Film Festival & Event Profiles

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.   

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. 

When critics, filmmakers, film lovers, and Frank Langella crowded into the Brattle Theater on January 20th -- braving the coldest day of the year so far -- there wasn’t talk of the writer’s strike, the cancelled Golden Globes, or the hordes of paparazzi that so frequently flank ceremonies of this ilk -- except, perhaps, when Langella thanked the Boston Society of Film Critics (BSFC) for naming him best actor and overlooking “the juggernaut of Daniel Day Lewis and George Clooney.” 

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?
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The scene was set... a humid Friday at dusk in Providence.  Teams of sweaty filmmakers huddled over small tables, their cameras charged to the very last bar, notebooks were lying in wait for that crystal clear idea.  Slowly, oh so slowly, genres were drawn from a hat -- then a character, a prop, and a line of dialogue.  And... they're off! 

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 first annual Ruff Cutz Indie Film Conference drew a diverse crowd of filmmakers and speakers from all over the country. It was a two-day festival and conference held the last weekend of February 2007 at the Holiday Inn in Brookline, MA. The conference opened with a series of speakers who discussed screenwriting, animation, film financing and distribution, casting, and other aspects relative to the independent filmmaker. Following the guest speakers, the conference showcased a selection of short independent films.

"I come to the world of archives as a producer," Steve Alves explained, introducing the company he works for, Footage Farm, to a group of documentary filmmakers. He spoke at the Coolidge Corner Theatre, where Connect the Docs, a support group for Boston based professional filmmakers, meets monthly.

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.

This month, the Berklee College of Music Learning Center  hosts an unusual event.  The Film Scoring Contest gives contestants (Berklee students only) approximately one month to score a 5-minute film.  The winner and runner-up will be announced during a showcase on Wednesday, April 19th.  NewEnglandFilm.com spoke with Ricardo Poza from the Learning Center to learn the ins and outs to the contest, the details on the accompanying industry networking event open to all, and what future collaborations might be in store with local filmmakers. 

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.

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.

Early on in the screenplay "Blind Spot," Suki, a mother and psychiatrist, is summoned to a Massachusetts prison to interview a convicted killer. The killer has psychic abilities, and it is no coincidence that Suki has come to meet her. The confrontation is an eerie foreshadowing of a taut, film noirish script in which Suki must battle mysterious forces to vindicate her daughter of a murder charge. "Blind Spot" is reminiscent of classic psychological thrillers such as "The Dead Zone" and read more...

On June 16th the New England Chapter of the Society of Motion Picture Engineers (SMPTE) held the Second Annual HD Boot Camp 2005 at Bunker Hill Community College. The event brought together members of the production and postproduction community to share knowledge and learn about the latest cameras and products for use in high definition production from a range of vendors and practitioners. Here are some highlights from the event.

HD Cameras from A-to-Z

On June 9, 2005, at Northeastern University, something happened in Boston that might never have occurred before. Though not quite as momentous as the Boston Massacre or a World Series Championship, area filmmakers, cinephiles, and students gathered for the first Boston Filmmakers’ Expo. The Expo was a tremendous success and should spawn an annual event that will grow stronger with each passing year.

When Improv Boston's Will Luera called me in April to offer me the chance to purge my filmmaking chops of years of rust and stunted ideas, I was totally flattered and emphatically interested. Sure, I went to film school (well, film studies, if you want to get technical), but besides a brief stint in wedding videography and a few weekend gigs as an art department assistant, my post-graduate filmmaking career was pretty short-lived and decidedly unglamorous. So I jumped at the chance to take Will up on his offer; to write a read more...