Posts Tagged '2012 Maryland Film Festival'

Maryland Film Festival Celebrating at Baltimore’s LGBT Pride this Weekend!

Published June 12, 2012 Uncategorized 1 Comment
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Maryland Film Festival will be showing its pride at the 2012 Baltimore LGBT Pride Festival this weekend!  Stop by our table at the Saturday Block Party in Mt. Vernon or the Sunday Festival in Druid Hill Park to say hello, pick up a MDFF button, or sign up for a one-year Friends of the Festival membership and receive a FREE limited-edition 2012 MDFF water bottle!

Maryland Film Festival is proud to have included many excellent films of LGBT interest in our line-ups over the years. Here are some recent highlights:

2012
GAYBY
Directed by Jonathan Lisecki
Synopsis: This film is a generous expansion on Lisecki’s award-winning short film of the same name, which screened as part of the MFF 2010 roster.  In the film, Jenn and Matt, who were best friends in college, now face the struggles of maintaining a happy lifestyle while in their thirties. When Matt cannot keep thoughts of his ex-boyfriend out of his head, Jenn suggests that they fulfill a youthful promise of having a child together, despite their difference in sexual orientation.

LOVE FREE OR DIE
Directed by Macky Alston
Synopsis: Gene Robinson became the first openly gay bishop when elected by the Episcopal Church of New Hampshire in June 2003, beginning a long journey for acceptance and respect. This heartfelt and moving documentary tells his real-life story.

VITO
Directed by Jeffrey Schwarz
Synopsis: Vito Russo was a true hero of the LGBT struggle, best known as the author of The Celluloid Closet, a co-founder of The Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD), and an outspoken member of ACT UP. Despite leaving behind an amazing legacy, his story has been for years under-sung, a wrong finally corrected by this stirring and inspirational documentary.

2011
WE WERE HERE 
Directed by David Weissman
Synopsis: At once devastating and life-affirming, David Weissman‘s WE WERE HERE offers an in-depth examination of the AIDS crisis and its impact on the early 1980s gay community of San Francisco. It also serves as a snapshot of a vibrant and beautiful culture at a particular time and place in American history.

WEEKEND
Directed by Andrew Haigh
Synopsis: This film beautifully depicts a whirlwind weekend-long romantic encounter between shy and reserved Russell (Tom Cullen) and the outspoken Glen (Chris New), a man he picks up at a club just before closing time.  The two men spend their weekend together conversing, sharing philosophies, taking drugs and having passionate sex, all the while becoming increasingly intimate and increasingly fond of each other.

2010
BEAUTIFUL DARLING 
Directed by James Rasin
Synopsis: This documentary pays tribute to the short but influential life of an extraordinary person, the actress Candy Darling, born James Slattery in a Long Island suburb in 1944. Drawn to the feminine from childhood, by the mid-Sixties she had become Candy, a gorgeous, blonde actress and well-known downtown New York figure. Candy’s career took her through the raucous and revolutionary Off-off-Broadway theater scene and into Andy Warhol‘s legendary Factory.

WILLIAM S. BURROUGHS: A MAN WITHIN
Directed by Yony Leyser
Synopsis: This documentary follows the exploits of William S. Burroughs, the openly gay author of the controversial novel Naked Lunch. Featuring footage of Burroughs and exclusive interviews with some of his closest friends including John Waters, David Cronenbreg, Iggy Pop, Peter Weller, Anne Waldman and many others, Burroughs the man begins to take shape.

2009
GREEK PETE: A YEAR IN THE LIFE OF A RENTBOY
Directed by Andrew Haigh
Synopsis: GREEK PETE is a film by director Andrew Haigh that was shot for over a year with guys working within and around the sex industry. The story is a representation of their world, blurring the boundary between fiction and documentary, giving an authentic and intimate insight into the boys’ lives. Honest, non-judgmental, and sometimes explicit, the film offers a portrait of a sub-culture hidden from view.

LOVE SONGS (the 2009 John Waters pick!)
Directed by Christophe Honoré
Synopsis: French romantic films set in Paris are legendary; filmmakers from a variety of cultures have worked hard to emulate the specific energy of young people exploring their sexuality that French filmmakers seem to capture so easily.  Honoré’s LOVE SONGS (Les Chansons d’amour) depicts startling new ways that young people choose to deal with their grief and sorrows.

2008
BI THE WAY
Directed by Brittany Blockman & Josephine Decker
Synopsis: This jaunty documentary puts forward the idea that sexual preferences may start in our DNA, but they are also formed by experience and the ebb and flow of growing up. With a loosely structured road trip appropriately at its core, directors Blockman and Decker set out to explore how diverse members of the “Whatever Generation” in a variety of towns across America identify themselves sexually.

THE HOUSEBOY
Directed by Spencer Schilly
Synopsis: Rick, a young man recently rejected by his family for admitting his homosexuality, finds acceptance and refuge assuming the role of house for two long-time gay lovers. During Rick’s journey, we are given a raw, graphic, but sometimes surprisingly humorous look at a drug-infused, loveless world of anonymous sex.

OUT LATE 
Directed by Beatrice Alda & Jennifer Brooke
Synopsis: Homophobia still looms large in our society, causing many gay and lesbian individuals to remain in the closet into college or beyond.  This documentary follows five individuals who waited until they were senior citizens to openly declare their homosexuality to family, friends, coworkers, and neighbors, and paints a vivid, sometimes painful, portrait of these people and the many factors that cause them to wait this long.

SEX POSITIVE 
Directed by Daryl Wein
Synopsis: One of the first and loudest voices calling for lifestyle changes that came to be called “safe sex” during the early years of AIDS was Richard Berkowitz.  This film offers a portrait of what it’s like to be a messenger burned for carrying an unpopular message-and offers a wake-up call to anyone who may, thanks to medications that exist for checking and minimizing the symptoms of AIDS, once again live their sex lives as though immune, invincible, or just unconcerned.

Maryland Film Festival Highlighted in Filmmaker Magazine!

Published May 22, 2012 Uncategorized 2 Comments
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Pictured above are, from left to right, Maryland Film Festival director Jed Dietz; director (Sun Don’t Shine) Amy Seimetz; director of photography Nandan Rao (The International Sign for Choking); and director Joe Swanberg (V/H/S)

 

Check out Scott Macaulay‘s coverage of the 2012 Maryland Film Festival in Filmmaker magazine!

“The Maryland Film Festival, which wrapped its 2012 edition on Sunday, is one of the East Coast’s most intimate and engaging film events. With 40 features, over 70 shorts and an amazingly healthy contingent of loyal filmmakers annually making the trip to Baltimore, Maryland functions as both a discovery festival and friendly pit stop for directors on the independent circuit. John Waters hosts a movie — this year Barbara Loden’s seminal and still influential Wanda — and takes the audience out partying afterwards; the Opening Night consists of shorts, not some star-bloated, sub-standard mini-major feature; and, for the second year in a row, replacing a day of panels is “Filmmakers Take Charge,” a private event gathering filmmakers, industry and press for a discussion of the state of our business. Among the attendees I got a chance to talk with in Baltimore last week were the Zellner brothers, Sophia Takal and Lawrence Levine, Shane Carruth, David Lowery, Matt Porterfield, Kate Lyn Sheil, Visit Films’ Ryan Kampe, the New Yorker‘s Richard Brody, Indiewire‘s Ann Thompson, and the Washington Post‘s Ann Hornaday.

Click here for Scott Macaulay’s full article in Filmmaker magazine!

MFF 2012 Title ONCE UPON A TIME IN ANATOLIA Opens TOMORROW at the Charles Theater!

Published May 18, 2012 Uncategorized Closed
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ONCE UPON A TIME IN ANATOLIA

In case you missed it at the 2012 Maryland Film Festival, Istanbul-born director Nuri Bilge Ceylan‘s ONCE UPON A TIME IN ANATOLIA opens TOMORROW at the Charles Theater as part of its  Revival Series.

SHOW TIMES:
SATURDAY morning, MAY 19 11 AM;
MONDAY, MAY 21 7 PM;
THURSDAY, MAY 24 9 PM.

FILM SYNOPSIS:
In the dead of night, a group of men – among them, a police commissioner, a prosecutor, a doctor and a murder suspect – drive through the Anatolian countryside, the serpentine roads and rolling hills lit only by the headlights of their cars. They are searching for a corpse, the victim of a brutal murder. As night wears on, details about the murder emerge and the investigators’ own hidden secrets come to light. In the Anatolian steppes, nothing is what it seems; and when the body is found, the real questions begin.

TRAILER:
Trailer for ONCE UPON A TIME IN ANATOLIA

“ANATOLIA is a cop movie and a road movie – but mostly it’s gorgeous cinema.”
– Andrew O’Hehir, Salon

“ONCE UPON A TIME IN ANATOLIA is, in a word, great.”
– Stephen Holden, The New York Times

“A few days into 2012, and we already have a favorite for the new year’s best movie: Nuri Bilge Ceylan’s ONCE UPON A TIME IN ANATOLIA.”
– J. Hoberman, Village Voice

“A masterpiece. Gorgeously shot, it’s an absolute must on a big screen.”
– Bilge Ebiri, New York Magazine

CLICK HERE TO PURCHASE TICKETS:
https://www.retrievertickets.com/purchase.php?ostk=7273464&view=Movies

CHARLES THEATER REPERTORY FILMS CALENDAR:
http://gallery.mailchimp.com/93c70071a873656af1e5fe543/files/SCHEDULE_APRIL_2012_FULL_pdf_7.pdf

Posters of the Maryland Film Festival, 1999-2012, in the Baltimore Sun, with Bruce Willen and Nolen Strals of Post Typography!

Published May 10, 2012 Uncategorized Closed
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Before the lights go down and you settle in to watch your first film at the Maryland Film Festival, you’ve already seen them — the ubiquitous festival posters that pop up around Baltimore in the weeks leading up to the event. They’re “almost unavoidable,” says Bruce Willen of Post Typography, the Baltimore design studio that’s created the film festival posters the past two years. Willen, who heads Post Typography with longtime collaborator Nolen Strals, discussed the inspiration for this year’s poster, the design process and more in a Q&A with The Darkroom.

Click here for the complete article in the Baltimore Sun!

BREAKING NEWS: 2012 Maryland Film Festival Officially Breaks ALL Sales Records!

Published May 9, 2012 Uncategorized Closed
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Audience watching “Those Redheads From Seattle” in 3D during the annual Maryland Film Festival at the Charles Theatre. (Photo credit: Karl Merton Ferron, Baltimore Sun)

The 2012 Maryland Film Festival has now come to an end – but oh, what a weekend it was!  We are pleased to announce that this year’s festival has officially broken every sales record in our history  – both for advanced online ticket pre-sales AND daily sales totals at the Box Office!  We are thrilled by your response – thank you for making 2012 break all the records and supporting the work of the Maryland Film Festival!

Click here to read more about our record-breaking year for ticket sales in the Baltimore Business Journal!

John Waters and Patrick Kennedy at Maryland Film Fest 2012!

Published May 9, 2012 Uncategorized Closed
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John Waters (right) meets Patrick Kennedy (left), the detective who got serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer’s confession, in the Charles Theater lobby after our second packed screening of JEFF at the 2012 Maryland Film Festival.  Note: John Waters is not short.

Check out 2012 Maryland Film Festival Coverage in GreenCine Daily

Published May 9, 2012 Uncategorized Closed
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Check out Steve Dollar‘s write up of the 2012 Maryland Film Festival weekend in GreenCine Daily:

2012 Maryland Film Festival outside the Charles Theater. Photo Courtesy of GreeneCine Daily.

“Somewhere around 1 a.m. at the Lithuanian Hall in Baltimore, it hit me. Why shouldn’t this be the place to have a passionate, detailed conversation about independent filmmaking? Film festivals take pride in the range of experiences they can offer guests and patrons, but nothing I’ve experienced quite compares with this backdrop: a packed, sweaty dance floor hopping with enthusiastic groovers, while a DJ plays deep soul classics and Charm City icon John Waters sits in a corner having an intimate chat with a fan. Behind the rectangular bar, burly old guys from the Old Country gruffly dispense $2 bottles of Utenos and Svyturys. I bump into an old friend I haven’t seen in 20 years, and he immediately introduces me to an unalloyed artifact of the city. I don’t understand too much of what he’s trying to tell me, but from his T-shirt I know his name. The garment bears a likeness of his pixelated gaze and wild shocks of white hair framing a bald dome, and underneath his face the legend: Rezzy Ray Has a Posse.”

Click here for the full article in GreenCine Daily!

Last Round of Eric’s Festival Programming Highlights: DARK HORSE

Published May 6, 2012 Uncategorized Closed
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Today is the final day of MFF 2012, and we have films running on all 5 screens of The Charles as well as MICA’s Brown Center and Windup Space. MFF Director of Programming Eric Hatch has been sharing “programmer’s picks” with us all week. Today, fittingly, he turns his attention to our closing-night film: DARK HORSE.

*Please note that tonight’s 7pm screening of DARK HORSE at the Charles Theater has been placed on STANDBY.  If you want to see the film and don’t have a ticket or All-Access pass, a standby line will form outside the Charles Theater 30 minutes prior to the screening.  Once ticketed patrons and pass holders are seated, we will sell the remaining seats to patrons in standby.  We promise to do our best to get as many standby patrons seated as possible!

DARK HORSE

CLOSING-NIGHT: DARK HORSE
Todd Solondz’s films have always felt very, well, Baltimore to me. When I moved here in 1996, Solondz’s breakthrough “sad comedy” (the director’s preferred term for his genre) WELCOME TO THE DOLLHOUSE was enjoying an extended run at The Charles Theater. I saw it more than once, and was blown away. Even more of an impression was made by his 1998 masterpiece, HAPPINESS, which I took in at least three times at The Charles and The Orpheum (R.I.P.).  Yes, his films are sometimes a little sick, dark, and twisted—but how appropriate for the city that produced John Waters, not to mention the festival that has adopted Bobcat Goldthwait as an honorary citizen of sorts.

DARK HORSE is Solondz’s best film since those early sad-comedy masterpieces, as well as his most accessible film yet. Abe (Jordan Gelber) is a petulant and selfish man-child who, firmly on the far side of 30, still lives at home, working for his father and collecting toys. Deeply lonely yet full of blustery delusions of grandeur, Abe aggressively pursues troubled beauty Miranda (Selma Blair). In a moment of weakness, she goes along with his advances, built around his grandiose vision of a life together in his room full of collectibles. This stroke of good fortune surprises no one more than Abe’s long-suffering parents (a note-perfect pairing of Mia Farrow and Christopher Walken)—until, that is, things begin to unravel.

I’ve had the pleasure of interviewing Solondz once (a memorable phoner for Baltimore City Paper circa STORYTELLING) as well as seeing him introduce many a film at the Toronto International Film Festival. His films are a gift, and so is his charming public presence, comparable only to the pleasure of seeing John Waters introduce a film. We couldn’t be more proud to have both Solondz and star Jordan Gelber here for our Closing Night!

A ticket to this film also gets you into our always-fun Closing Night Party (across the street in our tent village) directly after the screening. I hope you enjoy our 2012 Closing Night selection. If I were a festival-goer instead of a festival-maker, I’d be first in line for this one!

Thanks for reading these programmer’s picks this week. I hope you all had a fantastic festival, and discovered a lot of great new films.

-Eric Hatch, Director of Programming

Festival Programming Highlights #7: JEFF, GAYBY

Published May 5, 2012 Uncategorized 1 Comment
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As MFF 2012 reaches its mid-point, here’s another pair of programming picks from Eric Hatch–two very different films, both of which have their first of two screenings today, Saturday, and then repeat on Sunday.

JEFF

JEFF
This beautiful, brilliant, and somehow not (visually) graphic film is half-doc, half-fiction, and 100% about Jeffrey Dahmer. That said, this is a million miles from the lurid pulp that comprises most serial-killer film and literature. Instead, what we have here is sometimes quite beautiful dramatic filmmaking a la Gus Van Sant fused to documentary interviews with three people changed by Jeffrey Dahmer—a neighbor, a medical examiner, and the interrogator who got the killer’s confession. We’ll have both director Chris James Thompson and Dahmer’s interrogator, Patrick Kennedy, here for our screenings of this unique hybrid film. JEFF is something unexpected, exciting, and new.  JEFF plays tonight (5/5) at 9:30pm and again Sunday (5/6) at noon at the Charles Theater.

GAYBY

GAYBY

GAYBY
Looking to laugh? You can’t go wrong with GAYBY.  As much about straight people looking for love as it is an insider’s look at the pleasures and pitfalls of modern gay culture, this crossover comedy follows two thirty-something friends who, despite incompatible sexual preferences, decide to make a baby (and do it the old fashioned-way). We had director Jonathan Lisecki’s short of the same name here for MFF 2010 and again for that summer’s Artscape, and it was a runaway hit at both. This feature generously reimagines and expands upon that short, with warm and hilarious results. GAYBY brims with a contagious belief in our capacities for love and friendship—and earns it by never cheating in its honest portrayal of real life in all its messy, hilarious, awkward complexities.  GAYBY plays tonight (5/5) at 8pm and again on Sunday at 5:00pm at the Charles Theater.

– Eric Hatch, Director of Programming

Festival Programming Highlights #6: THE ATOMIC STATES OF AMERICA, KID-THING, THIS IS NOT A FILM

Published May 4, 2012 Uncategorized Closed
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As Maryland Film Festival begins its first full day of programming – we’re running films on all 5 screens of The Charles starting today at 11am, as well as MICA’s Brown Center and WindUp Space later today – here’s another round of programming picks from our own Eric Hatch for your consideration.

THE ATOMIC STATES OF AMERICA

THE ATOMIC STATES OF AMERICA
This riveting documentary offers an informative and angering look at the history of U.S. atomic energy. It argues that our nation’s nuclear policy was flawed from the very beginning, and has left us holding a legacy of abysmal environmental conditions, major public-health outbreaks, and dangerously decrepit infrastructure. The filmmaking team here is Don Argott and Sheena M. Joyce, who also brought us both the much-discussed ART OF THE STEAL and MFF 2011’s LAST DAYS HERE.  From the shady politics behind art museums to the dark side of the hard-rock lifestyle, these filmmakers keep tackling intriguingly different topics with consistently exciting results. Bonus points for some very funny (and insightful) appearances from Alec Baldwin! THE ATOMIC STATES OF AMERICA plays tonight at 9:40pm at MICA.

 

KID-THING

KID-THING
We love the Zellner Brothers here at MFF. From their many psychotronic, madcap shorts to their delirious 2008 feature GOLIATH, Nathan and David Z. have long been favorites of Baltimore audiences (and film programmers). Their new feature KID-THING, which premiered at Sundance, gives their aesthetic an unexpected art-house twist as it follows a mischievous 10-year-old Texas girl who, through solitude, has developed a unique outlook on life. It’s an offbeat, sumptuous film that’s like a mash-up of THE CATECHISM CATACLYSM and (the good parts of) TREE OF LIFE. We’re very proud to have both Zellners here, alongside cameraman Clay Liford and lead Sydney Aguirre, who delivers an amazing film-debut performance.  KID-THING plays tonight at 5:30pm at the Charles Theater, and again at 5pm on Saturday 5/5 at the Charles Theater.

THIS IS NOT A FILM

THIS IS NOT A FILM
If you’ve been following the political situation of Jafar Panahi, the director behind such masterpieces as THE CIRCLE and CRIMSON GOLD, THIS IS NOT A FILM is simply required viewing. Placed under house arrest and banned from doing the thing he knows and loves best – filmmaking – Panahi responded with this collaborative self-portrait charged with risk and uncertainty. It’s something like a film, made under severely compromised conditions. As Mika Sam writes in our program notes for the film, “Not merely concerned with the everyday, THIS IS NOT A FILM poses compelling questions about acts of defiance and human expression.”  THIS IS NOT A FILM plays tonight at 7:30pm at MICA and Saturday 5/5 at 12:00pm at the Charles Theater.

– Eric Hatch, Director of Programming

 

 

SATURDAY

 

As MFF 2012 reaches its mid-point, here’s another pair of programming picks from Eric Hatch–two very different films, both of which have their first of two screenings today, Saturday, and then repeat on Sunday.

 

JEFF

This beautiful, brilliant, and somehow not (visually) graphic film is half-doc, half-fiction, and 100% about Jeffrey Dahmer. That said, this is a million miles from the lurid pulp that comprises most serial-killer film and literature. Instead, what we have here is sometimes quite beautiful dramatic filmmaking a la Gus Van Sant fused to documentary interviews with three people changed by Jeffrey Dahmer—a neighbor, a medical examiner, and the interrogator who got the killer’s confession. We’ll have both director Chris James Thompson and Dahmer’s interrogator, Patrick Kennedy, here for our screenings of this unique hybrid film. Jeff is something unexpected, exciting, and new.

 

GAYBY

Looking to laugh? You can’t go wrong with Gayby.  As much about straight people looking for love as it is an insider’s look at the pleasures and pitfalls of modern gay culture, this crossover comedy follows two thirty-something friends who, despite incompatible sexual preferences, decide to make a baby (and do it the old fashioned-way). We had director Jonathan Lisecki’s short of the same name here for MFF 2010 and again for that summer’s Artscape, and it was a runaway hit at both. This feature generously reimagines and expands upon that short, with warm and hilarious results. Gayby brims with a contagious belief in our capacities for love and friendship—and earns it by never cheating in its honest portrayal of real life in all its messy, hilarious, awkward complexities.

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