My Week at 3RFF 

When you think of Pittsburgh, you think of Sports: the Steelers, the Penguins, and the Pirates (we try not to think of them these days). There’s also of course the Riverhounds, who just won the USL Championship Final. Go Hounds! There’s even a big college sports team to support, the Pitt Panthers. All of these teams have their large arenas, stadiums, and parks which dominate entertainment in the City. So, it might surprise readers to learn there’s an entire film festival in Pittsburgh, all nestled away at the Harris Theater.

The Three Rivers Film Festival, named after our three rivers and takes place in the golden triangle (downtown Pittsburgh), is actually one of the oldest festivals in the U.S. The festival first started in 1982 just four years after Sundance was founded. Despite the name, the festival is international and accepts submissions from across the globe. This year I saw two foreign language films which we’ll get to. The festival is run by Film Pittsburgh a local non profit.

Pittsburgh and Southwestern Pennsylvania has a long tradition of film. One of the first nickelodeons was opened in the City. Everyone knows Mister Roger’s Neighborhood, but did you know George Romero and Michael Keaton both got their starts working on the show. Romero would later direct Night of the Living Dead shot around the region in 1968 and continued to film his movies in the City and surrounding area for the next decade and a half. Film in this City and the Pirates have something in common; you should’ve seen us in the 70s.

The festival is hosted around the City at the few independent theaters left. However, most of the events are held by the Harris Theater. The Harris is a small, single screen theater. Located on Liberty Avenue, it sits between Pittsburgh’s cultural arts center and a magic shop. Also down the street is a tobacco store, if that’s your vice. As someone who has lived in the region their entire life, I actually rarely go to this part of the City. There’s some nice restaurants and a few bars to hang out before a movie, but doing that on a Monday and Tuesday night isn’t super appealing to me so I usually went right to the movies after work.

The actual festival impressively spans 12 days from November 12th to the 23rd. However, I only went to 4 nights, sorry working full time really cuts into the time I could be watching movies. The festival has a special emphasis on indie film, so you’re not gonna see a movie with a huge budget like Marty Supreme or One Battle After Another making premieres at this festival. But, you are gonna see a lot of first time debuts for directors and their crews. While they might not get picked up for wide release or on streaming, it’s exciting to see what people can make on small or micro budgets. So, how were the movies?

The first feature I saw was CAPER, which was the only movie in English I saw this week. The film is about a group middle aged men trying to save a friend from embarrassment. When one of them sends a risky sext to a wrong number, the six friends conspire to… break into his boss’ apartment and steal her phone. The film then becomes kinda like After-Hours and also a standard heist movie with the exception that they are so…so incompetent. You can tell the movie is written by men and while that might be a turn off, there is enough self-awareness that the movie is redeemed. A lot of love was put into the film and that’s always something to appreciate. I was lucky to catch the q and a, with the director, actors and crew. If you happen to watch this movie, the van the guys ride around in was actively falling apart while shooting. The director had to hold the back of the van shut so the camera operator wouldn’t fall into the street.

Monday night, I saw The Secret Agent, Brazil’s submission for Best Foreign Language Film. The movie stars Wagner Moura as Marcelo/Armando, a former professor dodging hit men after refusing a bribe. The movie is tense and weaves several stories across multiple timelines. While I enjoyed watching the movie, I found the ending slightly too abrupt. There’s a couple subplots that are slightly too absurd to fit the rest of the movie, but this could also be something lost in cultural translation. I think watching films in foreign languages get a bad rep for being pretentious or arthouse. Every country has their own thrillers, blockbusters, and comedies.

Tuesday night, I saw Guess Who’s Calling, a french rom com and easily my favorite of the three. The film follows Baptiste an aspiring comedian/musical with a specialty in impersonations. Baptiste is hired by Pierre, a recluse writer, to take his calls and avoid his interpersonal conflicts by posing as Pierre over the phone. Baptiste predictably abuses this power and meddles in Pierre’s personal life. Surprisingly it all turns out well for him and the movie stays a low stakes comedy. Initially I found this to be contrived, but that’s the movies baby. If people could communicate properly, there’d be no story. It’s cute and definitely worth a watch if you can find it.

The last event I managed to attend was the premiere night for the Short Films. Last year, Film Pittsburgh held a separate film festival for short films, but this year the events were included in the main 3 Rivers Festival. This was also the first event with a sold out crowd, shout out to Film Pittsburgh! The premiere also included a drink ticket with Trace Brewing, a local queer-owned brewery, serving their new beer for the festival. It was an IPA which I know isn’t everyones first choice, but Pittsburgh is a beer town for better or worse.

If you’ve never seen short films in a theater, it’s a lot fun. Usually there’s seven or eight, depending on length, and they’re shown one after the other with a short break in between. It’s perfect if you’ve ruined your attention span scrolling all day. This selection ranged from 3 minutes to 20 minutes and there were some standouts. I wanna shout out Sticks, produced in Pittsburgh by Made Here Productions. A film that my friend described as “exactly like his grandfather.” One of my favorites, Night Session, stars Richard Kind (yes that Richard Kind), as a man allowing a burglar to rob him because he’s going though a divorce. Luckily for Richard, his burglar gives great advice.

One of the best parts of the festival, which I unfortunately couldn’t find online, was a clip that 3RFF played before each showing. It was a parody of the Nicole Kidman AMC ad, with a local actor saying “We come to the movies to support the Indies.” Every time it played it got a huge laugh and a few claps from people who I assume are AMC A list members.

As much as the 3 Rivers Film Festival is about showcasing independent films, it’s also very much about Pittsburgh. Local productions usually get a spotlight and attend their showings, and the sponsors of the festival are all local businesses. Even those traveling to attend their films’ premieres love talking to the small, but engaged audience. Even if you don’t particularly care about film, the festival is still a fun night out in November.