Movie stars ? they?re on television, in the papers, on billboards, and even on jars of spaghetti sauce. But what about the people who spend their lives chasing the stars? What do favour?

When it comes to film expert David Poland, there?s one thing we can say for sure ? he likes the burgers at Dorothy?s Cafe on Chancery Lane in Hamilton.

?Actually, I think I would make a very good food critic,? said Mr. Poland. ?When you travel all over the world, you figure out what restaurants are good in different cities.?

We met up with Mr. Poland at Dorothy?s Cafe while he was on the Island during the Bermuda International Film Festival (BIFF). Mr. Poland operates two major movie websites, www.hotbutton.com and www.moviecitynews.com. He also sits on the BIFF International Advisory Board.

?To get into the industry I did different things,? said Mr. Poland between burger bites. ?I was a script doctor. I found my way into the business. I always kept up with the trade, but I never wanted to write about what other people were doing. Somehow I ended up writing about what other people were doing.?

His daily column ?hot button? has a loyal following, and he enjoys the extra interaction that the Internet allows a writer to have with their audience.

?In an average day I will get 50 to 100 emails responding to whatever I am writing about, so there is a sense that it is not just me, because I bore myself,? said Mr. Poland. ?That is the thing that is great about it.?

Mr. Poland said he loves the film business, even if he never originally intended to spend his life writing about it.

?You have to respect the financial end of it that creates opportunities for artists to do what they do well,? he said. ?It is not a free business. It is not art; it?s not painting; its not writing a novel. You can?t ?just do it?, so you have to respect the way the business is.?

Mr. Poland spends at least 50 to 60 days a year at film festivals around the United States and the rest of the world.

?There are three film festivals I do every year,? he said. ?Bermuda joined that group a few years ago. I also go to the Sundance Film Festival and the Toronto Film Festival and then I look at other festivals that I want to try.?

Mr. Poland said in the six years that he has been attending BIFF, it has been getting ?better and better? programming-wise.

?Having it happen in Bermuda is an advantage in some ways, and a disadvantage in other ways, because it means people perceive it as being ?away?,? he said. ?There were a few more outstanding films in years past, but this year there was consistency across the board, and it is a really good group of films. Festival organisers have focused on things like going to the Rotterdam Film Festival rather than some of the more obvious festivals. They also get help from other people who organise film festivals.

?They are willing to get ideas, and the result is a very interesting and international festival.?

He said when he first starting attending BIFF it was common to watch a festival movie in a half empty theatre, but that is changing. ?You don?t see that anymore. For pretty much every show there is a full theatre. For Bermudian film-maker Lucy Spurling?s film ?Rare Bird? all three shows sold out. People seemed to really sincerely like ?Rare Bird?. I haven?t seen it yet, but I am going to.?

He said one thing that makes BIFF different from other film festivals is the audience?s level of excitement. ?One thing about Bermuda, the audience is incredibly enthusiastic,? he said. ?At the Sundance Film Festival, for example, most of the audience are people who have come to Sundance. Here it is mostly Bermudians in the theatre and they like the weird films. Every year BIFF programmes this stuff I say, ?I?m not sure how well real people are going to like that?, but they love it.

?Bermudian audiences have been shockingly sophisticated. People come out of these movies that we think are incredibly difficult and challenging and they say, ?oh that was the best movie in the festival. I hate all that normal stuff. The mainstream stuff is okay, but what we really like is stuff that is challenging and shocking and dark?. They love it. That is a great, unique thing about BIFF.?

Mr. Poland recently took part in BIFF event ?A Conversation with Michael Douglas?. Movie fans paid $100 to hear Mr. Poland interview Mr. Douglas. Mr. Poland said the conversation went very well.

?He was very relaxed, and pretty forthcoming, once we got into it,? said Mr. Poland. ?For the first few minutes you are feeling each other out, but I think there was a lot to discuss there. He is very aware of himself, so I was very pleased.?

Mr. Poland said Mr. Douglas was interesting to talk to, because he was a ?walking encyclopaedia? of film. ?He has worked with virtually everybody,? Mr. Poland said. ?Every major actor and top director has worked with him. He has never been in front of the camera with Francis Ford Coppola, but he worked behind the camera with him when he produced his last film. He keeps on challenging himself in ways he hasn?t had to. He hasn?t taken the easy road, ever.?

Mr. Poland said his two websites have helped him to establish ties with the film industry which allow him to get good interviews.

?There was a time when I did press junkets and things like that, but I have stopped doing that,? he said. ?People want me to meet their clients, or meet their talents and talk about themselves. My whole goal is to get to something other than ?didn?t you love working with Jennifer?, because everyone has done that. That is not very interesting. I am interested in who Michael Douglas is. I am interested in who Phil Hoffman is. I want to know the back story and the reality of what drives them. To make a movie is a very difficult and challenging thing. So I am really interested in what their personal story.?

Mr. Poland said that entertainment journalism is a reflection of the rest of journalism, but it often doesn?t get the respect it deserves.

?Entertainment journalism is at the lowest bar, because editors don?t take it as seriously as they take the rest, even though they rely on it to sell papers,? he said. ?It is the most important thing financially except for sport and yet the bar for the quality is lowest.

?Entertainment journalists aren?t nearly as well edited and they are not taken care of and all that.

?But I love what I do, and I love the business. It is important to me that people have a chance to discuss ideas in a real way. I love it when people email me and tell me I am wrong about a story. At least they have an opinion about what I am writing about.?