The Wednesday opening night party for MFF is always a special event, with the unique screening of selected short films foregrounded, rather than more common practice of opening with a prestigious feature film. This year’s opening was made extra special with a presentation video for the new Parkway Theater Complex planned for Station North in the old Parkway Theater building at Charles & North Avenue. Construction is slated to begin this fall. This may be a game changer!
The opening night shorts included CHARLOTTE, a devastatingly well-observed psychological study of two teenaged girls. The film was directed by local filmmaker Angel Kristi Williams. THE BAD BOY OF BOWLING (directed by Bryan Storkel) is a short doc that will make you understand the bowling scenes in The Big Lebowski in a new way. Director James M. Johnston’s MELVILLE vividly portrays the power of music in the face of personal adversity. SHARE is a canny, timely, and beautifully understated piece on the emotional perils of sexting—directed by Pippa Bianco. Michael Mohan’s PINK GRAPEFRUIT is a sly rom-com featuring two of the most appealing actors I have seen in years!
Saturday was my day to really do the festival. At noon I sat on the Baltimore Screenwriters Competition panel with Morgan State Professor Keith Mehlinger, HBO producer Nina Noble, industry veteran Larry Kostroff, and moderator Debbie Dorsey of the Baltimore Film Office. This annual competition (in it’s 10th year) is provided through partnership with Morgan State University, Johns Hopkins University, and the Baltimore Film Office. Last year we added a short film script category to the feature film script component. This year’s winners:
1st Place, Feature: Miceal O’Donnell, for WALK – a beautifully original and gritty piece of work about Baltimore based ne’er do well musicians of Irish decent.
2nd Place, Feature: went to Ron Lee Meliment for HI DE HO MAN – a bio-pc about the legendary entertainer with some Baltimore roots. Baz Lurhman should make this movie.
3rd Place, Feature: was awarded to Samuel Brown for THE BATTLE of BALTIMORE. The story of Baltimoreans repelling the British invaders (after they burned down the White House, etc.) is a great story that goes way beyond Fort McHenry. I can’t believe this hasn’t been made into a movie!
The short film script winners were David Joyner, a math professor and prodigious writer of technical publications, for QUANTUM INSURANCE,
Christopher Hogue, a Cinematic Arts grad from UMBC, for ALBATROSS, and
Erika Kelly, a Hopkins graduate and writer of scripts and plays, for MASCARA.
Baltimore Screenwriters Competition Winners
After the panel I was all about hanging out in the tent city and “filmmaker’s lounge,” talking to film folk.
Given that streaming services and related technologies have opened up a new wild west in the business of film distribution, it was of particular interest to talk with boutique film distributors. Matt Grady of FACTORY 25 out of Brooklyn, NY has become a MFF regular and has taken numerous independents on for distribution both online and in theatrical runs—typically in 3 to 8 cities initially, more if the picture catches on. Grady and others spoke about the ever-diminishing importance of DVD and Blue Ray. While these tangibles remain a good tool for marketing your self, and as Kickstarter rewards, etc., they are ultimately headed the way of the VHS tape.
Distributor Dylan Marchetti of Amplify Releasing (New York) attended the MFF for the first time this year. His company looks to distribute “high end” indies. A key draw for Marchetti (and many others) is to attend the Filmmakers Taking Charge Conference (if that is what is really called – not sure, it’s kind of closed event that happens under a “cone of silence.”)
On the local level, Baltimorean Adam Boteler’s new start-up UMOOBI is a movie sharing website. Boteler describes it as a movie marketplace where filmmakers can upload, share, rent, or sell films to one another and to fans. Boteler recruits helpers from his alma mater UMBC. Pretty ballsy start up considering the competition out there, but a well curated and operated site could rise up, right?
I talked to a number of filmmakers that traveled to Baltimore for the fest.
Judd Myers and Nicole Marsen-Myers are married filmmakers in Dallas. Their short film SON brought them to Baltimore and the MFF for the first time.
Also from Dallas, Director of Photography HutcH (yes, his full name is HutcH) and producer Kelly Snowden represent for THE OUTFIT, a comedy directed by Yen Tan. Spencer Parsons traveled from Chicago with his film, BITE RADIUS, a true crime story. Director Joanna Arnow, down from NYC, attends with BAD AT DANCING, a third-wheel sexual dynamic WTF short.
Gillian Horvat’s comedy short KISS KISS FINGERBANG features Anton Yelchin, Kate Lyn Sheil, and Buck Henry. That is a great cast. Horvat said the film was inspired by the “absurd process of falling in love and the weird things people will do.” Ms. Horvat travelled from L.A. for her first MFF experience. Interestingly, Horvat worked at east village Kim’s Video alongside Alex Ross Perry, Kate Lyn Sheil, and Sean Price Williams. Where are future film collaborators going to meet once the last Video store shuts down? Ms. Horvat seems especially brilliant and brimming with potential. Feature projects are in the works.
As admirer and an occasional maker of the micro-budget feature films, I must mention Charles Poekel’s CHRISTMAS, AGAIN. In order to make this feature, set in a Christmas tree sale lot, Poekel literally set up his own Christmas tree operation in Brooklyn (not without resistance from the local Christmas tree mafia). He operated the business for three seasons before the film was even shot! Kentucker Audley stars.
The above really only scratches the surface—there are so many great features and shorts curated by dedicated programmers Eric Hatch and Scott Braid that it is impossible to write about—much less see—all of them. I really wanted to check out Alison Bagnall’s new movie FUNNY BUNNY, but alas, I did not make it out of tent city till evening.
Buzzed on a sugar high due to the incredible baked goods provided by festival vendor FROM MOMMA’S KITCHEN I made my way over to MICA’s Brown Center for the screening of THE BLACK PANTHERS: VANGUARD of the REVOLUTION. The formidable and acclaimed documentary maker Stanley Nelson’s new film is stunning.
MFF Director Jed Deitz with Director of The Black Panthers: Vanguard of the Revolution
I had a sense that this feature doc was going to be special, and a must-see. Stanley Nelson has generously traveled weekly from Philadelphia to Morgan State University (where I also teach) this semester to teach a documentary course, but I have been well aware of this MacArthur “Genius Grant” and Emmy winner and his work for a long time.
The MICA Brown Center Theater was packed, with every seat filled. There was electricity in the air, enhanced by Nelson’s self-selected mix tape, which provided a musical prologue and vibe for the film to come. The story of the Black Panther movement is a breathtaking American story, and bigger than what you probably think you know about it. If you happened to be alive in the late 60’s, you know that a sense of the possibility of actual revolution was real, however improbable, or however naïve those restless youth may have been in thinking so. Nothing close to that feeling has been in the American air since then. Events in Baltimore and around the country this year certainly added a timely relevance to this screening, but its power would be palpable in any decade.
It is the most emotionally resonate and politically relevant film I have seen in years. It also received the most sincere and authentic standing ovation I think I have ever experienced. Festival Director Jed Dietz led a spirited Q & A with Nelson after the screening. The film will be back in Baltimore in the fall as part of a multi-city theatrical run, and next year it will air on PBS.
