Posts Tagged 'Maryland'

How to Use Your Friends of the Festival membership during MFF

Are you a Friend of the Festival? Have you been wondering how to take advantage of your membership benefits? We’ve got all the answers for you right here!

If you have tickets or All-Access passes on Will Call for Opening Night, you will be able to pick them up at the Brown Center (1301 Mount Royal Avenue) on Thursday evening.

Everything else will be available at the Friends of the Festival table (located in the Box Office tent across the street from The Charles Theater) starting Friday, May 8.

HOW TO TAKE ADVANTAGE OF FREE MOVIES BEFORE 6PM ON FRIDAY:

When you arrive on Friday, go to the Friends of the Festival table and give your name. You will receive a pass that you can flash at the theater to get into any film that day free before 6pm.

If you are at the Red Carpet level or higher, your pass is also what you use to get into the Filmmakers’ Lounge.

SCREENING VOUCHERS for Red Carpet level members and higher will also be available for pick-up at the Friends of the Festival table starting Friday, May 8.

Want to take advantage of these great benefits too? Join Friends of the Festival before May 7, and we’ll throw in a FREE screening voucher!

Blair Witch’s Ed Sánchez Brings Thrilling SEVENTH MOON to MFF!

Friday, May 8, 10:00pm,
Charles Theatre 2

Eduardo Sánchez, co-writer/director of The Blair Witch Project, makes a triumphant, spooky return with the China-set nailbiter Seventh Moon, playing at Maryland Film Festival 2009! Seventh Moon tells the story of a couple of newlyweds, Yul (Tim Chiou) and Melissa (Amy Smart of Crank: High Voltage), who honeymoon in China — but soon encounter mystery and horror lurking behind a “ghost festival” tied to the lunar cycle.

A polished international production that delivers classic thrills in a way few current horror films do, it’s a triumphant thrill-ride from Maryland resident Sánchez, who delivered the worldwide smash Blair Witch Project. As MFF’s Scott Braid writes in the program notes for this film, “With movie theaters and video stores overrun with brainless slice-and-dice gorefests whose every sequel is more repugnant and (if possible) less engaging than the one before, it’s refreshing to see an exquisitely made modern ghost story with genuinely creepy atmospherics.”

Director Eduardo Sánchez will be with us at Maryland Film Festival to host the Baltimore premiere of Seventh Moon. Don’t miss it!

Click here to buy tickets to SEVENTH MOON!

Ian MacKaye of Fugazi presents NINA SIMONE doc at MFF 2009!!

Nina Simone: La LegendeTwo legendary musicians come together at Maryland Film Festival 2009, when MFF guest host, punk/hardcore pioneer Ian MacKaye, presents the rarely screened French documentary Nina Simone: La Légende. This 1992 film, made for French television, captures soul/jazz/gospel icon Simone at her most impassioned and outspoken, reflecting on her life, career, and beliefs. It also incorporates performance and interview footage from a 1969 film about Simone, when her fearless, eclectic career was arguably at its peak.

It’s an intriguing choice from Dischord Records co-founder MacKaye, whose own work with such world-renowned bands as Minor Threat, Fugazi, and, currently, The Evens, is also known for its impassioned spirit and politically charged themes.We offer this not-to-be-missed event in the tradition of previous MFF musician guest-hosts as Jonathan Richman, Branford Marsalis, Will Oldham, and Henry Rollins — and we can’t wait to hear what MacKaye has to say about Simone and this inspiring documentary.

Click here to purchase tickets to NINA SIMONE: LA LEGENDE!

Read about Ian MacKaye guest hosting at the MFF on Pitchfork!

Read about it on Prefix!

John Waters Pick Announced: LOVE SONGS

Love SongsMay 8, 7:00pm

JOHN WATERS TO HOST 11TH MFF PICK!

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. Director/screenwriter Christophe Honoré steps firmly into the middle of this tradition, and then twists and turns, and then throws a couple of punches. Honore’s world includes threesomes, bi-sexuality, and startling new ways to deal with grief.

Built around twelve songs by Alex Beaupain, Love Songs is the anti-Umbrellas of Cherbourg. Salon film critic Andrew O’Hehir describes it as a “blend of François Truffaut’s wistful Parisian sentimentalism and Pedro Almodóvar’s acrid polysexual comedy.”

Love Songs screened in competition at Cannes 2007, was nominated for numerous awards, including four Cesars (French Oscars), but the film never played on more than 6 screens in this country. The remarkable cast includes Chiara Mastroianni, the daughter of actors Catherine Deneuve and Marcello Mastroianni.

— Jed Dietz, Director, Maryland Film Festival

Click here to purchase tickets to LOVE SONGS!

MFF 2008: Friday

33 Most Inspired Twitter Backgrounds

From the Orange Element Blog:

The Maryland Film Festival has just been featured by Inspired Magazine as having one of the 33 most inspirational Twitter backgrounds. Thanks Inspired!

Check out our Twitter page to see what they’re talking about!

More great MFF 2009 designs from Orange Element can now be found in bus shelters all over town!

MFF Bus SheltersWe are larger than life on the Metro Gallery by the entrance to the Jones Falls Expressway!

Metro Gallery Banner

Opening Night 2008

This video documenting last year’s Opening Night Shorts event (hosted by Barry Levinson) was created by the Creative Alliance Movie Makers program for us last year.

From the Maryland Film Festival program:

We devote our Opening Night to short films because we strive to spotlight a segment of the moviemaking world that, despite its importance to the total art form, is far too often overlooked.

The films showcased last year were:

Gnatural Wonders by Bennett Battaile

Doxology by Michael Langan

My Olympic Summer by Daniel Robin

Help Is Coming by Ben More

Salim Baba by Tim Sternberg and Francisco Bello

Politics of Preschool by Heidi Van Lier

We’ll have announcements about this year’s Opening Night program soon…

Welcome to the New Maryland Film Festival Blog!

We are always looking for new ways to get our audiences in on the  year-round process of putting together a film festival, and that’s why we are pleased to unveil the new Maryland Film Festival Blog.

Here you will find input from every department of MFF, as we invite you to take a peek at what goes into creating a yearly Film Festival.

This is also your chance to give your input, we invite you to use the comment section to join in the conversation.

Want more? There are so many ways to be involved with the Maryland Film Festival! You can…

Volunteer at MFF 2009 (click here to email our Volunteer Coordinator)!

Join our mailing list to be the first to receive our updates!

Join Friends of the Festival to take advantage of our year-round programming!

And of course, we hope to see you at the 2009 Maryland Film Festival, taking place May 7 – 10!

www.mdfilmfest.com

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