Two companies join forces to create a fun filled festival to keep the arts alive
In October 2015 Sanford Maine will have a new international film festival to be excited about. The Rugged Phoenix Underground Film Festival is set to launch its inaugural event. The
RPUFF was the brainchild of Andrew Bard and Janet Llavina of Neo Phoenix Studios and Ricky Dunton of Rugged Sound, both companies are Sanford based who’s work is in the field of entertainment. All three were heavily involved in the start and continuation of the Sanford International Film Festival which had its second event over the weekend of May 27th-31st 2015. The RPUFF is different in the sense that it is only a 2 day event held in one location and it is
only showing short films. When asked why this festival was only showing short films Andrew Bard responded by saying this. “I love short films, they can tell a complete story in a fraction of the time of a feature yet leaves you feeling satisfied. There is a large calling for short films and in seeing the submissions this year for the SIFF I was blown away by the quality level and pure entertainment value the short films brought.”
His company is a film production company, who produces their own films and shows, along with being hired to produce films for companies in New England. Ricky Dunton, was the tech person for this years SIFF, setting up the projectors and all the sound in the venues. He expressed an interest in forming another festival by saying. “The SIFF is a great event and has really grown and brought the community together, but when its over what does Sanford have for events that are specifically centered around the arts? Whether its music, film, paintings, photography or any other forms of art, we are hoping to continue the momentum by holding our short film festival in October and introduce more events geared towards establishing an artistic community here in Sanford.”
“Maybe after the success of the RPUFF and the already established success of the SIFF Sanford will be more open to hosting events throughout the year and not leave such a wide gap between artistic events.” Janet Llavina explained when asked of her thoughts.
This festival is a fantastic way to truly show not only Maine but New England and beyond just what Sanford has to offer! The festival is more than a two day even that shows movies, its one of many hopeful ways to feed the desire the people of this city have and that is a community that is welcoming and open to change, the arts and create a visitor friendly city that thrives on creativity, promotes artistic growth and most of all bringing Sanford into the Limelight as great place to be.
The event will be held on Friday October 23rd and Saturday October 24th at the Anderson
Learning Center in Springvale Maine. For more information you can visit us on Facebook @
https://www.facebook.com/RuggedPhoenixUndergroundFF
or our website @
http://ruggedphoenixunder.wix.com/rpusff
Best regards,
Andrew Bard – Festival Director
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