Executive Director Jill Burkhart and Artistic Director Mystelle Brabbée, have turned the NFF into a creatively programmed, expertly executed kind of summer camp for screenwriters. First and foremost, it's a celebration of good filmic storytelling.

As Stephen Sondheim coined it, however, "Art isn't easy." Putting it all together in Nantucket is an undertaking that requires committed, devoted, enthusiastic leadership and dedicated collaboration. Which is what brought Burkhart and Brabée to the arena in the first place and what brings them back for each new season.

The Nantucket Film Festival began nine years ago when Jill's brother Jonathan Burkhart suggested that Nantucket and screenwriters would benefit mutually from a resident festival that celebrated the art of screenwriting.

Jonathan and Jill had lived in Nantucket since childhood; Jill,
in fact, graduated from Nantucket High. After high school, Jill went
on to NYU's Tisch School of the Arts acting program; Jonathan went
to Emerson and then moved to New York after college.

For a time, production dominated both Burkharts' lives. Jon shot
commercials and independent films; Jill acted in off-Broadway plays and in small independent films. Both loved the challenges of production but wanted to do more for and with the business. NFF offered them a perfect opportunity.

Jill is proud of what they accomplished. "We had no festival experience or background. Which was probably a blessing in disguise. I mean, we had production experience, but while film production is similar to festival production, they're not the same. The biggest difference is in fundraising. We got lucky."

That first year, with the Gaslight Theater (now under new ownership with the new name of Starlight Theater and Café) and Bennett Hall as the only festival sites, NFF 1 managed to attract the star power of Winona Ryder, Robert Sean Leonard, William Baldwin and Anne Heche. They traveled to Nantucket to do the first of the screenplay readings that have become the cornerstone of the festival.

"Our learning curve was enormous," laughs Burkhart. "We kept putting one foot in front of the other, learning by doing it. By the second year, we had grown exponentially."

Burkhart continues," What I've found is that the Festival requires a lot of different kinds of skills. And I like that. There's being social, being plugged into the needs of the artists. I've learned more about the money end of it than I ever thought possible. I mean, if you had told me when I was a kid in acting school that I'd be doing the business end of things I'd have said you were crazy. But I now feel really confident that I can go out and do this thing, trust my instincts, get it done. Looking back over the nine years of the Festival, I'd say we have come a very long way."

Mystelle Brabbée entered the scene immediately after the first festival. "She headed up the film programming" Burkhart explains.

"I knew I wanted to work with Jill from the start," enthuses Brabbée. "She has an infectious passion for life and sets an organic tone for the festival that is far from corporate. Today, the festival has grown tremendously, but the staff hasn't, and we're all overworked and underpaid . . . so sometimes we have to force ourselves to remember that it's just a film festival, we aren't saving lives and there's nothing to take too seriously."

Burkhart smiles. "After 9/11, Jonathan was more and more involved in his film production work, and I was willing to do the Festival fulltime. So I took over as Executive Director; Mystelle came on as Artistic Director, and Jonathan took a seat on the Board of Directors in order to be more of a resource for us."

"Three years ago, the festival made a big leap forward," Brabbée adds. "All the programs grew. Free community beach screenings were added, the teen filmmaking program and teen jury were added, the late night storytelling event was introduced, off-island programs began, and the staged readings became so big we were painfully aware of biting off more than we could chew. We've spent the last few years trying to catch up with all those new additions. And we are planning another leap for our 10th anniversary next year."

"But what remains the same," Brabée asserts; "is the mission. We're
here to honor screenwriters, to celebrate what they do, who they are.
So what's new, different, is how we serve that mission, what we do to
enhance it."

Says Jill, "This year, we have added venues out in Sconset, moved some of our events to larger halls, generally let the growth of the popularity of our programs create an organic metamorphosis. That way, in the process, we protect the integrity of the festival, keep it about the storytelling, not about the glamour and glitz. "

Brabbée continues "It's not that we're in any way unfriendly to the idea of a big studio film. If the writing inspires us in some way, if it's something our audiences will love, we'll program it. "

Which is why they have selected Charlie Kaufman as this year's guest of
honor at the annual Screenwriters Tribute Dinner, the central focus of
the entire festival.

"This is not a lifetime achievement award," Brabbée is quick to point out. "We choose our tributee for the unique voice he or she brings to the screen. Our recipient need not have a huge body of work behind them, though most do - last year's honoree was Ruth Prawer Jhabala, who's got a huge body of work, but the year before we had James Shamus, and he's more of a Renaissance man of film with a smaller body of screenplays to his credit because he's involved in so many aspects of the business."

Says Burkhart, "The honoree needs to be somebody who brings distinction to the craft and the art of screenwriting. Kaufman certainly fills that bill. And he just happens to have five films to his credit: BEING JOHN MALKOVICH, ADAPTATION, ETERNAL SUNSHINE OF THE SPOTLESS MIND, HUMAN NATURE and CONFESSIONS OF A DANGEROUS MIND."

Brabbée agrees. "Charlie Kaufman pushes the boundaries of screenwriting. I don't think he thinks he is taking risks-he writes about what is interesting to him, and in doing so, he has redefined the limits for the kind of stories people will finance."

Continues Burkhart, "Yes. Distributors are game. People respect the work. He brings a whole new perspective to the arena. He's established himself as a refreshing new voice."

Brabbée laughs. "We're fans. Hands down "

Brabbée, like Burkhart, cut her teeth in production and brings to the Festival a love of the process.

Before Nantucket, Mystelle Brabbée, like Burkhart, a graduate of NYU's Tisch School of the Arts, established a reputation for her own ability to recognize a captivating story and then to craft a screen telling that lived up to its potential. "From 1995-2004, I documented the story of a woman named Guddi who was born into a tradition that started with India's ancient palace courtesans and now survives with the sanctioned prostitution of every Bachara family's oldest girl."

No wonder Brabée is quick to point out that, "We have a lot of documentaries at NFF this year."

"Some of the best stories are told through docs; last year it was a documentary, which won our audience award. " A doc, in fact, won the Palme D'Or at Cannes this year (See Imagine article page ____)

"So we've added an award for 'Best Storytelling in a Documentary Film.' We're really excited about that and about the sea of political films we have for this year's screenings and also for panel discussion topics. We've got THE YES MEN, FAMINGVILLE (Sundance Documentary award winner), WEAPONS OF MASS DECEPTION, CHISOLM '72, MY FIRST WAR and others. They're great!"

As Artistic Director, Brabbée is responsible for selecting the screenplays and casting the staged reading. Last year's record-breaking attendance at the reading of A CONFEDERACY OF DUNCES is a testament to how successful she has been in providing a cast who can fill the roles artistically and draw an audience to the readings.

This year's reading is Warren Leight's screen adaptation of his Tony-award winning play Side Man. "Warren is a great one to have as our featured writer. Coming from the theater world, he understands how a reading, can be a useful writing tool . . . listening to how an audience responds to the written word. Readings aren't director-driven-there's a natural connection between the writer, an actors first impulse on the written word and the audience response."

Further, Leight understands the culture of Nantucket; his screenplay Luv40 was the featured script in 1997.

"The reading is really a wonderful part of the festival," says Jill Burkhart. We are so proud of the way we see the readings have an influence on the growth and development of script, of characters, of storytelling."

The Nantucket audiences - a diverse and eclectic group that runs the gamut from just plain film fans to ardent filmmakers and aspiring screenwriters and then to industry professionals who just wanna have fun - apparently crave the story telling the festival provides.

Two years ago came the introduction of the impromptu Storytelling and sold out so quickly that it was immediately apparent that the event would be a mainstay of the festival and that it would have to be housed in a far larger hall, possibly even the huge high school auditorium

"We love the late night storytelling," says Burkhart.

"It's the antithesis of slick," says Brabbée. "Last year Rosie Perez hosted, and we had Mos' Def and Olympia Dukakis and others jumping up on the stage to tell their stories. Olympia said she had no idea she had a story to tell, and then there she was up on the stage. Rosie is hosting again this year . . . with Anne Meara, Nantucket's own favorite, as co-host."

Brabée goes on, "One of our favorite aspects of the Festival is the Tony Cox
Award for Screenwriting. The selection process is exhaustive and really does discover an emerging talent."

Burkhart elaborates: "We have forty readers who go through a systemic process where each submitted script goes through three rounds of being graded and then selected or discarded; in the end, four finalists are chosen, and then the judges get together and collaborate to choose the winner. Every jury is different. We always choose established industry professionals - actors, writers, directors, producers, etc. The finalists are reviewed in committee, and then we unveil the winning script at the festival."

NFF 10 promises to take the Festival into a whole new dimension. "Hard to believe we're nearing the end of our first decade," muses Burkhart. "We want to celebrate it appropriately."

What better way to celebrate than being on Nantucket for the Nantucket Film Festival? For the tenth year of sun, sand and storytelling. Great storytelling.