The smaller, liberated cousin-once-removed of the Philadelphia International Film Festival (though they’re not technically related), Philly’s Independent Film Festival hits Northern Liberties for its second summer of manic screening schedules, networking opportunities and worldwide perspectives in tow. According to its website, PIFF’s mission is to "promote, screen, and enjoy global independently produced movies” while bringing “audiences and filmmakers together to better enjoy the art and fun of filmmaking." Besides which, the PIFF is just a damn good time. From the opening bash June 25th at NorthBowl, to screenings at diverse venues including Dave & Busters and 941 Theater through Sunday the 28th, the Festival promises to show some ingenious new productions from the indie industry’s rising talent. We spoke with Leilani Goode, one of the Festival's co-founders, on the eve of the big event.

Last year you had an great turnout, is the audience mostly local or pulling in from film lovers from all over the Eastern Seaboard?
I think that the turnout will be a nice assortment of people coming in from out of town and our regional and local friends and neighbors. We already have a huge response from filmmakers that are planning to attend, much more than last year. We are also very fortunate to have great media partners this year, and expect a great response from the community.

Why are these festivals so important to the world of cinema?
Because it shows the other side of filmmaking, not major-studio produced. Most of these filmmakers produce these films with nothing more than a few dollars and a whole lot of heart.

You have booked some great spots for screenings i.e. Arbol Café, The Piazza, Yards Brewery, and the like. What is the selection process for the venues?
When we were choosing our venues, we wanted to try to use non-traditional spaces and also get the neighborhood as involved as possible.

A lot of last year’s winner’s were from the United States. Do you think this is because the festival is being held here, or are U.S. filmmakers really just that damn talented?
We are just that damn talented, but also because we had a larger percentage of submissions from the U.S.

Northern Liberties seems the perfect place for this kind of event.
I think that the festival is a great opportunity to provide exposure for this incredible neighborhood. There are so many great restaurants and retail shops here that many people in the Philadelphia area [don't even] know about.

Did you have a fave film from last year?
Public Interest. It won "best first time director."

How does one get their film into this festival?
Our submission process has been mainly through withoutabox (www.withoutabox.com).  Although, we have taken several hand-offs in back alleys and on dark street corners.

How rigorous is the screening process?
We had over 400 submissions this year and we are accepting about half.  We have a 12 member screening committee that screens each film and they are accepted by majority vote. 

Tell me about the screening committee.
We try to make the screening committee as wide and diverse as possible; we have filmmakers, students, business leaders, housewives, all film lovers in their own rights.

As a co-festival director, do you spend four days pulling your hair out? Or do you get to enjoy the screenings?
I have actually spent the last month pulling my hair out – this is a wig. Fortunately, I get to screen all of the films beforehand, during the festival I won’t be able to stay still for more than five minutes, or sleep for that matter. 

Pocket Reviews: Some of our picks of films to check out and films to avoid like swine flu.

The River Ran Red
Dir. J. Michael Hagopian
Rating: 6.0
Hidden behind the shadows of World War I, 1.5 million Armenians were massacred by the Ottoman Empire (now known as Turkey) -- 250,000 put to death in the depths of the Euphrates River alone. Born near the body of water that remains the deathbed for so many, director, writer and producer J. Michael Hagopian completes his Witnesses Trilogy with a compilation of interviews with those who survived the Armenian Genocide, only to remain haunted by memories of children being poured into rivers and knives stabbing into the flesh of their families and fellow Armenians. Sifting through more than 400 interviews of eyewitness scattered all over the world, including the few that remain on the banks of the Euphrates itself, Hagopian's document evokes the tremendous pathos of the survivors, their aging faces pained beyond measure as they rehash the genocide. True, the quality of the clips themselves might be a bit reminiscent of high school history class -- most of the interviews were recorded during the '80s and early '90s, after all -- but Hagopian’s dedication to the project is evident, and his efforts to tell the stories lingering in the waters of the Euphrates indispensable. --Ashley Nguyen

The Alley
Dir. Philip Maglieri
Rating: 3.4
Take a stroll through “stinky way” and breathe in the aroma of piss and human feces. The Alley guides you through a walkway in Toronto, where children walk to school during the day and homeless people “sleep and party” at night. Though there is more to the 30-minute film than watching night-cam footage of people urinating and lighting up, you’ll still wonder why you’ve sat for a half-hour watching different people from all walks of life squatting to piss. The film tries desperately to establish a concept, breaking into worthwhile material while interviewing an urban planner and police officer to address the repercussions of such a filthy block of concrete but spends too much time using clips of bar hoppers pissing to tackle the questions woven loosely through: who’s responsible and how does stepping over a puddle of pee impact our society? The filmmakers do not delve deep enough, instead resorting to repetitive clips, with the exception of a few other despicable sex-for-drugs acts caught on camera. Though the man on the street interviews are helpful, they add little insight into the issue. -- Ashley Nguyen

Jackrabbit Sky
Dir. Andrew Bergmann
Rating: 2.6
Dry desert; dry film. Writer and director Andrew Bergmann also plays the lead, Max Boden, who is determined to save a nearby canyon in the Tucson desert from big business. Set in 1939, Max spends countless hours amongst the rocks and cacti, filming creatures that would be homeless if the construction of the proposed copper mine commences. Mentored by his offbeat grandfather, Otto (Christopher Lukas), Max tries hard to get the town to agree how important the cause his. Too bad everyone he talks to about his film is bored to tears. Unfortunately, Jackrabbit Sky ends up having a remarkably similar effect on its viewers. Simply put, Bergmann’s Max is dull as sugar-free tapioca. His voice inflection is unchanging and always calm, even when his stiff yet inappropriate mother, Evelyn (Blanche Baker), blurts out comments about her sex life. With the lone exception of Lukas’ oddball rendering, Bergmann’s cast is essentially characterless, a string of adults playing an uncomfortable game of dress up in 1930s-style gear, spitting out their lines so quickly, it seems they just want to get it over with already. -- Ashley Nguyen

Man Overboard
Dir: Oliver Robins
Score: 1.6
Ever watch late night late night pay-channel soft porn? Who among us hasn't? Ever watch late night pay channel soft porn and skip over the sex scenes just to get a better grasp on the narrative? Nor I … that is, until now. As earnest as its intentions may be, Man Overboard resembles the late night TV genre in almost every aspect of performance and production. C.J. Mason (a vaguely recognizable TV actor named Matt Kaminsky) is a boat dealer who hires a slick and slimy salesman named Johnny (Mel Fair) to help him save his dealership and his family’s future. Johnny turns out to be a stalking, domineering, conman even creepier than he originally comes off, and C.J. spends most of the film trying to edge him out. The whole movie has a weird nautical-Floridian vibe, which seems aimed at Jimmy Buffet fans and the like. I don’t even care about this movie to think of a boat joke to insert here; suffice it to say that you should wait until it hits Showtime late at night, and then you should avoid it altogether. -- Ben T. Levy

Good Boy
Dir. Patrick Roddy
Score: 7.2
Good as it is, this thrilling feature displays nothing short of tremendous restraint -- it electrifies and entertains, without ever reaching the ridiculous, over-the-top stratum of "terror." The director of photography patently knew what he was doing here: The cinematography pointedly highlights every emotion and motif -- repetition in duplicate shots, disgust in dingy lighting, nerves in shifty camerawork, uncertainty in crackpot schemes and so on. The protagonist, Max (Josh Marcantel) has a scintillating job price-stickering cans at a nearby food mart. The plot is admittedly weary: Max musters up some stolen cash to hit the road and head for Hollywood. I guess even indie films pull this Big City Dreams shit. But his escape from the doldrums ends in just another podunk town, with Max lost and helpless as his quickly becomes the subject of canophile sociopath resembling a bible salesman who enchains humans as sex slaves. To the haunting twangs of the soundtrack, the subjects of bondage and existential homelessness are thereby explored. The film never bares too much -- ever on a taut leash, as it were, wandering just south of resolution. It’s a tale of kill-or-be-killed, animal survival without that smug Bruce Willis-thriller feel. Director Patrick Roddy strings viewers along without maniacally controlling their psyche, a pitfall for many of his genre contemporaries. Sinister and unsettling, never shy with gore (done meaningfully, however), Good Boy shows how any man can become ferocious when his life and freedom are at risk. -- Alison Greenberg

Don McKay
Dir. Jake Goldberger
Score: 3.5
Freshman Writer/Director Jake Goldberger serves up a mysterious hybrid of drama, romance and devastation with his first film, in which a janitor seeks to revive an old love. Don (Thomas Haden Church) leaves the mop behind for his hometown and cancer-afflicted high school sweetheart, but commits a fateful crime in the process. Essentially a melodramatic three-camera-setup, the film offers trite camerawork and direction, “thriller” genre scenes that build little to no suspense, and a mediocre plot with so many purported twists it tangles itself up like a yo-yo string. Elizabeth Shue imbues her whiny character, Don’s lover Sunny, with personality like a ventriloquist’s arm in a dummy; she’s stiff and forced, easily the malignant mass of the film. Goldberger is concerned with the eerie characters and situations gone wrong in a small Massachusetts town full of liars and thieves, but seems to have no way to dig into his characters with any depth. The plot’s certainly interesting in its complex wind up -- the film is heavy on murders, intrigue and secrets -- but there is precious little else to watch. -- Alison Greenberg

I Speak Soccer
Dir. Terry Kegel
Score: 6.0
A documentary about the language of pickup and the carefree DIY attitude of scrappy players on dusty fields, this film is devoid of jerseys, often times shoes, and, with them, any notions of grandeur. It does a simple and effective job portraying the universality of soccer, a sport tying nations worldwide together in their love of competitive pastime, everywhere in the world but the U.S. While young Americans grow up idolizing Tom Brady or LeBron James, chasing the fame that’s associated with sports like football and basketball, most children in every other country live for an impromptu game of futból. A maudlin, pseudo-poetic narrative by some random Seattle soccer enthusiast provides the basis for the film’s journey, one that he takes in order to explore pickup played by international citizens who meet his devotion to the game better than Americans ever could. The footage, either staged or amateurish, seems like it may have been shot on a family camcorder. But Writer/Director/Cinematographer/Producer/Editor Terry Kegel doesn’t seem to care about fancy production or HD picture -- he’s as scrappy as the players he celebrates in the film. He pulls the attitude off with zeal and authenticity. Kegel relays his captivation with the art of pickup as an honest expression of personal emotion and social trends, investigating how play affects culture and unspoken rules shape the game. Soccer depicts Brazilians born with balls at their feet and heroes on the World Cup field, as Americans blow cash on Nike Dunks (whether or not they’ll use them on the court) and quit sports once they hear the words “bench warmer.” The documentary is comprised mostly of one-on-one interviews with pickup players from the beaches of Rio de Janeiro to Chiang Mai, Thailand; cheesy narration full of one-liners, and more interesting profiles of the countries featured and how their people are inherently bonded to soccer. It’s remarkable how one game breeds so many different strains; Kegel gracefully contrasts the quiet, respectful play in Asia with the rowdy competitions in the sands of South America, giving his audience a tangible feeling of what it means to play for the love of it. -- Alison Greenberg

For more information – www.piff2009.com