Scott Boberg Joins the AAFF Team!

Published September 18, 2022

We are pleased to welcome Scott Boberg to the AAFF team! He started on August 18 as Deputy Director.

He has been an administrator, curator, and educator in non-profit arts organizations, including the Santa Monica Museum of Art, the University of Wyoming Art Museum, and the Detroit Institute of Arts. With a focus on contemporary film, music, and visual art, Boberg developed exhibitions as well as public program series at the Contemporary Arts Center, Cincinnati; the Aspen Art Museum; and the Toledo Museum of Art.

In Toledo, he presented a silent film and live music series, outdoor screenings, and exhibition-related film series on topics ranging from the automobile, dance, and elections to families, mummies, and Shakespeare. Born in Hollywood, Boberg studied film and poetry at the University of California, Berkeley.

Following AAFF’s model of recent years, Boberg answers a set of questions that has been adapted slightly for what will soon be (hopefully, fingers-crossed!) a post-pandemic world:

WHAT ARE YOU EXCITED TO DO IN YOUR NEW POSITION?

I am very excited to focus on film! I have been working in the arts for over thirty years, and film has always been an important aspect of the arts organizations in which I have been involved. Over the years I have worked part time at film festivals, organized film series, and created programs with filmmakers and film scholars, but film was only part of what I did. At AAFF, film has become the reason for everything I do, which is fantastic!

WHAT FILMS ARE YOU WATCHING NOW?

As one of nearly sixty screeners for AAFF, I love seeing what filmmakers have chosen to share with us, and while many would not be considered experimental, and thus not the best fit for this particular festival, I love finding that handful of shorts and features to recommend for the next round of consideration.

A few years ago I was a charter subscriber for the Criterion Channel but long before the company added a streaming platform, they were distributing films in physical form with spine numbers reflecting the order of their release, and I am helpless to resist a good list! After years of diligently watching them in spine number order, I have now made it to #673, Roberto Rossellini’s Stromboli with Ingrid Bergman. I am over halfway through Criterion's list but those rascals keep adding more!

CHOOSE A FILM TITLE FOR THE STORY OF YOUR LIFE

Mystery Train seems a fitting title to choose, not only because I enjoy Jarmusch’s films but the title also seems to capture this cultural train that I have been riding for decades, which has taken me from California to Wyoming to Ohio to Colorado to Michigan! Both my wife and I are from California, and while we met in Colorado, Michigan truly feels like our home. Unlike the characters in Mystery Train, though, I have yet to visit Memphis.

WHAT DOES YOUR WORK FROM HOME SETUP LOOK LIKE?

My AAFF laptop sits on a converted kitchen table that also doubles as my painting desk. I love that while I work I am surrounded by books and vinyl records and oddball objects collected over the years.

WHAT’S ON YOUR WORK FROM HOME SOUNDTRACK?

I recently have been listening a lot to David Byrne’s playlists, which are all over the musical map with an emphasis on new artists. I also love the playlist created by Ryuichi Sakamoto for the Kajitsu restaurant in New York that he frequented: he didn't like what they played so he did it for them! One of the artists who I have consistently listened to for most of my adult life is Harold Budd. I discovered his music when I was in high school, and I had the great fortune to work with him in Toledo in 2019. He died at the end of 2020 but his music remains a beautiful, vast sonic space at the center of my listening world.

WHO WOULD PLAY YOU IN A FILM ABOUT YOURSELF?

Once long ago I was standing in line at an artist-hangout cafeteria in Los Angeles. The young man behind the counter kept looking my way as I got closer, and when I finally reached his station he nervously asked if I was Fritz Coleman who at the time was a Los Angeles network meteorologist. Just as I was about to disappoint him, I heard a chuckle from behind me in line. I turned to find actor Rutger Hauer, still very much resembling Roy Batty, his character in Blade Runner, who must have been relieved not to be recognized for a change. As much as I would love to have been played by Rutger Hauer, I have to admit that I more closely resemble a weathercaster than a replicant, so I guess I will have to stick with Fritz.

IF YOU COULD HANG OUT WITH ANY FILMMAKER WHO WOULD IT BE AND WHAT WOULD YOU DO?

I would go back in time and visit Luis Buñuel in Mexico while he was filming The Exterminating Angel. We would go to a cafe for coffee but the conversation would never end because we wouldn’t be able to bring ourselves to leave.