THE 28TH ANNUAL NEW ENGLAND FILM & VIDEO FESTIVAL IS READY TO GO!

By Sandra Sullivan

The festival takes place March 24-29, 2003 at the best independent theatres in Greater Boston.

The 28th Annual New England Film & Video Festival (NEFVF), presented by the Boston Film & Video Foundation (BFVF), is finally underway. As New England's premiere showcase of the best in regional film and video making, NEFVF continues to support independent and student artists whose work demonstrates a strong personal vision through the creative use of film and video media. This year's festival will feature a number of works, ranging from feature-length documentaries to one-minute animation and experimental pieces.

The festival will kick off with the New England premiere of WHEN STAND UP STOOD OUT, Fran Solomita's documentary about the early days of the stand up comedy scene in Boston. As many locals know, the Boston area was once home to then-unknowns Denis Leary, Janeane Garofalo, and Stephen Wright, who all began their careers as stand up comics at local venues such as the Comedy Connection, Nick's Comedy Stop, and the now defunct Ding Ho. Candid interviews, original news reports, and never before seen footage give a hilarious, uncensored view of these people, what they did to survive, emerge, and where some have ended up.

In addition to STAND UP, NEFVF will feature area premieres of many films, including Jane Gray's documentary PLAYING HOUSE. The film is a funny and compelling look at adolescent girlhood and the rarefied world of boarding school, as it chronicles the lives of five girls during their first year away from home. The film is director Gray's first feature. Her previous credits include a number of editing jobs, including an editing role on Errol Morris' MR. DEATH: THE RISE AND FALL OF FRED A. LEUCHTER, JR. PLAYING HOUSE will screen with two other shorts, Harvard student Lisa Haber-Thomson's animated film, BOOTFLY, and Cristina Kotz Cornejo's narrative OCEAN WAVES. The films are screening together, in a program that will focus on women filmmakers.

Other programs for this year's festival will include two nights of short films, titled the "Best of Local Shorts I and II." The evenings will cover a range of genres, from Harvard student Tim Szetela's one minute animated piece, A.Z., to Josh Mitchell & Patrick Ryan's half hour comedy CELL PHONES & ACTION FIGURES. A number of student works are included, specifically TUNANOODA, directed by Rhode Island School of Design's David Zackin; Derek Frank's BY ANY OTHER, a short film out of Boston University; and WHAT NOW?, directed by Harvard University's Nicholas Weiss.

NEFVF has always been a home to both newcomers as well as filmmakers whose career has spanned decades. This year Robert Todd, experimental filmmaker and Emerson professor, has two pieces in the festival. His short film, HAPPY PEPPY SPARKY DOGGY, will be a part of the "Best of Local Shorts I" program. In addition, his pieces OUR FORMER GLORY, focusing on architecture and the language of mass production, is winner of this year's Best Independent Experimental award. Robb Moss, Harvard professor, won this year's Best Independent Documentary award for THE SAME RIVER TWICE. The film takes a look back at the subjects of his 1978 documentary, RIVERDOGS in which 17 friends took a 35-day river trip down the Colorado through the Grand Canyon. Built from pictures of the subjects' lives today mixed with images from RIVERDOGS, THE SAME RIVER TWICE attempts to portray an intimate depiction of those baby boomers who took the sixties seriously and then grew up.

In keeping up with BFVF's mission to educate independent film audiences, this year's festival will feature a Documentary Masterclass at the prestigious Harvard Film Archive. The program will feature a screening of Jim Wolpaw's LOADED GUN: LIFE, AND DEATH, AND DICKINSON, followed by a discussion on facts, fiction, and the ethics of documentary filmmaking.

The wide variety of films made it difficult for this year's judges to choose the best films for this year's festival. Judges Ed Pincus, Lucia Small, Claire Andrade-Watkins, Karen Aqua, and Peter Keough spent four days debating over which films would best represent the wide range of talent that New England's film and video community has to offer. Co-directors Sandra Sullivan and Peter Flynn put together a program that not only mixes genres but also will give each film a chance to shine. Panel discussions and guest speakers will be a part of the festival, as will an opening night reception, which will lead into WHEN STAND UP STOOD OUT, and may include a few surprise guests from the film.

For a list of venues, ticket information, and a look at this year's lineup, visit www.bfvf.org/festival.

Sandra Sullivan is Co-Director of the New England Film & Video Festival, and is also PR & Development Manager for the Boston Film & Video Foundation.

BOSTON FILM & VIDEO FOUNDATION ANNOUNCES STUDENT FILMS FOR THE 28th ANNUAL NEW ENGLAND FILM & VIDEO FESTIVAL

The 28th Annual New England Film and Video Festival (NEFVF) will take place March 24-29, 2003 at the best independent theatres in Greater Boston. Presented by the Boston Film & Video Foundation (BFVF), New England's largest non-profit independent media arts organization, NEFVF is one of the oldest and most respected film and video festivals in the country. Out of the 200 submissions, 27 independent and 9 student entries were chosen to screen during the festival. 9 awards will be given and a number of premieres will take place.

Students from 20 colleges and universities entered this year's festival. The following is a list of student films that were chosen as award winners:

Best Student Experimental: What Now? by Nicholas Weiss (Harvard University) ~ A depiction of a world in which time runs backwards for some people and forward for others.

Best Student Narrative: By Any Other by Derek Frank (Boston University) ~ By Any Other uses Shakespeare's well-known quote as a point of departure to explore the intersection of identity and romance in the lives of a young couple.

Best Student Animation: Tunanooda by David Zackin (Rhode Island School of Design) ~ A story of lifeguarding and lunchmaking.

In addition to the award-winning films, we will also screen Fanfare for Higher Education, In the Game, Papous, From Russia, My Love, a.z., Viva La Magnetic North, and Bootfly.

NEFVF screenings will take place at the Brattle Theatre, the Coolidge Corner Theatre, the Harvard Film Archive & the Museum of Fine Arts. For more information on individual winners, NEFVF, or BFVF, visit our website at www.bfvf.org.

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