Boston LGBT Film Festival
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Ah spring. That time of year when the snow (usually) starts to melt, spring is starting to be evident in the air, and Metro Boston goes absolutely film crazy. It’s the perfect time of the year for film buffs, because there are SEVEN full sized film festivals, and a number of film series and special film events, happening in the area. Every year, Kim and I look forward to this season…for some reason…it’s fun and exciting…also utterly exhausting…and we often don’t have time to see everything we want to. We try, and it’s easier when the festivals, publicists, and filmmakers offer up screeners, but still, it’s utterly exhausting. And you know what? We’ll do it again next year, because we can’t get enough of it. You have seven distinct genre festivals, each catering to a specific crowd, and yet, they’re all accessible to everyone. You don’t have to be part of each specific crowd to enjoy the films, because…well, film is supposed to be universal. And diverse as well. And this is the time of year when you find that out. Between March 1 and May 1 every year, Metro Boston plays host to festivals that feature all documentaries, all Irish related films, the lunatic fringe, the LGBT crowd, the middle eastern film goers, films with truly international flair, and that bastion of film festivals everywhere, the independent film. In 2011, as part of this crazy time of year, eCinemaBoston and Subject:CINEMA launched our annual “Boston Springs A Fethival” coverage – it was the first spinoff of our annual January “Fethival of Film Fethivals” podcast which covered all the big early-year fests – Sundance, Slamdance, Palm Springs and Santa Barbara, and which later grew to also include Victoria, Berlinale, and Big Sky Documentary festivals a few years later. When we started coverage, we had NO IDEA what we were getting ourselves into. But over the years, we’ve not only gotten used to the frenzied activity, but revel in it –and look forward for our annual trip to Salem for the kick off. Within these pages are our top picks from each of Metro Boston’s premiere festivals, as well as links to each festival, info about each pick, and for the first time, a complete listing of EVERY FEATURE at each festival. Plus, we’re expanding our coverage this year to include two annual spring film series and some odds and ends as well. Admittedly, we don’t cover shorts here – we know that shorts help make up the festival scene, but here’s the God’s honest truth – if we covered shorts here, we’d NEVER get done, and we’d be so exhausted we’d fall hard and not wake up for weeks. But we’ll rectify that later this year when we launch our Subject:CINEMA Fethival of Shorts show, covering shorts from all the major film festivals throughout the year. We’d like to say thanks to the various festivals who put up with us – most of them have granted us press accreditation these days, which is why we have a pile of screeners to still get through – so even though you’ll be listening to the podcasts this weekend, we will STILL be reviewing EVEN MORE FILMS from these festivals over the next month or so – we simply didn’t have time to get everything watched yet. We’ll make a special note of those films who can expect to have reviews on Subject:CINEMA in the next month, and may even add links to this extravaganza of a publication at a later date, so be aware that you may have just the first edition of this in your hot little PC or Tablet. These festivals know that we love to cover them, and that we bring them a lot of new people interested in checking them out each year, and I think they appreciate it as well; they sure seem to…heh heh heh… Also in this years’ PDF/Magazine coverage, we’ll spotlight the various locations where films show, we’ll give you links to as many films as we can – about 90% of this year’s films have official links or Facebook pages – if you don’t see a link for a film, it means we couldn’t find one that was official. We’ll also link you up with ways to find the films so you can enjoy them too. Some of them will be in theaters throughout the rest of the year, others are already available online or through your favorite OnDemand services, and a few others may not yet be available but we’ll tell you where to watch for them. Filmmakers – if we haven’t reviewed your films and you would like us to, contact me at [email protected] and we’ll have happy to put your film in our “watch” queue – because believe me, we’d LOVE to see it! And we’ll do our best to review it on our review sites on Letterboxd and Criticwire, and feature it on Subject:CINEMA, in the coming weeks and months ahead! NOW…without further ado – let me present THE FETHIVALS! Salem Film Fest March 5-12 2015 Salem MA All documentary festival Venues – CinemaSalem, Salem; Peabody Essex Museum, Salem Irish Film Festival March 19-22 2015 Somerville MA All Irish-oriented films Venue – Somerville Theatre, Somerville Boston Turkish Film Festival March 19 – April 22 2015 Boston MA All Turkish-interest films Venue – Museum of Fine Arts, Boston Boston Underground Film Festival March 25-29 2015 Cambridge MA All “lunatic fringe” films Venue – Brattle Theatre, Cambridge Boston LGBT Film Festival April 2-12 2015 Boston and Cambridge MA All LGBT interest films Venues – Brattle Theater, Cambridge; Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston; Bright Family Screening Room @ Arts/Emerson Paramount, Boston; Museum of Fine Arts, Boston Boston International Film Festival April 16-21 2015 Boston MA All International films Venues: AMC Boston Common 19, Boston; Bright Family Screening Room @ Arts/Emerson Paramount, Boston; Broadway Pictures Entertainment Studio, Boston Independent Film Festival Boston April 22-29 2015 Boston, Brookline, Cambridge, Somerville MA All independent films Venues: Somerville Theater, Somerville; Brattle Theatre, Cambridge; Coolidge Corner Theatre, Brookline; UMass Boston, Boston We’ll talk about each festival, bring you the write-ups from our picks from each festival’s website, and more as we go along. So come along for the ride, find some great new films, and live through us as we show off the 2015 Boston Springs A Fethival season! TC Kirkham Webmaster, eCinemaOne and eCinemaBoston Co-host/producer, Subject:CINEMA SALEM FILM FEST March 5-12 2015 Salem MA http://salemfilmfest.com First up on our trip around the area, the Salem Film Fest in Salem MA. Held every March, Salem is the largest all-documentary festival in the area, and the only one held in the metro Boston area in the first half of the year. Salem is always lots of fun because a) we spend the days at the festival staying at the always fantastic Salem Waterfront Hotel so we don’t have to bus back and forth each day and b) the general vibe is just FANTASTIC! This was our first year to actually be able to sponsor at this fest, and although the sponsorship didn’t turn out like we planned, and I’m not sure we’d do it again due to the many issues surrounding it, it hasn’t affected our wonderful feelings for the Fest and for the many many awesome folks who make it work, headed up by CinemaSalem owner Paul Van Ness and his team. CinemaSalem is a wonderful venue for this festival, and joined by the Morse Auditorium at the Peabody Essex Museum across the street, it’s usually a fun week of thoughtful films, lots of fun food and shopping, and just getting to stay in Salem, which admittedly is one of our favorite cities – if we could afford it, we’d live there. And we’ll be back for our fourth year in 2016 too – COUNT ON IT! TOP PICKS (in alphabetical order; write-ups from the festival website): CHILDREN OF THE ARCTIC Sponsored by: Finz Seafood & Grill & Cabot Wealth Management Directed by Nick Brandestini CHILDREN OF THE ARCTIC is a year-in-the-life portrait of Native Alaskan teenagers coming of age in Barrow, Alaska – the northern-most community of the United States. For these teenagers, growing up has become a little more complicated than it was for their ancestors who originally named this place Ukpiagvik (“where we hunt snowy owls”). They are the 21st century descendants of a culture that has endured for millennia on this isolated but rapidly changing tundra. The harvest of the agvik (bowhead whale) remains the heart of their culture – in the fall, motor boats and modern methods are used, whereas in the spring, whaling crews use the umiaq (a seal-skin boat made by hand) and ancient traditional methods. Salem Film Fest 2012 attendees will recognize Nick Brandestini from his film DARWIN. DAVIDS AND GOLIATH Sponsored by: No Place For Hate Committee & Longo & Nadeau Family Directed by Leon Lee When reports first emerged from China in 2006 that state-run hospitals were killing prisoners of conscience to sell their organs, it seemed too horrible to believe. But as researchers around the world – including human rights lawyer David Matas and former Canadian member of parliament David Kilgour – began to uncover the mystery, the true picture became all too clear.