Cinema Café – Feb. 19th, 2011
What do you do in Beloit on the Saturday morning of the Beloit International Film Festival? That has been a perennial question for visitors and local residents who are engaged in all the exciting events of the four day festival. Well, ask no more.
This year, BIFF in cooperation with a score of BIFF Hospitality Partners in downtown Beloit, will launch Cinema Café from 10 am to noon on Saturday, February 19. Wake up with a filmmaker downtown on Saturday morning and it may change your life…or at least the films you watch the rest of the weekend. And there will be some great bargains to boot.
Date: Saturday Feb. 19th
Time: 10:00 am – Noon
Location: Downtown Beloit – multiple locations
More than 25 Beloit downtown retailers, businesses and organizations will welcome customers to breakfast and a special opportunity to talk with BIFF independent filmmakers. More than 100 filmmakers will be in attendance at this year’s BIFF and they will be on hand BIFF Saturday from 10 a.m. to noon to show clips of their films and discuss their work. Many will have copies of their films available for purchase. And this will be accompanied by breakfast treats and store specials provided by the businesses.
“Many businesses in the area have approached us after BIFF each year to discuss how they can be more involved and attract more of the thousands of visitors to their places of business,”, “Last fall, working with the Downtown Beloit Association, we invited business owners to come together with BIFF leadership to discuss a number of ideas we had for promotions throughout the year that would involve local merchants and organizations.
“Our primary focus was capturing the audience that is in place during the festival. Each year we heard that question about what to do on Saturday morning. We think this is a great opportunity and will build on established successful events like Art Walk in May and Holidazzle in December. This will offer another great reason to come downtown, and we know the businesses will take advantage of the opportunity.”
Cinema Café is sponsored by Kutter Harley-Davidson and the Hospitality Partners program is sponsored by the First National Bank. A large media campaign including major television advertising will encourage visitors and residents to visit Downtown Beloit that morning.
“This is a win-win situation for Beloit and a very exciting way to fill our great downtown shops in the middle of winter,” says David Siekierski of Bagels and More, a BIFF venue that is also a Hospitality Partner.
A complete list of participating businesses will be available before the event and will be published in the BIFF 2011 Program Book.
BIFF 2011, sponsored by The Hendricks Group of Beloit in association with Beloit College and with a grant from Visit Beloit, marks the sixth year for the independent film festival. Approximately 140 films will be shown during the four day event, Feb 17-20. Information is available at www.beloitfilmfest.org.