Award-winning filmmaker Maryanne Galvin's newest documentary, AS IS: A DOWNSIZED LIFE, will screen as an official entry into the Rhode Island International Film Festival. The screening is scheduled for August 14, 2005 at 5:00 P.M. in the Providence Chamber of Commerce Theater.

AS IS postcard features the Sr. Monica Burt after she downsized her life. Photo courtesy of Maryanne Galvin.

Providence native Dominic Avant, a graduate of the Rhode Island School of Design who is currently an artist living in Orlando, Florida, is one of nine diverse individuals featured in the film. Providence musician Eric McDonough contributed selections to the score along with several of the film's interviewees.

The film's subjects reflect upon their experiences shifting from an upwardly mobile lifestyle to one that is more economically simple. Although each of them dropped off the consumer track for different reasons, they all discovered that our spend, spend, spend consumer culture does not necessarily lead to liberation. To varying degrees,
they each developed a newfound sense of happiness, self-respect, and freedom despite fewer economic means.

For some, such as the gastroenterologist who becomes a Cistercian nun and the college professor who dedicates himself to social justice in Latin America, living a spare life was a conscious decision. For others, such as the psychiatrist who is following his dream of being an actor or the sculptor living minimally in a shack she built herself on a beach in Truro, MA economic simplicity proved to be an acceptable result of their occupations. And yet another group, including two Disney artists who lost their job and an entertainer who lost everything when she got divorced, had no choice at all.

Dr. Brian Quint is featured in Maryanne Galvin’s AS IS:A DOWNSIZED LIFE. Quint is a popular New England actor and often seen in IMAGINE. Photo courtesy of Maryanne Galvin. Photo by Carl Bennett.

AS IS: A DOWNSIZED LIFE is Ms. Galvin's fifth documentary in as many years and at 70- minutes in length, it represents her first feature length film. Her previous films include: THANATOS Rx: THE DEATH PENALTY DEBATE IN AMERICA; AMUSE BOUCHE: A CHEF'S TALE, about Chef Barbara Lynch of No. 9 Park in Boston; HIGH, FAST AND WONDERFUL, about three priests who minister to circus performers, race car drivers, and migrant workers; and THE PURSUIT OF PLEASURE, which challenges commonly held beliefs about female sexuality, gender roles, relationships, and satisfaction. Her films have won awards at numerous independent film festivals and have been broadcast and distributed widely.

As a practicing forensic psychologist in Boston, Galvin has also written, directed, and produced three educational training videos for mental health and law enforcement professionals. She holds a doctorate in psychology from UMass Amherst and an MFA in creative writing from Emerson College in Boston.
The Chamber of Commerce Theater is at 30 Exchange Terrace, Providence I 02903 and is handicap accessible. For more information about the film visit www.MGProductions.biz.