann. "It also helps reduce the size of your hangover. Believe me — I know from personal experience."

Not only does this mark the seventh season of the fest, which sold out of 75 percent of last year's screenings, but it also serves as the official grand opening of Northern Liberties' 941 Theater. It's being launched by the Philadelphia Friends of the Projected Arts, whose goal is to get more people to come enjoy indie movies in a theatrical setting, rather than at home on their computer.

Sakmann, a member of Friends of the Projected Arts, believes that watching a film with a crowd of people gives you a better experience because of the reactions of everyone around you. "We have been around for a while, but we haven't had a proper grand opening," says Sakmann. "Now we have done a lot of work to the theater and got our projector, so we're ready to make it official and begin to start showing films." The founders are hoping that the high-quality projected presentations will keep the movie-going experience alive.

(editorial@citypaper.net)

Backseat Film Festival | Fri.-Sun., March 6-15, 941 Theater, 947 N. Front St., 215-235-5603, backseatfilmfestival.com