Film Festivals

The Boston Palestine Film Festival opened with an intense set of films on October 4th at the Museum of Fine Arts (MFA), Boston. The festival, in its second year, screened over 60 films in seven venues throughout the Greater Boston area to commemorate the 60th anniversary of the Nakba, the beginning of the Palestinian refugee crisis spawned by the 1948 Palestine War. At the MFA, the presentation was decidedly unfussy, and the films were preceded by a serious discussion of the film, Maria’s Grotto.

The Boston Jewish Film Festival (BJFF), held from November 5-16, celebrates its 20th year with over 60 screenings and 35 panelists in nine locations. This year, under the guidance of new artistic director, Noa Rembiszewski, the festival embarks upon an ambitious program with the overarching theme of viewpoints from Generation X.

Despite a long history of attracting regional filmmakers to an event that festival organizers say has helped Northampton, MA earn the distinction of being named a top “Small Arts Destination Town,” an acute funding crisis has almost cancelled this year’s Northampton Independent Film Festival (NIFF).  Through the stewardship of the festival board and the support of its sponsors (notably Comcast and WGBY), this year’s festival will be read more...

What do you do if your two biggest passions in life are movies and biking? Well, if you are Cat Bryant you combine the two, naturally.  And so was born the Boston Bike Film Festival, the fourth version of which hits the Brattle Theatre in Cambridge on October 17-18.  

Friday June 5 at 7:30pm
OUT OF THE PAST (dir. Jeff Dupre, USA 1997, 65 min.) This is a profile of seventeen-year-old Kelli Peterson who attempted to form a Gay-Straight Alliance at her Salt Lake City high school in 1997. Her efforts were suppressed by her community and ultimately, the Utah State Legislature. Peterson's struggle frames portraits of several lesbian and gay figures obscured by mainstream history. This evening will benefit the Connecticut Pride Committee.
Filmmaker will be present.

A new wrinkle at 13th Nantucket Film Festival -- which
usually reserves its kudos for the unsung craft of screenwriters -- was the
Compass Rose Acting Tribute awarded to Meg Ryan, who is back into romantic
comedy big-time, having shot four in the past year, including The Women,
which wrapped this spring in Boston, and a festival selection, The Deal,
a keen movie-industry satire co-written by actor William H. Macy and director
Steven Schachter.  The two longtime collaborators -- who are now working on a

Despite its modest beginning – the 'convergence' of 20 artists in Roger Williams park in 1987 – the arts festival celebrating the summer solstice has grown steadily. Tens of thousands of people flocked to Providence in 1997 to view the works of more than 100 artists, and this June visitors will be able to enjoy contemporary art, theater, dance, music and the subject of this article: film.

Although it was going to be a night of student films (which
can sometimes fall under cruel and unusual punishment), I was buoyed by the name
of the event -- Campus Movie Fest.  When I was a student at
Emerson College back in the early 90s, people used the term “film” far too
much.  I still cringe a bit when I hear it.  To me, film is the physical
material that passes through the camera; I like movies.  And it seems that both
the creators of and the participants in last Saturday’s screening do, too.   

In my first night leading the team Little Plum Pictures in the 208 Boston 48
Hour Film Project, my hope is for everyone to have some fun and for us not to
create the worst movie ever made. So far so good, the genre I drew
was "thriller/suspense' which means I dodged 'historical fiction' and 'musical or
western'. 

As in past years, the 2008 Berkshire International Film
Festival boasts a broad line-up of docs, narratives, features and shorts.   The
festival also honors special guest Kevin Bacon with the annual Achievement in
Film Award on Friday May 16th. 

So it turns out when you only have 48 hours to make a film, you don't have a
whole lot of time for blogging.  Hence my silence til the end.
After an action-filled weekend of organizing, shooting and editing, I can
confidently say we accomplished my goal of having fun.  Having done this
project a few years back in New York, I definitely think this time around was
smoother, more relaxed and organized, and ultimately we were able to create a
pretty decent film.

Each year, in January and February, buzz spreads through
the film and television industry about the Golden Globes and the Academy
Awards.  Something similar happens each January and February on the campus of
Boston University, but the buzz is not about which Hollywood hits will take home
top prizes rather who will triumph at BU’s annual Redstone Film Festival. 

This Just In

Actors Mick Hoegen and Fran Richmond, co-chairs of the Boston AFTRA/SAG Independent Film Committee (a sub-committee of the Boston AFTRA/SAG Organizing Committee) will take questions on breaking into the indie film scene as an actor at a free discussion on January 8th, 7 pm, at the Borders book store in Providence Place.   Hosted by Toni Pennacchia of spoileralertradio.com and Adam Short, RIIFF's producing director.   

Josh and Seth Gass are young independent filmmakers who grew up in Bangor, ME and moved to Los Angeles to pursue their dream of producing movies.  They established the Shadow Puppets Entertainment company and produced their first feature film, The Mushing Mill (2004), for $100,000 in and around the city of Bangor. 

Why do we love the movies so much?  Why do certain stories or characters stay with us to be evoked days, sometimes years later?  What makes us use movies as anchors of reference for personal experience or points of departure for creative endeavors?  Why do we prefer to sit in a darkened, dreamlike theatre rather than with a DVD in our own home?  How do movies interweave with our own personal histories and arouse deep and powerful identifications that get absorbed into our sense of self?
read more...

On thousands of college campuses across the country and the world, students diligently write, shoot, and edit films. Often, the next step is to take these films onto the film festival circuit, but student filmmakers have trouble getting exposure at tremendously competitive fests such as Sundance, Slamdance, Telluride, and many others.  

The Boston Science Fiction Film Festival (SF32) will run all 24 hours from Feb 18-19 at noon for non-stop sci-fi film madness. There will be between 12 and 14 feature films, some cartoons, older movie trailers, and film shorts. This year's festival marks its 32nd incarnation.

The line up this year includes Dark Star, Forbidden Planet, Monster House, Slither, Metoroporisu/Metropolis among others.

This month, the Artists’ Exchange, a non-profit organization and artists’ collaborative in Rhode Island, hosts its first short film festival. The festival, a two-day event that will be held at the Artists’ Exchange in Cranston, RI from January 19-20, 2007, focuses on local filmmakers in New England and includes all categories of short film, including narrative shorts, trailers, and music videos.

Leonardo DiCaprio and Martin Scorsese, architects of the new crime drama The Departed, turned out for the First Annual Roma CinemaFest, held from October 13-21, delighting Italian movie fans and paparazzi alike.

Learning to navigate the film festival circuit is challenge for even the most seasoned filmmaker. However, if you are looking for theatrical distribution, or if want to garner any kind of significant response from reviewers, or get any attention for your film in the international arena, knowing which festivals your film has any chance of being selected for is a must.

On a mild week in June, filmmakers, press, industry professionals and Rhode Islanders gathered for the 9th Annual Newport International Film Festival. The Festival attracted over thousands to daily panel discussions, parties, special events, and over 100 screenings, the majority of which included Q&A sessions with the filmmakers.

If you're headed to Park City this January, skip the slopes and catch some of the films screening at the 2006 Sundance Film Festival.  We've scoured the list for a handful of shorts, docs and features that have New England connections.  For more information on these films and for screening dates and times, visit http://festival.sundance.org. Also be sure to check out the roster at the 2006 Slamdance Film Festival (www.slamdance.com) read more...

Contrary to what its name implies, the S.N.O.B. (Somewhere North of Boston) Film Festival is not exclusive. In fact, with its low entry fees for filmmakers, reasonable ticket prices and congenial atmosphere of "film, food and conversation" one would call it inclusive. This year’s festival will showcase forty films from around the world and around the corner to fulfill its aim to bring alternative films to central New Hampshire audiences.

Benjamin Fowlie, a 2003 Emerson College graduate has been busy preparing for the September 29th opening of the first annual Camden International Film Festival. Fowlie, a former Boston-based independent producer and director decided to choose a path different from many other film school grads. Rather than move to L.A. after graduation, Fowlie chose to follow his calling, and return to his hometown of Camden, Maine to create and organize a festival dedicated to honoring independent documentary filmmakers around the world.

New England was well represented in Park City this January; both the Sundance and Slamdance Film Festivals showcased features and documentaries with ties to the East Coast. There were all kinds of reasons to trek to Utah last month (besides hoping for a chance encounter with a Hilton sister); dozens of films screened for eager audiences, filmmakers crossed their fingers in hopes of picking up prizes or being picked up for distribution. Representatives from other festivals flocked to check out the goods and scout potential selections. read more...

If you're making your way out to Park City this month, be sure to check out some of the local films (and filmmakers) being celebrated through the many festivals in the Beehive State (yes, Utah).

What better way to celebrate progressive cross-cultural encounters than to hole up inside the house each winter? Well, the annual Margaret Mead Film and Video Festival offers a slightly better-informed alternative. Now in its 28th year, the festival screens new works in the un-genre of ethnographic (or "cross-cultural" or "inter-cultural" or "anthropological" or simply "documentary") film, a field that, since the 1960s, has defined itself by stretching its own boundaries, read more...