International film festival expands in second year

Though he is now focusing on film full-time as a graduate student at UC-Berkeley, Ben-Youssef will return to campus on April 17 to discuss “It’s Not Me, I Swear,” his favorite film from the tour and one of six films to be screened at this year’s International Film Festival.

The festival, which will run from today through April 27, will hold most of its screenings at the Princeton Garden Theatre. Subtitles, the Princeton film society that Ben-Youssef founded during his junior year, is organizing the events.

Ben-Youssef said he founded Subtitles “to encourage dialogue about an eclectic range of films. I thought a festival would be a boost to making that a reality.” Ben-Youssef is a former film critic for The Daily Princetonian.

Last year, Ben-Youssef held the New York Film Festival at Princeton, which featured five films from the 46th annual New York Film Festival. For a screening of “Waltz with Bashir,” filmmaker Ari Folman came to speak to students.

This year, Subtitles will feature a collection of movies that group members have seen at various film festivals, such as the one in New York and the Telluride Film Festival.

The group’s current president, Raj Ranade ’10, described the film festival as “the brainchild of Fareed,” adding that “[Ben-Youssef] decided he wanted to showcase high-quality films from around the world.”

Ranade is also a film critic for the ‘Prince.’

“The takeaway from the festival,” Ranade said, “is just trying to achieve a caliber of educational experience with a similar sort of film festival you would have to get in New York.”

While “It’s Not Me, I Swear” examines the life of a boy in suburban Quebec, “Summer Hours” and “35 Shots of Rum,” both French movies, “take a look at the changing face of French society — globalization, new ethnic makeup,” Ranade explained. Rounding out the lineup are two American films, “Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans” and “Afterschool,” and “Police, Adjective,” which is Romanian.

National Public Radio film critic Bob Mondello, a visiting journalism professor, will introduce “Summer Hours,” while director Antonio Campos will venture down from New York for a question-and-answer session about “Afterschool.”

Ranade said he hopes that because Campos is only 26 years old, “he’ll do a great job of connecting with the campus community.” Subtitles member Michael Vinson ’11 said he is excited for “an awesome opportunity to talk to a director who’s worked with Francis Ford Coppola,” adding that it will be a “great experience for students to interact with someone who’s made it in the industry.”

Vinson said he also recommends “Bad Lieutenant.” The film is a “quirky take on bad-cop-gone-good,” he said. “It has some very out-there scenes, and it’s basically the best movie choice Nicolas Cage ever made.”

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The group received discounts from film distribution companies and funding from the USG Projects Board and various departments, Ranade said. In addition, the Garden Theatre donated space for weekdays because “they thought it would be a valuable community event,” he added.

This year’s festival “attests to [Subtitles’] passion about films along with the officer leadership, and something people forget about Princeton is that it’s very supportive of film,” Ben-Youssef said, noting that this year’s International Film Festival will feature more events and speakers than last year’s series.

Ranade added that he hopes the festival will “give people on campus the chance to see really great cinema that wouldn’t otherwise make it around to these areas.”