Vineyard Life: 16th Martha's Vineyard Film Festival Recap.
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Over a week later and there's still a "16th Annual Martha's Vineyard Film Festival buzz" about town! I keep bumping into people that were there and we are still exchanging experiences, asking questions, and discussing the impact each of the movies we saw had on us!
Tea Lane Associates sponsored two movies at the Festival. “Nothing Left Unsaid” which was about the life of Gloria Vanderbilt, in which she is informally interviewed by her son, news anchor, Anderson Cooper, and “The Wolfpack” which was received by a sold out auditorium on the opening night of the festival. When 4 of the actual “Wolfpack brothers” and their mother, (see photo), stepped onto the stage one by one for a post movie Q and A session, they were greeted with a standing ovation. Two sold out screenings prompted the festival organizers to add another one on Sunday evening! Thank you Thomas, Brian and all the organizers for bringing this fascinating investigative journalistic story, which is available on Netflix should you have missed it.
I cant say enough about how great this event has become, I saw Thomas Bena, the festivals founder and Director, today and you can really see his passion and excitement for bringing the event to the island. But not just for the movies. There's a tent outside the community center, The Hay Cafe, that serves as box office, coffee bar, music venue and "bar"/concession stand (if you buy a MVFF printed glass jar they will put wine in it - I guess that's how they get around the dry town laws!). People sit at long barn board tables on benches and hay bales and shoot the breeze. As Thomas said to me “inside that tent is the heart of the Film Festival where movie makers and goers sit and the connections are really made”.
The Film Festival has become a well anticipated island event and it brings like-minded islanders and off islanders together in a relaxed and easy environment, with live music, art, great food, kids movie making workshops and of course wonderful movies. It’s fun to rub shoulders with the film makers/writers/directors, hear their stories at first hand and have the kind of cultural experiences that the Island wouldn't otherwise see.
I explained to my teenage son, as he helped carry the couches out of the Chilmark School with one of the cast members of the movie he had just seen, that what just happened, probably wouldn't happen anywhere else. He thought it was pretty cool!
I can’t wait for next year’s MVFF. They set the bar high with this last one!
Keep in touch with the festival, offer support, become a member by visiting the website at www.tmvff.org