[1] While most of the films screened are commissioned specifically for the festival by the Borscht Corporation, they also accept works where the subject matter or filmmaker has some tie to South Florida.
[8] Over the years the festival grew from a small, one night underground screening of student films to an internationally recognized event that became influential in the world of independent film for its inspired programming and curation, supporting the early work of artists like Jillian Mayer, Barry Jenkins, Tarell Alvin McCraney, John Wilson, Terence Nance, Rachel Rossin, and more.
With most of the filmmakers attending schools out of state, and no place to showcase their movies locally, Leyva organized the first official Borscht Film Festival on December 30, 2005 at the Miami Shores Performing Arts Theater.
[2] They formed a collective with other like-minded artists under the CCCV (Roman numeral for 305, Miami's area code) banner and issued a manifesto.
[17] In 2009 they were able to procure support from a local pineapple-flavored soda called Jupiña and others to commission 5 original short films from filmmakers under the age of 30 (including the first screenplay by Tarell Alvin McCraney), each representing a different neighborhood in Miami.
The screening sold out the 1700-seat Gusman Theater in downtown Miami, with people attempting to scalp the free tickets to those waiting outside the over-capacity venue.
Other programming included a symposium on locally-based director Michael Bay at the fictional University of Wynwood, and a bike-in movie to see Medicine for Melancholy by Miami native Barry Jenkins at Sweat Records in Little Haiti.
The 23-year-old festival director accepted the award with the Knight Foundation logo shaved into his head, which convinced CEO Alberto Ibargüen to support them.
[25] With the funding, they created a free open call for Miami movie pitches and founded the Borscht Corporation to oversee production of the commissioned films.
Events featured a 15 foot tall piñata filled with adderall named James Francco, a campaign speech and performance by 2 Live Crew front man Uncle Luke (then running for Mayor of Miami-Dade), homemade robot battles in a thunderdome, and a stunt where in the month leading up to the festival, their offices became a public exhibition in a Wynwood art gallery where the staff of the fest lived and worked and visitors could observe them 24 hours a day.
[26][27][28][29] The main night took place at the Adrienne Arsht Center, where new films premiered before a capacity crowd of 1800, with an overflow line that snaked around the block to Biscayne Boulevard.
Suddenly, in a single season, the place is in favor of handing $150 thousand and professional resources over to the kind of heady, collective 23-year-old energy that dependably says, "F*** Hollywood.
[32] The collective broke through at Sundance 2012 with a remake of La Jetée by Mayer and festival director Lucas Leyva titled Life and Freaky Times of Uncle Luke.
[51][52] They also played footage of psychedelic sea life on the largest permanently established projection surface in North America, hypnotized filmmaker Amy Seimetz for a Q&A of her own film, and staged a "celebrity animal petting zoo" in an independent cinema.
[60] In addition to a new round of local short film commissions, including collaborations with local musicians Otto von Schirach, Blowfly, Jacuzzi Boys, and DJ Laz, they had invited guest filmmakers such as native Floridian Amy Seimetz, Adan Jodorowsky, Ray Tintori, Celia Rowlson-Hall, Julia Pott and others to collaborate on Miami-set films.
[61] Among them were the works by Seimetz, Rowlson-Hall, Bernardo Britto, and a musical by Mayer & Leyva which brought Borscht back to Sundance for a third consecutive year.
They were given control of a 13-story LED screen on the side of a building on Biscayne Bay, and used it to write existential messages directed at dolphins and manatees who might be reading from the ocean.
[65][66] They also hosted a machete fencing workshop, threw a fake Criterion Collection release party for a local con man, and built a large scale “theme park” based on their short films, complete with DIY rides, hydraulic sharks, and EKG-controlled carnival games.
[4] They also hosted a bodybuilding competition titled "Mr. Borscht," an outdoor screening of the Miami-set Ace Ventura designed for pets, a retrospective for fictional lothario Jose El Rey, and a laser light show in a planetarium dome narrated by Kool AD of Das Racist.
"[72][73] Rodriguez also made national waves as a filmmaker for his controversial shorts and his experiments transporting senior citizens to Cuba using an early Oculus Rift developer kit.
The public response was once again positive, with local journalists declaring the filmmaking boom in South Florida the "Miami New Wave," led by Borscht and the various independent cinemas, film companies, and organizations that emerged in their wake:"With its broad reach, user-friendly interactive events and atmosphere combining irreverence and serious art, Borscht has become the crown jewel in a now-burgeoning Miami filmmaking scene.
[91] Besides Moonlight, Borscht 9.5 premiered other feature films they were involved in developing, such as Celia Rowlson-Hall's MA[92] and Bernardo Britto's Jacqueline Argentine, as well as a new short by Sam Kuhn.
[104] Other events included an aquatic parade with Jet Skis, boats, and hovercraft to Stiltsville, a "time travel booze cruise," and a happening called "No New Waves" on an uninhabited island in Biscayne Bay accessible only by kayak, from which attendees could watch the film Waterworld as it played on a giant floating LED billboard, or wander to find smaller screens scattered amid the island’s trees showing short films, art installations or performances.
Elsewhere in the building visitors would find a live opera about tripping on mushrooms, a Bermuda Triangle ritual by Otto von Shirach, performances by Hot Sugar and Jacolby Satterwhite, and various installations including a new work by Rachel Rossin and a “George W. Bush Simulator” wherein the user lays in an actual bathtub and virtually inhabits the body of the former president as he peacefully works on a painting in his tub.
[105][106] Animal Collective’s performance was to be released as an audiovisual album titled Tangerine Reef, however it required rerecording as the Borscht crowd was too rowdy.
[110][111][112] At a series of talks, the festival director presented a PDF explaining how it was essential to purchase a speedboat as the first step in making a feature film.
Their final event was a block party to watch the Academy Awards on a giant inflatable screen and root for Moonlight in Liberty City, the neighborhood where most of the film takes place and from which the writer and director hail.
The audience began to leave only for the feed to resume just as the Moonlight filmmakers were accepting the award, which incited a euphoric celebration that lasted until the following morning.
Taking place November 15-24, 2019, Borscht 0 events included film screenings, multimedia performances, midnight puppet shows by Poncili Creacion, and inflatable art installations.
13 of Borscht Corp.'s core members and alumni—Bernardo Britto,[131] Lucas Leyva and Jillian Mayer,[36] Terence Nance,[132] Celia Rowlson-Hall,[133] Marnie Ellen Hertzler,[134] Barry Jenkins,[135] Alex Lim Haas,[136] Robin Comisar,[137] Sam Kuhn,[138] Faren Humes,[139] Keisha Rae Witherspoon[140] and Sebastián Silva[141]—have been named to Filmmaker Magazine's annual list of the "25 New Faces of Independent Film."