FESTIVAL PROGRAM

THE 5TH ANNUAL

THURSDAY-SUNDAY AUGUST 22-25, 2019 middfilmfest.org

1 5th Annual Middlebury New Filmmakers Festival | 2019 FESTIVAL PROGRAM CRUISE THE BEAUTIFUL BLUE DANUBE ...and talk CINEMA! OCTOBER 29 TO NOVEMBER 8 Join us in Prague...then down the magnificent Danube, making stops in Germany (Vilshofen), Austria (Linz, Durnstein, Weissenkirchen, Vienna), Slovakia (Bratislava) and Hungary (Budapest). Enjoy dozens of cruise treats and features PLUS (optional) film screenings, discussions and walking tours to film locations in Prague, Vienna and Budapest - organized by indie filmmaker and MNFF Artistic Director Jay Craven!

PARTIAL PROCEEDS TO BENEFIT MIDDLEBURY NEW FILMMAKERS FOR MORE DETAILS FESTIVAL AND ADDISON COUNTY CHAMBER OF COMMERCE. CONTACT ROBIN BENTLEY AT MILNE TRAVEL 802-388-6600 OR [email protected] Or go to www.milnetravel.com/vacation-travel/jay-craven

2 5th Annual Middlebury New Filmmakers Festival | 2019 FESTIVAL PROGRAM WELCOME TO THE 5TH ANNUAL MIDDLEBURY NEW FILMMAKERS FESTIVAL!

Greetings, everyone... Taylor’s film score to accompany the screening of VSO Award winner Jeremy Lee Mackenzie’s new film, The Greatest Night. And thanks for joining us to share these We’ll award our fourth annual VSO winner for best integration four fun days in August when we get of music into film on Closing Night. to connect audiences with filmmakers to celebrate cinema. We’re thrilled to We’ll present our Hernandez/ Bayliss Prize, for a feature welcome you to our fifth edition of the film that best captures the triumph of the human spirit Middlebury New Filmmakers Festival. – and our third Clio Visualizing History Prize for the Advancement of Women in Film. Also our second Gaia Prize We’ve been busy since last year’s Fest - staging our Winter/ for Environmental Filmmaking and our inaugural Shouldice Spring Screening Series at the Town Hall Theater in Middlebury Family Prize for Best Vermont-Made Film. and touring our 2018 Best of Fest selections, Dateline: Saigon and All the Wild Horses – to Burlington, Vergennes, Rutland, Milne Travel will join us again this year as a valued sponsor. Greensboro, Montpelier, Putney and Woodstock. They are organizing a special October 29th to November 8th excursion to Prague and river cruise along the Danube We’ve got more than 110 films scheduled for MNFF5 and they River. Partial proceeds will benefit the Middlebury New promise to enrich and expand our views on people and places Filmmakers Festival and the Addison County Chamber of around the world. And we’ll again offer special pre-festival Kids Commerce. Among many cruise treats and features, MNFF and Family Day screenings on Wednesday, August 21st at the Artistic Director Jay Craven will offer several (optional) film Marquis Theatre. There will be plenty of popcorn and a special screenings, discussions and a couple of walking tours to kids menu! film locations in Vienna and Budapest. For more details, contact Robin Bentley at Milne Travel (802-388-6600 or We’ll host special on-stage honorees including legendary [email protected]). writer/director Paul Schrader, whose films First( Reformed, Affliction, Raging Bull, Taxi Driver) have logged fifteen Academy Enjoy the Festival! Join us for happy hours and parties. And Awards and nominations. Also, acclaimed award-winning actor spread the word to friends and family to join you for all or part Bruce Greenwood (The Sweet Hereafter, Capote, Exotica, 13 Days, of this year’s film extravaganza. Star Trek, I’m Not There, Mad Men) will be here for screenings and discussions. Feel free to also tell us your thoughts on the films and events you see. And please consider tax-deductible support – to help We’ll also welcome back, for a fourth consecutive year, two- us light up the screen. time Academy Award-winning filmmaker and MNFF honoree, Barbara Kopple, with her latest film,New Homeland. Also Warm regards, returning, three-time Emmy nominee and MNFF honoree Ricki Stern, with her new Netflix film,Reversing Roe, that takes a deep historical look at the abortion debate from various points along the ideological spectrum. Ricki will be here with one of the film’s stars,Dr. Colleen McNicholas, an important figure in Jay Craven the struggle for reproductive rights. MNFF Artistic Director Todd Balfour We’re pleased to again partner with Orly Yadin and the Vermont International Film Festival, sponsors of The Biggest Little Farm screening (1:30pm, Saturday, August 24th at Dana Auditorium). And we’ll stage an informative discussion focused on indie film distribution and one on acquisition policies and practices within the PBS system. And there’s much more, Lloyd Komesar

including a world-premiere live performance by Vermont Matt Kiedaisch MNFF Producer Symphony Orchestra musicians of composer Matthew Evan

3 5th Annual Middlebury New Filmmakers Festival | 2019 FESTIVAL PROGRAM FESTIVAL MAP

OPENING NIGHT PARTY! ^ Seymour St SWIFT HOUSE INN NORTH SCREENING VENUE Elm St Stewart Ln High St NOT TO SCALE FESTIVAL DESTINATION Maple St Seymour St 7

? INFO & MERCH CONGREGATIONAL CHURCH Seminary St PUBLIC PARKING LOT SAT NIGHT PARTY AMERICAN FLATBREAD Washington St Printer’s Alley SAT HAPPY HOUR MARBLE WORKS Main St Court Sq MIDDLEBURY INN Weybridge St TOWN GREEN

Footbridge

Merchants Row

23 FROG HOLLOW ? Bakery Ln TOWN HALL THEATER Mill St INFO & MERCH FRI HAPPY HOUR S Pleasant St Court St SHELDON MUSEUM MARQUIS THEATRE FRI NIGHT PARTY NOTTE K DANA AUDITORIUM E 7 E R C Cross St

125 TWILIGHT HALL R College St E Cross St Old Chapel Rd T O T MIDDLEBURY MAHANEY CENTER FOR THE ARTS S Main St COLLEGE Storrs Av @ PORTER FIELD RD 30

Location,Location, Location,Location, Location!Location!

And the perfect location is not just critical to the “Choosing location is value of your home, but key to the long-term satisfaction that your family will experience. When integral to the film” you want to know all about Addison County’s - Ridley Scott unique spots and hidden gems, work with a team of Location Experts...... Places Please!

70 Court Street, Middlebury, VT 802-989-7522 champlainvalleyproperty.net [email protected] Your Location Scouts Nancy Foster, Principal Broker & Owner Robin Foster Cole, Realtor • Diana Berthiaume, Realtor John Snyder-White, Realtor • January Stearns, Realtor Brenda Jaring, Administrative Assistant

4 5th Annual Middlebury New Filmmakers Festival | 2019 FESTIVAL PROGRAM QUESTIONS & ANSWERS WHERE DO I PICK UP INFORMATION? Also note that the Friday Happy Hour at the Sheldon Museum Gar- den and Friday Night Party at Notte are open only to Festival Pass The Festival Information & Merchandise Store has stacks of printed holders, as is the Saturday Happy Hour at the Middlebury Inn and the MNFF Festival Programs. It’s located at 66 Merchants Row, imme- Saturday Night Party at American Flatbread in the Middlebury Marble diately adjacent to Town Hall Theater. You can’t miss it because of Works. (Non-Passholders can attend the Saturday night party for $15, its festive color treatment. Our staff will be on site from 9:00am to payable at the door.) 5:00pm on Thursday, August 22, Friday, August 23 and Saturday, Au- gust 24 and 9:00am to 1:00pm on Sunday, August 25. Printed film and event schedules will also be available throughout town, at numerous CAN I JUST BUY SINGLE TICKETS TO MOVIES? locations and all screening venues. Individual ADVANCE tickets to all feature films will be on sale through August 25 at middfilmfest.org. Tickets are $15 and provide priority WHERE AND WHEN ARE FILMS BEING SCREENED? seating following Festival Pass holders. Advance ticket availability is based on venue size. So, our smaller venues, Marquis Theatre and On Opening Day, Thursday, August 22, films screen at 10:00am Twilight Hall, will have fewer seats available in advance. and 1:30pm at Marquis Theatre and Town Hall Theater. Our Open- ing Night film will be screened that night at Town Hall Theater at Single WALK-UP/RUSH tickets for any film are available for $12 at 7:00pm. (Please note: this event is ticketed separately. A Festival each of the four main venues’ lobby box offices – at any time during Pass does not grant entry.) the Festival. A single ticket is good for any film at any venue on any day. Single ticket seating begins 5 minutes prior to listed showtime On Friday, August 23 and Saturday, August 24, films screen at Town after all Passholders and Advance Ticket holders have been seated. Hall Theater, Marquis Theater, Dana Auditorium and Twilight Hall. Screening times are 10:00am, 1:30pm and 7:15pm. No films screen between 4pm-7pm. The 4pm slot features special panels and on- DOES MY FESTIVAL PASS ADMIT ME TO THE stage conversations. Check the daily schedule grid or the Festival OPENING NIGHT FILM? Program for details. No. Opening Night is a separately ticketed event and can be pur- chased at our website, middfilmfest.org, or in person at the THT Box On Sunday, August 25, films screen at Town Hall Theater, Marquis Office. Admission to both the Film Screening and the After Party at Theater, Dana Auditorium and Twilight Hall, starting at 10am, 1pm Swift House Inn is $60. Please note: Opening Night is now on a Wait- and 4pm. list Only basis. The presentation of the VTeddy Awards at the Closing Ceremony will be on Sunday, August 25 at 6:30pm at Town Hall Theater followed WHERE CAN I BUY FESTIVAL MERCHANDISE? by our Closing Night Film at 7:30pm. Festival merchandise will be sold at the MNFF Information & Mer- chandise Store. Hours and location are noted above in the Festival WHERE CAN I BUY FESTIVAL & DAY PASSES? Information paragraph. 2019 items include our popular MNFF hats Festival Passes and Day Passes can be purchased directly at our in black and navy blue and handsome black tote bags. Joining us at website at middfilmfest.org or in person at the Town Hall Theater the Merch & Info Store will be lu•lu Ice Cream and Danforth Pewter. Box Office, corner of S. Pleasant Street and Merchants Row. Festival Passes are $95 and admit you to any film on any of the four main ARE THERE FREE EVENTS AT THE FESTIVAL? screening days. Absolutely! We have gone to great lengths to ensure that there is something for everyone. All of our panels and presentations with Day Passes are $35 and admit you to any film on a specific day, ei- filmmakers and industry professionals are free and open to the ther Friday, Saturday or Sunday. There are no Thursday Day Passes. public. For times and details on panels and parties, visit Use your Festival Pass or purchase single admission tickets at the middfilmfest.org or consult our printed Festival Schedule. Town Hall Theater or Marquis Theatre for Thursday screenings.

To online purchasers of Festival Passes and Day Passes: please bring WHERE DO I FIND PARKING? your photo ID and confirmation number or print-at-home ticket to Parking options exist throughout the town of Middlebury and the exchange for your actual Pass at the Town Hall Theater [THT] Box Middlebury College campus. Street parking is available throughout Office. Passes are not mailed but can be picked up from the THT Box downtown. There are municipal lots below the Cross Street Bridge Office beginning 12noon on Monday, August 19. Town Hall Theater and in Frog Hollow at the base of Mill Street. Many additional spaces Box Office hours during the Festival are 9:00am-8:00pm on Thurs- are in the lot behind the Mahaney Center for the Arts at Middlebury day-Saturday and 9:00am-4:00pm on Sunday. Best to pick up your College (72 Porter Field Rd). pass at least THIRTY MINUTES before your first screening. CAN I SPEAK WITH FILMMAKERS & WHY BUY A PASS? PRODUCERS AT THE FESTIVAL? When you purchase a Festival Pass, you receive special perks. Fest Of course! This is one of the special benefits of the Middlebury Pass holders will be seated first at all screenings. Day Pass holders New Filmmakers Festival. Attending filmmakers will be available to will be seated following the seating of all Festival Pass holders. audiences at post-screening Q&A sessions, panels, happy hours No seats are reserved, but your place will be held until 10 minutes and parties. Feel free to engage with them. Filmmakers genuinely before show time. appreciate your interest in their work and life stories.

5 5th Annual Middlebury New Filmmakers Festival | 2019 FESTIVAL PROGRAM KIDS & FAMILY DAY WEDNESDAY 8/21 PRESENTING SPONSOR

FAMILY-FRIENDLY FILMS @ THE MARQUIS UNDER 8 FREE | 8-17 $5 | 18+ $10 TICKETS AVAILABLE DAY OF SHOW Storm Boy 10:00 AM In the movie of your life.... AGES 8+ do you have a starring role? Liyana 1:00 PM AGES 10+ Follow your dreams and be a star in Brandon, Vermont ! Tito and the Birds 4:00 PM AGES 12+ PORTUGUESE w/ ENGLISH SUBTITLES

LUNCH SPECIALS BY THE MARQUIS CAFÉ

Check us out, 12:00 PM only 20 minutes -1:00 PM south. MARQUIS Or, visit us at THEATRE brandon.org

CHASE SCENE CHALLENGE Young filmmakers can enter the “Chase Scene Challenge,” a movie- making contest hosted by local media maker, Kurt Broderson, who will show what it takes to make an exciting chase scene. Kids can check out a camera from MCTV at Ilsley Library and film a 30-60 802-247-6401 second chase scene with family and friends. The finished “chase scenes” will play on the Café screen at the [email protected] Marquis and the winning entry will be broadcast on MCTV and receive 4 passes to an upcoming movie at the Marquis Theatre. FREE & OPEN TO ALL AGES

6 5th Annual Middlebury New Filmmakers Festival | 2019 FESTIVAL PROGRAM FESTIVAL EVENTS

FRI 8/23 4:00 PM TOWN HALL THEATER

HONOREE EVENT | ON-STAGE CONVERSATION WITH WRITER & DIRECTOR PAUL SCHRADER Following the screening of his most recent film First Reformed, legend- ary writer/director Paul Schrader (Taxi Driver, Raging Bull, Blue Collar, Affliction) takes the stage with MNFF Artistic Director Jay Craven for an extended conversation about his career, his influences and where he is heading artistically. Mr. Schrader will receive a VTeddy Award for Sustained Excellence in Cutting Edge Filmmaking. FREE & OPEN TO ALL!

FRI 8/23 5:00 PM THE SHELDON MUSEUM GARDEN 1 PARK ST FESTIVAL FRIDAY HAPPY HOUR Enjoy music by The Balladeer and the Bluesman, light food and an array of beverages in the beautiful Garden at the Sheldon Mu- seum. MNFF thanks Bill Brooks and the Sheldon Museum team for hosting this lovely event. Catering provided by Otter Creek Bakery. – Passholders Only, Please. –

FRI 8/23 5:00 PM MARQUIS THEATER CAFÉ

FILMMAKERS COCKTAIL HOUR An informal opportunity for filmmakers to meet, mingle, eat and drink in one of Middlebury’s iconic film spaces. – Filmmakers Only, Please. –

7 5th Annual Middlebury New Filmmakers Festival | 2019 FESTIVAL PROGRAM FESTIVAL EVENTS

FRI 8/23 Visit our Beer Tent 7:15 PM at the TOWN HALL Sheldon Museum! THEATER

REVERSING ROE | HONOREE EVENT ON-STAGE CONVERSATION WITH DIRECTOR RICKI STERN & DR. COLLEEN McNICHOLAS HOSTED BY HATTIE GARNER LEFAVOUR Returning Honoree Ricki Stern and Dr. Colleen McNicholas join moderator Hattie Garner Lefavour from Middlebury College in a discussion of the film’s origins, intentions and impact. An of-the- moment and very special event that will illuminate the significance of Reversing Roe.

FRI 8/23 9:15 PM NOTTE 86 MAIN ST

FRIDAY NIGHT PARTY Gather for a great finale to Festival Friday with food, drink and con- versation at Middlebury’s true “underground” gathering spot, Notte. An MNFF tradition sponsored by the generous folks at Two Brothers © Sally J Smith – Greenspirit Arts Tavern. Henry Sheldon Museum in Middlebury Presents – Passholders Only, Please. – Whimsical Wonders: Fairy Houses from Nature by Sally J Smith Through September 1, 2019 • One Park Street, Middlebury, VT 05753 802-388-2117 • www.HenrySheldonMuseum.org

8 5th Annual Middlebury New Filmmakers Festival | 2019 FESTIVAL PROGRAM FESTIVAL EVENTS

FRI 8/23 11:00 PM MARQUIS THEATRE

NEW! LATE NIGHT @ THE MARQUIS RUBEN BRANDT, COLLECTOR SUSHI AVAILABLE MNFF presents its inaugural late night film screening at the Marquis Monday - Friday - Lunch 11:30am-2:30pm, Dinner 4:30-9:00pm Theatre with the showing of Ruben Brandt, Collector, a brilliant, wildly Closed Tuesdays imaginative and utterly original animated feature from Hungarian Sat & Sun dinner menu all day 12:00-9pm • Closed 3-4:30 for our lunch break Please make reservations for parties of 6 or more. director Milorad Krstic. FREE FOR FEST PASSHOLDERS | Walk-Up Tickets $12 22 Merchants Row SPONSORED BY Middlebury 989-7376 SabaiSabaiThai.com SAT 8/24 8:30 AM Check us out at Sabai Sabai Thai Cuisine MIDDLEBURY INN PATIO 16 COURT SQ

COFFEE WITH. . . OUTSTANDING WORKING ACTORS: MNFF HONOREE BRUCE GREENWOOD, POLLY DRAPER & JEREMY HOLM HOSTED BY JAY CRAVEN MNFF Artistic Director Jay Craven chats over coffee with three great working actors whose combined credits include Mad Men, House of Cards, Star Trek, Capote, The Sweet Hereafter, Thirtysomething, I’m Not There, Mr. Robot, The Good Wife and many more. Conversations will include the actors’ craft, what stories interest them and what life as an actor has brought them. Don't miss this lively start to Festival Saturday. Coffee and baked goods provided by MNFF sponsor, the Middlebury Inn. FREE & OPEN TO ALL!

9 5th Annual Middlebury New Filmmakers Festival | 2019 FESTIVAL PROGRAM FESTIVAL EVENTS

SAT 8/24 SAT 8/24 4:00 PM 5:00 PM MIDDLEBURY MIDDLEBURY INN INN PATIO 16 COURT SQ 16 COURT SQ

FESTIVAL SATURDAY HAPPY HOUR Mingle and schmooze with filmmakers and special guests on the patio of the Middlebury Inn, one of the prettiest spots in town. MNFF thanks the fine folks at the Inn for providing food, beverages and atmosphere. – Passholders Only, Please –

SAT 8/24 7:15 PM NAVIGATING THE PBS PROGRAMMING WORLD TWILIGHT HALL - PRODUCERS & ACQUIRERS TELL ALL HOSTED BY LLOYD KOMESAR Join Producers Beth Levison and Michael Rosenfeld and PBS Program- mers Ron Bachman and Eric Ford in a wide-ranging discussion of how producers sell and how acquirers select films to feed the sprawling THE SWEET HEREAFTER | HONOREE EVENT and multilayered PBS programming and distribution system. Enjoy a panel of true experts with much to share. Moderated by MNFF Pro- ON-STAGE CONVERSATION WITH ducer Lloyd Komesar. ACTOR BRUCE GREENWOOD FREE & OPEN TO ALL! HOSTED BY JAY CRAVEN Following the screening this heralded film, The Sweet Hereafter, SAT 8/24 acclaimed actor Bruce Greenwood talks with MNFF Artistic Director Jay Craven about one of his favorite roles and the choices that 4:00 PM underlie his superb career. UNITY HALL @ THE CONGREGATIONAL SAT 8/24 CHURCH 9:15 PM 2 MAIN ST AMERICAN FLATBREAD INDEPENDENT FILM DISTRIBUTION: MARBLE WORKS WHERE IS THE BUSINESS HEADING? 137 MAPLE ST HOSTED BY JAY CRAVEN MNFF special guest, Marc Mauceri, Vice President of First Run Features, SATURDAY NIGHT PARTY talks the business of acquiring and distributing independent narratives FEATURING MUSIC BY ROSCOE & ETTA and documentaries with MNFF Artistic Director Jay Craven. Founded in Enjoy tasty complimentary flatbreads and small bites, and sample New York in 1979, First Run Features remains one of the largest inde- a full bar offering craft cocktails, local beers, wine and ciders, from pendent distributors in North America, releasing in theaters nationwide, our host and sponsor American Flatbread at our big Saturday Night on home video (DVD and Blu-Ray) and online through a diverse group of innovative digital partners. Mr. Mauceri, with over 30 productive years at Party! And this year at Flatbread, MNFF presents the fabulous music First Run Features, has a distinctive point of view well worth knowing. of Roscoe & Etta, featuring national recording artists Maia Sharp and Anna Schulze on the last stop of their East Coast tour. FREE & OPEN TO ALL! FREE FOR PASSHOLDERS | All others $15 at the Door 10 5th Annual Middlebury New Filmmakers Festival | 2019 FESTIVAL PROGRAM FESTIVAL EVENTS

SUN 8/25 SUN 8/25 10:00 AM 6:30 PM TOWN HALL TOWN HALL THEATER THEATER

WILDLIKE | HONOREE EVENT CLOSING CEREMONY & ON-STAGE CONVERSATION WITH VTEDDY AWARDS PRESENTATION ACTOR BRUCE GREENWOOD Join us for the joyful presentation of the VTeddy Awards celebrating the winners for Best Feature Narrative, Best Short Narrative, Best HOSTED BY JAY CRAVEN Feature Documentary, Best Short Documentary, Audience Award/ The illuminating conversation with MNFF Honoree Bruce Greenwood Feature, Audience Award/Short, the Vermont Symphony Orchestra continues following the screening of Wildlike, a 2014 film by director Award, the Hernandez/Bayliss Prize, the Clio Visualizing History Prize Frank Hall Green. Mr. Greenwood will receive a VTeddy Award for for the Advancement of Women in Film, the Gaia Prize for Environ- Sustained Excellence in Acting. mental Filmmaking and the inaugural Shouldice Family Prize for Best Vermont-Made Film. FREE & OPEN TO ALL! SUN 8/25 1:00 PM SUN 8/25 MAHANEY 7:30 PM CENTER FOR THE ARTS TOWN HALL THEATER 72 PORTER FIELD RD THE GREATEST NIGHT WITH LIVE PERFORMANCE OF ORIGINAL SCORE CLOSING NIGHT FILM: ERNIE & JOE BY VERMONT SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA Q&A WITH DIRECTOR JENIFER McSHANE The Middlebury New Filmmakers Festival, the Vermont Symphony Or- & VERMONT ATTORNEY GENERAL chestra, and Middlebury College’s Mahaney Center for the Arts jointly present the world premiere of VSO Awardee Jeremy Lee Mackenzie’s T.J. DONOVAN new short film, The Greatest Night, with an original score composed by Ernie & Joe is an intimate portrait of two San Antonio, Texas police Matthew Evan Taylor, Middlebury College Assistant Professor of Music officers who are helping change the way police respond to mental and performed live by the VSO. Unique to MNFF, this popular gather- health calls. The film takes audiences on a personal journey, weaving ing is a signature event of the Festival. together the officers’ experiences during their daily encounters with FREE FOR PASSHOLDERS | All others $15 at the door people in crisis. In taking this different path, Ernie and Joe’s success is engendering change in police departments around the country. Ernie & Joe Director Jenifer McShane wraps the 5th Annual Middlebury New Filmmakers Festival with a lively Q&A about her significant and illuminating film, with special guest moderator T.J. Donovan, Attorney General of the State of Vermont. FREE & OPEN TO ALL!

11 5th Annual Middlebury New Filmmakers Festival | 2019 FESTIVAL PROGRAM THT TOWN HALL THEATER DANA DANA AUDITORIUM  FILMMAKER TO MQM MARQUIS THEATRE - MAIN SCREEN TWI TWILIGHT HALL ATTEND MNFF5 SCHEDULE THURSDAY 8/22 MQS MARQUIS THEATRE - SCREENING ROOM 10:00 AM   THT Built to Last One Town at a Time 13m 107m  MQM Moth The Witch in the Window 18m 75m

MQS Difficult People Golnesa 20m 95m

1:30 PM  THT Voice of America: Lowell Thomas and the Rise of Broadcast News 85m  MQM Three Sacks Full of Hats Major Arcana 20m 82m  MQS The Drink Turning Ten A Destruction 12m 13m 71m

DOORS OPEN @ 6:00 PM | TOWN HALL THEATER – Opening Night Ticket Holders Only, Please – OPENING NIGHT

Introductions and remarks by MNFF Producer, Lloyd Komesar and Artistic Director, Jay Craven. THE DOG DOC Documentary | 101m | A maverick veterinarian and his dedicated team of doctors create a mecca for pets and their owners looking for hope and a last chance for animal healing. The Dog Doc poses deep questions about treatment, pushing humans to consider the difference between medication and integrative, holistic care. This film offers an immersive view into a seldom seen world, painting a picture of pure dedication and joy.

NEW ENGLAND PREMIERE Q&A TO FOLLOW WITH DIRECTOR CINDY MEEHL DIRECTOR: CINDY MEEHL  & DR. JACQUELINE RUSKIN, DVM PRODUCER: ALICE HENTY Director Cindy Meehl and Dr. Jacqueline Ruskin, DVM, will join MNFF Artistic Director Jay Craven on stage for a lively discussion about The Dog Doc. FILM SUBJECT: DR. JACQUELINE RUSKIN, DVM 

9:15 PM @ THE SWIFT HOUSE INN AFTER PARTY

The festivities continue at the Swift House Inn, an MNFF sponsor and one of Middlebury’s most beautiful settings. Enjoy the food, drink, music and mingling with our hosts Dan and Michele Brown.

12 5th Annual Middlebury New Filmmakers Festival | 2019 FESTIVAL PROGRAM THT TOWN HALL THEATER DANA DANA AUDITORIUM  FILMMAKER TO MQM MARQUIS THEATRE - MAIN SCREEN TWI TWILIGHT HALL ATTEND MNFF5 SCHEDULE FRIDAY 8/23 MQS MARQUIS THEATRE - SCREENING ROOM 10:00 AM   THT Carol Street When We Walk 15m 80m  MQM Drowning in Sands Guardian 31m 77m     MQS Playhouse Two Birds Dream House Benzin 8m 11m 30m 45m  DANA A Song Can't Burn Teeth Invisible Hands 12m 13m 80m    TWI How Purple Became Canusa Street The Blueberry Farmer 9m 10m 101m 1:30 PM  THT First Reformed 113m   MQM Maria Don't Be Nice 26m 96m    MQS La Guerra Nothing to My Name Exorcist of Apartheid This Little Land of Mines 12m 14m 20m 64m DANA Soaring Soldiers For Sama 11m 95m TWI Cleo from 5 to 7 [Agnes Varda: A Remembrance] 90m 4:00 PM TOWN HALL THEATER HONOREE EVENT | ON-STAGE CONVERSATION w/ WRITER/DIRECTOR PAUL SCHRADER Following the screening of his most recent filmFirst Reformed. [More info p.7] FREE & OPEN TO ALL

5:00 PM THE SHELDON MUSEUM GARDEN FESTIVAL FRIDAY HAPPY HOUR – Passholders Only, Please – Enjoy music by The Balladeer and the 1 PARK ST Bluesman, light food and an array of beverages. [More info p.7]

MARQUIS THEATRE CAFÉ FILMMAKER COCKTAIL HOUR – Filmmakers Only, Please – An informal opportunity for filmmakers 65 MAIN ST to meet, mingle, eat and drink in one of Middlebury’s iconic film spaces.

7:15 PM HONOREE EVENT | ON-STAGE CONVERSATION w/ DIRECTOR RICKI STERN & DR. COLLEEN McNICHOLAS | Reversing Roe  THT Returning Honoree Ricki Stern and Dr. Colleen McNicholas discuss the film’s origins, intentions and impact. 99m An of-the-moment and very special event. [More info p.8]  MQM The Big Burn Book Week 20m 96m   MQS The Short Goodbye Swiped The Return of Richard III on the 9:24am Train 8m 9m 85m

DANA The True History of Billie the Kid Dirt Ash Meat Styx 8m 12m 94m

TWI Woman at War 101m 9:15 PM FRIDAY NIGHT PARTY @ NOTTE – Passholders Only, Please – Gather for a great finale to Festival Friday with food, drink and 86 MAIN ST conversation at Middlebury’s true “underground” gathering spot, Notte. [More info p.8]

11:00 PM NEW!! LATE NIGHT Ruben Brandt, Collector Our inaugural late night film screening w/ a wildly imaginative and utterly original animated @ THE MARQUIS 96m feature. [More info p.9] FREE FOR FEST PASSHOLDERS | Walk-Up Tickets $12

13 5th Annual Middlebury New Filmmakers Festival | 2019 FESTIVAL PROGRAM THT TOWN HALL THEATER DANA DANA AUDITORIUM  FILMMAKER TO MQM MARQUIS THEATRE - MAIN SCREEN TWI TWILIGHT HALL ATTEND MNFF5 SCHEDULE SATURDAY 8/24 MQS MARQUIS THEATRE - SCREENING ROOM 8:30 AM COFFEE w/ OUTSTANDING WORKING ACTORS: MNFF HONOREE BRUCE GREENWOOD, POLLY DRAPER & MIDDLEBURY INN PATIO JEREMY HOLM | MNFF Artistic Director Jay Craven chats over coffee with three great working actors. 16 COURT SQ [More info p.9] FREE & OPEN TO ALL 10:00 AM    THT Louie's Antiques Once & Again Made in Boise 8m 25m 84m  MQM Mrs. Cho Carl's Motel The Moon and the Night Feral 6m 15m 19m 73m  MQS Freedom & Unity / Conversations from the Open Road - Shorts Showcase 82m    DANA Eternal Harvest The Coral Keepers The Pollinators 12m 12m 92m   TWI Summer in the City Stella's Last Weekened 10m 110m 1:30 PM   THT Estrellita New Homeland 8m 93m    MQM We Want Our Money Back Keep Going Joon Same Boat 6m 27m 83m    MQS Lonnie The Boxers of Brule Ingrid 6m 39m 52m The Biggest Little Farm DANA Presented by the Vermont International Film Festival 91m TWI Two Balloons The Quarry Project Float 9m 18m 81m 4:00 PM MIDDLEBURY INN PANEL | NAVIGATING THE PBS PROGRAMMING WORLD - PRODUCERS AND ACQUIRERS TELL ALL | Join Producers Beth Levison and Michael Rosenfeld and PBS Programmers Ron Bachman and Eric Ford in a wide-ranging discussion. 16 COURT SQ [More info p.10] FREE & OPEN TO ALL THE CONGREGATIONAL PANEL | INDEPENDENT FILM DISTRIBUTION: WHERE IS THE BUSINESS HEADING? | Marc Mauceri, Vice President of CHURCH First Run Features, talks the business of acquiring and distributing independent films. 2 MAIN ST [More info p.10] FREE & OPEN TO ALL 5:00 PM MIDDLEBURY INN PATIO SATURDAY HAPPY HOUR – Passholders Only, Please – Mingle and schmooze with filmmakers and special guests 16 COURT SQ on the patio of the Middlebury Inn. [More info p.10] 7:15 PM THT The Last Black Man in San Francisco 121m  MQM Hardcover Love Pool We Were Islands 12m 17m 80m MQS Sweetheart Dancers Santuario Seadrift 13m 26m 69m DANA Memories of Blue Maiden 14m 97m  TWI The Sweet Hereafter HONOREE EVENT | ON-STAGE CONVERSATION w/ BRUCE GREENWOOD | Acclaimed actor Bruce 103m Greenwood talks about one his favorite roles. [More info p.10] 9:15 PM SATURDAY NIGHT PARTY FREE FOR PASSHOLDERS | All others $15 at the Door Complimentary flatbreads and small bites, @ AMERICAN FLATBREAD and a full bar. MNFF presents the fabulous MUSIC OF ROSCOE & ETTA , featuring national recording MARBLE WORKS, 137 MAPLE ST artists Maia Sharp and Anna Schulze on the last stop of their East Coast tour. [More info p.10] 14 5th Annual Middlebury New Filmmakers Festival | 2019 FESTIVAL PROGRAM THT TOWN HALL THEATER DANA DANA AUDITORIUM  FILMMAKER TO MQM MARQUIS THEATRE - MAIN SCREEN TWI TWILIGHT HALL ATTEND MNFF5 SCHEDULE SUNDAY 8/25 MQS MARQUIS THEATRE - SCREENING ROOM 10:00 AM  THT Wildlike HONOREE EVENT | ON-STAGE CONVERSATION w/ BRUCE GREENWOOD | The illuminating conversation 104m with Bruce Greenwood continues following the screening of Wildlike. [More info p.11]    MQM Home Twenty Sophia My Dear Children 5m 8m 12m 70m   MQS Goodnight Topanga Rituals Busy Inside 2m 15m 20m 70m DANA What She Said: The Art of Pauline Kael 95m  TWI Dandelion Mum Sunken Roads: Three Generations After D-Day 30m 90m 1:00 PM  THT KO Scotty Iron Hands Lynch: A History 5m 11m 85m    MQM They Were Important to Each Other in That Moment Échappé The Bird Catcher 1m 13m 110m  MQS Small Family, Happy Family Undeterred 37m 76m  DANA Be Natural: The Untold Story of Alice Guy-Blaché 103m TWI Moynihan 102m MAHANEY CENTER SPECIAL SCREENING | MNFF, The Vermont Symphony Orchestra, and Middlebury College's Mahaney Center for FOR THE ARTS the Arts present the world premiere of The Greatest Night, with an original score performed live by the VSO. A 72 PORTER FIELD RD signature event of the Festival. [More info p.11] FREE FOR PASSHOLDERS | All others $15 at the Door 4:00 PM THT Bubblehead The River and the Wall 15m 97m MQM Fall '99 TransMilitary 18m 93m DANA Raise Hell: The Life and Times of Molly Ivins 93m

DOORS OPEN @ 6:30 PM | TOWN HALL THEATER FREE & OPEN TO ALL CLOSING CEREMONY & VTEDDY AWARDS

VTEDDY AWARDS PRESENTATION Join us for the joyful presentation of the VTeddy Awards celebrating the winners for Best Feature Narrative, Best Short Narrative, Best Feature Documentary, Best Short Documentary, Audience Award/Feature, Audience Award/Short, the Vermont Symphony Orchestra Award, the Hernandez/Bayliss Prize, the Clio Visualizing History Prize for the Advancement of Women in Film, the Gaia Prize for Environmental Filmmaking and the inaugural Shouldice Family Prize for Best Vermont-Made Film. 7:30 PM @ TOWN HALL THEATER

ERNIE & JOE Documentary | 101m | Ernie & Joe is an intimate portrait of two San Antonio, Texas police officers who are helping change the way police respond to mental health calls. The film takes audiences on a personal journey, weaving together the officers’ experiences during their daily encounters with people in crisis. In taking this different path, Ernie and Joe’s success is engendering change in police departments around the country. VERMONT PREMIERE Q&A w/ DIRECTOR JENIFER McSHANE & VERMONT ATTORNEY GENERAL T.J. DONOVAN  DIRECTOR: JENIFER McSHANE Ernie & Joe Director Jenifer McShane wraps MNFF5 with a lively Q&A about her significant and illuminating PRODUCER: ANDREA MEDITCH film, with special guest moderator T.J. Donovan, Attorney General of the State of Vermont. 15 5th Annual Middlebury New Filmmakers Festival | 2019 FESTIVAL PROGRAM 16 5th Annual Middlebury New Filmmakers Festival | 2019 FESTIVAL PROGRAM 2019 JURY JESSE NESSER MARGOT HARRISON Jesse Nesser is a documentary filmmaker whose films Margot Harrison is the associate editor at Seven Days, are diverse in story and locale, but all explore the where she has received state and national honors very common human experience and the remarkable for her film and book criticism. She is a Rotten outcomes they produce. His films include Walk With Me: Tomatoes-approved critic and member of the Online The Trials of Damon J. Keith and Through The Flak: War Stories of the Film Critics Society. Tuskegee Airmen. JIM LOWE BESS O'BRIEN Jim Lowe is arts editor of The Barre-Montpelier Times Bess O’Brien is a documentary filmmaker and theatre Argus and Rutland Herald, and has covered the arts producer. Her films include “The Hungry Heart”, scene for them for more than 30 years. He has worked “Coming Home” and “All of Me”. Recent awards include in the classical music management business in New York the 2019 Vermont International Film Festival Community City and provided support to arts organization throughout Vermont. Champion Award and the 2019 Public Health Champion Award from the Vermont Public Health Association. MICHAEL MURPHY "In over 50 years of acting in movies, I have been DEBORAH ELLIS lucky enough to work with, among many others, the Deb Ellis is a documentary filmmaker and Director/Film following filmmakers: Robert Altman, Woody Allen, and Television Studies Program/University of Vermont. Martin Scorsese, Tim Burton, Oliver Stone, Sarah Polley, Her films, including The FBI’s War on Black America, John Sayles, Elia Kazan, Peter Bogdanovich, Robert Aldrich and Orson Howard Zinn: You Can’t Be Neutral on a Moving Train and Welles. I bring this to your attention only to point out that at one time or Peace Has No Borders, explore significant social and political movements. another all of these folks were New Filmmakers, just like you. It’s a great life, hang in there and good luck!" ALLAN NICHOLLS Allan F. Nicholls is a BAFTA and WGA award nominated LISANNE SARTOR veteran of the movie industry having produced, Lisanne Sartor is an award-winning writer/director directed, acted and written music for the past forty whose short films, Six Letter Word, Prick and Heimlich years. He is most noted for his collaborations with have screened at world-renowned festivals like Telluride, Robert Altman, Tim Robbins, and John Madden. Cannes and the Middlebury New Filmmakers Festival. Her feature script, “Six Letter Word” won the 2017 Script Pipeline First Look Project Drama Category, among numerous other awards. STAFF & FRIENDS LLOYD KOMESAR – PRODUCER BRENNA WILSON – BUSINESS INTERN Lloyd Komesar spent nearly 30 years as a sales, Brenna Wilson is a rising senior at Middlebury College research and distribution exec in the film and television from Valdosta, Georgia. She is double majoring in programming industry, first at Blair Television in New Film and Media Culture and Economics. Outside of York, then, for the next 25 years, at the Walt Disney school, she likes to cook and watch copious amounts of Company in New York and Los Angeles. Having acquired extensive cartoons. She is looking forward to meeting all the lovely filmmakers she knowledge of the distribution models of film and television over his has been corresponding with! rewarding career, he brings a considerable amount of perspective and insight to the MNFF endeavor. NOAH SAUER– VIDEOGRAPHY INTERN Noah Sauer is a rising senior at Middlebury College from JAY CRAVEN – ARTISTIC DIRECTOR Madison, Wisconsin. He is double majoring in Studio Art MNFF’s founding Artistic Director is also an independent and Film and Media Culture. Outside of school, he likes filmmaker with nine narrative films and four to make music and his dream job is to be a music video documentaries to his credit. His films have played director. He has loved getting to see the new films this year and looks Sundance, Lincoln Center and others. He teaches forward to meeting the people who made them. film at Sarah Lawrence College - and directs its biennial Cinema Sarah Lawrence program where professionals mentor and collaborate with VANESSA DOWNING – SENIOR PROGRAMMER students from multiple colleges to make an ambitious narrative feature Vanessa Downing is a lifelong lover of film and music film for national release. Information at sarahlawrence.edu/cinema and has carved out an exciting and eclectic path pursuing both. She currently serves as Managing ISABEL MERRELL – ASSOCIATE PRODUCER Director for the non-profit Wellfleet Preservation Hall Isabel Merrell will graduate this February from on Cape Cod, where she programs a robust film schedule, performance Middlebury College, where she studies History and events, and many other arts & cultural offerings for the community. Film. This past spring, she worked on Jay Craven's latest feature film, Martin Eden. She hopes to develop MATT HEYWOOD – DESIGNER comedies for TV and film upon graduation. Matt is an award-winning designer and illustrator with 20+ years of experience. He is cofounder of The Image Farm, an agile design and illustration studio with a multidisciplinary approach to visual communication.

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18 5th Annual Middlebury New Filmmakers Festival | 2019 FESTIVAL PROGRAM THT TOWN HALL THEATER DANA DANA AUDITORIUM MQM MARQUIS THEATRE - MAIN SCREEN TWI TWILIGHT HALL  FILMMAKER TO MNFF5 FILMS A-Z MQS MARQUIS THEATRE - SCREENING ROOM ATTEND MNFF5 Be Natural: The Untold Story A Destruction A Song Can’t Burn of Alice Guy-Blaché THURSDAY FRIDAY SUNDAY MQS DANA DANA 1:30 pm 10:00 am 1:00 pm 71m 12m 103m

Humera, an 11-year old girl from a remote village off Since 1992, professor and musician Nigel Osborne Alice Guy-Blaché was a true pioneer who got into the the coast of Karachi, Pakistan, dreams of becoming a as developed techniques to use music as therapy for movie business at the very beginning—in 1894. Two doctor but the only school in her community comes children suffering the effects of trauma. These methods years later, she was made head of production at the under threat of closure. A Destruction follows Humera are now being utilized in a program for Syrian refugees world’s first movie studio, France’s Gaumont. She and as she reaches a critical point in her life where she who have fled to Lebanon. her husband moved to the United States, and she faces intense pressure to forego her education for an founded her own company, Solax, in 1910. But by 1919, arranged marriage. Guy-Blaché’s career had come to an abrupt end, and Documentary Location: UK she and the 1000 films that bore her name were largely Documentary Location: Pakistan Director: Roscoe Neil Language: English forgotten. Director: Urooj Yazdani Languages: Urdu, Producer: Martin Ball VERMONT PREMIERE Documentary Location: USA Producer: Urooj Yazdani Sindhi WORLD PREMIERE Director: Pamela B. Green Languages: English, Writers: Pamela B. Green, French Joan Simon Producer: Pamela B. Green Benzin The Big Burn The Biggest Little Farm FRIDAY FRIDAY SATURDAY MQS MQM DANA 10:00 am 7:15 pm 1:30 pm 45m 20m 91m

In a small, remote German town, 30 years after the Caught between the rugged beauty of the Idaho The Biggest Little Farm chronicles the eight year quest reunion of East and West Germany, everybody has left wilderness and the reality of her failing marriage, of John and Molly Chester as they trade city living for but a few. His mother is long gone, but Leon remains, Helen Turner is counting the days till she can leave it 200 acres of barren farmland and a dream to harvest helping his father run a gas station on Poland’s border. all behind when she’s pulled into the orbit of a young in harmony with nature. Featuring breathtaking Suddenly, a young woman from Ukraine arrives, and woman whose life is about to change forever. cinematography, captivating animals, and an urgent Leon hopes she can help him find peace with his message to heed Mother Nature’s call, The Biggest Little unknown past. Farm provides us all a vital blueprint for better living Narrative Location: USA and a healthier planet. Narrative Location: Germany Director: Samantha Silva Language: English Director: Oliver Mohr Languages: English, Writer: Samantha Silva NEW ENGLAND Documentary Location: USA Writer: Oliver Mohr, Elena Hell German, Russian, Producer: Samantha Silva PREMIERE Director: John Chester Language: English Ukranian Producer: Oliver Mohr Writer: Mark Monroe Presented by: USA PREMIERE Producers: John Chester, Sandra Keats The Bird Catcher The Blueberry Farmer Book Week SUNDAY FRIDAY FRIDAY MQM TWI MQM 1:00 pm 10:00 am 7:15 pm 100m 101m 96m

A Norwegian Jewish teenager who dreams of Bernie Ellis, all around good guy, was bush hogging When it looks like his new novel will be published, Hollywood stardom is suddenly faced with playing a pasture on his farm when he noticed a helicopter high school English teacher and once famous author the role of her life, masquerading as a boy on a Nazi- circling above. The police raided him that day and Nicholas Cutler thinks his luck has finally changed. But occupied farm while plotting her escape to Sweden and Bernie was arrested for growing a small number what promises to be the best week of his life spirals survival. of cannabis plants – marijuana he gave to terminal into the exact opposite. A pregnant girlfriend, a student AIDS and cancer patients and to relieve his own in trouble with the law, a gravely ill brother-in-law and fibromyalgia. For more than a decade, Bernie wrestled the prospects of an unfulfilled life force Mr. Cutler to Narrative Locations: Norway, with Tennessee and Federal authorities over his legal re-examine things in this sly Australian drama. UK Director: Ross Clarke status. This is his fascinating story. Writer: Trond Venaasen Language: English Narrative Location: Australia Producers: Lisa Black, Leon VERMONT PREMIERE Documentary Location: USA Director: Heath Davis Language: English Clarance, Ross Clarke Director: Valerie Whitcomb Language: English Writer: Heath Davis NEW ENGLAND Producer: Valerie Whitcomb NEW ENGLAND Producers: Heath Davis, PREMIERE PREMIERE Joe Weatherstone

19 5th Annual Middlebury New Filmmakers Festival | August 22-25, 2019 | MNFF5 FESTIVAL PROGRAM all natural wood-fired pizza featuring local ingredients fresh salads small plates housemade desserts indoor & outdoor dining WELCOME to Middlebury WhileWe’re you proud are here, to offer be an sure eclectic to pop variety into of our eclecticlocal shops, variety deliciously of local unique shops, restaurants sample and our world-class recreational opportunities delicous locally-sourcedright here in Middlebury.restaurants and take in our world-classMake sure to outdoor reserve time recreation. to check it Experienceall out @ 9:15 for the — orall better that yet,Middlebury plan another has trip to again offer! soon! Join us 8/24 Thank you to the organizers of Middlebury New Filmmakers Festival for their MNFF SATURDAY NIGHT PARTY! hard work in bringing another wonderful festival to Middlebury this year! featuring MUSIC BY ROSCOE & ETTA

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Shaionna, a young Lakota Sioux boxer, creates a girls’ A girl lives a solitary life in her own magnificent From humble beginnings in a small slate roofed boxing team to combat the youth suicide epidemic underwater world inside her apartment. But when one village in Greece, to the heyday of America’s movie threatening the Lower Brule Sioux Reservation. With morning she wakes up to find that her beloved goldfish palaces, Built to Last is the story of the Latchis Family the odds stacked against her, Shaionna must confront is dead, she is forced out of her own safe reality and and how they built an empire of theatres throughout her own demons as she fights to bring hope and into an amazing fishmonger’s shop, where she meets a New England in the hard-scrabble years of the Great healing to her community. boy who helps her pick a new goldfish. Depression. The film is told through historically accurate footage, photographs and music from the Documentary Location: USA Narrative Location: Denmark Latchis family, local historical societies and national Director: Jessie Adler Language: English Director: Vigga Wagner Language: Danish archives. Producer: Jessie Adler NEW ENGLAND Writer: Vigga Wagner USA PREMIERE Documentary Location: USA PREMIERE Producer: Liva Bech Holskov Director: Jennifer Latham Language: English Producer: Jennifer Latham VERMONT COLLECTION

Busy Inside Canusa Street Carl’s Motel SUNDAY FRIDAY SATURDAY MQS TWI MQM 10:00 am 10:00 am 10:00 am 70m 10m 15m

Karen, a therapist, helps people who suffer from A brief oral history of how the Canada-USA border Jack, played by Scoot McNairy, is in the midst of a heavy Dissociative Identity Disorder — a condition she has came to run right through a town and down the middle decision that is destroying his marriage. Spanning herself, juggling seventeen of her own alter egos. In of one street – and what it’s like to live on Canusa Street only 15 minutes, the film is set in a motel room where, this poetic documentary exploration of the much- today. through a raw, unfiltered lens, we see Jack call his wife misunderstood condition, Busy Inside follows Karen and to reveal he is leaving her and their son for another her patient Marshay on their complicated quests for woman. self. Documentary Location: Canada Narrative Location: USA Documentary Location: USA Director: Perry Walker Language: English Director: Stuart A. McIntyre Language: English Director: Olga Lvoff Language: English Producer: Galen Brown WORLD PREMIERE Writer: Stuart A. McIntyre NEW ENGLAND Producer: Victor Ilyukhin USA PREMIERE Producer: Kristin Porter PREMIERE

Carol Street Cleo from 5 to 7 The Coral Keepers FRIDAY FRIDAY SATURDAY THT TWI DANA 10:00 am 1:30 pm 10:00 am 15m 90m 11m

Carol Street explores black identity at Middlebury Selfish pop singer Cléo (Corinne Marchand) has two How can ordinary people appreciate the life-sustaining College by interviewing students, staff, and alumni hours to wait until the results of her biopsy come force of the oceans when most of us don’t dive beneath about community, outer self, and inner self. Weaving back. After an ominous tarot card reading, she visits the surface? A nonprofit in the Florida Keys National in the personal narrative of a young biracial man her friends, all of whom fail to give her the emotional Marine Sanctuary has taken on this question by training questioning his responsibility to his community, the support she needs. Wandering around Paris, she finally youth to become scientific divers. The students in film brings awareness to the sacrifices and pressures finds comfort talking with a soldier in a park. Directed Dive-N2-Life have a passion for conservation born of being a black person in a predominantly white by Agnes Varda. from assisting with research on everything from the community. ecological role of sharks to a devastating coral disease Note: Cleo from 5 to 7 is Ms. Varda’s second feature film infecting the Keys. Documentary Location: USA and is part of MNFF’s “Agnes Varda: A Remembrance”. Documentary Location: USA Director: Demetrius Borge Language: English Narrative Locations: France, Directors: Eilish Nobes , Language: English Writer: Demetrius Borge WORLD PREMIERE Director: Agnes Varda Italy Darlien Morales WORLD PREMIERE Producer: Demetrius Borge VERMONT COLLECTION Writer: Agnes Varda Language: French Writers: Eilish Nobes, Producers: Georges de FAMILY Darlien Morales Beauregard, Carlo Ponti Producer: Kevin McCarey

21 5th Annual Middlebury New Filmmakers Festival | August 22-25, 2019 | MNFF5 FESTIVAL PROGRAM SUMMER FLOORING SALE! Hardwood • Carpet Tile • Cork Luxury Vinyl Tile (LVT) Vinyl Sheet Goods & More!

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When Ivana got bone marrow cancer, she was told Akash, an aspiring graffiti artist, lives with his father During the devastating foot and mouth outbreak of she only has 2-3 years to live. But instead of listening Sudhakar in an old building in Mumbai. Akash’s mother 2001, Rhian and her brother Dewi struggle to keep to the doctors, she became resilient. 11 years later, is recently deceased. The father and son mourn her the Welsh hill farm they inherited from their father she’s working as a visiting scientist at Harvard. Despite death in different ways, but they have one thing in running. As the disease reaches their doorstep, Rhian surviving against all odds, she is now caught in a common—stubbornness. Rebelling against his father’s tries to control her increasingly unstable brother. bureaucratic system, and torn between staying in the conventional ways, Akash struggles to find his creative Dirt Ash Meat is an adaptation of the novel White US to get her treatment or returning back home to be voice in the vast liberating spaces of Mumbai. Ravens by Owen Sheers. with her family. Narrative Location: India Narrative Location: UK Documentary Locations: USA, Director: Sohil Vaidya Language: Hindi Director: Sion Thomas Language: English Norway Director: Barbora Hollan Writer: Sohil Vaidya VERMONT PREMIERE Writer: Sion Thomas Languages: Czech, WORLD PREMIERE Writer: Barbora Hollan Producer: Sohil Vaidya English, Norwegian Producer: Catrin Lewis Defis Producer: Barbara Hollan USA PREMIERE

The Dog Doc Don’t Be Nice Dream House OPENING NIGHT FRIDAY FRIDAY THURSDAY MQM MQS THT 1:30 pm 10:00 am 7:00 pm 96m 30m 101m

A maverick veterinarian and his dedicated team of A team of young New York City Slam Poets finds its A delayed coming-of-age drama set in Connecticut, doctors create a mecca for pets and their owners voice as it competes for the National Championship Dream House follows Mark, who after being looking for hope and a last chance for animal healing. during the summer of 2016. An emotional and inspiring hospitalized for attempted suicide, returns home to live The Dog Doc poses deep questions about treatment, film that gives insightful commentary on race, gender, with his eccentric mother Ginnie in their deteriorating pushing humans to consider the difference between identity and sexual politics in America today, Don’t Be estate. Struggling with his sexuality and an overbearing medication and integrative, holistic care. This film offers Nice is both an absorbing competition doc and a vital mother, Mark tries to fill his voids with continuous an immersive view into a seldom seen world, painting a writer’s workshop that proves once and for all that housework, alcohol, and trips to the local gay bar. picture of pure dedication and joy. winning hearts and minds is the ultimate prize. Ginnie then hires Ted, who befriends Mark and offers him the possibility of a new life. Documentary Location: USA Documentary Location: USA Director: Cindy Meehl Language: English Director: Max Powers Language: English Narrative Location: USA Producer: Alice Henty Producers: Nikhil Melnechuk , VERMONT PREMIERE Director: Jeff Bemiss Language: English Documentary Subject: Cora Atkinson Writers: David Lally , WORLD PREMIERE Dr. Jacqueline Ruskin, DVM Kevin Commins Producer: David Lally

The Drink Drowning in Sands Échappé THURSDAY FRIDAY SUNDAY MQS MQM MQM 1:30 pm 10:00 am 1:00 pm 12m 31m 13m

Two colleagues head for a drink after work. After a Two Sudanese inventors are determined to stop the In 1970, a preeminent Soviet ballet company tours bystander informs Zoe that Jack has spiked her drink, desert from swallowing up their country. Despite the West to showcase their elite dancers. During a she’s haunted by the imagined rape and sits before him international sanctions and a failing economy, they performance of “Sleeping Beauty” in New York, a rising acting normal so not to raise suspicion until the police succeed in building Sudan’s first robot farmer and enter ballerina begins to suspect her brother of defecting. arrive. it into a national TV competition.

Narrative Location: UK Documentary Location: Sudan Narrative Location: USA Director: Cosima Spender Language: English Director: Lucy Provan Languages: Arabic, Director: Allison Mattox Languages: English, Writer: Teresa Sparks NEW ENGLAND Producers: One World Media, English Writer: Allison Mattox Russian Producers: Cosima Spender, PREMIERE The British Council Sudan VERMONT PREMIERE Producers: Charlie Wilson, VERMONT PREMIERE Alessio Bergamo, Valerio Bonelli P.J. Walsh

23 5th Annual Middlebury New Filmmakers Festival | August 22-25, 2019 | MNFF5 FESTIVAL PROGRAM THT TOWN HALL THEATER DANA DANA AUDITORIUM MQM MARQUIS THEATRE - MAIN SCREEN TWI TWILIGHT HALL  FILMMAKER TO MNFF5 FILMS A-Z MQS MARQUIS THEATRE - SCREENING ROOM ATTEND MNFF5 Ernie & Joe Estrellita Eternal Harvest CLOSING NIGHT SATURDAY SATURDAY SUNDAY THT DANA THT 1:30 pm 10:00 am 7:30 pm 8m 12m 95m

Ernie & Joe is an intimate portrait of two San Antonio, Estrellita, (or Little Star) tells a piercing story about the Using drones, dance, farm implements, heirloom quilts, Texas police officers who are helping change the way constant threat of family separation and deportation agriculture, and video installation, Eternal Harvest is police respond to mental health calls. The film takes for undocumented farmworkers in Vermont. Seen a short film about the cycle of life as depicted by the audiences on a personal journey, weaving together through the eyes of a little girl growing up on a dairy growing season on a rural Kansas farm. the officers’ experiences during their daily encounters farm, the story begins in an idyllic wonderland of with people in crisis. In taking this different path, Ernie childhood adventure that turns dark when a powerful and Joe’s success is engendering change in police force raids the farm to capture her father. Experimental Location: USA departments around the country. Animated Location: USA Director: David Wayne Reed Language: English Documentary Location: USA Director: Daniel Houghton Languages: English, Writer: David Wayne Reed NEW ENGLAND Director: Jenifer McShane Language: English Writer: Daniel Houghton Spanish Producer: David Wayne Reed PREMIERE Producer: Andrea Meditch VERMONT PREMIERE Producer: Daniel Houghton VERMONT COLLECTION

Exorcist of Apartheid Fall ’99 Feral FRIDAY SUNDAY SATURDAY MQS MQM MQM 1:30 pm 4:00 pm 10:00 am 20m 18m 73m

A young, white filmmaker in South Africa asks his Fall, 1999. A bisexual punk, Danny, navigates his first An examination of loneliness and the masks we wear grandmother what his grandfather did during serious romantic relationship with a quiet boy from to face the world, Andrew Wonder’s intriguing drama apartheid. She gives him a box of family videos. A Connecticut, Michael, at a small liberal arts college. Feral tells the story of Yasmine, a young woman living in fascinating set of revelations follows. Once he receives a call from a former lover, Danny the tunnels underneath Manhattan. She is struggling to must confront his own fears of isolation and mortality overcome her past while she meets other city dwellers when he finds out he needs to be tested for HIV. fending for their own lives.

Documentary Location: Narrative Location: USA Narrative Location: USA South Africa Director: Adam Heyns Director: Max Tullio Language: English Director: Andrew Wonder Language: English Producer: Christoph Heyns Language: Afrikaans Writer: Max Tullio NEW ENGLAND Writers: Andrew Wonder, VERMONT PREMIERE USA PREMIERE Producer: Genevieve Scott PREMIERE Jason Mendez, Priscilla Kavanaugh Producer: Alon Simcha

First Reformed Float For Sama FRIDAY SATURDAY FRIDAY THT TWI DANA 1:30 pm 1:30 pm 1:30 pm 113m 81m 95m

The pastor of a small church in upstate New York, In the ultra-competitive indoor sport of flying elite, For Sama is both an intimate and epic journey into the played by Ethan Hawke, spirals out of control after a stunningly-designed model airplanes, a wild-card female experience of war. A love letter from a young soul-shaking encounter with an unstable environmental newcomer threatens to knock a teammate off his world mother to her daughter, the film tells the story of Waad activist and his pregnant wife. champion throne. A tale about obsession and passion, al-Kateab’s life through five years of the uprising in about camaraderie and competition, about time and Aleppo, Syria as she falls in love, gets married and gives beauty, Float is a documentary that is as much about birth to Sama, all while cataclysmic conflict rises around the intricacies of the sport and the science as the her. Narrative Location: USA complexity of the people involved. Director: Paul Schrader Language: English Documentary Location: Syria Writer: Paul Schrader Documentary Locations: Directors: Waad al-Kateab, Language: Arabic Producer: Jack Binder Director: Phil Kibbe Argentina, Japan, Edward Watts Romania, UK, Writers: Phil Kibbe, Ben Saks Producer: Waad al-Kateab Serbia, Montenegro Producers: Ben Saks, Language: English Laura Heberton VERMONT PREMIERE FAMILY 24 5th Annual Middlebury New Filmmakers Festival | August 22-25, 2019 | MNFF5 FESTIVAL PROGRAM THT TOWN HALL THEATER DANA DANA AUDITORIUM MQM MARQUIS THEATRE - MAIN SCREEN TWI TWILIGHT HALL  FILMMAKER TO MNFF5 FILMS A-Z MQS MARQUIS THEATRE - SCREENING ROOM ATTEND MNFF5 Freedom & Unity / Conversations from the Open Road Golnesa Goodnight SATURDAY THURSDAY SUNDAY MQS MQS MQS 10:00 am 10:00 am 10:00 am 82m total 95m 1m

Freedom & Unity: A collection of 8 short films from Golmammad and Golnesa, a young Afghan couple, are A short animated film about trying to sleep amidst local Vermont teens, selected from the winners of illegal immigrants who are working in a traditional brick anxiety. the statewide Freedom & Unity TV Competition. The making kiln in Iran. Following significant events that films illuminate their lives, passions and interests in happen to them, their lives undergo profound changes. their home state. Conversations from the Open Road: Chicago: Public Schools Closures, a collection of 5 shorts, shot on location in The Windy City. Q&A with the Narrative Location: Iran Director: Cece Wheeler Location: USA filmmakers will follow. Director: Sattar Chamani Goi Language: Persian Writer: Cece Wheeler Language: English Documentary Location: USA Writer: Vida Salehi NEW ENGLAND Producer: Cece Wheeler VERMONT COLLECTION Directors: Various  Language: English Producer: Sattar Chamani Goi, PREMIERE WORLD PREMIERE Writers: Various VERMONT COLLECTION Yousef Karimi Producers: Various FAMILY

Guardian Hardcover Home FRIDAY SATURDAY SUNDAY MQM MQM MQM 10:00 am 7:15 pm 10:00 am 76M 12m 5m

Guardian follows stewards of British Columbia’s Carrie Austen joins an elite book club only to discover A close examination of a mother’s life at home with a Great Bear Rainforest, who live full-time on boats in it’s an underground fight club where mothers go to one year old and an absent father. the depths of the wilderness to monitor salmon, the release their frustrations. backbone of the ecosystem, economy and culture along the BC coast. But, in an age of science censorship and soaring natural resource development, Guardians— and the wildlife they have dedicated their lives to Narrative Location: USA Narrative Location: France protect—are now disappearing. The film tackles the consequences of the erosion of science and Director: Lukas Dong Language: English Directors: Pamela Albarren, Language: English environmental management. Writer: Gillian Anis NEW ENGLAND Caroline Askew  WORLD PREMIERE Producer: Mo Thompson, PREMIERE Writer: Caroline Askew Documentary Location: Canada Camille St Gal de Pons Producer: Caroline Askew Director: Courtney Quirin  Language: English Producer: Courtney Quirin NEW ENGLAND PREMIERE

How Purple Became Ingrid Invisible Hands FRIDAY SATURDAY FRIDAY TWI MQS DANA 10:00 am 1:30 pm 10:00 am 9m 52m 80m

Each missing a central aspect, two characters meander Ingrid tells the fascinating story of a successful fashion Award-winning documentary Invisible Hands exposes through a Jungian journey seeking to understand the designer and mother in Texas who dropped everything child labor and trafficking within the supply chains of construction of the whole Self. and moved to rural Oklahoma in order to pursue a the world’s biggest corporations, which produce some personal and creative life. She has since become a of our most loved items. reclusive hermit and spends her time creating clay sculptures and art out of rocks from the nearby creek. What would drive a successful fashion designer to Narrative Location: USA Documentary Locations: Ghana, immerse herself in nature and leave everything behind? Director: Cathy Ye  Language: English Director: Shraysi Tandon China, India, Indonesia, USA Writer: Cathy Ye WORLD PREMIERE Documentary Location: USA Writer: Chad Beck Language: English Producer: Cathy Ye Director: Morissa Maltz  Language: English Producer: Christina Weiss Lurie Producers: Danielle Firoozi, VERMONT PREMIERE Morrissa Maltz

25 5th Annual Middlebury New Filmmakers Festival | August 22-25, 2019 | MNFF5 FESTIVAL PROGRAM Don’t get left on the Cutting Room floor.

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26 5th Annual Middlebury New Filmmakers Festival | August 22-25, 2019 | MNFF5 FESTIVAL PROGRAM THT TOWN HALL THEATER DANA DANA AUDITORIUM MQM MARQUIS THEATRE - MAIN SCREEN TWI TWILIGHT HALL  FILMMAKER TO MNFF5 FILMS A-Z MQS MARQUIS THEATRE - SCREENING ROOM ATTEND MNFF5 Iron Hands Keep Going Joon KO Scotty SUNDAY SATURDAY SUNDAY THT MQM THT 1:00 pm 1:30 pm 1:00 pm 11m 26m 5m

As a 12-year-old girl prepares for her final test trying Juniper, a middle age father, severely injures himself Scotty is a young bear who wants to become a Muay out for the traditionally all-boys Chinese youth Olympic playing his favorite Tuesday night pick-up basketball Thai kick boxer after getting fired from a company weightlifting team, she makes an unlikely connection game. After surgery to repair his torn ACL, he goes due to the financial crisis. After much training, he gets with the gym’s reclusive groundskeeper. through a tedious rehab to get back to his beloved an invitation from his coach to a fight with the local pastime, only to injure himself again … and then again. champion. Each surgery causes him to confront his love for the game and his wife’s hope that he’ll stop playing. Narrative Location: China Narrative Location: Thailand Director: Johnson Cheng Language: Chinese Narrative Location: USA Director: Thee Khanthavit Language: Thai Writer: Johnson Cheng VERMONT PREMIERE Director: Cedar Daniels  Language: English Writer: Thee Khanthavit NEW ENGLAND Producers: Tianqi Zhuo, Writers: Cedar Daniels, NEW ENGLAND Producer: Kajornphan Sumpownoi PREMIERE Felicity Wang Brandon Beilis PREMIERE Producers: Ryan Parks, Peter Demas, Cedar Daniels

La Guerra The Last Black Man in San Francisco Liyana FRIDAY SATURDAY KIDS & FAMILY MQS THT WEDNESDAY 1:30 pm 7:15 pm MQM 12m 121m 1:00 pm 77m

A short documentary about Angelica Guerra, a young, Jimmie and his best friend Mont try to reclaim the A Swazi girl embarks on a dangerous quest to rescue Mexican American woman from Southern California house built by Jimmie’s grandfather, launching them on her young twin brothers. This animated African who has taken on a much greater role in her family in a poignant odyssey that connects them to their past, tale is born in the imaginations of five orphaned the face of her parents’ deportation. Angelica chose even as it tests their friendship and sense of belonging children in Swaziland who collaborate to tell a story of to make the best of her situation by continuing to in the place they call home. perseverance drawn from their darkest memories and study, work, and take care of her siblings to keep the brightest dreams. Their fictional character’s journey is American Dream alive, despite her family’s separation. interwoven with poetic and observational documentary Director: Joe Talbot Location: USA scenes to create a genre-defying celebration of Documentary Locations: Mexico, Writers: Jimmie Fails, Joe Talbot, Language: English collective storytelling. Director: Erin Nene-Lee Ramirez  USA Rob Richert Animated, Documentary Location: Swaziland Producers: Erin Nene-Lee Ramirez, Language: English Producer: Joe Talbot Jillian Littleton, Eliana Velasco VERMONT PREMIERE Directors: Aaron Kopp, Language: English Amanda Kopp FAMILY Producers: Aaron Kopp, Amanda Kopp

Lonnie Louie’s Antiques Love Pool SATURDAY SATURDAY SATURDAY MQS THT MQM 1:30 pm 10:00 am 7:15 pm 6m 8m 17m

A character piece on Lonnie Holley, a found object artist In Louie’s shop, antique objects get a second life–- and Eternally single Mark refuses to settle for anyone but and musician based in Atlanta, Georgia. come to life. ‘the one’, but a chance encounter in the back of a taxi pool forces him to consider that sometimes love can be found in the strangest places.

Documentary Location: USA Documentary Location: USA Narrative Location: UK Director: Mac Christopher  Language: English Director: Melissa McClung  Language: English Director: Asim Chaudhry Language: English Producer: Walker Edelman VERMONT COLLECTION Producer: Melissa McClung VERMONT COLLECTION Writer: Asim Chaudhry VERMONT PREMIERE WORLD PREMIERE VERMONT PREMIERE Producer: Daniel Emmerson, Katherine Pomfret, Collie McCarthy

27 5th Annual Middlebury New Filmmakers Festival | August 22-25, 2019 | MNFF5 FESTIVAL PROGRAM Music & Dinner Come enjoy intimate, one-of-a-kind shows at Brandon’s best kept secret

Gypsy Steve Lara John Reel Hartmann Herscovitch Funkhouser

Listen to this crowd-favorite play This Jericho, Vermont based sing- A modern American songwriter- Quartet high energy stirring music rooted er-songwriter brings a unique poet-performer gem, creating An energetic, blend of modern in the Celtic tradition and world sound to the Brandon Music masterful contemporary folk with jazz, funk, blues, classical, Indian rhythms. stage. blues, pop and jazz influences. classical, and American folk. Saturday, Aug. 31 Saturday, Sept. 7 Saturday, Sept. 21 Saturday, Sept. 28

Kyle Carey Corey Jeremy Piandia Kyle Carey weaves together Laitman Trio Piandia is a duo of professors, resonant threads of Celtic and Mahoney John Funkhouser (piano) and American roots music into a rich & his Colorado Swing Band Jerry Leake (tabla), who delve Laitman’s alternative folk-pop is tapestry of acoustic storytelling. Jeremy Mohney is swing. He and into the ancient tradition of set apart by its layered, poetically his band’s music conveys the North Indian (Hindustani) conceived narratives that surprise Friday, Oct. 4 pure joy of life through a catchy classical music. Deeply soulful and disarm. PLUS: rhythm and floating melodies. and spiritually uplifting! Umoja Trio Saturday, Oct. 12 Saturday, Oct. 19 Saturday, Oct. 26 Saturday, Oct. 5 Tickets are $20. Add a pre-concert dinner for $25. Reservations required for dinner and recommended for the show.

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28 5th Annual Middlebury New Filmmakers Festival | August 22-25, 2019 | MNFF5 FESTIVAL PROGRAM THT TOWN HALL THEATER DANA DANA AUDITORIUM MQM MARQUIS THEATRE - MAIN SCREEN TWI TWILIGHT HALL  FILMMAKER TO MNFF5 FILMS A-Z MQS MARQUIS THEATRE - SCREENING ROOM ATTEND MNFF5 Lynch: A History Made in Boise Maiden SUNDAY SATURDAY SATURDAY THT THT DANA 1:00 pm 10:00 am 7:15 pm 85m 86m 93m

Lynch: A History explores the silence that nonconformist In Boise, Idaho, where 70% of new arrivals are gay men In 1989, the very idea of a competitive all-female NFL star Marshawn Lynch deploys as a form of from overseas, as many as one in fifteen mothers will sailboat crew was nearly inconceivable to the manly resistance. Culling more than 700 video clips become surrogates in their lifetime. Surrogacy has world of open-ocean yacht racing. They’d never make and placing them in dramatic, rapid, and radical nearly quadrupled in the last 20 years, and this small it to the start of the Whitbread Round the World Race, juxtaposition, the film is a powerful political parable Western city presents an opportunity to explore this much less survive to the finish. They’d never find about the American media-sports complex and its deep growing yet complex and controversial phenomenon. funding. They didn’t have the strength or skill. They’d complicity with racial oppression. die at sea. Did that many professional female sailors Documentary Locations: USA, even exist? Tracy Edwards proved all the naysayers Documentary Location: USA Director: Beth Aala Spain wrong. Director: David Shields  Language: English Producers: Beth Levison , Languages: English, Documentary Location: Producer: David Shields Alex Pitz Spanish NEW ENGLAND Director: Alex Holmes International PREMIERE Writer: Alex Holmes Language: English Producer: James Erskine

Major Arcana Maria Memories of Blue THURSDAY FRIDAY SATURDAY MQM MQM DANA 1:30 pm 1:30 pm 7:15 pm 82m 26m 14m

Set in the backwoods of Vermont, Major Arcana follows Maria is an 18 year old poet, daughter of Mexican 2066 is lonely . . . a world where the rich are hooked to an itinerant carpenter’s attempt to end a legacy of immigrants from the Bronx, NY. Her life was never machines and the poor labor to support them. Then, alcoholism and poverty by building a log cabin by hand. easy, living with her alcoholic father, mother, mother’s a fated power outage causes two strangers’ paths to His plans are complicated when he reunites with Sierra, schizophrenic husband and two sisters. The family cross for an instant and a fleeting bond arises. a woman with whom he shares a troubled past, and moved between housing projects and shelters and he must reconcile his old life with his new one. A vivid she never really had hope for a better future. In high depiction of life in early sobriety, it’s a universal story school, she experienced depression and social isolation Narrative Location: USA resonant to these uncertain times. which led her to cutting herself. Luckily, she started writing poems. Director: Yuchi Ma Languages: English, Narrative Location: USA Writer: Tim Schauer Chinese Director: Josh Melrod  Language: English Documentary Location: USA Producer: Emily Olmos NEW ENGLAND Writer: Josh Melrod VERMONT COLLECTION Director: Shiri Paamony Eshel  Languages: English, PREMIERE Spanish Producer: Sarah Brennan Kolb Producer: Shiri Paamony Eshel

The Moon and the Night Moth Moynihan SATURDAY THURSDAY SUNDAY MQM MQM TWI 10:00 am 10:00 am 1:00 pm 19m 18m 102m

Set in rural Hawai‛i, a Native Hawaiian teenage girl must Three generations of the family once lived together, A biographical portrait of Daniel Patrick Moynihan, confront her father after he enters her beloved pet but one day, grandmother was forced to move out and twentieth century colossus: public intellectual, policy in a dog fight. Through the journey, the film explores be alone. Her granddaughter visits her less and less specialist, ambassador and U.S. Senator from New undercurrents of personal, cultural, and socio- and her daughter doesn’t bother to visit at all. A moth York. The film captures the spirit of Moynihan’s economic strife in Hawai‛i, but, at heart, is a coming-of- appears in the old woman’s flat and its continuous remarkable ideas as they evolved over the course of his age tale of a young woman who must make the difficult appearance acts as a metaphor for the old woman’s tumultuous life in postwar America, featuring both the realization that to save her family, she must stand on loneliness. triumphs and the controversies. her own. Narrative Location: Russia Documentary Location: USA Narrative Location: USA Director: Alexey Frenkel Language: Russian Directors: Joseph Dorman, Language: English Director: Erin Lau Language: English Writer: Alexey Frenkel VERMONT PREMIERE Toby Freilich Writers: Erin Lau, Justin Omori VERMONT PREMIERE Writer: Joseph Dorman Producer: Olivia Gray Producers: Joseph Dorman, Toby Freilich

29 5th Annual Middlebury New Filmmakers Festival | August 22-25, 2019 | MNFF5 FESTIVAL PROGRAM THT TOWN HALL THEATER DANA DANA AUDITORIUM MQM MARQUIS THEATRE - MAIN SCREEN TWI TWILIGHT HALL  FILMMAKER TO MNFF5 FILMS A-Z MQS MARQUIS THEATRE - SCREENING ROOM ATTEND MNFF5 Mrs. Cho My Dear Children New Homeland SATURDAY SUNDAY SATURDAY MQM MQM THT 10:00 am 10:00 am 1:30 pm 6m 70m 93m

An immigrant mother’s gambling addiction shatters her My Dear Children follows one woman’s quest to unravel Every summer since 1914, Camp Pathfinder, a summer family. a family mystery. Her journey reveals a heartbreaking camp located in Canada’s Algonquin Park, invites boys and little known humanitarian tragedy when anti- from across Canada and the United States to spend a Jewish massacres, “pogroms,” swept Eastern Europe few weeks in the backcountry. Two years ago, Camp following WWI. Scholars today describe what happened Director Mike Sladden, enraged by the growing global as “the holocaust of its day.” The consequences of that refugee crisis, had an idea. What if he could find a way earlier holocaust continue to reverberate through the to bring a group of displaced boys from war-torn Syria Narrative Location: USA generations and warn us of what could happen yet again. and Iraq to spend the summer at Pathfinder? Director: Anna Sang Park  Language: Writer: Anna Sang Park Dialogue-Free Documentary Locations: South Documentary Locations: USA, Producers: Anna Sang Park, NEW ENGLAND Directors: LeeAnn Dance , Africa, Ukraine Director: Barbara Kopple  Canada Isabella Jackson PREMIERE Cliff Hackel Languages: English, Producer: Barbara Kopple Language: English Writer: LeeAnn Dance Ukranian VERMONT PREMIERE Producers: LeeAnn Dance, VERMONT PREMIERE Cliff Hackel Nothing to My Name Once & Again One Town at a Time FRIDAY SATURDAY THURSDAY MQS THT THT 1:30 pm 10:00 am 10:00 am 14m 25m 104m

A short documentary discovering the past of the “How can I get closer to the past, which moves farther Vermont has 251 towns. Explore them…One Town at filmmaker’s grandfather. and farther away?” So begins Once & Again, a film a Time. One Town at a Time is a coming-of-age story about early recorded sound and the hunger for that is firmly rooted in the community spirit that makes connection across time that marks each of us. Vermont so special. You will hear from “251 Club” members of all kinds and, after listening to their stories of traveling through Vermont, you’ll want to start exploring as well. Documentary Location: China Documentary Location: USA Director: Qian Li  Languages: Director: Isabel Dunn  Language: English Documentary Location: Vermont Writer: Qian Li Chinese, English Producer: Isabel Dunn NEW ENGLAND Director: Mike Leonard  Language: English Producer: Qian Li VERMONT COLLECTION PREMIERE Writer: Mike Leonard VERMONT COLLECTION WORLD PREMIERE Producers: Mike Leonard, Mary Rizos, Kevin Quigley

Playhouse The Pollinators The Quarry Project FRIDAY SATURDAY SATURDAY MQS DANA TWI 10:00 am 10:00 am 1:30 pm 8m 92m 18m

Resting on the shoulder of a single day, a young girl The Pollinators follows migratory beekeepers and their The Quarry Project is a site specific dance/theatre piece experiences the daunting immediacy of responsibility bees throughout a growing season, joining them as being created for the Wells Lamson quarry, the oldest, when tasked to take care of her ailing grandmother. they stop at farms to pollinate the myriad of plants deepest granite quarry in the country, now flooded and and trees that depend upon honey bees to grow and in “reserve.” Slated for live performances in 2020, this produce our food. Throughout the journey, the film will film explores the development phase from rehearsals meet farmers, scientists, chefs and academics to give completed in 2018. perspective on this complex food system that we all Narrative Location: USA depend on. Experimental Location: USA Director: Kerry LeVielle  Language: English Director: Leslie Anderson Language: Documentary Location: USA Writer: Kerry LeVielle WORLD PREMIERE Producer: Hannah Dennison Dialogue-Free Producer: Moira Fett , Director: Peter Nelson  Language: English VERMONT COLLECTION Sean Weiner Producers: Sally Roy , VERMONT PREMIERE WORLD PREMIERE Michael Reuter FAMILY

30 5th Annual Middlebury New Filmmakers Festival | August 22-25, 2019 | MNFF5 FESTIVAL PROGRAM THT TOWN HALL THEATER DANA DANA AUDITORIUM MQM MARQUIS THEATRE - MAIN SCREEN TWI TWILIGHT HALL  FILMMAKER TO MNFF5 FILMS A-Z MQS MARQUIS THEATRE - SCREENING ROOM ATTEND MNFF5 Raise Hell: The Return of Richard III The Life and Times of Molly Ivins on the 9:24am Train Reversing Roe SUNDAY FRIDAY FRIDAY DANA MQS THT 4:00 pm 7:15pm 7:15 pm 93m 85m 99m

The fascinating story of media firebrand Molly Ivins, It’s a comedy drama. The drama: a dying man decides A deep historical look at one of the most controversial six feet of Texas trouble who took on the Good Old to hire professional actors to impersonate his loved issues of our time, highlighting the abortion debate Boy corruption wherever she found it. Her razor sharp ones at a final “family” get together. The comedy: the from various points along the ideological spectrum in a wit left both sides of the aisle laughing, and craving group of actors he has hired turns out to be even more winding story of abortion in America.” ink in her columns. Best-selling author, Pulitzer Prize neurotic than him. nominated journalist and popular TV pundit, Molly courageously spoke truth to power and it cost her more Narrative Location: France Documentary Location: USA than once. Director: Eric Bu Language: French Directors: Ricki Stern , Language: English Documentary Location: USA Writer: Gilles Dyrek WORLD PREMIERE Anne Sundberg Director: Janice Engel Language: English Producers: Alexis Bougon , Producers: Keli Goff, Producers: Janice Engel, Stephane Sansonetti  Anne Sundberg James Egen, Carlisle Vandervoort

Rituals The River and the Wall Ruben Brandt, Collector SUNDAY SUNDAY FRIDAY MQS THT MQM 10:00 am 4:00 pm 11:00 pm 20m 97m 96m

When daily struggles and depression become too Five friends embark on an epic 1,200-mile mountain Ruben Brandt, a famous psychotherapist, is forced to much to bear, Sofia flees to her family summer bike, horse, and canoe expedition down the Rio Grande steal 13 paintings from the world’s renowned museums house. Secluded in the Gothenburg Archipelago River to document the borderlands before construction to prevent the terrible nightmares he has as a result of and surrounded by nostalgia of her childhood, Sofia of a wall and to explore how it would impact wildlife, subliminal messaging he received as a child. Four of his retraces her youth as she confronts her demons. A immigration, public lands, border security, and patients, expert thieves, offer to steal the works, since chance encounter, rituals, and friendship shine a light landowners. he believes that once he owns them, the nightmares in the dark. will disappear. He becomes a wanted criminal known Documentary Locations: USA, as “The Collector.” An animated masterpiece many Narrative Location: Sweden Director: Ben Masters Mexico years in the making. Director: Josh Aarons Language: English Producers: Hillary Pierce, Language: English Animated Language: Writer: Josh Aarons USA PREMIERE Jay Kleberg Director: Milorad Krstic Hungarian, English, Producers: Hattie Ellis, French, Spanish, Matilda Thompson Writer: Milorad Krstic Italian Producer: Peter Miskolczi

Same Boat Santuario Seadrift SATURDAY SATURDAY SATURDAY MQM MQS MQS 1:30 pm 7:15 pm 7:15 pm 83m 26m 69m

Same Boat is the story of a time-traveling assassin Juana Luz Tobar Ortega immigrated to the United In 1979, a Vietnamese refugee shoots and kills a white who inadvertently falls in love with the woman he’s States over 25 years ago as an asylum seeker from crab fisherman at the public town docks in Seadrift, been sent to kill… while on a cruise ship. The film was Guatemala. But in 2017, she was told that she had 30 TX. What began as a dispute over fishing territory secretly shot aboard an actual cruise. days to leave the country or be deported. Refusing to erupts into violence and ignites a maelstrom of boat leave her family and home, Juana took sanctuary at burnings, KKK intimidation, and other hostilities against an unfamiliar church in Greensboro, NC, where she Vietnamese refugees along the Gulf Coast. Set during remains today. the early days of Vietnamese refugee arrival in the Narrative Locations: Mexico, U.S., Seadrift examines the shooting and its dramatic USA Director: Chris Roberti  Documentary Location: USA aftermath, revealing the unexpected consequences. Writers: Chris Roberti, Language: English Directors: Pilar Timpane, Languages: English, Josh Itzkowitz  NEW ENGLAND Christine Delp Spanish Documentary Location: USA Producer: Josh Itzkowitz PREMIERE Producers: Pilar Timpane, VERMONT PREMIERE Director: Tim Tsai Languages: English, Christine Delp Producers: Tim Tsai, Andrew Lee, Vietnamese Tengah Nguyen NEW ENGLAND PREMIERE

31 5th Annual Middlebury New Filmmakers Festival | August 22-25, 2019 | MNFF5 FESTIVAL PROGRAM THT TOWN HALL THEATER DANA DANA AUDITORIUM MQM MARQUIS THEATRE - MAIN SCREEN TWI TWILIGHT HALL  FILMMAKER TO MNFF5 FILMS A-Z MQS MARQUIS THEATRE - SCREENING ROOM ATTEND MNFF5 The Short Goodbye Small Family, Happy Family Soaring Soldiers FRIDAY SUNDAY FRIDAY MQS MQS DANA 7:15 pm 1:00 pm 1:30 pm 8m 37m 12m

In the midst of a crippling state of writer’s block, film Mitilesh, a young woman from Central India, is Albert lives in his own little universe; a universe where noir-obsessed Trevor gets a text message from his recruited by local health workers to get sterilized in a all of the world’s diseases can be cured. Albert and his girlfriend: “It’s over. I’m sorry.” The shock sends him mass surgical ‘camp’. As she decides to undergo the best friend, Theodor, play on the rooftop of Albert’s spiralling into his own noir fantasy where he must get surgery, her narrative is situated in the larger context of apartment, where everything is possible. For many to the bottom of this mysterious message. But while population control in India – one that has for decades years, Albert’s mother has suffered from an incurable in his mind he suavely navigates bartenders, gossip sacrificed women’s health and reproductive rights in cancer, but Albert has a hard time understanding how columnists, boxers, and risqué photographers, in the name of economic progress. bad the disease really is. He believes that he can cure reality, his real problem is that he cannot see what a his mother through the games he plays with Theodor. mess he is. Documentary Location: India Directors: Anne Munger , Languages: English, Narrative Location: Denmark Narrative Location: USA Zoe Hamilton Hindi Director: Cecilie Skou Language: Danish Director: Kate Eminger Language: English Producer: Jana Edelbaum NEW ENGLAND Writer: Cecilie Skou Writer: Alexander Kveton NEW ENGLAND PREMIERE Producer: Claus Michaelsen Producers: Jackie Heltz , PREMIERE Janne Ebel 

Sophia Stella’s Last Weekend Storm Boy SUNDAY SATURDAY KIDS & FAMILY MQM TWI WEDNESDAY 10:00 am 10:00 am MQM 12m 109m 10:00 am 99m

A homeless subway violinist has her world turned Stella’s Last Weekend is the story of two brothers whose A young boy lives a lonely life with his reclusive father upside down when her most prized possession is relationship is definitely challenged when they find on a desolate Australian coastline, but when he forms stolen. themselves in love with the same girl, but eventually a close bond with a pelican, Mr. Percival, his life takes a the conflict deepens the unshakable bond between new and unexpected turn. them.

Narrative Location: USA Narrative Location: USA Narrative Location: Australia Director: Jared Rosenthal Language: English Director: Polly Draper  Language: English Director: Shawn Seet Language: English Writer: Jared Rosenthal NEW ENGLAND Writer: Polly Draper NEW ENGLAND Writer: Justin Monjo FAMILY Producer: Sandra Tan, PREMIERE Producers: Ken Keller, PREMIERE Producers: Matthew Street, Jared Rosenthal, Ahad Mahmood Caron Rudner Michael Boughen

Sunken Roads: Styx Summer in the City Three Generations After D-Day FRIDAY SATURDAY SUNDAY DANA TWI TWI 7:15 pm 10:00 am 10:00 am 94m 10m 90m

A busy doctor plans to spend her annual vacation Convinced that civilization is on the verge of collapse, A young woman joins a group of D-Day veterans on a fulfilling her long-held dream of sailing from Gibraltar two women set out on a dream logic journey through 70th anniversary pilgrimage to retrace their route from to the small island of Ascension in the Atlantic. But New York City parks in search of a river that will take the beaches at Normandy during World War II. Sunken everything changes when she sees a damaged, them to a faraway island. But does the river exist? Roads: Three Generations After D-Day follows their overloaded boat full of refugees nearby. Knowing that journey, painting an intimate portrait of these soldiers at least a hundred people could drown, she begins to during their final return to that hallowed ground. organize to help them but slowly begins to fear that it Providing a new perspective through the eyes of a 20- Narrative Location: USA will be impossible to do so. year old woman, a story of intergenerational friendship Director: Mojo Lorwin  Language: English blossoms from the memories of 90-year-old men. Narrative Locations: Writer: Mojo Lorwin WORLD PREMIERE Director: Wolfgang Fischer Germany, Austria Producer: Grace Kim Documentary Locations: France, UK, USA Writers: Wolfgang Fischer, Languages: English, Director: Charlotte Juergens  Ika Kunzel German Producers: Charlotte Juergens, Languages: English, French Producer: Marcos Kanter Lydia Robertson  VERMONT PREMIERE 32 5th Annual Middlebury New Filmmakers Festival | August 22-25, 2019 | MNFF5 FESTIVAL PROGRAM THT TOWN HALL THEATER DANA DANA AUDITORIUM MQM MARQUIS THEATRE - MAIN SCREEN TWI TWILIGHT HALL  FILMMAKER TO MNFF5 FILMS A-Z MQS MARQUIS THEATRE - SCREENING ROOM ATTEND MNFF5 The Sweet Hereafter Sweetheart Dancers Swiped SATURDAY SATURDAY FRIDAY TWI MQS MQS 7:15pm 7:15 pm 7:15 pm 112m 13m 9m

A small mountain community in Canada is devastated Sweetheart Dancers is a story about Sean and Adrian, a Alarmed by the detrimental effect smartphones are when a school bus accident leaves more than a dozen Two-Spirit gay couple determined to rewrite the rules having on those around them, three friends launch a of its children dead. A big-city lawyer arrives to help the of Native American culture through their participation rogue initiative intended to force people to be more survivors’ and victims’ families prepare a class-action in the “Sweetheart Dance.” This celebratory contest present and mindful. suit, but his efforts only seem to push the townspeople is held at powwows across the country, reserved for further apart. At the same time, one teenage survivor heterosexual couples, until now. of the accident has to reckon with the loss of innocence Narrative Location: England brought about by a different kind of damage. Documentary Location: USA Director: Ben-Alex Dupris Language: English Director: Steve Whitely Language: English Narrative Location: Producer: John Reiss VERMONT PREMIERE Writer: Steve Whitely NEW ENGLAND Director: Atom Egoyan Canada Producer: Steve Whitely PREMIERE Writer: Atom Egoyan Language: English Producer: Atom Egoyan, Camelia Frieburg Actor: Bruce Greenwood 

They Were Important to Each Other Teeth in That Moment This Little Land of Mines FRIDAY SUNDAY FRIDAY DANA MQM MQS 10:00 am 1:00 pm 1:30 pm 13m 1m 64m

Teeth is an intimate portrait of Hawaiian grandmother Captured entirely in one take, They Were Each Important This Little Land of Mines shines a spotlight on the Angelica’s recovery from sexual abuse she suffered To Each Other In That Moment is a glimpse of time and resilience of the Laotian people as they live among as a child and young woman. Her emotional and space. The one-minute film witnesses unplanned and work to clear 80 million unexploded American psychological healing parallels the fixing of knocked micro-events through rhythms of light, color, sound, bombs embedded in their land after the Vietnam War out and rotten teeth. In her words, “Three things have shadow, and shape. era. WINNER: Clio Visualizing History Prize for the replaced my misery, Faith, Hope, and Aloha … and the Advancement of Women in Film. greatest of these is Aloha”. Experimental Location: USA Documentary Locations: Laos, Documentary Location: USA Director: Hannah Priscilla Craig  Language: n/a Director: Erin McGoff  USA Director: Aaron Schnobrich  Language: English NEW ENGLAND Producers: Erin McGoff, Ka Xiong, Languages: Lao, Writer: Aaron Schnobrich VERMONT PREMIERE PREMIERE Cyril Eberle English Producer: Ciara Lacy USA PREMIERE

Three Sacks Full of Hats Tito and the Birds Topanga THURSDAY KIDS & FAMILY SUNDAY MQM WEDNESDAY MQS 1:30 pm MQM 10:00 am 20m 4:00 pm 15m 73m

Mick returns home after a long absence to witness the Tito is a shy 10-year-old boy who lives with his mother. Hearing impaired and homeless Gala escapes from rapidly declining health of his alcoholic brother Sid, Suddenly, an unusual epidemic starts to spread, a man who continuously abuses her. While living in which stirs up family tensions and powerful emotions making people sick whenever they get scared. Tito an abandoned old truck on a mountain road, she is of shame and denial. An exploration of addiction and quickly discovers that the cure is somehow related to unaware that the abusive man has discovered where the healing power of familial love. his missing father’s research on bird songs. He embarks her hiding place is. One night, after a brutal attack, she on a journey to save the world from the epidemic with finds the strength to somehow stand up and walk away his friends. Tito’s search for the antidote becomes a for good. She has no idea where this survival walk will Narrative Location: UK quest for his missing father and for his own identity. end up and how it will change her life. Director: Debbie Anzalone Language: English Writer: Geoff Thomspon NEW ENGLAND Animated, Narrative Location: Brazil Narrative Location: USA Producers: Lee Thomas, PREMIERE Directors: Gustavo Steinberg, Language: Director: Aycil Yeltan  Language: English Jane Nicholson, Peter Nicholson Gabriel Bitar, Andre Dias Portuguese Writer: Aycil Yeltan USA PREMIERE Writer: Eduardo Benaim FAMILY Producer: Aycil Yeltan Producers: Daniel Greco, Felipe Sabino

33 5th Annual Middlebury New Filmmakers Festival | August 22-25, 2019 | MNFF5 FESTIVAL PROGRAM 34 5th Annual Middlebury New Filmmakers Festival | August 22-25, 2019 | MNFF5 FESTIVAL PROGRAM THT TOWN HALL THEATER DANA DANA AUDITORIUM MQM MARQUIS THEATRE - MAIN SCREEN TWI TWILIGHT HALL  FILMMAKER TO MNFF5 FILMS A-Z MQS MARQUIS THEATRE - SCREENING ROOM ATTEND MNFF5 TransMilitary The True History of Billie the Kid Turning Ten SUNDAY FRIDAY THURSDAY MQM DANA MQS 4:00 pm 7:15 pm 1:30 pm 93m 8m 13m

TransMilitary chronicles the lives of four individuals Billie visits her aging father in jail, revealing that her Lamia and her husband await their turn in the clinic for defending their country’s freedom while fighting for childhood in his care was not as safe and happy as he their young daughter to be circumcised. The 10 minute their own. They put their careers and their families’ might have believed. Will she get her revenge? wait leads Lamia to recall her own experience as a livelihoods on the line by coming out as transgender to child and question whether this is the right fate for her top brass officials in the Pentagon in hopes of attaining daughter. the equal right to serve. The ban was lifted in 2016, but with President Trump now having reinstated it, their Narrative Location: Australia Narrative Locations: Cairo, futures hang in the balance once again. Director: Leticia Caceres Language: English Director: Jaylan Auf Egypt Documentary Location: USA Writer: Angela Betzien NEW ENGLAND Writer: Jaylan Auf Language: Arabic Directors: Gabriel Silverman, Language: English Producer: Christina Radburn PREMIERE Producers: Houda Echouafni, NEW ENGLAND Fiona Dawson Hossam ElSokari PREMIERE Writer: Jamie Coughlin Producer: Jamie Coughlin

Twenty Two Balloons Two Birds SUNDAY SATURDAY FRIDAY MQM TWI MQS 10:00am 1:30 pm 10:00 am 8m 9m 11m

Twenty is about the breakdown of a family as seen from Two adventurous lemurs navigate their dirigibles Trapped in a sort of domestic hellscape, on opposite the perspective of a 12 year old boy, who must come to halfway around the world to a place where sides of the same wall, Eva and Desiree must find a terms with his parents’ separation. happenstance and fate threaten to disrupt their way to survive. The two characters develop diverging reunion. approaches to their circumstances but converge at a point of emotional vulnerability. Two Birds explores the psychological effects of solitary confinement and pulls the larger matrix of gender and domesticity into focus. Narrative Location: USA Animated Location: USA Director: Mia Fichman  Language: English Director: Mark Smith Language: English Narrative Location: USA Writer: Mia Fichman VERMONT COLLECTION Writer: Mark Smith VERMONT PREMIERE Director: Moira Fett  Language: English Producer: Mia Fichman WORLD PREMIERE Producer: Mark Smith FAMILY Writer: Moira Fett WORLD PREMIERE Producer: Kerry Levielle 

Voice of America: Lowell Thomas Undeterred and the Rise of Broadcasting We Want Our Money Back SUNDAY THURSDAY SATURDAY MQS THT MQM 1:00 pm 1:30 pm 1:30 pm 76m 85m 6m

Filmed in the rural border community of Arivaca, In the 1930s, as America’s foremost newscaster both Shortly after breaking up, a couple returns to their Arizona, Undeterred depicts the militarization along in newsreels and on the radio, Lowell Thomas set the therapist to demand a refund. the US/Mexico border enacted by US Customs and standard for reliable, non-partisan broadcast news. Border Patrol and how it has affected and changed life Today, as the profusion of alternative digital sources is in the community. Made by a resident of Arivaca, the changing that network dominated universe and the air entire film was crafted in close collaboration with the rings with charges of “fake news”, this film examines, community residents who are its subjects. through the life of Lowell Thomas, the evolution and Narrative Location: USA value of broadcast journalism. Documentary Location: USA Director: Ethan Mermelstein  Language: English Director: Eva Lewis Languages: English, Documentary Locations: China, Writer: Ethan Mermelstein WORLD PREMIERE India, UK, USA Producer: Eva Lewis Spanish Director: Richard Moulton  Producer: Silvia Chen VERMONT PREMIERE Writer: Mitchell Stephens  Language: English Producers: Richard Moultan, VERMONT COLLECTION David Wright

35 5th Annual Middlebury New Filmmakers Festival | August 22-25, 2019 | MNFF5 FESTIVAL PROGRAM Free Cordless Lift UpgradeWe’ve Got You Covered.... on Graber Cellular, Pleated, Natural, Roller, Solar, Fresco Roman, and FabricPaint Shades* • Flooring Window Treatments & Everything You Need STYLISH SAVINGSfor any Project Valid June 12 – October 16, 2019

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36 5th Annual Middlebury New Filmmakers Festival | August 22-25, 2019 | MNFF5 FESTIVAL PROGRAM THT TOWN HALL THEATER DANA DANA AUDITORIUM MQM MARQUIS THEATRE - MAIN SCREEN TWI TWILIGHT HALL  FILMMAKER TO MNFF5 FILMS A-Z MQS MARQUIS THEATRE - SCREENING ROOM ATTEND MNFF5 We Were Islands What She Said: The Art of Pauline Kael When We Walk SATURDAY SUNDAY FRIDAY MQM DANA THT 7:15 pm 10:00 am 10:00 am 80m 95m 80m

Reeta, a young stand-up comedian, feels the heat. As An illuminating portrait of the work of controversial film Follow the life of disability activist and filmmaker Jason she edges closer to the ominous age of 30, she feels critic Pauline Kael and her profound influence on the DaSilva as he confronts the abrupt end of his marriage the ever-mounting pressure to fall in love, get married, male-dominated worlds of cinema and film criticism. and the departure of his wife and young son from and settle down. Her growing doubts and conservative New York to Austin, Texas. Though he is quadriplegic, Indian family are certainly not helping the situation. can barely see, and has problems swallowing and When she meets lonely funeral home employee Juliun, breathing, DaSilva sets off for Austin, where he her happy ending finally feels imminent. encounters a Medicaid system that would force him to Documentary Location: USA live in a nursing home in order to be near his son. Narrative Location: USA Director: Rob Garver Language: English Director: Amrita Pradhan  Language: English Producers: Rob Garver, VERMONT PREMIERE Documentary Location: USA Writer: Amrita Pradhan NEW ENGLAND Glenn Zipper Director: Jason DaSilva  Language: English Producer: Amrita Pradhan PREMIERE Writer: Jason DaSilva VERMONT PREMIERE Producer: Jason DaSilva Editor: Simeon Hutner 

Wildlike The Witch in the Window Woman at War SUNDAY THURSDAY FRIDAY THT MQM TWI 10:00 am 10:00 am 7:15 pm 104m 77m 101m

A gruff backpacker (Bruce Greenwood) helps a troubled When Simon brings his twelve year-old son, Finn, to Halla, a woman in her forties, declares war on the local teen (Ella Purnell) trek through the Alaskan wilderness rural Vermont to help flip an old farmhouse, they aluminum industry to prevent it from disfiguring her to make her way back home to Seattle. encounter the malicious spirit of Lydia, a previous country. She risks all she has to protect the highlands owner. And now with every repair they make, she’s of Iceland – but the situation could change with the getting stronger. unexpected arrival of a small orphan in her life.

Narrative Location: USA Narrative Location: USA Narrative Location: Iceland, Director: Frank Hall Green Language: English Director: Andy Mitton  Language: English Director: Benedikt Erlingsson France, Ukraine Writer: Frank Hall Green Writer: Andy Mitton VERMONT COLLECTION Writers: Ólafur Egill Egilsson, Languages: Icelandic, Spanish, Producer: Frank Hall Green Producers: Andy Mitton, NEW ENGLAND Benedikt Erlingsson English, Ukrainian Actor: Bruce Greenwood  Richard King, Alex Draper  PREMIERE Producers: Benedikt Erlingsson, Carine Leblanc, Marianne Slot

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37 5th Annual Middlebury New Filmmakers Festival | August 22-25, 2019 | MNFF5 FESTIVAL PROGRAM THE MNFF CIRCLE OF FRIENDS We extend our heartfelt thanks to all of those individuals and families who have chosen to support the Middlebury New Filmmakers Festival and Vermont’s ever growing art community.

BEST FRIENDS FOREVER Robin Lloyd Andrea Landsberg Michele Hernandez & Bruce Bayliss Nancy & Chip Malcolm Eric & Helen McFerran TRUE PALS Judith & Dennis O’Brien The Pearson Family Foundation Joan Gamble & Chip Paison E. W. Stetson III and Jane Watson Laurie Patton Neil & Debra Salowitz GOOD BUDDIES Abi & Bill Sessions Magna & David Dodge Steve Goldschmidt & Stacy Sussman Frank & Annie Van Gansbeke Rick & Elizabeth Swartz Bob & Joanne Kirkpatrick Carl & Barbara Sassano CHUMS The Shouldice Family Gayl Braisted Lola Van Wagenen & George Burrill William F. Brooks Bruce & Sue Byers COMRADES-IN-ARTS Cairn & Jean Cross David & Fran Alexander Stephen & Emmie Donadio Kevin & Teena Betourney Richard Dulgarian George & Sue Cady John & Sandra Everitt Ashley & Louise Cadwell Linda Mason Jay Craven & Bess O’Brien Sarah & Owen McClain Paul LaFerriere & Dorrie Parini Jay & Anna Michael Maynard & Marilyn McLaughlin Susan Polk & Glen Wehrwein Alex & Vanessa Wolff Gerianne Smart David Weller & Rochelle Zabarkes Harold & Jean Somerset Ricki Stern COMPATRIOTS John & Heather Bierschenk WELL WISHERS Holly Killary & Jonathan Blake Nancy Bercaw Kate Briggs Audrey & Joel Brockner Bob & Suzie Crews Mark Davis Matt & Courtney Debisschop Elisa & Seth Davis Jim & Lyn DesMarais Walt Deverell John & Katherine Dick Paul DiSanto Nancie Dunn & Bruce Baker Louis & Rilly Miron Linda Goldstein Liza Sacheli Bruce & Ginny Hiland Diane Snyder Paula Israel Harold Sogard Todd & Wendy Jick Chuck & Rebecca Strum Dayle & John Kellner Kathy Sulkes Charlie & Marie Kireker Steve & Faith Terry

Churchill & Janet Franklin Mr. & Mrs. Dort Cameron III Joseph & Kristen Brown Magna & David Dodge Elizabeth & Jim Robinson Larry & Diane Speidell Rick Lapham

38 5th Annual Middlebury New Filmmakers Festival | August 22-25, 2019 | MNFF5 FESTIVAL PROGRAM THANK YOU! 2019 SPONSORS

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39 5th Annual Middlebury New Filmmakers Festival | August 22-25, 2019 | MNFF5 FESTIVAL PROGRAM 5th Annual Middlebury New Filmmakers Festival | August 22-25, 2019 | MNFF5 FESTIVAL PROGRAM