BRATTLEBORO-The locally rooted Vermont Film and Folklore Festival (VFFF) casts a wide net. Based again this year in Manchester, with several screenings added for the first time at Brattleboro's Latchis Theatre, it celebrates film as "the universal contemporary medium which simulates experiences and communicates images, ideas, stories, and emotions through [...] moving images," according to the festival's website.
"Folklore is the traditional medium of poems, myths, legends, and tales shared by a group of people," the organization says. "Both film and folklore live and thrive within community."
The festival this year features a dozen narrative and documentary feature-length films, nearly three dozen shorts in six categories, from Vermont Mixtape to Animal Instincts, and four classics, each seen at one of five sites.
In addition to showings at the Latchis Theatre, films will be screened in Manchester at Southern Vermont Arts Center (SVAC), the Manchester Community Library, Burr & Burton Academy, and Wheelwrite Imaginarium, the bookstore/art house venue owned by Festival co-Founder and Director Tim Rhys, and Jessica, his wife.
The festival lineup will be rounded out by participating storytellers offering a look at the art form in its various manifestations, by gatherings, by an awards event, and by a talk by Vermont author Joseph Citro, who's written more than 10 books on folklore of New England.
Rhys credits Festival Administrator Cash Cassidy as being "the straw that stirs the drink."
"He's been executing the vision this year in a very professional, competent way," he added, noting that Cassidy, a filmmaker himself, "is a fantastic producer [who] knows how to pull things together."
Cassidy was involved in the curating of the festival's lineup. Using a web-based service, FilmFreeway, "filmmakers from all over the world submitted their projects to us; we reviewed them, discussed them, and picked" the lineup, he said.
Some filmmakers were invited to submit, while others were suggested by VFFF co-Founder Karol Martesko-Fenster.
All in on 'Far Out'
Vermont-made feature documentary Far Out: Life On and After the Commune, by Guilford filmmaker Charles Light and Daniel Keller of Turners Falls, Massachusetts, is in the lineup, too, playing both at the Latchis Theatre and at SVAC. It was chosen, Rhys recalls, at the suggestion of Jon Potter, executive director of Latchis Arts, where Far Out was first screened.
"I looked into the film," said Rhys, "and realized that it's kind of perfect for our audience."
He was struck by the locally-hatched film's success in Brattleboro where it ran for several weeks. "I can't believe it sold out," he said. "Films don't do that much anymore."
Since its premiere, Far Out has played in theaters around New England from Newburyport, Massachusetts, to Kittery, Maine, to Essex, Vermont, and in several Los Angeles cinemas - some 30 in all.
"We've been getting good crowds," Light reports, "especially in New England."
Acknowledging the honor of having Far Out chosen for the VFFF, Light says he's surprised it hasn't gotten more traction in the wider realm of film festivals, of which there are some 10,000 worldwide, Rhys said.
Light reflects that "maybe it's just boomer fatigue,.or [that the film is] not issue-oriented in the way that things that are hot these days are," noting Far Out covers "a lot of ground of issues that have become important, aside from nuclear power."
He's quick to add, though, that he's been gratified to see audiences leaving screenings seemingly uplifted in a mood that's "joyous and hopeful - even more so since the election."
In a review in Seven Days, Margot Harrison wrote that Far Out "reminds us of what was so counter about the counterculture - not just the politics or the macho feats of activism (one member describes toppling a weather tower on a planned nuke site) but the insistence on rethinking and questioning everything. Far Out has an energy that could inspire young activists despondent about the current state of American institutions to do some community building of their own."
Stories make us richer, better informed
Rhys and the VFFF plan to keep growing the festival that gestated when he moved with his family from film-rich Portland, Oregon, to Manchester, where he and Jessica have roots.
Writer, film producer, and film magazine publisher - he founded MovieMaker Magazine - Rhys was struck by the dearth of film activity in the Manchester area. While the Brattleboro area has its film festivals and a network of enthusiastic venues such as Next Stage Arts, 118 Elliot, and the Latchis to screen them, Rhys says one is hard-pressed to find cinema in the Manchester area.
A few years ago, Rhys ran into Martesko-Fenster, whom he'd known for years as a friendly rival, and they found a common ax to grind: the lack of a cinema culture in the area.
"So we decided to start this film festival" with the folklore component, Rhys explains, as a nod to its prevalence in Vermont.
The premise of VFFF is that stories make us richer and better informed. "It's important for a democratic culture to be literate in cinema from around the world," Rhys says. "Cinema brings people together."
Moreover, he stresses how important it is to show international films, each a vehicle for insight into what might be a culture unfamiliar to the viewer.
The representation of subjects is worldwide, as are the films' origins, from Spain to the West Coast of the United States. Submissions came from filmmakers in India, Iran, Sweden, Canada, and other countries.
And, Rhys adds, "we have plenty of Vermont-made short films, including all eight in our Vermont Mixtape shorts block."
The festival, which opened at the Latchis on May 13, continues through Sunday. Far Out can be seen Thursday, May 15, at SVAC with a pre-party at 5:30 p.m., and again Friday at 4 p.m. at the Latchis. For a complete schedule, background information, film descriptions, and ticket information, visit vermontfilmandfolklorefestival.com/the-event.
This Arts item by Annie Landenberger was written for The Commons.