Maryland Film Festival Blog

Well, it’s 9pm, and I’ve spent the last 12 hours writing and uploading to our site short descriptions for most of our 2009 line-up — nearly 40 features and 11 shorts programs you can start reading about a full month before MFF’s 2009 Opening Night (which is, in case it’s not engraved in your brain yet, Thursday, May 7). Of the three festivals I’ve worked for MFF now, this is by far the earliest we’ve gotten this much done this far out before the festival — and maybe the earliest this much has been done… well, ever. Obviously, there’s a lot yet to do, but we’re proud to be able to already offer basic information about most of our films — with some exciting announcements still to come.

This line-up is the result of 100s of hours of viewing, evaluating, and discussing, pursuing and being pursued, making very tough choices in the service of a diverse, well-rounded line-up that really does offer “Film For Everyone.” As mentioned in my last entry, there are plenty of foreign films in our line-up: off the top of my head, we have films shot in Mexico, Rwanda, Australia, Haiti, South Korea, Senegal, Costa Rica, Japan, Egypt, Argentina, Slovakia, Spain, Nigeria, France, China, the UK — even the United States! We have documentaries about bug collectors, ’70s exploitation films, African pop stars, urban gardens, strongmen, teenage go-kart champions, visionary artists, imaginary countries, and invisible girlfriends! We have horror, drama, comedy, art cinema, underground film, even a sci-fi/western/musical! We have… well, you get the drift: we have variety.

Please read, enjoy, and keep checking back. We’ll be updating the titles already announced with more detailed information, images, reviews, links, etc. And still to come are announcements of our Opening and Closing Night presentations, and other annual traditions: a vintage 3-D film, a silent film with live accompaniment, multiple Guest Hosts, and, of course, John Waters’ pick!

And now for some sleep…

Eric Hatch, programming administrator, MFF