By Dennis O’Neil
The fifth annual Lebowskifest, a fan convention centering around the 1997 Coen Brothers film, “The Big Lebowski,” took place Sept. 29-30, at the Executive Bowl in Louisville.
The festival is a self-proclaimed “celebration of all things Lebowski,” as its happenings center completely around various pieces of iconography and dialogue from the film. Various fans (or “achievers” as they are referred to in Lebowski lingo) showed up to participate in bowling contests, dress up as characters from the film, quote its endlessly funny dialogue, and drink in honor of the Dude, the film’s unkempt and slackeriffic stoner hero played by Jeff Bridges.
The festival was founded and is annually organized by Will Russel and Scott Shuffitt, two Louisvillians who wanted to make their fan boy passion into a communal affair, following in the footsteps of Star Trek.
“We would constantly quote lines from the film after band practice and while selling t-shirts at different events,” said Russel. “We figured that if they could have this tatoo convention that we were vending, why can’t we have a Big Lebowski convention? We decided to hold it in a bowling alley and it sounded like so much fun that we just went for it. We thought only about 20 of our friends would come but we wound up having like 150 people.”
And the festival only grew from there. Since that first foray, there have been Lebowskifests in New York, Los Angeles, Las Vegas and Austin as well as Louisville, with more and more Achievers coming out to celebrate their favorite film, along with occasional celebrity appearances by Lebowski cast members such as Jeff Bridges and Peter Stormare.
But Lebowskifest also had an interesting offshoot this year, as the Univeristy of Louisville English Department put together an academic symposium set to examine the Lebowski fan cult as well as the film itself. Panelists for the symposium included Joe Morgenstern, a Pulitzer prize winning film critic for the Wall Street Journal, as well as film critic and author, Alan Dale, and film historian and Coen friend, William Preston Sturges.
“There has been a lot of attention to the way in which texts are consumed and how people make use of art,” said symposium organizer Dr. Aaron Jaffe, “and here we have, for Louisville, something very interesting happening which is seeing a fan phenomenon be born, and it is worth thinking about how that is happening.”
The symposium wasn’t just a critical examination of the Lebowski fan phenomenon, but it also provided a unique ground on which fan culture and academic culture could meet. On Saturday afternoon, dozens of Achievers flocked into the Scots Room of the Executive West Hotel to listen to a panel discussion featuring Dale, Morgenstern and Robertson as they discussed their likes and dislikes of “The Big Lebowski,” as well as getting input from the audience about why the film appeals to them and why they love it so much.
“[The conference] isn’t about making [“The Big Lebowski”] into a pompous thing,” said Jaffe, “but is largely about celebrating it, and talking about [the film] and seeing what else that we can learn about [the film].”
The festival continued the cult phenomenon that has sprung up around the film following its lukewarm reception from audiences and critics upon its initial release.
Other events from the festival included performances of the film’s soundtrack by several local bands at the local radio station WFPK, as well as a Waterfront Park screening of the film along with another Coen classic, “Raising Arizona.”
“I think people really enjoy being amongst their kind,” said Russel. “We’re not saving lives or affecting social change with Lebowskifest, we just hope that people have a great time and they do!” To learn more, visit http://www.lebowskifest.com.
