Aidan Stevens
5 min | New England Premiere
Jury Statement: Everything about the script makes all the issues [present] seem like they are on purpose. It’s a parody of bad student internship films, almost like that scene at the start of Spiderman: Homecoming but with a police officer. The way they explain away stuff like “why you have a squad car” is brilliant.
Awards: Rod Serling Film Festival (Binghamton, US, 2019) - Best Comedy
Jani Red Gun and Bayley Minooge
7 min | Reel Youth / Vancouver, Canada | 2019 | New England Premiere
Jury Statement: The directing in this piece is beautiful. It does not feel like she is participating in a Q&A. It feels like her story is unfolding before our eyes. The complementary footage helps set the scene for her story, and beautiful executed. The work that had done justice through [their] thoughtful, intentional filmmaking. Thank you for sharing.
Presented at AIFF 2018
55 min | Australia / US | Boston Premiere
Synopsis: A remarkable journey from the remote red dirt of the outback in Australia to the red carpet in New York as milliner Felicity Brown takes her amazing collection of hats and fantastic headpieces to New York for Fashion Week, ready to take on the world, one hat at a time…a celebration of creativity, passion, and overcoming obstacles to follow a dream.
Marie Galvin is an award-winning Irish Milliner based in Boston. In the late 90s, Marie discovered that Boston’s Fort Point Channel was the perfect environment to hone her passion and set out to carve her niche in New England’s largest artist communities. At the time there were no millinery courses offered by schools in the US. Undaunted, Marie instead chose to forge ahead and teach herself the Art of Millinery in her quest to become a true milliner. With the aid old early edition Millinery instructional books and the deconstruction of vintage hats, Marie began an intense program of study, documentation and education. This methodology would afford Marie the old and lost techniques that defined that art of Millinery. Marie felt that like any art form, you must understand the masters in order to hone your own craft. With that Marie found her true calling.
In 2000, Marie landed her first official full-page editorial in the coveted Boston Globe’s Art Section. The following year she was hand selected by Genart along with up and coming designer Zac Posen out of hundreds of applicants to present their debut collections in New York City in front of the New York’s fashion elite. Marie captured the attention of the industry’s top fashion editors and stylist thus launching her NYC fashion career. Its was not long before celebrity stylists where knocking down Marie’s door to dress the heads of their top clients, Alicia Keys, Cher, Claire Danes & Taye Diggs to name a few.
Following her NYC fashion successes, Marie captured the attention of British millinery fashion scene. Marie won 1st runner up honors as the The Hat Magazine coveted “Hat Designer of the Year” award. These awards and accolades soon had Marie traveling to New York, London and as far away as Australia to represent her creations.
In recent years, Marie has had the honor of showing her work at the prestigious Peabody Essex Museum for the very successful world tour of the V&A “Hats an Anthology” exhibit. An exhibition that showcased the worlds top milliners both past and present for the public to appreciate. Marie was also chosen as the keynote speaker for the launch of the US leg of of the V&A exhibit at the Peabody Essex Museum.
Marie’s inspiration comes from her formative years growing up in Irelands wild and stunning west coast. Each season, Marie employs high end unique fabrics and unusual trims which are delicately engineered and skillfully manipulated into bold and fresh silhouettes that defy gravity. Her one of a kind designs have garnered a large following of dedicated clients and collectors both locally and internationally. Her hats are regularly seen in Buckingham Palace, Royal Ascot enclosure, Kentucky Derby to Boston’s largest fundraising luncheon, the Emerald Necklace Conservancies “Party in the Park”. Marie can be found creating magic on a daily basis in her Boston South End studio.
Presented at AIFF 2018
61 min | Portugal | US Premiere
Synopsis: This hypnotic relating of the past as a train crosses Eastern Europe in the 21st century, Poland, Russia, Ukraine demonstrates a cinematic courage that stiffens one's sinews with fear as well as resolve to never let this happen again. Brilliantly executed with a poetry that extends beneath any conscious subtlety, the camera's continued return to empty carriage seats convinces us that those who are no longer with us should have filled those seats with life, laughter and humanity, yet they are empty but for the two ghosts who bring their death camp horror, once again, to life.
Awards: Italy - Perugia Social Film Festival (Perso Award for Best Feature) | Portugal - Best Portuguese Feature Film
Presented at AIFF 2018
85 min | USA | BOSTON PREMIERE | BEST OF FESTIVAL FEATURE
Synopsis: When a criminal court judge starts a running club on LA’s notorious Skid Row and begins training a motley group of addicts and criminals to run marathons, lives begin to change. Following four runners as they rise from the streets of LA to run marathons around the world, fighting the pull of homelessness and addiction at every turn, their story is one of hope, friendship, and dignity.
Presented at AIFF 2019
92 min | USA | 2019 | BOSTON PREMIERE
Co-presented by India International Film Festival of Boston
Synopsis: In September 2017, Hurricane Maria pummeled the island of Puerto Rico, but it isn't the forces of nature that have done the most damage to the 3.5 million American citizens who live there. A history of economic exploitation, forced dependency, and systemic racism coming from the US have all wreaked havoc on an island that many see as the last colony in the western hemisphere. THE LAST AMERICAN COLONY traces the life of Juan Segarra, who graduates from Harvard and sets off on a treacherous path to fight for Puerto Rico's independence—a struggle that he rightly assumes will lead to either jail or death. Filmmaker Bestor Cram is an award-winning film director and has won numerous awards including CINE Golden Eagle, American Film Festival Blue Ribbons and Houston Int’l Film Festival Gold Awards. His films have been selected to screen at Sundance and Human Rights Watch Film Festival.
Presented at AIFF 2019
78 min | Netherlands | US PREMIERE
Synopsis: GREEN TALES chronicles how the sustainability movement in several cities in the Netherlands, Amsterdam, Leeuwarden, Nijmegen, Rotterdam, and Utrecht are getting louder, more powerful, and more extensive at a breakneck pace. An increasing number of citizens, artists, businesses, research institutions, and local governments are joining forces. They want to make their own living environments more sustainable and are no longer waiting on the slow decisions being made at the national level. Filmmaker Jansen brought her camera along to these locations to document various “green tales” and to inspire other cities and people all over the world. Truly an optimistic attitude toward climate change!
Presented at AIFF 2019
74 min | NEW ENGLAND PREMIERE
Synopsis: A film about the special relationship between a religious teenager and a lonely, old, atheist widower. Through their preparation for a spiritual celebration, the boy becomes the teacher and tries to restore the old man's faith and trust. The old man slowly opens up and allows himself to remember. He finally breaks his 70-year silence about that terrible time in history when he lost his family, his childhood and his faith.
Awards: Santa Monica Film Festival Jewish Plays Project Award.
Presented at AIFF 2019
50 min | USA | 2018 | TALAMAS BOSTON AWARD
Synopsis: Dr. Chen is active in science, academies, and societies back in China; she organizes many academic writing workshops for graduate students majoring in science. Through running these workshops, she discovered common challenges faced by Chinese students who choose a liberal arts education as an approach to tackling important topics in one’s life. This film is for all the Chinese international students fighting to be successful in the US education system.
Presented at AIFF 2019
72 min | Brazil/Portugal | 2019 | USA PREMIERE
Synopsis: This mosaic of stories was created to honor the 450th year of Rio de Janeiro and to celebrate its process of urbanization. The film chronicles the rich history of the famous sidewalks made of Portuguese stones, since their appearance in Lisbon in the mid-19th century to their arrival in Rio de Janeiro, revealing the art, referencing the cultures and the omnipresence of the stones under the Carioca’s and Portuguese’s feet. The film includes the participation of musicians, poets and visual artists from Brazil and Portugal who were inspired by the works of art.
Presented at AIFF 2019
94 min | Germany | 2018 | USA PREMIERE
Co-presented by India International Film Festival of Boston
Synopsis: Human Rights, Society, Sports and LGTB !!!!
TACKLING LIFE is a documentary about the Berlin Bruisers, Germany’s first gay and inclusive rugby club. Founded by a handful of friends several years ago in a Berlin park, this gentle and affecting film paints their lives as they build up to their first major tournament.
Perennial losers when they first meet, the Bruisers greatest achievements would seem to mostly lie off the pitch. From sterling anti-bullying workshops in schools to caring for elderly, distant relatives and much more, each Bruiser’s journey is very different. We see a band of individuals come together as a family, who are there for one another as much in life as they are on the pitch. A rousing portrait of a team sweating, celebrating, laughing and crying together, winning and losing, and the joy, after years of searching, of finally finding a community where they could be themselves. This film is indeed fragile and profound yet spectacular and loud!
Awards: Audience Award DOK.fest Munich 2018 - World Premiere
Presented at AIFF 2019
63 min | USA | 2019 | NEW ENGLAND PREMIERE // BEST OF FESTIVAl & Academy Award Nominee
Co-presented by India International Film Festival of Boston
Synopsis: AMERICAN MIRROR subtlety focuses on a social issue that has global reach: how we perceive and judge ourselves and others in a world dominated by social media, which demands perfect beauty and instant gratification. As Armenian artist Tigran Tsitoghdzyan paints the portrait of actress Susan Sarandon in his New York City studio, the two discuss the concepts of beauty and aging in our modern society dominated by social media. While they talk, director Arthur Balder takes us on a visually spectacular journey that expands our ordinary perception of time. His artistic vision, opening with a dream within a dream, challenges the canons of nowadays 'conscious' and 'mainstream' documentary filmmaking.
‘Intimations of Immortality’ is a reference taken from British Romantic poet William Wordsworth’s ‘Ode: Intimations of Immortality from Recollections of Early Childhood’. For Wordsworth poetry was all about the memories we keep from our most deeply felt living hours. This has become a revelation to Balder’s craft as an essential part of his filmmaking: the reconstruction of deep thought-processes, which we can call memories but also omens and other sort of visions, imagery occurring in the internal eye of the subject, entirely subjective.
Director's Arthur Balder statement:
"My dream is to fuse the power of word and image into compelling cinematic art with a potentiality to make us reflect on who we are and ultimately, ideally, to change our lives and to build a better society and world."
Awards: Parajanov-Vartanov Awards (US) for Best Innovative Film, Best Cinematography and Best Composer; Fabrique du Cinema Award (Italy) for Best International - Lady Of the Victory of the Critics Circle of Mexico (2015) - Michel Foucre Award for Best Director (6th Ierapetra International Film Festival, 2019) - Documentary; Melbourne Documentary Film Festival nominated for Best Art, Best Director and Supreme Jury Award; Ierapetra Documentary Film Festival (Greece) Audience Award and Best Director; European Cinematography Awards (Netherlands) nominated for Golden Eagle Award for Best Film of 2019, Best Cinematography, Best Lead Actor and Best Original Score. The Hispanic Organization of Latin Actors of New York (HOLA Awards 2016) as honored him with the Excellence in Documentary Filmmaking Award (2016). In his documentary films he has sought from the set-out to defy the boundaries between documentary and fiction. Arthur Balder has been honored with two consecutive Best Documentary of the Year awards by the Association of Latin Entertainment Critics of New York (2015 and 2016)
Presented at AIFF 2019
71 min | USA | 2018 | BOSTON PREMIERE
Sypnosis: DANSUER, a documentary that confronts the social stigma of boys choosing to study ballet, lifts the curtain and allows an in-depth look into their world through interviews with ballet students, teachers, directors, and professional dancers. It reveals the prevalence of harassment and lack of support that boy dancers often endure from peers as well as family. The film follows several male dancers, some gay, some straight, and sensitively unfolds their relationships to dance and we come to see that boys who choose ballet really know what they love and their passion and determination is inspiring to witness.
Awards: Choreoscope/The Int’l Dance Film Festival of Barcelona Winning Portrait of an Artist; Social Relevant Film Festival New York Grand Prize Doc Feature.
Presented at AIFF 2019
3 min | Canada | 2018 | USA PREMIERE | BEST EXPERIEMENTAL SHORT
Synopsis: Red on the outside, white on the inside! Wamin meaning apple in Atikamekw is used as an insult referring to people who leave their community to live in the city. Katherine Nequado is an Atikamekw woman from Manawan, a First Nations reserve on the south-western shores of Lake Métabeskéga in the Lanaudière region of Quebec, Canada. Katherine’s experimental short intends to show that living outside her reserve does not make her any other person than who she really is. Festival du Court Metrage de Clermont-Ferrand – Talent Tout Court Award (Quebec, Canada).
Presented at AIFF 2019
Doc | 87 min | USA/Netherlands | 2019 | BOSTON PREMIERE | HIGH OUTPUT AWARD
Co-presented by India International Film Festival of Boston
Synopsis: For the past five years, 25,000+ Dutch Master daffodil bulbs are imported from Holland and cared for by Olsen’s Greenhouse in Raynham, MA and the potted daffodils are delivered throughout Boston and along the Boston Marathon route for Patriots Day…a new tradition that bloomed in the wake of the 2013 Boston Marathon bombings. This is a story of Hope and Inspiration. Follow one daffodil bulb’s adventurous journey from the soil in the Netherlands, across the Atlantic, into a MA greenhouse, and onto the finish line of the Boston Marathon. A zen story of purpose, community healing, and the resilience to continue the tradition of welcoming thousands of runners to our special city…BOSTON!