The independent-film scene here in Miami has been anemic at best in the recent past. This is a major metropolitan area that, after all, has all of two dedicated independent/foreign movie theaters — one is on the campus of the University of Miami, and the other is in Miami Beach City Hall. Neither offers showings seven days of the week. The Miami Film Festival is a fairly large event, but it features mostly international filmmakers at events that are not even half-dedicated to film the rest of the year.

So, it’s not a good environment in which to nurture local filmmakers. Diehard born-and-bred local upstart Lucas Leyva, an early-twentysomething aspiring cinema auteur, has been trying to change that. Leyva’s annual Borscht Film Festival is a beacon of hope for other budding directors, with a focus on films solely about Miami. But not the cheesy Miami that usually is shown on TV. Instead, according to the festival’s mission statement, “Miami stories going beyond the typical 
portrayal of a beautiful but vapid party town, forging the cinematic identity of the city.”

Leyva and company are currently accepting submissions for the seventh edition of the festival, which is slated for some time in early 2011. This seems to be the most ambitious to date, according to the host of opportunities presented for would-be contributors. People can submit completed projects of course, but screenwriters without a director, and directors without a script, can be randomly paired up as well for a new collaboration.

The most exciting part to me is an inaugural project for musicians, in which local acts can sign up to score a filmmaker’s new, Miami-themed short. That’s the sort of artistic cross-pollination in which this town’s underground scenes specialize, but which we still need so much more of.

For fun, and not entirely related, here’s a new short film by Leyva, sponsored by Ford Fiesta and set in Miami, called Lombries (it’s about zombies, but I’m not sure where the title came from, exactly.)