RI International Film Festival: 19th Season Preview

Flickers: Rhode Island International Film Festival begins the main week-long annual event of its 19th season on Tuesday, August 4, with an opening night gala and screening of a showcase of short films at the Providence Performing Arts Center (PPAC) and continues through Sunday, August 9. The festival is especially well-known and respected for its selection of short films, and is one of only 19 festivals worldwide that qualify entrants toward the Academy Awards (“Oscars”) for Short Film and Short Documentary.

Programming Director Shawn Quirk shared an early preview of the schedule with the caveat that dates, times and venues are tentative and subject to change, and that the official website film-festival.org/ will be updated to reflect the most accurate information. Over 200 films will be screened.

Unbranded, directed by Philip Baribeau, unbrandedthefilm.com is a documentary about a five-month journey of 3,000 miles from the border with Mexico to the border with Canada riding wild mustangs. It is scheduled for 7pm on Wednesday, August 5, at the RISD Museum.

Eadweard, directed by Kyle Rideout, is a biographical drama about the 19th century photographer Eadweard Muybridge who invented the precursor technology that would become motion pictures. In the 1870s, Muybridge, then a famous landscape photographer of the American West, was commissioned by railroad tycoon and horse enthusiast Leland Stanford to answer a long-standing question: When trotting or galloping, are all four legs of a horse ever off the ground at the same time? After six years of experimenting, Muybridge succeeded by setting up a series of still cameras in a line and rigged trip wires so that a horse and sulky would trigger exposures on each one in a time sequence, producing the first real-time photographic flipbook. Regarded as a true eccentric, Muybridge seems to have been an ordinary bookseller until he suffered a traumatic head injury in a stagecoach crash, changing his personality by removing inhibitions and unleashing both remarkable creativity and uncontrollable hotheadedness that led to his trial for murdering his wife’s lover. The film is scheduled to be screened at 7pm on Thursday, August 6, at the RISD Museum.

Angel of Nanjing, directed by Jordan Horowitz and Frank Ferendo, angelofnanjing.com is an English-language documentary made in China by American filmmakers “about a man who volunteers his time at the Yangtze River Bridge to stop people who are thinking about committing suicide” by jumping off, according to Quirk, who said that co-director Ferendo is from Westerly. According to the official website for the film, over 11 years this volunteer has prevented more than 300 suicides. The film is tentatively scheduled for 7pm, Friday, August 7, at the RISD Museum.

The Challenger, directed by Kent Moran, facebook.com/TheChallengerMovie is a drama about a Bronx mechanic, played by Moran, who is evicted with his mother, played by S. Epatha Merkerson. Desperate for money, he signs up with a boxing trainer of dubious legitimacy, played by Michael Clarke Duncan in his final role before an untimely death from a heart attack at age 54. It is tentatively scheduled for 7pm, Saturday, August 8, at the RISD Museum.

She’s the Best Thing in It, directed by Ron Nyswander, shesthebestthinginit.com is a documentary about Marie Louise Wilson, famous for her Tony Award-winning role in Grey Gardens, teaching her first acting class at age 79 in New Orleans where she lived in the 1940s. The website for the film describes her students as “skeptical members of the YouTube generation” and says that she makes a point of “smashing their red carpet illusions and challenging them to bring emotional honesty to their acting.” It is tentatively scheduled for 2:30pm, Saturday, August 8, at the RISD Museum.

The Meaning of Live, directed by Roger Graef, montypython.com/news_Meaning-Of-Live-UKTV/70 is a backstage documentary originally made for British television about the return of legendary comic troupe Monty Python to the live stage after a 34-year hiatus. Screenings remain to be arranged.

Local Providence films include Hope City, directed by David Angell, about a tent city set up by homeless people under a highway overpass, that Quirk said is “a very important film about social advocacy, a really uplifting film because despite all odds there is an attempt to make a community.” It is tentatively scheduled for 2:45pm, Sunday, August 9, at the Paff Theater at URI Providence.

A Magic-Lantern Life: The Story of the American Magic-Lantern Theater, directed by Peter O’Neill and Marcin Gizycki, is a documentary about preservation and recreation of shows using an early type of still image projector known as a “magic lantern.” Gizycki is a RISD professor. It is tentatively scheduled for 12:15pm, on Saturday, August 8, at the RISD Museum.

Abuse in Philly, directed by Ken Gumbert, is a documentary Quick described as “about abuse cases with a priest in Philadelphia, done from an unusual angle because the filmmaker is himself a priest” and a professor at Providence College. It is tentatively scheduled for 12:15pm on Sunday, August 9, at the Paff Theater at URI Providence.

Hustler in Providence, directed by Jonathan Paul, is “about a male prostitute drug addict who has since come out of that to help other people,” said Quirk. It is tentatively scheduled for 7:15pm on Saturday, August 8, at the Paff Theater at URI Providence.

In addition to the main event week, at 10:30am on Sunday, July 26, a special pre-release screening of Shaun the Sheep is scheduled at the Showcase Cinemas in Providence Place. According to Quirk, it is an animated feature created by the makers of Wallace & Gromit and of Chicken Run. eventbrite.com/e/special-riiff-premiere-shaun-the-sheep-movie-tickets-12416940403

For those interested in the film business, the Rhode Island Film Forum is a day-long event to help novices and professionals, held 8:30am – 2pm on Thursday, August 6, at the Biltmore Hotel in Downtown Providence in collaboration with the state Film and Television Office headed by Steven Feinberg and the URI Harrington School of Communication and Media. The RIIFF website describes it as “a one-day symposium that brings together the movers and shakers of the film industry within the Rhode Island and New England community” and invites all participants in the film business, including “writers, actors, directors, producers, educators, production companies, artistic directors, film/video suppliers, civic organizations, hotel managers, rental agencies and historic and preservation groups.” eventbrite.com/e/the-rhode-island-film-forum-2015-tickets-3936135086

ScriptBiz is a day-long event for aspiring screenwriters, held 9am – 2:30pm on Friday, August 7, at the offices of the Rhode Island Foundation, 1 Union Station No. 6, in Downtown Providence. According to the RIIFF website, “emerging screenwriters can hone their skills by interacting with and learning from seasoned industry professionals.” film-festival.org/scriptbiz.php

Other events include the Providence Backlot Walking Tour and Filmmaker Lounge, also with Feinberg, and a centenary salute to adopted Rhode Islander Anthony Quinn. motifri.com/anthonyquinn/

RIIFF website: film-festival.org/ Tickets: eventbrite.com/e/2015-riiff-opening-night-screening-gala-soiree-tickets-6629568217; Other screenings at the door.