Bill Guentzler
Film Festival Artistic Director

Bill Guentzler may have the best job in Cleveland. As Artistic Director of the Cleveland Film Society, it is his job to manage the selection of all the films that appear in the Cleveland International Film Festival (now thru 3/25). With precious little time for pleasantries, this interview by Cool Cleveland's Thomas Mulready, was literally conducted on the run, as Guentzler shuttled between errands during day two of the 2007 Fest at Tower City Cinemas. http://www.ClevelandFilm.org

Cool Cleveland: When did you start looking at films for this year's Cleveland International Film Festival?

Bill Guentzler: I started looking at films last June. I traveled to film festivals in New York, the Czech Republic, Montreal, Toronto Vancouver, London, L.A., and Sundance...

Holy shit! Why so many festivals? What's different about them?

BG: Well, the Vancouver festival has a lot of Asian, films. Toronto has good quality films. Each festival has its own qualities.

What distinguishes the Cleveland festival?

BG: D.C. and Denver are similar to Cleveland. Then certain film festivals will come to Cleveland to help program their own festivals, like St. Louis, Milwaukee, and Provincetown, Massachusetts.

How many films do you figure you personally see every year?

BG: Probably around 600 to 700 films a year.

You must have a thick skin. We used to watch hundreds of videos from performance artists applying to our Performance Art Festival, and you have to love the work and have a lot of patience...

BG: I have what I call the "45 Minute Rule." If it doesn't catch me by then, I'm gone. We also have a committee of 60 people who review all the films. Each film is watched by at least 3 people.

Do you get submission for all your films, or do you ask filmmakers to send their films to you?

BG: We get a lot submitted, but we also solicit films that we may want to screen. That's what I'm doing when I'm in Europe and at these films festivals. I'll see a good film, and we'll ask the filmmaker to send it.

How many films are submitted each year?

BG: We get about 1000 features and shorts each year to look through. About 600 of those are shorts.

How did you get such a fricking awesome job?

BG: Believe it or not, I started as an intern. Really!

Interview and photo by Thomas Mulready

The 31st Cleveland International Film Festival runs through 3/25. See Cool Cleveland for picks, features and previews. http://www.ClevelandFilm.org

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