Divergent developments in Plymouth
Elsewhere, film fests and tributes keep on rolling
Given the number of film festivals in the region - more than 50 by our count - it's encouraging that so many manage to find audiences. And it really shouldn't be startling when one goes down.
Still, news that the Plymouth Independent Film Festival won't be taking place later this month comes as something of a surprise. The festival went strong for three years. It celebrated its second birthday last year with an impressive showing that brought together documentary filmmaking bigwigs Richard Leacock, D.A. Pennebaker, Albert Maysles, and Robert Drew, put a spotlight on environmental films, and hosted Jan Schlichtmann, the real-life attorney depicted by John Travolta in "A Civil Action." In 2007, it partnered with Plimoth Plantation to show the movies there.
Lisa Mattei, who served as the festival's director and president, says that the problem was getting enough people to take on all the work for another year. She says in an e-mail that the festival was shut down "based on not having certain roles and responsibilities filled. Although we had many fantastic volunteers, there were certain areas that no one had interest in, so the burden fell on one or two people."
Grace Gannon, who did public relations for the event, says, "I hated to see it end, especially now that 'Hollywood East' (Plymouth Rock Studios) is going to be locating in the town."
Plymouth Rock Studios is a major project in development by former Paramount Pictures president David Kirkpatrick and former Paramount Studios head Earl Lestz. They're planning to spend a lot of money - they've said $422 million - to build a 1.26 million-square-foot campus featuring 14 sound stages, back lots, a multipurpose theater, a hotel, and offices. Massachusetts doesn't currently have a large film stage.
Plymouth Rock announced earlier this month that it has a deal to purchase the Waverly Oaks Golf Club in Plymouth and will build the complex there. Information about the plans is at plymouthrockstudios.com.
There was never a relationship between the festival and the studio development plan, and it's an ironic coincidence that as one project is picking up steam in the coastal town, another is going down.
The film festival's website (plyfilmfest.org) is a virtual ghost town that lists 2007 information and proclaims, forlornly, "2008 Submissions information coming soon!"
Mattei says all might not be lost. Since word got out that the festival is not happening, a few people have expressed interest in jumping in, she says.
"We are trying to hold the waterfront screenings and there may be a lifeline," she says. "It is too early to tell."
MAINE FEST: Of course, hope does spring eternal among festival organizers, and even little Waterville, Maine, has its own international project, the Maine International Film Festival. The festival, founded in 1998, is run by the Maine Film Center.
The 10-day program opened this weekend and features nearly 100 movies, with a spotlight on filmmakers based in Maine and New England. It will give its 2008 Mid-Life Achievement Award to actor and director John Turturro.
Among the highlights is a special preview of "A Sense of Wonder," a 54-minute film about Rachel Carson, author of the 1962 environmental classic "Silent Spring." Directed by Christopher Monger ("The Englishman Who Went Up a Hill But Came Down a Mountain"), it was shot on Southport Island on the Maine coast, near the cottage where Carson lived. Haskell Wexler, who won Academy Awards for his work on "Bound for Glory" and "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?", is the film's director of photography. Stage actress Kaiulani Lee, who has been touring with a show based on Carson's life for several decades, plays Carson and will be at the screening, which takes place Wednesday at 6:30 p.m. A trailer is online at asenseofwonderfilm.com, and full festival information is at 207-861-8138 and miff.org.
SCREENINGS OF NOTE: A tribute to Bette Davis (who would have turned 100 this year) opens at the Brattle Theatre this week and runs through Aug. 26. Davis movies will be shown on Mondays and Tuesdays. This week's offering: "All About Eve" (617-876-6837 and brattlefilm.org).
The National Down Syndrome Congress's annual convention is at the Seaport World Trade Center this weekend, and documentaries about the genetic condition are part of the schedule. Today at 10 a.m. it's "The Child King," with a post-screening meet-and-greet with star Peter Johnson, a South Shore resident, writer Jeff Kerr, a Massachusetts resident, and Frank Kerr, the director. The story has a young man with Down syndrome in the role of the hero: He decides he has to take his little brother to the North Pole to find Santa Claus. A trailer is online at thechildking.com. Convention information is at ndsccenter.org.
The Boston French Film Festival continues at the Museum of Fine Arts this week. Among the options: "Hunting and Gathering," with "Amélie" star Audrey Tautou as one of four young adults who are intertwined in love and friendship (tonight at 7:30); "48 Hours a Day," by Catherine Castel, about a career woman who tries the most un-French of things: get her husband to do more stuff around the house (Thursday at 2:30 p.m.), and "Actresses," directed by actress Valeria Bruni-Tedeschi, which sounds like a French variation on the Bette Midler/Barbara Hershey movie "Beaches": a 40-something, successful, single actress meets a woman who gave up that career to get married and have children, and both end up yearning for what the other now has. It plays Friday at 6 p.m. (617-267-9300 and mfa.org/film).
Leslie Brokaw can be reached at lbrokaw@globe.com.
