TAMPA BAY FILM
The Tampa Film Review
This is the official Tampa Bay Film section for The Tampa Film Review monthly film festival. As we add reviews and event coverage pages, they will be accessible from here.
The following review synopsis of The Tampa Film Review is the opinion of Tampa Bay Film and C. A. Passinault.
The Tampa Film Review was a
monthly film festival by Paul Guzzo and Pete Guzzo (Guzzo Bros Films),
formerly of 1 day films and TOO Productions, from January 2006 to January
2009. It was a rebrand and a continuation of the Coffeehouse Film Review
of 2004 (actually, December 2003, but this is debatable) to October of
2005. All of The Tampa Film Reviews were held in various venues and shops
in Ybor City. As a monthly film festival, The Tampa Film Review featured
short films, with an occasional feature film shown, and most of the films
were independent films; The emphasis on independent films was the best
thing about The Tampa Film Review.
Of course, that reliance upon independent films, mainly indie films made
in the Tampa Bay area, meant that beggars could not be choosers, especially
at a time when there were few independent filmmakers. With few independent
films to pick from, there were no quality controls, and the audience at
each TFR had to take the bad films with the few good ones which played.
This made some events an unbearable bore.
Another thing about The Tampa Film Review, and the largest drawback, were
the technical problems that it was plagued by, especially audio problems.
Although these were pointed out by more than one person, they were never
fixed. This probably had to do with the organization of the film festivals,
too. It was obvious that, while Paul Guzzo was a good writer, and his
brother Pete was a good filmmaker, that they were not good event planners.
The Tampa Film Review would have been much better if they had staffed
the events with a core group of volunteers who were actually qualified,
and good, at the areas that the Guzzo brothers were deficient in. Whether
as a result of ego or simply poor management, the film festivals suffered
because of their shortcomings.
Nolan Canova and his staff at Crazed Fanboy put the “review”
in The Tampa Film Review, and they were not only extremely reliable, attending
every event, but did a great job covering The Tampa Film Review and reviewing
the films. Throughout the years, Nolan was joined by reviewers Terence
Nuzum, Chris Woods, John Miller, and even C. A. Passinault for several
events. Without the coverage and the reviews from Nolan and his team,
The Tampa Film Review would have been a total loss, in our opinion.
Dan Brienza, of the 2nd generation Tampa Film Network and the Florida
Film Network, brought networking to The Tampa Film Review. These were
successful, although lacking, and they were never as good as their potential
suggested.
A controversial aspect of The Tampa Film Review was whether or not it
existed to promote the independent films that it showed and intended to
advance independent film in Tampa Bay. For simply screening independent
films for an audience and reviewing those films, it succeeded. As a platform
for promoting independent film and advancing the indie film scene, however,
it failed, although its potential was exactly that. That is what is should
have done.
Ultimately, The Tampa Film Review failed, and it had issues which could
not be overcome (we will explain details which support this conclusion
in the reviews). Despite being a over hyped failure, however, it had its
moments. The Tampa Film Review had its fun events, and it will be missed.
There were other film festivals which came after The Tampa Film Review,
but which lost its passion and support for independent films; attention
went from Tampa Bay independent filmmaking and indie films in general
to promoting Hollywood movies, celebrities, and in marketing the Tampa
Bay area as a production location for big budget Hollywood movies, which
undermines independent film in Tampa Bay (The Guzzo Bros should have seen
this coming, and fixed the TFR while fiercely fighting for independent
film. Instead, they did the opposite, and both of them helped start the
Gasparilla Film Festival; in our opinion,, selling out independent filmmakers
whom they claimed to support). With our opinion being that the Gasparilla
International Film Festival is more focused on movie premiers and celebrities
from Hollywood using the Tampa Bay area as a location, and the Sunscreen
Film Festival, while more independent film-friendly, is more about selling
expensive filmmaking workshops, we lost something good with the loss of
The Tampa Film Review. We lost our independent film support, which was
important, despite the flaws of that support.
The Tampa Film Review, in our opinion, looked like a success in spite
of itself, and not because of anything that it actually did, and it merely
revealed an audience for independent film, and a need for what it was
supposed to do. The final Tampa Film Review film festival event in January
2009 was celebrated as a success by its captive audience, but we disagree
with that verdict. In our opinion, the Guzzo brothers grew frustrated
with dwindling audiences, film submissions, shifting venues, the perception
of the lack of support, and growing criticism, and instead of fixing what
was wrong and forging on, they gave up. In our opinion, the declaration
of “mission accomplished” was no more than spin, and it was
not an honest assessment.
It was not over, however.
Paul Guzzo attempted to restart the original Coffeehouse Film Review in
Davis Island in 2011, since he and his wife owned a Coffeehouse starting
around that time (and it is our opinion that it made sense to use it to
market their business and bring the people in), but it was never what
The Tampa Film Review was. It lost its review element, with no films being
reviewed, and it was flawed and poorly marketed. Guzzo soon changed the
name to Coffehouse Films for whatever reason, and the monthly event remained
obscure. At the time of this writing, we are not really sure if it still
exists, or if he gave up on that, too.
In 2013, C. A. Passinault took the essence of what The Tampa Film Review
was, which was a small film festival with a group reviewing the independent
films that were screened, and used that as the premise of the Sunburn
Film Festival, an underground, private film festival event with events
several times a year, and where a peer group of entertainment industry
professionals, models, and the target audience of independent films watched
and reviewed the films. Being an underground film festival, the locations
and the event dates of the Sunburn Film Festival are secrets, as they
are not public film festivals and the guests are invitation-only, but
the coverage of each Sunburn Film Festival event is equal to, and even
exceeds, other film festivals in Florida on Tampa Bay Film. The Sunburn
Film Festival events, although much smaller that most Tampa Film Review
film festivals, are superior in every way, as we will find out. The first
Sunburn Film Festival event is scheduled for Summer 2013, with an average
of six events a year.
03/23/13/1200 - 03/23/13/1200
TAMPA BAY FILM
The voice of Tampa Bay independent film.
© 2013 Tampa Bay Film. All rights reserved.
Tampa Bay Film - Films - News - Blog - Buzz - Media - Reviews - Risks - Jobs - Features - Resources - Contact
Tampa Bay - The Tampa Film Review
Tampa Bay Film Online Film Festival - Tampa Bay Film Showcase monthly film festival and professional networking event series - Revolution Film Festival - Reverence Film Festival - Tampa Bay Film Conference - Sunburn Film Festival - Tampa Bay Film Community
Revolution Class Web Site by Aurora PhotoArts Tampa Bay Photography and Design, a Passinault.Com company. Revolution Class 0001, commissioned 032313.1000 hrs.
Web Site Design by Aurora PhotoArts. Webmaster and Revolution Class site design by C. A. Passinault.
TAMPA BAY FILM SITE MAP
SITE UPDATE LOG
Please click the site update log link above for update information.
FILES REFRESHED ON SERVER
03/23/13/1200 -
© Copyright 2006-2013 Tampa Bay Film. All rights reserved.