A big festival in Little Rhodie
The Ocean State will showcase nearly 300 films
The Rhode Island International Film Festival may be a little far afield of Boston, but it always offers an impressive lineup and earns its spotlight each year. Opening on Tuesday, the six-day program this year includes 289 movies selected from 3,000 submissions - 33 feature narratives, 67 documentaries, and nearly 60 world premieres. That's a whole lotta movie.
Actor John Ratzenberger, who does the voices of many characters in
Thirty-three hundred is a lot of seats to fill, though, so the festival uses the space as an opportunity to partner with nonprofits throughout Rhode Island. It's giving away 1,000 tickets for groups to use for fund-raising and marketing. In turn, the festival gets introduced to new audiences. It's an idea that's clever and generous at the same time.
"We want [more people in the community] to discover something beyond the next Hollywood sequel and to take a risk in supporting independent filmmakers," says George T. Marshall, RIIFF executive director.
Ratzenberger's latest feature film, "The Village Barbershop," will play Wednesday at 7 p.m. at the Columbus Theatre Arts Center. It's the story of a Reno barber (Ratzenberger) who finds companionship with a pregnant woman (Cindy Pickett) who lives nearby.
Other highlights include "The Greening of Southie," Ian Cheney and Curt Ellis's look at the construction of the Macallen Building, a luxury condo tower in South Boston being built from recycled steel, sustainable hardwoods, and wheatboard cabinetry. The filmmakers trace the materials for the "green" building to their sources, and detail what goes swimmingly and what not so well in the construction (Saturday at 11 a.m. at the Columbus Theatre Arts Center).
"Guest of Cindy Sherman" is director Paul H-O's 15-year project documenting his initial series of interviews with the artist, their subsequent romance, and thoughts from New York art-world big-wigs Eric Bogosian, Danny DeVito, and Ingrid Sischy (Thursday at 7 p.m. at Courthouse Center for the Arts and Saturday at 4:30 p.m. at Cable Car Cinema). "Garrison Keillor: The Man on the Radio with the Red Shoes" goes behind the scenes at "A Prairie Home Companion" (Friday at 7 p.m. at the Columbus Theatre Arts Center).
"Santa Claus in Baghdad," a 38-minute film by Massachusetts-based Raouf Zaki, was filmed nearly entirely in Massachusetts last year, with locales doubling as Baghdad spots (Saturday at 11 a.m. at Columbus Theatre Arts Center).
Actor Richard Jenkins, currently in theaters starring in "The Visitor" and who played the father in "Six Feet Under," will be presented with the George M. Cohan Ambassador Award for excellence. The award is given to artists affiliated with Rhode Island. Jenkins spent 15 years at Rhode Island's Trinity Repertory Company and was artistic director there for four years. In addition, Jenkins appeared in movies made by Rhode Island directors Peter and Bobby Farrelly - "There's Something About Mary" and "Me, Myself & Irene."
Blythe Danner will be given the Creative Vision award. Danner stars as a marina artist and sailor in "Side by Each," which was filmed in Rhode Island.
The awards ceremony will begin Saturday at 7 p.m. at the Columbus Theatre Arts Center before the screening of "Side by Each."
The Rhode Island Film Forum will be held Thursday and Friday at the URI Feinstein Campus. The program focuses on what's involved in shooting a film in Rhode Island and the state's tax credit and resources.
Festival director Marshall says the strength of the regional film industry is something that states should work together on.
"As the dust settles over the various tax incentives promoted by each state to lure in film productions, it becomes increasingly important that the New England states begin pooling resources and taking a regional approach to bring in big ticket productions," he says. "The one thing that has become apparent is that the film festival environment has gained increasing significance as a launching pad for independent and smaller budgeted films."
If there's any downside to the festival, it could be that it's so big. With screenings and events at more than a dozen locations and 15 different "sidebar programs" (the KidsEye International Film Festival and the Providence Jewish Film Festival among them), it's hard to wrap your arms around all the options. The website is a little unwieldy, too. On the other hand, a glut of options is a problem that most festivals should be so lucky to have.
Information about the full schedule is online at RIFilm Fest.org, or call 401-861-4445.
SCREENINGS OF NOTE: "Casablanca" in a double feature with "Play It Again Sam" at the Brattle Theatre today at 3:15 and 7:15 p.m. and Monday at 7:15 p.m. in celebration of Casablanca restaurant's 30th birthday (617 876-6837 and brattlefilm.org) . . . "The Mourning Forest," Naomi Kawa-se's story of an elderly man in a nursing home and the nurse who befriends him, and winner of the Grand Jury Prize at the 2007 Cannes Film Festival, on Friday at 8:15 p.m. at the Museum of Fine Arts as part of a program of new Japanese cinema (617-267-9300 and mfa.org/film) . . . And a free screening of Federico Fellini's "La Strada" at the Brattle on Saturday at 11 a.m. as part of the Elements of Cinema program.
Leslie Brokaw can be reached at lbrokaw@globe.com.
