A world of features and shorts
International festivals come to Boston, Newport
The Independent Film Festival of Boston may have blown out of town, but two other area fests soon arrive to keep movie marathoners happy.
The Boston International Film Festival is back for its second year. With a stated goal to "encourage and support the work of worldwide independent filmmakers," the festival starts Friday and runs through June 14, with 118 shorts and features including work from some 30 countries, all screening at the AMC Theatres on Boston Common.
"The goal of the festival is to bring the world community here to Boston, to share all those movies that the people of Boston, which has a diverse community, can relate to," said director and founder Patrick Jerome. All films are Boston-area premieres, according to Jerome.
Among the highlights is "Road to Ingwavuma," which documents the journey of a delegation of American artists and entertainers - Carlos Santana, Samuel L. Jackson, Alfre Woodard - as they encounter "the heart of post-apartheid South Africa." The film makes its world premiere at the festival, as does "Walls Have Ears," Jerome's own film from his Bway 7 Productions company, about a man winning a $2 million lottery, and the repercussions after his wife's niece seeks refuge from an abusive husband.
The festival features work from 30 countries, up from 25 least year, and runs one day longer than in 2007. Countries represented include Brazil, Japan, Canada, Israel, and Senegal. The United States is also included, not to mention several Boston filmmakers, such as Mark Ezovski, whose "Across Dot Ave" is about a former skinhead punk, now a Wall Street stock broker, returning to Dorchester to face his troubled past and family. Stars expected in attendance are Tom Arnold (whose "This Is Not a Test" opens the fest alongside "Road to Ingwavuma"), Michael Madsen ("Being Michael Madsen"), and Forest Whitaker ("The Ripple Effect").
One unusual feature: the Boston International Film Festival is organized by session, none longer than two and a half hours, with a feature and shorts bundled together, generally of the same country of origin. All films have English subtitles. Schedule and ticket info: bifilmfestival.com, 617-482-3900.
The Newport (R.I.) International Film Festival, which runs Tuesday through next Sunday, is more about highlighting festival faves than discovering unseen films or making distribution deals, said Eric Bilodeau, director of programming. "Bringing festival winners to the area is a must for me," he said, citing one of his picks, Sundance's best drama winner "Frozen River." "These would not come to the area otherwise." Another such film, "my little gem," Bilodeau said, is "Wellness," "a dark film, that appeals to my morbid side." It's from Providence filmmaker Jake Mahaffy and won the Grand Jury Award at South by Southwest for narrative feature. The plot concerns a traveling salesman who's been cheated after dumping his life savings into a pyramid scheme.
Newport's schedule includes 19 features, 18 documentaries, 27 shorts, and a children's program. Mary Stuart Masterson will present her directorial debut, "The Cake Eaters." Also in attendance, the subject of the film "Man on Wire," Philippe Petit, the tightrope walker who illegally walked between the two towers of the World Trade Center in 1974. Another must-see is "Wade in the Water," a post-Katrina documentary that is a "passionate mixture of private videos, uncensored interviews, and school-day adventure" and shot by New Orleans children.
If at IFFBoston you missed the phenomenal "Life. Support. Music.," about local musician Jason Crigler's survival after a brain hemorrhage, or the Werner Herzog Antarctica documentary "Encounters at the End of the World," both will screen at Newport. See newportfilmfestival.com or call 401-846-9100 for schedule and tickets.
FILMMAKER IN ATTENDANCE: Ever since making his reputation with his debut feature film, "Dragon's Chow" ("Drachenfutter"), in 1987, German filmmaker Jan Schütte has become known for his portraits of immigrants and émigrés in places such as Germany, Poland, the Netherlands and the United States. His new film, "Love Comes Lately," adapted from stories by Isaac Bashevis Singer, screens in a special sneak preview at the Harvard Film Archive June 2. The film was based on one of Schütte's previous shorts, "Old Love," which screened at the HFA in 2006. Schütte will be there in person to present the film.
REUNION WEEKEND: Screenings at the Brattle celebrate anniversaries of four great films. This year marks the 50th anniversary of "Touch of Evil" (with the late great Charlton Heston as a Mexican cop) and "Cat on a Hot Tin Roof"; both screen June 6-7. Feting their 25th this year are "Zelig" and "Monty Python's The Meaning of Life"; both screen June 8.
ALSO LOOKING AHEAD: The MFA Film Program presents the work of self-taught filmmakers Pan Nalin and Natasha De Betak Saturday through June 14. Nalin's first feature, "Samsara," collected several awards. He has since made the documentary "Ayurveda: The Art of Being" and "Valley of Flowers," all inspired by travels he made with his collaborator, Natasha De Betak, in India, France, Hungary, Russia, and New York. De Betak's "Kaal" and "Speaking Tree" will also be on view.
On Thursday and June 15, the MFA shows Rachel Talbot's documentary "Making Trouble," which profiles Jewish female comedians Molly Picon, Fanny Brice, Sophie Tucker, Joan Rivers, Gilda Radner, and Wendy Wasserstein. The film is produced by the Brookline-based Jewish Women's Archive and a discussion with Laura Antler, project director at the Jewish Women's Archive, follows.
To get you into the "Just when you thought it was safe to go back in the water" summertime mood, the Brattle screens "Jaws," the classic monster shark shocker, on Saturday, with a discussion with Harvard film scholar JD Connor.
Ethan Gilsdorf can be reached at ethan@ethangilsdorf.com.
