Former Revere man’s movie to screen at Boston Film Festival

REVERE – Revere native and Los Angeles transplant Jonathan Salemi hadn’t yet completed his short film, “Sidewalk Symphony,” when it was selected to be shown at the Boston International Film Festival (BIFF), alongside 100 other independently made films.”I was home in Revere for Christmas last year and I brought a semi-finished copy of my movie home to show the family,” Salemi recalled. “Although it wasn’t completed, I took a chance and mailed it to the Film Fest at the post office on Broadway in Revere. I told the BIFF that the film wasn’t completed and the following list of elements were to be added to it. I feel very fortunate that they accepted my film, even though it was only 80 percent complete at the time.”The 8-minute film, which was chosen out of 2,500 submissions, was inspired by his technology-lite childhood.”I’m surrounded by so much technology nowadays that I sometimes don’t admire the beauty of the outside world,” Salemi said. “It’s only when I take a break from my computer or my phone that I realize there is another world outside my window.”At the time, Salemi had just finished making his first feature film, “Ante Up,” which he said “had some mild success.” Still, he said he felt he needed to prove that he could really tell a story by way of editing, writing visuals and overall directing values that he believed he did not fully utilize in the making of “Ante Up.””I wrote this story to not only inspire the younger generation to get up off the couch and go play outside, but for me to showcase those deeper filmmaking values I learned only after the feature was complete,” he said.”Sidewalk Symphony” is void of dialogue, which Salemi said allowed him to focus on the editing process as well as lens and camera blocking choices to make a more artistic film with “a commercial value that would really hit home with a lot of people.””I felt that since the film was very heavily driven by music and sound effects, the dialogue would pollute the film,” he said. “I’ve always admired how in John Ford, Sergio Leone and Spielberg films, there would be long scenes that would run for minutes on end without any dialogue. I felt that if I wanted to make longer films, I had to learn how to make a scene with no dialogue. I chose to conduct that experiment with an entire story.””Sidewalk Symphony” was shot on Kodak film because it gives the movie a color and feel that Salemi said cannot really be achieved with most digital cinema cameras. The film also has another bit of personal touch for the viewer to look out for.”There is one scene (in which) the main character is surrounded by people who have music, like iPods, Walkman’s and other musical devices, while he doesn’t. The very last song or voice you hear in the scene is my great uncle, a former post-Vaudeville performer, singing at a restaurant back in the 60s or 70s,” he said.The Boston International Film Festival, which strives to encourage and support worldwide independent filmmakers by promoting their products as art concepts and valuable contributions to world understanding, will run from April 16-25. Sidewalk Symphony will play on April 24 at 3:30 p.m. at the AMC Theater at the Boston Common. Tickets are $10 and can be purchased at www.bifilmfestival.com.