AIFF will be screening narrative and documentary features and shorts plus a special category of short submissions by local and international high school students. There will be provocative conversations with filmmakers/producers, academics, and the business community after special Festival screenings. Join in the fun and keep abreast of the Festival developments

https://www.yourarlington.com/arlington-archives/residents/ideas-fun/film/19480-aiff-youth-21.html

https://www.yourarlington.com/arlington-archives/residents/ideas-fun/film/19787-aiff-22

Imagine Magazine http://emag.imaginenews.com/

https://youtu.be/TlreDUuRBfE

Arts Fuge Magazine: https://artsfuse.org/282241/doc-talk-fascism-then-and-now-at-the-arlington-international-film-festival/

WUBR: https://www.wbur.org/radioboston/2023/10/16/arlington-film-festival-arthur-musah-brief-tender-light
Boston calendar: https://www.thebostoncalendar.com/events/aiff-2022-festival-events--2

Student Filmmakers Magazine: https://www.studentfilmmakers.com/13th-annual-arlington-intl-film-festival/

https://www.studentfilmmakers.com/global-partners-fenacies-student-independent-film-festival-in-montevideo-uruguay/

https://www.studentfilmmakers.com/global-partners-5th-annual-taiwan-film-festival-of-boston/

https://www.studentfilmmakers.com/film-on-aiff-website-jefferson-cutter-house-by-michael-armanious/

ArtsBoston Calendar: https://calendar.artsboston.org/event/2023-aiff-delving-into-the-mystery-of-the-cutter-house/

https://www.filmfestivals.com/blog/editor/we_like_the_poster_from_arlington_fest_do_you_too

2023 Opening Night Q&A https://youtu.be/TeWlmv-Q3TU?si=6JGvjVW7Cj2-hQqL

________________________________________________________________________________________

New Additions to the 2024 Jury

Rafaela Caetano is a Brazilian print journalist with a Postgraduate Degree in History of Art from the Universidade São Judas Tadeu (2012) and a Master's Degree in Communications from the Universidade Paulista (2016). Ms. Caetano is currently a writer, critical reader, and Portuguese translator for video gaming industries in China, Poland, The United States, and Germany. As an avid art lover and cinephile, Rafaela has written and published articles on subjects from the late works of Vincent Van Gogh to the graphic novel Maus, as well as a dissertation on Citizen Kane.

Jay Jay Jegathesan is an Oscar qualified film producer, narrator, director,and actor working in both the animated film narrative live-action film spaces. He is ranked in the top 5 in the world for both the Main Professional & Endurance categories of the World Monologue Games and is a 15th time Best Actor winner on the international film circuit for his short films, ‘Soul Catcher’, 'The Saint' and ‘Catch & Release’. Jay Jay is also a stage and voice actor with more than 25 years experience primarily having done stage, one off performances, and voice acting for short films in Australia, Malaysia, and Japan. He is also Producer + Narrator for the short animated films ‘iRony’ & ‘The Quiet’ and Producer & Assoc Producer of 'Painting By Numbers' and 'Bird Drone' which have been selected to play in more than 1,300 film festivals around the world across 60 countries, won 500+ awards, was Oscar longlisted (The Quiet), received an AACTA nomination (iRony) and selected to 29 Academy Award qualifying festivals.

Omar Martínez Guerrero joins the AIFF Jury for the High School Student Submissions. He is a Production Designer, Art Director, Audiovisual Designer, and Creative Producer and a graduate in Design and Visual Communication with an orientation in Audiovisual and Multimedia from the from the Faculty of Arts and Design, National Autonomous University of Mexico. Omar has strengthened his creative profile by updating himself in topics such as: design, setting and atmospheres of television sets; Design, Film and Television Center, Alphabet Design at the Universidad Anáhuac México Sur; narrative sequences and their development at FAD UNAM. He is currently studying for a Master's Degree in Design and Environment at the Graduate Program in Arts and Design at UNAM.

____________________________________________________________________________________

Remembering AIFF's Beloved Supporters

Supporter of AIFF for 11 Years

Rachael Solem, age 68, died suddenly on January 15. Mother, grandmother, wife, sister, friend, entrepreneur, writer, reader, advocate, puzzler, and connector of so many worlds; the glue that held everything together. Born in New York City in 1955, she traveled far and wide around this country as well as others, but landed for a long while in Jamaica Plain and then later in Cambridge, finally settling to live with her husband in Wellesley, Massachusetts.

She attended St Hilda's & St Hugh's day school in NYC, Curtis High School in Statin Island, Purchase College and studied at UMass Boston. She graduated from none of these institutions but no surprise to anyone who knew her, she went on to conquer so many aspects of her life.

Supporter of AIFF for 13 Years

Theodore L. Peluso of Arlington, MA died peacefully on February 10, 2024. Born in Williamsburg, Brooklyn on January 12, 1933, he was the son of the late Dominick and Florence and younger brother to his two sisters, Teresa (Anthony) Digianni and Grace (Mel) Farris. Predeceased by his beloved wife of 60 years Jane (Cummings), he is survived by his two children, Steven Peluso and his wife, Sharon of New York City; Janet Peluso and her husband Alex Hoffinger; and his two grandsons, Benjamin and Jonathan Hoffinger of Arlington, MA. Also survived by many loving nieces and nephews.

Proud to be the first in his family to attend college where he studied accounting, he graduated from City College of New York and served in the Navy for two years. Ted spent his career working as a CPA for the accounting firm BDO Seidman, where he rose to become managing partner of the White Plains office. Civic minded and outgoing, Ted derived great satisfaction during his career and in his retirement using his business experience and knowledge serving on many not-for-profit boards and working on community activities.

AIFF IS THRILLED TO ANNOUNCE OUR PARTNERSHIP WITH THE TAXCO INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL

a competition for short international films

April 19 - 27

https://filmfreeway.com/taxcofilmfestival

__________________________________________________________________________________________

2024 New Partners

INEFFABLE FILMS partners with AIFF Voices of Our Youth

"Welcome to Ineffable Films, where art meets culture, and the boundaries of understanding are redefined."

Workshops for Teens

Poly-Nation Film: High School Filmmakers exploring their global identities through making narrative films inspired by lesser-known foreign cinema techniques.

https://ineffablefilms.org/Home

_________________________________________________________________________________________________

Filmmakers Helping Filmmakers

Filmmakers Helping Filmmakers was created in February 2016 as a learning tool for its creator, but as time went on it turned into a project to help others.

Inspired by his fellow filmmaking community, David made it his mission to help filmmakers with every aspect of the filmmaking process. FHF is now a place where filmmakers of all expertise levels can teach, learn, share, and promote their creations. But this is just the beginning of our story.
Since then, FHF has become not just a group; it has become a family, one that has come together from around the world to help those get the help they need, providing a platform for giving voice to the voiceless. FHF is a place where everyone can come to tell their story, no matter their experience, race, sex, disabilities, financial position, etc. Everyone should feel like the story they want to tell matters and that they matter.
We have noticed more often than not that if you want to make any headway in the Hollywood film industry, it’s not what you know; it’s who you know and how profitable you are. This is why we believe FHF is needed. FHF is a place where everyone is given a chance to be heard and tell their story.

" How to Make a Movie, with Rebecca Eskreis", March 7th - 28th

7th March: Writing & Development
14th March: Pre-Production
21st March: Production
28th March: Post Production & Distribution

This 4 week, free virtual series will give aspiring filmmakers the confidence they need to make their first film and cover all the fundamentals of filmmaking, from writing right through to distribution. Participants will also be able to book a 1:1 mentoring session with Rebecca after the event.

http://handbook.filmmakershelpingfilmmakers.com

_____________________________________________________________________________________________________

VIDEOMAKER MAGAZINE, Inc

Videomaker is a magazine publication dedicated to video production. The magazine's publisher and editor, Matthew York, founded the publication with his wife Patrice York, Associate Publisher, to "empower people to make video and to democratize and enrich television".

Complements of Arlington International Film Festival, you can receive a free one-year digital subscription to Videomaker magazine, which features tips and tricks, buyer's guides for filmmaking equipment, and various editorial content regarding the industry of video. The videomaker’s mission is to help others achieve their pursuits by using video as a common communication medium. They picture a world where people use video as regularly as they use photos, illustrations, and text to communicate thoughts, ideas, and concepts. They believe freedom of expression is essential for human progress, and that free societies are better off when more people can effectively express themselves with video. This is an excellent opportunity to stay updated with the latest trends, learn from industry experts, and continuously improve your video production capabilities.

https://www.videomaker.com/

_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

2023 AIFF Audience Awards Winners

PATRICK AND THE WHALE (73min) Mark Fletcher | 2022 | Doc |Austria | USA Premiere

This film follows Patrick Dykstra’s personal journey and explores the psychology of a man who has sacrificed everything in his single-minded quest to connect with and understand one of the biggest creatures in the ocean. Devoting years to following these mammals, we share his experiences through his stunning underwater footage as he explores their nature, their intelligence, and their complexity.

SEEDS OF CHANGE (26:46min) Maximilian Armstrong | 2023 | Doc | USA/ME | MA Premiere

An organic Farmer in Maine sets out to transform the prison food system. Seeds of Change captures the intersecting stories of life-long farmer Mark McBrine and several incarcerated men as they harvest their own meals from a five-acre prison garden unlike any other.

____________________________________________________________________________________________

13TH ANNUAL Arlington FILM FESTIVAL JURIED AWARDS

–The 13th annual Arlington International Film Festival, announced the winners of this year's competition High Output, Rule Boston Camera, Talamas Boston, Adams, Watertown Savings Bank, Irving House, Cambridge and M&T Foundation Bank – Vinotta Restaurant, Irving House, Lesley Ellis School, KUMON, Arlington Community Media, Inc, UMA Malden, Watertown Saving Bank Cambridge Immigration Law, The Home Depot, Social Fund Equity Access 13Forest Gallery and Massachusetts Cultural Council. The top honors will be announced at the Capitol Theatre during the fourth-day screenings.

Awards were given in the following feature film competition categories:

Best of Festival International | To Which We Belong by Pamela Tanner Bol and Lindsay Richarson | 90 min | Doc | USA | 2022.

Best International Documentary | THE PALMNICKEN TRAGEDY by Andrey Proskuryakov | 89 min | Doc | Germany, Russia, Israel USA Premiere

Best International Narrative Feature | Two Lives in Pittsburg by Bian Silverman | 88 min | Nar | USA/CA | 2022 | East Coast Premiere

Best Experimental | Night Owls by Gabrielle Rosson | 8 min | US/MA | 2022

__________________________________________________________________________________

2023 AIFF Honorees

_____________________________________________________________________________________

Arlington Community Media, Inc. (ACMi)

has been a supporter of AIFF since its inception and a sponsor of the student film program, Voices of Our Youth.

In 1980, the town licensed its first cable television franchise with American Cablesystems. For the first time, there was a facility for public communication within the town, a combined public access, and a local origination studio. During the next two decades, hundreds of citizens used the facility to produce programming for Arlington cable subscribers in three classic categories: Public, Educational, and Government (PEG). Under that original license, an organization was formed to help the public learn about and utilize the studio. The board of directors and members of that organization, known as Arlington Cable Access (ACA), maintained the www.arlingtonstudio.com website until the end of September 2006. That site, now listed as www.acmi.tv and now operated by Arlington Community Media Inc. (ACMi), is the site currently in use. ACMi remains dedicated to providing an electronic forum for the free exchange of information and ideas that reflect the talents, skills, interests, concerns, and diversity of the Arlington community. Learn new skills by enrolling in a workshop, connect with others by joining a crew, or make your next TV show by requesting equipment and studio time! For hours and location, visit https://acmi.tv/about/.

Harvey Yee has been a Volunteer with AIFF since 2011. He has been primarily involved with technical support, ensuring successful audio and video presentations at the various AIFF events as well as the running of projection systems at some of the AIFF theater screenings. Harvey is indeed an AIFF Ambassador, conducting airport runs to pick up and drop off filmmakers and special guests as well as taking them out for dinner and good conversation.

Although he has a degree in physics, he has spent his entire career as a software engineer in both commercial as well as scientific applications, with the last decade spent in cybersecurity. Yee has nurtured and shared his interest in STEM education by providing team coaching in the elementary, middle, and high school FIRST Robotics competitions as well as teaching for over a decade, various classes at MIT ESP Splash and HSSP events. Classes that have intrigued young people such as lock-picking, internet communication protocols, toilet physics, celestial navigation, and other interesting topics have certainly cornered their attention. Harvey’s teaching philosophy has been governed by a quote from Marcel Proust, "The real voyage of discovery consists, not in seeking new landscapes, but in having new eyes.”

____________________________________________________________________________________

Conversation with Jorge Cancela

producer of FENACIES. Mr. Cancela will talk about student filmmaking as well as Punta del Este, the Silicon Valley of Uruguay.

Jorge was born and raised in Montevideo, Uruguay. He received his Bachelor’s in Cultural Management from CLAEH University and went on to teach film and produce the FENACIES Student Film Festival and PEALC (Audiovisual Education and Cinematographic Language Program), now in their 13th year.

FENACIES was founded with the initiative of creating a film festival specifically for young people, where the competition is fair, and their creativity and efforts are valued.

The festival has been declared of educational interest by the Primary Education Council, of cultural interest by the Ministry of Education and Culture, and of tourist and sports interest by the Ministry of Tourism and Sports. Since 2015 it has had the Institutional Sponsorship of UNESCO and is now recognized worldwide. www.fenacies.org

The 13th annual Arlington Int’l Film Festival Opens at the Capitol Theatre

________________________________________________________________________________

AIFF Festival Passes on Sale!

Mark your calendars for November 2-5
and plan to join us at the Capitol Theatre, Arlington, MA
for the best in Indie Films.

We open this year’s festival with films that address key elements in maintaining a democracy: a free press, and the rule of law relating to the rise of insurgency.

Explore the fascinating nature of the sperm whale,
learn about the process that ensued to return Picasso’s Guernica to Spain, embark on a journey with Magnum Photographer Thomas Hoepker, learn about climate change mitigations for agriculture on land and sea, observe the relationship of a parent as their child begins to recognize their true gender, and as the war in
Ukraine continues, to travel with two dedicated artists as they use their talents to heal and knit together the community.
Purchase your Pass online at https://aiffest.org/support-aiff/
Pick up your Pass at the AIFF table in the Capitol Theatre lobby.

All Access Festival Pass = $95
6 Film Pass = $45

Individual Tickets: https://www.capitoltheatreusa.com/

Thank you for being a valued member of the
Arlington Int’l Film Festival Community.

SEE YOU AT THE MOVIES!
For more information, contact arlingtonfilmfest@gmail.com.

_________________________________________________________________________________________

Volunteer Opportunities

Be a part of the festival Volunteer Team! Our Venue Operations Manager will utilize your skills and talents in the theater where you can share your love of the arts with the audience, filmmakers, and special guests.

Skilled in Social Media Promotion? We need you to promote individual films before and during the festival.

Transportation/Hospitality! What a great chance to meet and talk with a filmmaker! Can you do a run to Logan and back to Hilton Homewood Suites?

Photographers? Capture the moments on film.

WHAT IS REQUIRED? A desire to roll out the red carpet and welcome folks to their

AIFF experience.

EMAIL WITH YOUR AVAILABILITY And become part of the team! Aprilranck.AIFF@gmail.com

__________________________________________________________________________________________________

AIFF: Fostering Young Talent While Creating a Global Conversation

Films that will leave you with a deep appreciation of our youth!

The Arlington International Film Festival (AIFF) announces the VOICES OF OUR YOUTH program that will screen at the Capitol Theatre, Arlington, MA on Saturday, November 4th, at 12 PM.

VOICES OF OUR YOUTH, AIFF’s student program was founded in 2010 with a mission to increase the visibility of student filmmakers, providing a platform for the next generation of filmmakers. VOICES OF OUR YOUTH has garnered local and national interest from high schools, independent film programs, and access to TV stations across the country. Submissions as well as numerous requests to screen the program have skyrocketed! The program has been screened in prominent film festivals outside of the country: FICIE: Independent Int’l Film Festival in Elche, Spain; Decentraland Film Festival in the UK; FENACIES: Student Independent Film Festival in Montevideo, Uruguay. A national screening was had with the Global Peace Film Festival in Florida. Massachusetts screenings include Arlington, Aton, Malden, Medford, Natick, Lowell, Somerville, and Winchester.

VOICES OF OUR YOUTH program is designed to discover, recognize, and foster young talent while creating a global conversation. The festival is open to high school students around the world and the conversations range in topics that touch on community issues, social justice, peace/violence, arts, music, and more. We welcome a new festival partner, Jorge Cancela, Director of The Student Film Festival FENACIES, Montevideo, Uruguay who will join us for this year’s festival.

We hope this program will take you on an exhilarating journey and leave you with a deeper appreciation for our youth and the transformative power of the films they are creating.

20223 AIFF VOICES OF OUR YOUTH Program

MY SUPERPOWER (4:48 min) HONORABLE MENTION | Maxwell William Andrews | Doc | New Zealand | 2022

In his search for his superpower, nine-year-old Maxwell discovers that his words have the power to help and harm.

Awards: Gold Gaya ~ Kid Cinema Film Festival 2022, India.

Official Selections: The Outlook for Someday Challenge, New Zealand; Kids FIRST Film Festival selection, USA.

Note: Not included in the AIFF competition; Maxwell is an Elementary School Student.

1700 lbs (7 min) | Solomon Goluboff-Schragger, Amelia Maxham, Cate Slaughter, Zaharra Colla, Turner O'Neal

Nar | 2022 | Light House Studio, Charlottesville, VA, USA | New England Premiere

A quiet, moving meditation on grief and the ways in which the loss of a loved one can manifest itself in parts of a young person’s life.

Jury Statement: “Phenomenal work. I hope you are very proud. Every bit of this film feels polished and professional, and the story is 100% there”.

Awards: World Premiere & Audience Award ~ Youth Film Festival, Charlottesville, VA, USA.

Stop motion animated with sand; official video clip to Water Lullaby song from the ‘Waterduction’ album by a famous Polish folk music band ‘Warsaw Village Band’. The production of the film took 6 months.

Jury Statement: “Astonishing technique, the use of sand… an excellent fluency; the combination between the images and the song very harmonic.”

Lita Martí, a 77-year-old widowed grandmother lives alone with her cat, Pipo. Since the death of her husband, Quim, she hasn’t been the same person. And if that wasn't enough, she was diagnosed with Alzheimer's.

Jury Statement: A masterpiece! An outstanding narrative, which builds quietly, and makes sense through the plot point and through the written words that follow the animated exercise. A precious color treatment, given by a successful use of light and a virtuous development of stop motion animation. The sound acquires a value as narrative and descriptive as that of the visual. Outstanding representation of Alzheimer’s, charged with emotion and humanity.”

ALL THE TIME IN THE WORLD (8 min) BEST NARRATIVE | SPONSORED by Arlington Community Media, Inc., Arlington, MA

Ava Shea Lorch | Nar | 2023 | San Dieguito Academy HS, Encinitas, CA | New England Premiere

In the summer of 1986, two young women on the final stretch of adolescence attempt to finish their childhood "bucket list" as they face their inevitable futures and the impending fate of their planet. A commentary on the failure to deal with climate change and its effect on younger generations as well as the responsibility that they have inherited.

Jury Statement: “Fantastic film! I really liked the subtext within the script, and the production design was good. You did a really great job”.

Michael made this film because he wanted people to understand the mental health problems of the younger generation. Mental health is a stigma.

Awards: Best Production ~ A-Town Video Film Festival, Arlington, MA.

Jury Statement: “A very original idea, the use of confusing the audience making them think that the professor calls the student's name, but he called another student. In this misunderstanding, the first student confesses how was his summer. Very original work!”

The documentary explores the culture of Jingdezhen, a small town in southern China that has been known for its exquisite porcelain artistry for over a millennium. It showcases the contemporary art scene and lifestyles in Jingdezhen, stories of adaptation and reconciliation with the changing times while staying true to its roots. As the world rapidly develops Jingdezhen’s young artists must find their pace of life.

Jury Statement: “A beautiful documentary audiovisual production. Formidable approach and interaction with this social, cultural, and traditional space. A beautiful treatment of light and cinematography, an outstanding editing concept, and a harmonious and immersive use of sound. A sublime work!”

FITTING IN (3 min) HONORABLE MENTION | Mark Leschinsky | Bergen County Academies, Hackensack, NJ | Nar | 2023

New England Premiere

Fitting In is a symbolic social-impact film that draws a parallel between fitting into shoes and fitting into society, and, in doing so, it inspires us to embrace our unique personalities.

Jury Statement: “Stunned with the creativity of this piece. We all have a shoe, but many cannot find it or try to put it on others. The philosophy of this work is a spectacular, concrete, metaphorical, and original concept. A very good editing treatment, manifested by alternating shots with different scales, which vary from detailed shots of feet and shoes to general shots of a train. The narrative voice is immersive, the writing is reflective, and the fusion of both is beautiful.”

PREJUICIO (4 min) | High School No. 29, Montevideo, Uruguay | Doc | 2022 |USA Premiere

A simple and inocente acción by a teenager leads his peers to build a series of prejudiced gossip, as a result of seeing something that is not.

Jury Statement: “There seems to be a collective work behind the camera and in front of the camera which is very cohesive. The short is built from a very good original idea, it continues with a strong narrative conception and concludes with the convergence of very good editing treatment. Outstanding use of lighting and precise communication about the idea of the film to the actresses and actors.”

After being disregarded by his two older siblings at the family beach house, a young boy embarks on a secret walk and has an encounter with the unbelievable.

Jury Statement: “Spectacular cinematography presented, the control of light, especially in the scene where the boy comes out and finds the UFO, atmospheric, communicational, emotional, and a contrast between the ordinary and the extraordinary. Great job!”

Cho-won is divorced and living with her daughter Areum. Areum worries about her father—and thus visits him often where they start to talk about their feelings toward each other. This film addresses how People don’t often talk about death—leaving room for regret. Well-being is essential, and "well-dying" is too—which is about reflecting on our memories and preparing ourselves for the inevitable.

Jury Statement: “Amazing piece that talks about death and how Korean society reacts to it. In this piece, many will be able to see themselves reflected in these two characters.”

‘I could not stand aside, looking at the flood of my native river Dnieper. This spring, it has spread especially widely. Meteorologists predict that the peak of the flood will be in a week. Many villages in Ukraine have already been flooded. This happened in 1970 and 1931. Then the center of Kyiv was sinking. Water is a powerful element; I love her and am learning to interact with her.’

Jury Statement: “The idea of this short film is quite unique, seeing the interaction with the water through swimming, drinking, and playing. Loved the first shot showing the inside of the sink - very original.”

A reflective monologue performed by a man who has been diagnosed with a terminal illness.

Jury Statement: “A spectacular experimental piece, the use of shots, the narration about life, all this gives rise to a piece as good as this one. Powerful and immersive reflection out loud, about existence and the four dimensions that converge in it (time, space, life, and death).”

Two students have an exciting encounter with the multiverse.

Jury Statement: “The way that the multiverses are mixed is very interesting, the aftereffects and editing are very well done too.”

BEAUTY MARK (5 min) | Sanaa Wilkins, Lauren McGarrett, Farida Yada | Black Girls Film Camp North Carolina/USA

Doc | 2022 | New England Premiere

A film about how whatever you are going through should not stop you from doing what you love.

Jury Statement: “A testimony of resilience, a testimony of vocation, a testimony of love, a testimony of passion. This audiovisual realization goes through different stages, just like Sanaa, who feels pain, anguish, and simultaneously optimism and courage. This is a healing story; this is a life story.”

The ghost story is part of a larger narrative. The Messenger (played by Ojas Thakur) attempts to make people realize that they are dying before the Lady of Death comes to take them.

Jury Statement: “Haunting, atmospheric, and immersive. A very well-achieved audiovisual realization, which does not reach excellence, but preserves the forms of the genre in the aesthetically beautiful treatment of cinematography and lighting. The montage of the shots is a compilation with very good results, which is plausibly coupled with the temporal and existential proposal that this story manifests.”

In the dream, I discovered that the subconscious world around me was purely subconscious, rather than reality. An entity in this dream took the form of someone close to me. Upon posing the question, “Am I Dreaming,” this entity soon became hostile, and I was quickly aware that they were a figment of my imagination. The feeling of powerlessness in my own mind stuck with me and brought me to create this short film.

Jury Statement: "Tears of a Forgotten Memory" is a sublime audiovisual production… dark, bright, strange, and experimental. A short authorial exercise is achieved through a sophisticated, linguistic, and immersive treatment of editing, lighting, and camera. An aesthetically beautiful camera, a compilation of shots (with beautiful alternating scales) memorable.”

Screenings: Top Shot International Film Festival, Warsaw, Poland; Lift Off Filmmakers Session, Hollywood, CA; The Indie Short Festival, Los Angeles, CA.

There came a time in April's life when her imagination and fantasy stopped protecting her from the reality in which she lived. Until one day she discovered a new way to escape that would change her life forever.

Jury Statement: "A masterpiece! Moving, playful, dark, luminous, and vocational. A beautiful audiovisual production, a beautiful, animated piece, a sophisticated narrative, and an outstanding exercise in editing. Abril is an authentic and authorial work, which captures the mechanisms of Stop Motion and meticulously treats them, with traces of childhood and adulthood. A precious treatment of light, a small and sublime behavior of the camera, a playful use of colors, and a perceptible and artisan assembly of the edition. I loved every aspect of this piece from the cinematography to the acting. You opened a world of exploration and vibrance.”

Dylan decides to ask the effortlessly cool Betsy to the homecoming dance. In this queer short film, she learns the power of persistence.

Jury Statement:” A very good message that this short transmits – persistence, not giving up the first time. The actors also perform very well.”

Two Best friends brought together by the innocence of childhood and divided by the truth and affliction of life.

Jury Statement: "Color Blind is a blow of empathy and sensitivity. A reflection that moves under each word is a political and social criticism, in which fear, violence, guilt, and history inhabit. A message loaded with diversity, humanity, identity, and collective reflection.”

A boy disobeys the request of his teacher, and the consequences are unexpected, giving him a superpower that none of his classmates can believe.

Jury Statement: “So cool! It is very difficult to direct children, so you did a fantastic job. This was fun.”

An Urban Legend of a Notebook that takes the soul of children.

Jury Statement: "Renaissance Girl" for her multitude of talents. 17-year-old Neurodivergent Esabella Anna Karena Strickland is a Multi Award-Winning Filmmaker, screenplay writer, producer, actress, and media host based out of Vancouver, BC.”

Awards: Described as a “Renaissance Girl” for her multitude of talents. 16-year-old Esabella A.K. Strickland is a Multi Award-Winning Filmmaker and Screenwriter, Award-Winning Actress, Media Host, and Writer. Esabella is also an Artist, and GenZ Influencer based out of Vancouver, BC. She is a young, raw talent who is a Neurodiverse advocate and empowering figure against bullying through the arts.

Awards Ceremony Following the Program

Reception at the Fox Library

This program has been made possible in part through the support from the Massachusetts Cultural Council

M&T Bank - Arlington Community Media, Inc. - KUMON Arlington - Lesley Ellis School, Arlington - Urban Media Arts, Malden

_______________________________________________________________________

Padriac Farma, Shi Jie Weng, and Agustin Vergara: Judges for the Voices of Our Youth

The Arlington International Film Festival is sensational.

Being a jury of this festival was beautiful, it meant reorganizing the routine, incorporating spaces and times with the purpose of observing, listening, and discovering short films, productions from three different continents (Asia, Europe, and America), productions made by adolescents and young people from different realities, with different socioeconomic situations, members of diverse family nuclei, with different thoughts and also with thoughts in common. That's good.

Being a jury and being part of this proposal, from a distance, from Uruguay, was challenging, it was pleasant, it was experiential, and it was vocational.

Film criticism has been my aspirational professional desire since I was 15 years old, my grandfather's cousin (named Álvaro Sanjurjo Toucon), also born in Uruguay, was a film critic, I write film reviews honorarily, and I watch and listen to audiovisual productions every day of the year, on average. I love the cinema. For all this, this experience was pioneering, it was memorable, and it was transcendental.

The language was the biggest challenge of this entire journey, from when I received the invitation until now when I am writing this evaluation of the process. This instance was part of a self-taught learning process that I have been going through for years, a process of acquiring knowledge in speaking, listening, and writing English. For this reason, I also greatly value and appreciate this opportunity, since it has meant a before and after in my relationship with the language.

Regarding The Arlington International Film Festival, this year I got to know a precious, honorary enterprise, dedicated to others, a bridge builder, and clearly made with vocation and love. For all this, again, again and again, thank you.

“Judging the AIFF youth film festival this year has left me with much hope for the future of filmmaking. As we move into a post-pandemic world, I was fascinated by this generation's take on visual storytelling. Themes of home, belonging, and exploration are evergreen, but the approach taken by this year's filmmakers shows a desire to look for the deeper meaning of life's questions and struggles. With so many questions about the future of art and Artificial intelligence, I strongly believe that if there are programs [like AIFF] that validate and amplify youth voices, film will never die”. Padriac Farma

"Being part of the judges of the AIFF Festival was a very special experience for me. I started as a participant, and then I had the opportunity to be part of the judges. During these 2 months of evaluation, I was able to see different short films from all over the world. Seeing their stories, and how they reflect different themes through film and expressing them in different perspectives. It is pleasant to see more a more people interact with film. As a judge, it was an honor for me, and I have learned a lot from the participants." Shi Jie Weng

The Arlington Int’l Film Festival is thrilled to announce the

2023 AIFF Kick-Off

LOCKSHOP (11 MIN) Cara Feinberg | 2019 | Boston, MA | Doc

Patty Maestranzi's family has run the same two-room lockshop in South Boston for nearly a century. Small shops like hers used to line the neighborhood. Now, her Lockshop is among the last.

Official Selection: Arlington Int’l Film Festival 2020

______________________________________________________________________

Patricia Maestrranzi Fisher, Mr., Maestranzi and Cara Feinberg director of LOCKSHOP

BRIEF TENDER LIGHT by Arthur Musah | 2023 | Doc | USA |BOSTON PREMIERE

Trailer: https://vimeo.com/856813123/2faca65081

BRIEF TENDER LIGHT documents the inspiring stories of four African students at MIT, who are determined to bring positive change to Nigeria, Rwanda, Tanzania, and Zimbabwe. Over nearly a decade, the film intimately captures their challenges, growth, and dilemmas. As they pursue education and dreams on two continents, they must reconcile their teenage ideals with the realities they encounter about the world and themselves. The documentary showcases the quest for knowledge, cultural identity, and the profound impact of their choices on Africa and America.

Q&A w/filmmaker following the screening

Monday, October 16, 7 PM | The Venue in Lexington, MA

1794 Massachusetts Ave, Lexington, MA 02420 | Phone: (781) 861-6161

http://lexingtonvenue.com/shows/documentary/brief-tender-light/202309132026006538

__________________________________________________________________________________________

2023 AIFF Master of Ceremonies!

It is an honor and privilege to announce Jeff Barnd as Master of Ceremonies for the Opening Night of the 13th edition of AIFF.

For more than 25 years, Jeff Barnd was a local Television News

Anchor/Reporter in Boston, Baltimore, Philadelphia, and most recently, a National Correspondent in Washington D.C.

He has covered stories all over the world; from the clear-cutting of the Amazon Rain Forest and the ’92 Earth Summit in Rio,

to the 2ndGulf War in Iraq, the Islamic culture in Kuwait City & Bahrain, law-enforcement and policing in Singapore, and the

elevation of Baltimore’s Archbishop to the College of Cardinals in Rome under Pope John Paul II.

Barnd is a 13-time Emmy Award recipient, winning in Boston for Anchoring, News Writing, and Hosting Public Affairs programs. He also garnered an Emmy in Maryland for “Commentary” in the nationally televised program, “American Crossroads.” He’s also a children’s book author; penning his first release, “Lindbergh’s Ghosts” in 2015, and his newly published work, “Little Pluto’s Big Day,” just released this month

________________________________________________________________________________________

2023 AIFF Venue Operations Manager

The Arlington Int'l Film Festival, following its culture and history of promoting the next generation of leaders in the Arlington community, is announcing Maya Pockrose,

an Arlington resident and recent graduate of Tufts University as the Venue Operations Manager for this year's festival scheduled for Nov 2 - 5 at the Capitol Theatre.

Maya is interested in writing and producing narrative TV and film and is excited to be part of the 2023 AIFF team.
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________

The Arlington International Film Festival is delighted to introduce Fredericka Noel, 2023 Master of Ceremonies for Voices of Our Youth Program

"Hello! My name is Frederika Noel and I reside in Everett, MA.

I am currently pursuing a Computer Engineering degree at the University of Massachusetts Amherst.

While my academic life primarily revolves around math, circuits, and coding, my heart has always had a special place reserved for film.

My love for the film first started when I encountered my sister's short film, “Milking It” which was showcased at the 2014 New York Film Festival. This marked the inception of my creative journey, during which I meticulously crafted miniature video presentations showcasing various scenes from Brandon Lee's films using online GIFs and the power of PowerPoint.

In addition to filmmaking,

I also have a passion for capturing the beauty of nature and wildlife.

During my Junior and Senior years of high school, I worked closely with Urban Media Arts to create short PSAs that encouraged the cleaning of the Malden River.

I also had the privilege to serve as a special guest speaker at Urban Media Arts’ film screening event in the summer of 2022."

_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________

THE ARLINGTON INT'L FILM FESTIVAL IS PROUD TO ANNOUNCE OUR NEW global PARTNER/COLLABORATOR, THE American Documentary and Animation Film Festival in Palm Springs, CA

The American Documentary and Animation Film Festival (AmDocs) is a 501(c)(3) non-profit entity, operating under a fiscal sponsorship of Inquiring Systems Inc. (ISI). Founder Teddy Grouya desired to create a forum to celebrate and promote documentary films - and independent filmmakers around the world who bring knowledge and awareness through their stories about real people and issues. https://www.amdocfilmfest.com/

___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

AIFF is proud to announce its Partnership with STK International Group in London, UK

There is no better time to capture new changes in media, changes that exploit the viewing culture pioneered by Netflix, and take it to the next level. Enter the groundbreaking concept of STK International, a service that embraces the viewing habits of this decade and beyond, and caters to a new age of the moving image. STK International Group is a young global, dynamic media company, specializing in producing, sales, and distribution of tv, music, and film content.

Established in 2018, they are relatively young and really full of energy. Yet their maturity is evident in their successful launch of multiple channels on Roku and Amazon Fire TV, covering many different types of lifestyle interests from Super Yachters, to an independent Filmmakers network.

STK makes use of the huge surge in video on demand, and the ability for evermore new content to be created at an unprecedented level. It meets the potential of a truly global audience, a platform only recently made possible, by virtue of being able to stream from one side of the planet to the other, using bright, bold HD, or even 4K.

STK looks forward to working with the team at Arlington Int'l Film Festival and contributing to its future growth and development of all filmmakers.

https://stk-international.com/

The Arlington Int'l Film Festival is proud to announce our new partner/collaborator, the Global Peace Film Festival; it is story and community in action!

As Martin Luther King, Jr posited,

“Peace is not only the absence of conflict,

but also the presence of justice.”

Since the search for justice resides in stories beyond war, GPFF seeks stories that make us laugh, think, cry, sit taller in our seats, then ask,

“What can I do?”

To answer that question, they pair films with post-screening discussions and events that inspire and catalyze audiences to take positive, non-violent action.

Beyond the program, GPFF collaborates with filmmakers, changemakers, and organizations to model, inspire and track peaceful change on the personal, local, national or global level. Their motto is,

“It starts here”

because the real work starts when the lights come up and the audience meets the inspiration of the programming with their own good works.

https://peacefilmfest.org/

Global Peace Film Festival | Live: Sept 18 - 24 | Virtual: Sept 25 - Oct 1

—————————————————————————-

AIFF EXPANDS ITS RELATIONSHIPS to include an ITALIAN PARTNER

Now in its 13th year, the Arlington International Film Festival continues to grow both nationally and internationally, collaborating with festivals that support the mission and expand the artistic vision. Announcing its most recent partner, ROMA INTERNATIONAL FASHION FILM FESTIVAL (RIFFF), Roma, Italy will present its 2nd edition in November 2023. RIFFF features art films that speak to the relationship between fashion, music, and film. Promoting the most innovative ideas of the fashion and cinema worlds, and creating an emotional interconnection with artists, audiences, and business is at the core of its founding.

Introducing brands in which there is a remarkable language, technology, new and avant-garde aspects, and quality of product materials, RIFFF seeks to communicate via auditory and visual methods. https://www.rifff.it/

The festival has 3 competitive categories:

· Fashion Short: Int’l short fashion films (less than 10 min)

· Eco Fashion Film: Fashion films that focus on eco-sustainable materials

· Music Videos: Music videos (5 min maximum)

AIFF screens approximately 60+ films over four days, introducing new and exciting independent films to Arlington and the greater Boston community.

Plan to join us in November!

———————————————————————————————————————————-

**The Arlington Int’l Film Festival, “VOICES OF OUR YOUTH program” is thrilled to announce another international partnership with the Student Film Festival FENACIES of Uruguay.**

FENACIES is an organization founded in 2011 that began with the initiative of creating a film festival specifically for young people, where the competition is fair and their creativity and efforts are valued.

The festival has been declared of educational interest by the Primary Education Council, of cultural interest by the Ministry of Education and Culture, and of tourist and sports interest by the Ministry of Tourism and Sports. Since 2015 it has had the Institutional Sponsorship of UNESCO and is now recognized worldwide.

The main objective of the festival is to strengthen audio-visual education among adolescents in Latin America and through the making of short films young people can express their ideas that are reflected on the big screen. www.fenacies.org

AIFF is also partnering with International Ind. ELCHE FILM FESTIVAL in Spain with the intention of creating increased engagement and conversation about the students and their work. The art of filmmaking allows this sharing of experiences and ideas that will hopefully encourage understanding among generations as well as cultures.

——————————————————————————————————————————————————

The Arlington Int’l Film festival is thrilled to announce its

partnership WITH The 48 Hour Film Project

is a wild and sleepless weekend in which you and a team make a movie - write, shoot, and edit - in just 48 hours. On Friday night, teams draw a genre from a hat. They are then given a character, prop, and line to include in their films. On Sunday night, in a wild dash to the drop-off event, the film is turned in - and teams celebrate. The film is then screened at a local theater in front of an audience of filmmakers, friends, and families.

in 2023, we'll be celebrating 20 years of the Boston 48HFP --

see you there!

www.48hourfilm.com/en/boston-ma

————————————————————————————————————————————————————

People Choice Awards Winners

***ON THIS HAPPY NOTE*** (1hr 7min) | Tamar Tal Anati | 2021 | Doc | Israel *| Boston Premiere*
Anat Gov, one of the most influential playwrights in Israeli theatre, accepts and prepares for her death, wishing to leave behind a spiritual legacy: *‘there is such a thing as a happy ending, it is possible to die in peace’*.

Tamar Tal Anati “ON THE HAPPY NOTE” from Israel Wins

Arlington Int’l Film Festival People’s Choice Award in the

feature film

in the shorts category Gokce Pekhamarat “DOUBT” from Turkey

official winners OF 2022 AIFF

Award for Best of Festival | NOT A TAME LION (1hr 59min) | Craig Bettendorf | 2022 | Doc | USA | MA PREMIERE |

‘HONORING the STRENGTH of WOMEN’

Best Documentary Feature | HOW LONG MUST WE WAIT (58 MIN) \ Jaclyn O'Laughlin | USA | 2021 | Doc |

Best Documentary Short | BICENTENNIAL BONSAI: Emissaries of Peace (35min) | Paul Award and Kathryn O'Sullivan | 2020 | Doc | USA | NEW ENGLAND PREMIERE

_____________________________________________________________________________________

\ANNOUNCING AIFF’s STUDENT PROGRAM

VOICES OF OUR YOUTH A PLATFORM FOR VOICES and CREATIVITY

SCREENING SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 5, 12 PM

CAPITOL THEATRE, ARLINGTON, MA

The Arlington Int’l Film Festival proudly announces its STUDENT FILM PROGRAM, an annual red-carpet event that will take place at the Capitol Theatre in Arlington, MA where industry professionals rub elbows with our talented young filmmakers. The intention of this program is to provide a platform for creative, budding filmmakers to be heard and their work is seen. AIFF Judges view the student submissions, looking carefully at the various categories that comprise filmmaking from the script, editing, sound, and camera to directing. An Awards Ceremony will follow the program screening where we celebrate local filmmakers as well as those from all corners of the world. Plan to join us for a Generation Z experience!

Canada – Colombia – India – Italy – Iran – Israel – Poland – Spain – Sweden – Turkey – U.S.

What the AIFF Judges had to say about this year’s submissions:

“Each year I look forward to watching the student film submissions for AIFF. There are few things more inspiring than seeing the passion and creativity coming from the next generation of filmmakers and storytellers. Each year's class of films demonstrates the possibilities of young people when they are supported and heard with this year being no exception. The films chosen show the resiliency of the human spirit and the endless possibilities of creative young people with strong voices”. Padriac Farma

“I nominated each film in the “BEST OF …” categories because they all made me feel something; each film reminded me of my humanity in their own unique way.” Christina O’Neil

The New Everyday Life (6 min)

Isak Laestadius, André Palm, Jakob Larsson | Doc | 2021 | Sweden | US Premiere

Synopsis – During pandemic times, young girls dance in an old TBC sanatorium expressing their emotions.

Jury Statement: This film has a strong blend of beautiful dancing, great cinematography and lighting set against well-chosen locations, and great transitions I especially liked the match cuts between the dancers in different places. Wonderful job!

The Hill We Climb (2 min)

Wide Angle Youth Media | Nar | 2021 | Baltimore, MD, USA | New England Premiere

Synopsis: Students in the Virtual Event Planning class created a collaborative artistic work around Amanda Gorman's poem, "The Hill We Climb," which represented everything the students believe in. The film was created and narrated by students using a combination of student-filmed and stock footage.

Jury Statement: We always appreciate how a short film, when executed well, can inspire, and communicate a strong message. You have succeeded very well with conveying your message and offering inspiration. Well done!

Internet (10 min) BEST EXPERIMENTAL

Michael Cadena, Sophia Santamaria | Exp | 2021 | Florida Film Institute, Miami, FL, USA

MA Premiere

Synopsis - A man invents the internet with the help of an otherworldly force. But he soon learns that not all is what it seems.

Jury Statement: The technical skill in this film, from cinematography and lighting to sound design, is fantastic. The experimental style in the storytelling structure also lends itself to the film.

Caco (4 min) BEST ANIMATION | Sponsored by Yourarlington.com, Arlington, MA

Alba Carrera Marcolin | Animation | 2022 | Spain | US Premiere

Synopsis - What would happen if Caco the raccoon, wanted to steal the world's biggest diamond? This short film of stop-motion animation created by the students of the Audiovisual Media Degree of the TechnoCampus.

Jury Statement: Top marks all around! This is a fabulous piece with fabulous execution from the first frame to the illustrations in the credits. Well done, thank you for sharing, keep creating! |

Walking in Circles (5 min)

Devan Sakaria | Experimental | 2022 | Princeton, NJ, USA | New England Premiere

Synopsis: A man on his way to the train disappears and begins exactly where he started. With each pass, the things around him change, until the final loop where he meets an important character.

Jury Statement: Really great! Perhaps the editing could have been a bit tighter, and the film could have been a bit shorter, but that's just personal thoughts. Everything you did was of very high quality, and obviously intentional. Hoping I can see your future work. Keep making films!

Stuffed (9 min) BEST HORROR | Sponsored by Hunts Photo and Video, Melrose, MA

Brendan Patrick Egan | Horror/Comedy | 2021 | Boston, MA, USA | Mass Premiere

Synopsis: A teenage boy is hired to babysit…quite a disturbing situation!

Jury Statement: This film shows technical skill in cinematography and lighting, only elevated by the wonderful pacing and sound design. The man is quite disturbing, and the film had me on the edge of my seat. Lastly, the ending was such a wonderful revisit to the beginning of the film in the idea of kids being continually trapped in the house. Fantastic job! |

The Barn & The Birdhouse (5 min) BEST NARRATIVE | Sponsored by KUMON, Arlington, MA

Casey Lockledge, Jack Malin, Murray Susen | Drama | 2021 | Light House Studio Charlottesville, VA, USA | Mass Premiere

Synopsis: A birdhouse leads to an unexpected romantic encounter.

Jury Statement: The story is so enticing, and the execution was great. There were certain parts where the film struggled with over-acting, but overall, this is a great film. Wonderful job!

Awards: 2021 Jury Award at the Adrenaline Film Project, Charlottesville, Virginia, USA |

Light Box (4 min)

Hamadi Sallami | Horror | 2022 | Tunisia | US Premiere

Synopsis: In a frame of horror and mystery, the heroine falls asleep, when strange sounds occur, wakes up from sleep, and discovers that a ghost is trying to chase her.

Jury Statement: There is no doubt you have talent. I can also see themes and styles emerging from your work. Keep expanding on your filmmaking tools and challenge yourself to step out of the box every now and then.

Awards: Best Director, Ciné Bardo Festival, Tunisia, 2022,

The Bridge (7 min) BEST HISTORICAL DOCUMENTARY | Sponsored by Arlington Community Media, Inc (ACMi), Arlington, MA

Shreya Mehta and Calvin Clizer | Doc | 2021 | Sacramento, CA, USA | New England Premiere

Synopsis: In one Eastern Washington city, there is a long history of segregation. Through the decades, the Tri-Cities have existed as a farm region, a plutonium producer for WWII, and a sundown town dubbed the “Birmingham of Washington” by the NAACP. While racial segregation is no longer overt, today, it silently separates the odd amalgamation of Ph.D. scientists, migrant farm workers, and white nationalists in the region. By exploring her city's history, one woman gains a further understanding of identity by piecing together the messy history before her.

Jury Statement: This film really represents what we try to amplify in Creative Youth Development…helping young people to gain strong voices and share important messages to make a change. Great job of tying in your individual challenges, your community's challenges, and the country's challenges. The director is talented at historical storytelling!

Shelved (6 min) BEST DOCUMENTARY | Sponsored by Lesley Ellis School, Arlington, MA

Max Mitchell | Doc | Steeltown Film Academy, Pittsburg, PA, USA | 2021

New England Premiere

Synopsis: A lighthearted documentary about the challenges two young filmmakers faced while making a film in only 48 hours.

Jury Statement: This is such a wonderful documentary. The interviews are wonderfully shot and lit, the b-roll was a perfect fit for the film, and the overall editing a pacing made it quite entertaining. All judges agreed: They want to see the final cut

Respectful Vampires of the Greater Boston Area (10 min) BEST SCRIPT

Ari Klawans | Doc | 2022 | Natick, MA, USA | Boston Premiere

Synopsis: The Respectful Vampires of the Greater Boston Area - or RVGBA, for short - recruits Vlad, a traditional Transylvanian vampire, to advertise a blood drive.

Jury Statement: This is a great concept and feels like it could be its own series. Great job of building a world and telling a story within a 5-minute piece. Would love to see more RVGBA!

Astoria (8 min)

Delta Flores | 8 min | 2021 | Florida Film Institute, Miami, FL, USA | New England Premiere

Synopsis: A small fairy gets trapped in a glass jar by a human girl, and in an unexpected twist of events ends up finding herself a victim of unrequited love.

Jury Statement: We really liked the aesthetic, and attention to detail. Lots of props, and the continuity was spot on. Script-wise, we appreciate how it had an original twist, instead of heading down the same path a lot of modern fairytales take.

Letter to The Ocean (2 min)

Paige Bettencourt | Doc | 2022 | Fairhaven, MA, USA | New England Premiere

Synopsis: A girl struggling with anxiety discovers a letter in a bottle about how no one is alone in how they feel.

Jury Statement: A nice slice of life. I like how the message helped me to self-reflect and take a moment for myself. Really pleasant, perfect length. Well done!

Voices in Our Heads (4 min)

Brendan Egan | Nar/Comedy | 2021 | Boston, MA, USA

Synopsis: A couple goes on a blind date only to be haunted by the verbal embodiment of their fears and anxieties.

Jury Statement: Great execution on this project. We love the use of handholding to create tension and suspense. Interesting choice for her to take his hand at the end. I'm not sure what kind of message that gives. Should she have? Didn't he catfish her? Is he being rewarded? All good topics to provoke some dialogue around. However, I'm just not sure about the tone again. Is this comedy or a warning?

Distractions (7 min) BEST DIRECTOR

Maya Jai Pinson | Doc | Hyattsville, MD, USA | New England Premiere

Synopsis: While driving to a party, Tay Lee's focus is on everything but the road.

Jury Statement: The technical skill in this film is truly impressive, and the direction is wonderful. The cinematography was especially strong, and the involvement of both adult and teenage actors really elevated the film. It effectively tells a convincing and heartbreaking story, and the talent behind it is quite clear.

Sponsored by Yourarlington.com, Arlington, MA

The Hole (3 min) BEST SOUND

Piotr Kaźmierczak | Animation | 2021 | Poland | US Premiere

Synopsis: A short story about struggling with lack, emptiness, and loneliness.

Jury Statement: Wow! What an incredible film. To animate with paper is quite difficult, and this film pulled it off. Not only is the animation style wonderful, but the story itself is beautifully conveyed.

Inner Workings (10 min) BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY & BEST EDITING

Cara Davidson | Doc | Sacramento, CA, USA | New England Premiere

Synopsis: Cara opens up about her experience with depression and body dysmorphia and explores how mental health struggles manifest for others in Generation Z, especially in the wake of the COVID19 Pandemic.

Jury Statement: Wow! What an incredible film. The editing, cinematography, interview clips, and old footage all cut together so well with the narration which is set in its own story at a photo shoot in which someone asks Cara to smile. The information is also incredibly valuable to the audience, an important message to hear. Lastly, the piano clip is such a perfect ending to the film. Wonderful job, and please keep making films!

The Locket (2 min)

Alexander Coleman | Animation | 2021 | Vancouver, Canada | New England Premiere

Synopsis: A mischievous magpie who lives in the forest one day steals something shiny from a cat, but feels sorry when she realizes how important the object is. This film was my final project for the Electronic Arts teen animation scholarship program. Special thank you to Arts Umbrella and EA Vancouver for this opportunity!

Jury Statement: The animation quality and style are great and there is clearly talent behind the project. The pacing is a bit slow at points, but overall, it told an enjoyable and wholesome story.

Munna (8 min)

Adith Krishna Chempath, Rayees Jaffer, Abhijith Sasidharan | Nar | 2020 | India | US Premiere

Synopsis: Munna is a short film about feminism in our society and transgender issues.

Jury Statement: This has a good cast ensemble, and the editing beautifully mixes their stories together with cohesion. This is a very sophisticated film. Well done!

I Have a Dream, a Movie Dream (8 min) BEST of FESTIVAL | Sponsored by MATV/UMA, Malden, MA

ShiJie Weng | Docufiction | 2021 | Spain | World Premiere

Synopsis: We all have a dream but not always the possibility of making it come true. Even so, we must have the courage and maturity to try to achieve it.

Jury Statement: Such a moving film! It certainly got me emotional. If you're not sitting at the end of your bed crying every now and then, wondering when you'll catch your next break, you're probably not doing it right. Ride the wave. Respect the long game.

__________________________________________________________________

The Arlington Int’l Film festival is thrilled to announce its

partnership WITH The Star Virtual Cinema was created to

screen film festivals and other movie events. It offers

festivals and filmmakers the opportunity to attend a festival

Otherwise inaccessible for financial or geographic reasons.

But this is not just a live-stream event. It is the venue, a location to which people from around the globe can attend. It is a world inhabited by avatars. This allows for interactions that are not possible with a conventional live-streamed event.

https://play.decentraland.org/?island=Iepx6&position=8%2C102&realm=baldr

Choose your avatar (you can change it at any time), enter an email address and you will jump straight outside the Star Cinema.

___________________________________________________________________________

ANNOUNCING MC of STUDENT FILMMAKER PROGRAM

L-J ShenFilerman

MASTER of CEREMONIES for 2022 VOICES of OUR YOUTH

The Arlington International Film Festival announces L-J ShenFilerman as Master of Ceremonies for the 12th annual AIFF VOICES OF OUR YOUTH student filmmaker’s program. Student films will screen at the Capitol Theatre on Saturday, November 5 at 12PM with the awards ceremony following. We encourage audience members of all ages to join us for this program which promises to entertain and inspire.

One hundred twenty-five student films were submitted for festival 2022 consideration, students being as close as Boston and as far away as Sweden. Members of the Selection Committee reviewed submissions and curated the program that will screen. Director, screenwriter, and actor, L-J ShenFilerman with his creativity and imagination will be an excellent match with these young filmmakers.

L-J ShenFilerman’s Bio

An Arlington resident and student at Cambridge School of Weston, L-J is busy balancing school, friends, and extracurricular activities… which can be difficult for any 16-year-old. But most 16-year-olds’ don’t have a budding career, in writing, casting, directing, and producing films. L-J is not like most 16-year old’s; he has already made a name for himself in the film industry.
Compelled to tell stories from a young age, L-J has been making films for as long as he can remember. As an artist, he is ever curious about people and the world and finds beauty in how storytelling in the film is often fundamentally based on empathy and the human experience. Over the years L-J has written, directed, and produced numerous short films that have been screened both online and in festivals. SANCTUARY, a film he made during the COVID-19 lockdown, was an Official Selection at the Arlington Int’l Film Festival student filmmaker’s category, where it won Best of Festival. The same film was an Official Selection at 2021 All American High School Film Festival in New York City, where it was screened at the AMC Theater in Times Square. Most recently, L-J’s short film PRECIPICE premiered at the Capitol Theatre in Arlington, MA. His films can be viewed at ljshenfilerman.com or at L-J ShenFilerman on YouTube. L-J has been featured in Yourarlington.com, Boston Globe, Imagine Magazine, and Filmmakers Magazine.

This talented and passionate young man continues to refine and develop his craft and is dedicated to learning more about and exploring the language of film. Moving forward, L-J intends to pursue filmmaking as a career.

________________________________________________________________________

ANNOUNCING AIFF 2022 KICK-OFF

IN CONVERSATION with JERALD WALKER

October 4, 6 PM | Boston Public Library, Rabb Hall

The Arlington Int’l Film Festival in partnership with the Boston Public Library will host IN CONVERSATION with JERALD WALKER, an acclaimed author, and Professor of creative writing at Emerson College. His most recent book HOW to MAKE a SLAVE and OTHER ESSAYS was a finalist for the 2020 National Book Award in Nonfiction, winner of the 2020 Massachusetts Book Award in Nonfiction and A Book of the Year pick from Kirkus, BuzzFeed, and Literary Hub. Please join us for an intimate conversation that will take us into Walker’s visceral essays that speak to what it is to grow, parent, write, and exist as a black male in America.

Jenifer Szalai of the New York Times has this to say about Walker’s latest book, “The essays in this collection are restless, brilliant and short.… The brevity suits not just Walker’s style but his worldview, too.… Keeping things quick gives him the freedom to move; he can alight on truth without pinning it into place.”

This conversation will be moderated by Crystal Haynes, Emmy award-winning journalist and weekend anchor for Boston 25 News.

The event is free and open to the public with registration. Click HERE to register.

JERALD WALKER’s BIO

A graduate of the Iowa Writers' Workshop, Jerald Walker has published in magazines such as Creative Nonfiction, The Missouri Review, The Harvard Review, Mother Jones, The Iowa Review, and The Oxford American, and he has been widely anthologized, including five times in The Best American Essays.

Walker is the author of Street Shadows: A Memoir of Race, Rebellion, and Redemption, recipient of the 2011 PEN New England/L.L. Winship Award for Nonfiction and named a Best Memoir of the Year by Kirkus Reviews, and The World in Flames: A Black Boyhood in a White Supremacist Doomsday Cult.

He has received fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation, the National Endowment for the Arts, and the James A. Michener Foundation. Walker's doctorate is in Interdisciplinary Studies, combining the fields of African American literature, African American history, and creative writing.

This program is Sponsored by the Boston Public Library, Mass Cultural Council, Senné Real Estate, Arlington, and Social Equity Access Fund

________________________________________________________________________________

The Arlington Int’l Film Festival has the honor to partner with XR InLearning in New York

“Technology must be SAFE and Private for Everyone”

XR InLearning accelerates awareness and adoption of virtual, augmented, and mixed realities in education and learning.

October 18th,2022

https://www.xrinlearning.com/

________________________________________________________________________________________________________

The Arlington Int’l Film festival is thrilled to announce its

partnership with Mashariki African Film Festival in Rwanda

“Cinema to enlighten humanity”

Through the creative art industry in general and the film industry, what better platform would we have to enlighten humanity? Hosting the Mashariki African Film Festival for its 5th Edition reflects the will and commitment of Rwanda to develop and strengthen the growing film industry that is representative of our cherished cultural diversity and the role it must play in the socio-economic recovery of the country. MAAFF is still a growing festival that offers the perfect opportunities for everyone to experience great Culture, African storytelling styles, and the beauty of African Producers

www.masharikifestival.org

_________________________________________________________________________________________________

AIFF 2022 HONOREE

LINDA YEE:

Changing Arlington Through Volunteerism

The Arlington Int’l Film Festival (AIFF) is exceptionally pleased to announce its 2022 Honoree Recipient, Linda Yee of Arlington, MA.

Founded in 2011, one of the AIFFs most valued components has been its Volunteers. The good news is that AIFF did not have a problem recruiting people with extremely valuable skills and a commitment to helping build an international film festival in Arlington. Volunteers became part of AIFF, promoting its spirit and mission helping bring the best of independent film to Arlington, films that entertain as well as those that speak to the issues of our day.

Linda Yee became interested in AIFF primarily because of its mission, ‘to foster appreciation for different cultures by exploring the lives of people around the globe through independent film”. In 2012, ALL ME: The Life and Times of Winfred Rembert by filmmaker Vivian Ducat was awarded ‘Best of Festival’ and Winfred became a celebrity in Arlington…people were taken by his story as well as his incredible talent. It was Linda that saw the possibility of bringing Mr. Rembert to the Arlington High School for a week’s art residency program and she took the lead in making it happen in 2014. The Winfred Project was a huge success not only for the students but for the community.

It has been an honor for The Arlington International Film Festival to work beside Linda Yee for 11 years. Linda is truly committed to promoting diversity and AIFF celebrates her enthusiasm to inspire and empower others with her innovative thinking and creative activism. Linda leads the charge to challenge social norms and raises the bar for equity and human rights in our community and beyond. Linda has been by our side as we celebrate the achievements of AIFF from her role in welcoming guests to the theater, selling raffle tickets, movie advisor, grant writer, and much more.

As AIFF celebrates its 12th anniversary, we are proud and humbled to continue this living experiment of bringing together the world’s most striking storytellers and filmmakers with stories that inspire us to think critically and focus on the changes needed to improve our community and the world at large. Committed Volunteers like Linda Yee help us make this happen!
_________________________________________________________________________________

AIFF is thrilled to partner with Shahr International Film Festival

one of Iran's most prestigious international film festivals organized by Shahr Image Institute, the Artistic and Cultural Organization of Tehran Municipality.

The 8th Shahr International Film Festival tries to identify remarkable aspects of "urban life patterns" through innovative cinematic works. The festival aims to create a platform for exchanging ideas and experiences among cities worldwide.

The festival's international section will be held in two sections: "International Competition"

www.filmarpictures.com

___________________________________________________________________________________

UKRAINIAN STUDENTS for a PEACEFUL FUTURE

The Arlington Int'l Film Festival

has the honor of partnering with students across Ukraine

to help support the economy, stop the war, and save lives.

An all-Ukrainian association of students has organized to help their country. Their goal is to support Ukrainian businesses during the war so they can continue to produce essential goods for Ukrainian citizens.

If you want to help you can donate at

https://unitedstudentsukraine.org/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5L1_SeTtQ9g

__________________________________________________________________________________

2022 AIFF POSTER CONTEST

Illustration images; positive impressions!
https://youtu.be/pajfkueeq8w

https://blogs.massart.edu/illustration/

The Arlington International Film Festival (AIFF) returned to the Arlington Center for the Arts (ACA) for a fourth year to celebrate the Award Reception that revealed the winning poster for the 2022 Festival year.

The AIFF Poster Contest is the cornerstone of the Arlington Int’l Film festival, the component that connects visual arts with the art of filmmaking. It is also the official kick-off of the 2022 film festival season.

Elena Mathis, 2021 Poster Contest winner was present to unveil this year’s winner. Elena graduates from Mass College of Art this month and will be pursuing her interest in comic book illustrations.

This year’s winner, Arianna Stoughton is a junior at Mass College of Art. Her winning design featured a ramen bowl of a film being served rather than noodles. Arianna said of her design, “With my poster I wanted to highlight the international aspects of the film festival by depicting different food dishes from around the world, with some ingredients replaced with filmmaking iconography.”

Guest Speaker:

George Summers, Jr., was the guest speaker for this year’s competition. Summers graduated in 1981 with a BFA in Illustration and Design from UMASS-Dartmouth and an independent study in Batik and continued his art education at the Museum School (SMFA) – Boston. George currently maintains a studio practice at Brickbottom, teaches Batik at the Brookline Arts Center, and volunteers with SPOKE (formerly the Medicine Wheel).

His parting words to the Illustration students, class of 2022: “Always have a sketchbook with you to document what you see…don’t ever compare yourself with other artists, expect the unexpected interruptions in your career, and NEVER lose your curiosity for life.

Master of Ceremony:

This year’s Master of Ceremonies was L-J ShenFilerman, a 17-year-old writer/film director from Arlington, MA. His film SANCTUARY received the AIFF 2020 BEST of FESTIVAL/Student Division Award and was a 2021 Official Selection in the All-American High School Film Festival, NYC.

Judges:

The Poster Contest entries were evaluated by an esteemed panel of judges with expertise in composition, design, public relations, and marketing. They are:

· Elisa Adams, stone sculptor and President of New England Sculptor’s Association

· David Ardito, Visual artist and Interim K-12 Director of Visual Arts for the Arlington Public Schools

· Jennifer Cheng DesAutels, Illustrator, logo designer, and Plein air artist

· Marc Gurton, Owner of 13FOREST Gallery, a contemporary art and craft gallery located in East Arlington

· Erica Licea-Kane, working artist and retired college studio art instructor

· Elena Mathis, Senior at MassCollege of Art and 2021 Winner of the AIFF Poster Contest

· Agathe Pias, 2019 Winner of the Int’l Ind. Film Festival Elche, Spain Poster Contest (AIFF’s new Festival Partner)

· Vicky Rodriguez, artist and arts administrator for the School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston

Sponsors:

Special thanks to…

Gold Sponsor: Watertown Savings Bank

Venue Partner: Arlington Center for the Arts,

Media Sponsor: ACMi

_____________________________________________________________________

12th annual AIFF Poster Contest Award Reception

Host, L-J ShenFilerman

!AIFF Supports the Next Generation of Artists!

The Poster Competition was the 1st project to spin off a connecting film with the arts.
https://youtu.be/FZF08rs11-Y

Join us for the evening as we celebrate the art of design & illustration with Mass College of Art & Design Students...

Alex Lewis, Arianna Stoughton, Faye Silvia, Jamie Reinhold, Larry Bousquet, Lexii Goumas, Lin Jeffrey, Luke Donoghue, Marissa Mazzone, Medline Gutierrez, Salvatore Spacco, Sandra Kalayjian, Taylor Adams-Bass, Vanessa Kraps, Vicky Chen, Vivienne Wychorski

The winning designer will be announced and awarded.

Program Host: L-J ShenFilerman is a 17-year-old writer/director from Arlington, MA. His film SANCTUARY received the AIFF 2020 BEST of FESTIVAL / Student Division Award and was a 2021 Official Selection in the All American High School Film Festival, NYC.

Poster Contest Judges: Elisa Adams, David Ardito, Jennifer Cheng DesAutels, Marc Gurton, Erica Licea-Kane, Elena Mathis, Agathe, Pias, Vicky Rodriguez.

Featuring Guest Speaker: Artist, George Summers, Jr., and Music: Guitarist, Carl Rome

__________________________________________________________________________________________

George Summers:

Founding Member of ‘Brickbottom’, Fiber/Batik Artist

Guest Speaker for the 2022 AIFF Poster Contest Award Reception

https://youtu.be/pajfkueeq8w

“Passionate about all the arts and especially the journey that one undertakes to create and make art. Not too long ago someone asked me what my vocation was, and I responded, “I live an artistic life!”

The 2022 Arlington International Film Festival (AIFF)…not JUST a film festival but a celebration of the arts is honored to announce George Summers Jr. as its Guest Speaker for the 12th annual Poster Contest Award Reception that officially launches the Film Festival season.

George Summers Jr is a fiber artist living and working in the Boston area. He graduated in 1981 with a BFA in Illustration and Design from UMASS-Dartmouth and an independent study in Batik and continued his art education at the Museum School (SMFA) - Boston.

Over the past thirty years, Summers has had ten one-person shows and has exhibited extensively in numerous group shows around the country…most recently at the Queer Biennial, Navel Gallery, L.A. (2018). His Batik work is in many private collections, including the Tom of Finland Foundation, which recently received one of his batik quilts as a gift.

Summers is one of the founding members of Brickbottom in Somerville, a vital community artist’s residence/studio, a non-profit gallery, and an artists’ association. Founded in 1987, the community has become a well-known model for other artists’ live/work developments throughout the country.

For twenty years, George was the Retail Gallery Manager for the Society of Arts + Crafts, the oldest nonprofit crafts organization in the country, until their closing in 2020.

George currently maintains a studio practice at Brickbottom, teaches Batik at the Brookline Arts Center, where he received the 2020 Berliner Award for thirty-plus years of service and he volunteers his time with SPOKE (formerly the Medicine Wheel) utilizes art to heal and transform youth.

2022 AIFF Poster Contest Award Reception

FRIDAY, MAY 6, 7 PM

Arlington Center for the Arts

20 Academy Street, Arlington

_____________________________________________________________________________

Partner

AIFF is thrilled to partner with Big Apple Film Festival

for a second year to promote events, and focus on the business and craft of storytelling while providing networking opportunities to all participants.

BIG APPLE FILM FESTIVAL AGENTS AND MANAGERS CONFERENCE

"For filmmakers, series creators and screenwriters currently seeking representation"

Big Apple Film Festival provides participants and audience members with a series of interactive panel discussions, conferences, seminars, and workshops.

Are you currently looking for an agent or manager to represent your film, series, or screenplay? Live interactive virtual events May 23-27.

Early Discount Registration Deadline: APRIL 15.

Over 20 participating agents, managers, and development executives from agencies and management companies including WME, The Gersh Agency, A3,
APA, Anonymous Content, and more... Networking, Educational, and Q & A Opportunities.

All-Access Pass holders will be provided with a pre-registration form, which guarantees the opportunity to share the following with their participating agents and managers: Title and Brief Synopsis of Your Film, Script, and/or Series, Your Name, and Your Contact Information.

Additional Information and Registration at

https://www.bigapplefilmfestival.com/agentsandmanagersconfer

_________________________________________________________________________________________________

Welcome back iPitch.TV

The Arlington International Film Festival (AIFF) is thrilled to be recognized and invited to partner again with iPitch.tv for the 2022 Festival season. With this partnership, AIFF looks forward to augmenting its viewers.

This year, the Arlington Int'l Film Festival will be offering Complimentary Term Memberships to their winning filmmakers.

"Looking for a way to pitch your idea for a television show or movie? iPITCH.TV offers a next-generation platform for creators of original pitches for TV, Film & Digital Media to connect directly with Hollywood Producers and Studio Executives and gives creators industry pro advice on how to pitch a television show or feature film. Pitch your idea for a Movie, Screenplay, Television Show, Short Film, New Media Project, and more."

About iPitch: Industry members in their marketplace are scouting for Feature Film and Television projects for all the major networks, studios, and platforms. These Executive Members include:

Discovery Studios, Sony Pictures Entertainment Television, New Line Cinema, Warner Brothers, Echo Lake Entertainment, Relativity Television, CBS, WEtv, Authentic Entertainment, Forman Productions, Infinity Media Inc., Little Studio Films, Leftfield Pictures, Brian Graden Media... to name a few.

https://ipitch.tv/

______________________________________________________________________________________

New Festival Partner

AIFF & ELCHE INT'L FILM FESTIVAL - SPAIN
Arlington International Film Festival is honored to partner with
Partner

Current Exhibition: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1CILLan2t8f3mF903HigKisdkocm6GS6N/view?usp=sharing

The Arlington International Film Festival is thrilled to announce that the '2021 AIFF VOICES of OUR YOUTH' program will screen in Elche at the FICIE July 8 - 22, 2022.

In addition, the trailer with AIFF sponsors will run prior to the program to an audience of more than 10,000+ people.

Movie theaters at the FICIE are certainly out of the ordinary!

The screenings take place during lovely summer evenings under the stars in the Palm Groves of Elche, an idyllic setting!

About FICIE

The International Independent Film Festival of Elche (FICIE) was born in 1978 by Jaime Brotons, a member of the Cineclub "Luis Buñuel" (also founded by him in 1973) with two objectives in mind: That the city of Elche was not "emptied" of people during the summer heat and lacking of cultural activity and secondly, to search for new film talent in the short film format that was then novel.

Forty-five years later, FICIE continues with the same goals. The city of Elche has grown in size and importance in the whole of Spain, it continues to be a cultural engine of the province of Alicante and continues to look for young talent that is emerging in the world of short film.

FICIE is in the circuit of pre-selection festivals for the Goya Awards of the Spanish Film Academy and has also received the distinction of "Recommended Festival" by the Association of the Short Film Industry.

FICIE enters its 45th year with the same enthusiasm with which it was founded in 1978: following the rapid evolution of the audiovisual and looking for talent both in short films, as well as in feature films and studying TV Fiction as a new golden age of audiovisual in general.

FICIE's vision does not end here. They have created a circuit of collaborating festivals that AIFF is honored to join.

Festival Int'l de Cine Ind. de Elche, Spain (FICIE) as they celebrate its 45th year in July 2022.

https://ficie.fundacionmediterraneo.es/en/ficie-en/

_______________________________________________________________________

Celebrates the Arts Through Music

Rasa String Quartet

https://youtu.be/irTye2cXJ8E

AIFF is excited to usher in Spring with a concert performed by the Rasa String Quartet. They will play at The Roasted Granola Café on Thursday evening, April 21, 7:30 PM - 1346 Mass Ave, Arlington.

AIFF Celebrating the Arts Through Music will present two music concerts this Spring supported by the Arlington Cultural Council. A second concert will be held in May with information TBA.

Rasa String Quartet - The Boston-based Rasa String Quartet consists of passionate and accomplished musicians that perform unconventional programs that are inspired by a wide variety of traditions, fusing multiple genres, highlighting unknown composers, and making ‘classical music’ culturally relevant.

Formed in 2019, the Quartet is quickly emerging as one of New England’s finest ensembles and consists of violinists Maura Shawn Scanlin and Kiyoshi Hayashi, violist Daniel Orsen, and cellist Nathaniel Taylor.

In sanskrit, the term ‘RASA’ refers to the enchantingly indescribable power of any art form to evoke strong emotions in the reader or listener. A Rasa String Quartet concert performance is guaranteed to elicit ‘rasa’!

Join us at The Roasted Granola Café, a cozy venue for delectable coffee and food, and enjoy these amazing musicians.

This concert series is made possible through the generous grant of the Arlington Cultural Council. We thank them for their support.

Thursday, April 21 @ 7:30 PM

Music by RASA String Quartet

rasastringquartet.com

_______________________________________________________________________________________

2022 CALL FOR FILM SUBMISSIONS

The Arlington Int’l Film Festival is proud to announce the Call for Submissions for its 12th Annual Festival scheduled November 3 - 6 at the Capitol Theatre, Arlington, MA, USA.

The festival highlights films with a focus on the arts, human rights, social justice, climate change, immigration, the refugee crisis, and disabilities. It will also screen films on the COVID-19 pandemic that examine the psychological and physical impact on the world. April Ranck, Executive Director of the AIFF states, “Films screened at the festival reflect a respect for humanity regardless of color, gender or religion and are brought to light through various genres of film.”

Finally, this year has been an exciting one for our viewers, judges, volunteers, partners, and sponsors. AIFF had the honor of screening three films in the 2021 Festival that will be competing for Academy Awards in their respective categories: Hunger War by Skye Fitzgerald (Short Doc/USA); Demic’s Panic by Bill Plympton (Animation/USA), and Archibald’s Syndrome by Daniel Perez (Short Nar/France). These films reflect the quality of storytelling that AIFF is proud to screen. Each year we look forward to receiving interesting artistic submissions and each year we are in awe of your inspiration and talent to create amazing films!

SUBMISSION PROCEDURE

Submit electronically: https://filmfreeway.com/festival/arlingtoninternationalfilmfestival

Genres: Documentary and Narrative Features and Shorts, Animation and Experimental Shorts

The Student Filmmaker’s Program is for current high school students.

Mission Statement: To foster appreciation for different cultures by exploring the lives of people around the globe through independent film — to nurture the next generation of filmmakers.

The Arlington International Film Festival

November 3 – 6, 2022

Tax-deductible contributions should be made payable to the festival’s fiscal agent, MIRA, a non-profit 501(c)(3) organization.

__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

The Power of Coming Together

‘AUDIENCE CHOICE FILM AWARD’

The act of creating an AUDIENCE CHOICE AWARD is by nature creating a network of people from around the globe and giving them a voice.

We have awards chosen by our jury but AIFF wanted to hear the audience’s voice.

Regardless of distance, you have had the opportunity of viewing this year’s film program

Virtually cast YOUR vote for your favorite FILM.

Voting closed on November 14th, 2021, at 11:59 PM EST and votes were tallied.

The Audience Choice Award that YOU voted for is…

ENOUGH! Lebanon’s Darkest Hour

Congratulations to filmmaker Daizy Gedeon

____________________________________________________________________________________

Arlington Int’l Film Festival 2021 Program Highlights

Some of the most exciting aspects of a film festival is the experience of watching a film in the theater with others and having the filmmaker present for a Q&A. And let’s not omit the engaging conversations elicited by films that often take on a life outside of the theater. Last year we missed this lively experience to gather with you as well as all the good times that happen around the festival.

In early 2021, many festivals were either canceled, postponed, or screening virtually and as the year progressed, we had to make a difficult decision about AIFF. “We can’t be sure what 2021 will bring and even if it is safer to congregate in November, will it be safe enough to risk inviting our audience members into the theater? With that question unanswered, we will remain a virtual festival again this year,” said April Ranck, the Executive Director. “We are asking you to enjoy AIFF ONLINE November 4 -14 and we look forward to welcoming you back in the theater in 2022”.

Our program is currently being uploaded to the website, AIFFest.org where you can watch trailers, read the synopsis, and plan what you must see! Also be sure to watch the 6 min short on our homepage, NUOVO CINEMA PARA-VIRUS by Italian filmmaker Daniele Pignatelli that is so fitting for the times… During the lockdown, the Cinema sends a video letter to humankind: the theatres are closed, sets are locked, and the Cinema can no longer create new dreams.

We are excited to announce the line-up of films in the 11th edition of the AIFF screening in November. Many films have premiered at the Berlin, Cannes, Toronto, Venice, Tribeca, Sundance, and Telluride film festivals and we have several that will be premiering with AIFF.

AIFF 2021 BEST OF FESTIVAL winner is I’M AN ELECTRIC LAMPSHADE by writer and director John Clayton Doyle. John is a multidisciplinary artist known for his experimental use of movement, unconventional casting, and meta storytelling. John is the co-founder and Artistic Director of Harlem Dance Club, an arts organization that builds community by breaking down perceived boundaries and barriers using music, dance, and visual arts. John’s movement work has been presented at The Brooklyn Museum, MassMoca, Alvin Ailey Citibank Theater, Joe’s Pub at The Public Theater, Clemente Soto Velez, Parque Lage (Brazil), and informally at many nightclubs around the world.

I’m Electric Lampshade is a docu-fiction based on the true story of Doug McCorkle. John and his crew follow Doug as he retires from a successful career in corporate accounting and incredibly goes on to become one of the most daring and unlikely performers of the 21st Century.

The creation of this film was highly unique, with Doug serving as patron and muse. John viewed his role as a painter hired to capture the portrait of a man at a particular moment in his life. When asked about his intentions, Doug said, “People live their lives like they’re going to get to go around again. That’s so sad. That’s why I'm doing this.”

Doug’s journey and final transformation leave us with proof that it is never too late to pursue your dreams! Spanning four years and three countries, the making of I'm An Electric Lampshade is a story, that boldly demands a genre of its own!

No less anticipated, is the 2021 BEST DOCUMENTARY FEATURE, THE BROTHERS/LOS HERMANOS directed by Ken Schneider and Marcia Jarmel of Patchworks Films.

The movie follows two musician siblings from Havana whose personal closeness is at odds with the geopolitics that keep them apart. Ilmar Gavilán, a violinist, left Cuba at 14 to study in Moscow and later immigrated to the United States. López Gavilán, his younger brother, a pianist, and composer, mostly stayed in Cuba, apart from conservatory training in London.

Ken Schneider’s story with Cuba goes back to when his dad was given shelter as a refugee child from Nazi Germany, two years before the U.S. opened its doors to him. Diplomatic relations between Cuba and the US have vacillated over the years. It remains difficult for Cubans and Americans to cross borders. Americans still know little of their closest neighbors, seeing Cuba as either an island paradise or socialist prison. We rarely hear the perspectives of Cubans themselves. The Cubans we know are deeply proud of their values, their artistic achievements, their way of life. They want change—and self-determination. They have generously shared their stories with us. We are committed to bringing them to you.

JACK LONDON’S MARTIN EDEN by director Jay Craven was awarded the 2021 BEST NARRATIVE FEATURE. Based on the celebrated writer’s autobiographical novel, the film is set in 1909 and tells the story of a poor unschooled sailor who unexpectedly meets Ruth Morse, a magnetic young woman of means and education. Their unconventional attraction upends both lives and propels timely themes of impossible love, the pursuit of the “American Dream” and the quest for a comfortable place in an inconstant world.

Jack London was America’s most popular writer at the turn of the 20th C. Director Jay Craven, a seasoned narrative film director said of the making of this film, “I chose to make MARTIN EDEN because Jack London has always interested me, for his vivid writing, social engagement, complex humanism and the textured emotions of his characters. I was also drawn to London’s own volatile life and his legendary status as America’s first ‘celebrity writer’ whose work inspired Ernest Hemingway, Upton Sinclair, John Steinbeck, Jack Kerouac, Sinclair Lewis, Norman Mailer, and Susan Sontag, among others.”

MARTIN EDEN’s cast includes Andrew Richardson in the title role and Hayley Griffith and Annet Mahendru as Ruth Morse and Lizzie Connolly, respectively. Richardson trained at Carnegie Mellon and London’s Royal Academy of Dramatic Art and Royal Academy of Dance. His credits include eight film and television productions along with stage productions.

JACK LONDON’S MARTIN EDEN is a superbly directed and acted film…a must-see!

HUNGER WARD, winner of the 2021 BEST SHORT DOCUMENTARY by Skye Fitzgerald is nominated for the 2021 Oscar Academy Awards. His first two films of this Humanitarian Cinema trilogy were 50 FEET FROM SYRIA and LIFEBOAT. HUNGER WARD is the third and is borne out of a sense of urgency at the sustained civilian suffering caused by the human-caused famine in Yemen.

Filmed in Yemen in early 2020, the film follows two female health care workers, Dr. Aida Alsadeeq and Nurse Mekkia Mahdi who are fighting the widespread starvation, a crisis in the country that has affected children due to the ongoing civil war in Yemen.

“Though the war in Yemen has recently fallen off the front page, violence, hunger, and heartbreak continue to be the norm throughout the country. The fact that children are dying from malnutrition and outright starvation in 2020 is an outrage and an indictment of the entire global community,” said Fitzgerald in a statement. “The COVID crisis is only exacerbating the situation and making it even more dangerous for local doctors and aid workers to function effectively.”

According to Skye Fitzgerald, “I believe that the most compelling films often emerge from a deep and abiding belief that - simply put - they must be done. But is a passion to tell a compelling story and the craftsmanship to execute it enough? Five years ago, I decided it wasn’t. Despite a career of producing and directing documentary films that I felt were compelling statements on contemporary issues of our time, I came to believe they were not reaching a great enough audience nor activating sufficient change. So, I changed my approach to center on a single, core principle: empathy. I believe that if we can generate empathy for others, it becomes exceedingly difficult to create barriers. I call this approach Humanitarian Cinema. The trilogy focuses on studying the global refugee and displaced person crisis with a cinematic eye and rendering films capable of eliciting empathy for the burgeoning refugee and IDP (internally displaced person) community.”

2021 winner of the BEST SHORT NARRATIVE, THE LAST JAM JAR by Arpan Bahl is inspired by a true story, a story of eternal love. On their special day, Govind spends it with Leela in a trance-like state. When the day ends, and he returns home will the trance be broken?

Bahl says of himself, “I have always been an emotional person. Emotions mean a lot to me. While growing up I would read stories and emotions would register first. Even today when I watch or read a story the emotional takeaway is the strongest. As a filmmaker, it was always my desire to tell an emotional story. A love story. But then love is vast and endless. There are stories of love and then there are stories of love. I decided to tell a story of love, death & longing. A new take on everlasting love that has not been seen before.
It all started when a friend told me the story of his grandfather’s love for his wife. It moved me a lot. After his wife passed away his grandfather would just not accept that she was gone. The day she died, he sat next to her and would not let anyone touch her body. He talked to her, caressed her, throughout the day. That night the family somehow took him away from her and cremated her body. He still sat on their bed and would not move. Days went by, he would eat on the bed and then sleep there. Slowly the family took him away from her. Now, he lives in the same house but keeps an empty chair and a plate for her when he eats. He signs letters he writes with her name next to his. He hasn’t given away any of her possessions.

As a storyteller on my directorial debut, I feel I have been able to tell a unique emotional story of love. It is dedicated to all those romantics and ardent lovers of any era that belief in “love is forever”. I present my labor of love “The Last Jam Jar” - a story of eternal love caught in a moment.

Winner of the 2021 BEST SHORT ANIMATION, TIMES OF PLENTY by Claudio Costa is set in the Italy of the 1980s, the time of the Socialist Party and young, upwardly mobile “Yuppies”.
The life of Cesare, a young boy living in Rome with his parents, is told through comic-dramatic situations through which the Italy of that time is revealed. Cesare and his family are all overweight, with the exception of his cousin Roberta (with whom Cesare is secretly in love).
The title refers to the socio-cultural climate of the 80s and 90s which saw, among other things, the introduction of Silvio Berlusconi’s privately-owned TV channels and the new agreement with the Holy See; a period in which Italy came to be the fifth leading industrial country in the world, but also a time of spiraling growth in public spending, growth that many already knew could not last long.

Claudio Costa writer, director, producer, and illustrator, since 2007, directed and produced more than 55 documentaries and shorts, that are now being recognized on the Italian film festival circuit.

WOMAN by Lillian Carter is the winner of the 2021 BEST EXPERIMENTAL SHORT film. A revelation of the three archetypes that all women utilize throughout their lives, the innate strengths women draw upon for understanding life, making decisions, arriving at resolutions, and deriving perspective. The Mother represents Unconditional Love; The Hunter, search for the Truth; The Witch is Wisdom and Intuition.

Lillian Carter received her BFA from The Boston Conservatory in 1990. She is Assistant Professor at Boston Conservatory at Berklee since 2001. Lillian teaches Musical Theater Dance Courses and has choreographed the musicals Tommy and The Apple Tree at Boston Conservatory. Carter is the founder, artistic director, and choreographer for Greenglass Dance Theater. Her choreography was featured in the opening segment of Monster Jam at the TD Garden with 50 Cent, Young Buck and Lil Wayne as well as St. Mark's Church in NYC with The Choreographer's Group. The Boston Herald has called her work "hilarious" and The Boston Globe "clever". Lillian developed and presented choreographic workshops for Border's Books in Boston, New York City at The World Trade Center, and New Jersey. She developed movement classes for MA. General Hospital in Revere to promote physical fitness within the elder community and for veterans and people with wheelchairs at the Soldiers Home in Chelsea Ma.

AIFF considers THE ART OF MAKING IT by Kelcey Edwards a revealing expose of the art world. It follows a diverse cast of young artists at defining moments in their careers to explore whether the art world ecosystem meant to nurture them is failing them. Are we at risk of losing the creative voices of a new generation as universities, galleries, and museums face cataclysmic changes? Or, are we on the verge of recreating outdated modes of experiencing art to make it accessible to all? Embracing the conundrum of how artists must be in the market yet not of it, THE ART OF MAKING IT is both a cautionary tale about what America stands to lose if we don’t rethink what we value and why and a love letter to those who persevere in their artistic practice despite the extraordinary odds against ever achieving success.

Kelcey Edwards, is an award-winning filmmaker, author, and curator. She received an MFA in Documentary Film from Stanford University. Her production and her feature documentary credits include Wonder Women! The Untold Story of American Superheroines (SXSW premiere, Independent Lens broadcast) and Words of Witness (Berlinale premiere, Al Jazeera America broadcast). Kelcey’s fiction has appeared in the story South and Border Crossing; her art writing has been published by Hamptons Art Hub, Portray Magazine, and Salomon Contemporary, and her nonfiction has been published in New Voices from Stanford (Stanford University Press) and Persistence of Vision (Austin Film Society). Kelcey has lectured at Pratt, Barnard, The New School, and NYU Tisch. She also runs Iron Gate East, an exhibition series based in the Hamptons, inspired by her pioneering gallery, Iron Gate Studios, which she co-founded in Austin in 2003.

THE WITCHES OF THE ORIENT by Julien Faraut is a documentary that chronicles the reunion of the former players of the Japanese women’s volleyball team. Now in their 70s, they used to be known as the «Witches of the Orient» because of their seemingly supernatural powers on the courts.

From the formation of the squad in the late 1950s as a worker’s team at a textile factory, right up until their triumph at the 1964 Olympic Games in Tokyo, their memories and true magic from long ago bubble up into a heady brew where fact and fable fly hand in hand.

The Witches of the Orient also delivers a fascinating image of a post-WW2 world, in which Japan was trying to overcome its image of a vanquished nation, previously presided over by cruel rulers. The country could not have wished for a better, nor a more sympathy-inducing, way to bounce back.

MR. EMANCIPATION: The Walter Perry Story by Preston Chase documents the story of Walter L. Perry’s determination to put on a celebration that would transcend divisions of race and class. He staged an Emancipation Day festival that was where everyone wanted to be. Eleanor Roosevelt, Martin Luther King Jr, Jesse Owens all headed there because, as civil rights activist Dick Gregory said, "The largest Juneteenth celebration was not in America, it was in Windsor, Canada. “From 1936 until 1967, that's how Walter Perry celebrated freedom.

Perry and his celebration got caught up in the overheated racial politics of the day, sabotage, and race riots of 1967 in Detroit. His event never recovered that year and shortly after Walter Perry died…. but the spirit of Mister Emancipation still lives on.

Preston William Chase is a seventh-generation African Canadian and a descendant of William Parker. Parker escaped slavery in Maryland and went on to play a key role in the Christiana Riots in Pennsylvania. It was his friend, the great Fredrick Douglass who convinced Parker to take refuge in Canada. Born to a single mother in the Black community of downtown Windsor, Ontario, Canada, Chase went on to become a high school teacher. He is also a family historian and a passionate advocate for justice.

MARRY ME HOWEVER by Mordechai Vardi explores the lives of Orthodox-Jewish LGBT members who willingly choose to marry heterosexuals and raise a heteronormative family, obeying the rules of their societies while denying their own identities.

The film tells the stories of LGBT men and women who, for religious reasons, decided to marry against their own sexual orientation, to comply with Torah laws and be accepted into their families and religious communities. Some shared their secret with their partners, some kept it hidden, and some lied even to themselves. After their divorces, they confront the conflicts they repressed: their faith and religious laws; children, family, and community; exposure to society and search for a partner. The characters experience a journey of self-acceptance and social activism, as they try to affect a change in their religious environments. The film also follows the women who married and divorced homosexual partners, as well as rabbis and psychologists who seek a solution to an unsolvable conflict.

Mordechai Vardi (62) graduated master’s degree, in Film and Television at Tel Aviv University. Was the head of the screenwriting department at the "MAALE" Film School for 20 years. He has produced and directed documentaries for various channels.

THERE WILL BE NO MORE NIGHT by filmmaker Éléonore Weber is a fascinating yet terrifying documentary that looks to decipher and reflect upon images filmed by helicopters on operations in Afghanistan, Iraq, and Syria. Filmmaker Éléonore Weber shares video recordings of French and American missions and what begins as a monotone video essay gradually develops with powerful tension; as viewers, we find ourselves in the pilot’s seat. We catch fragments of conversations between crew members; we look, zoom in, interpret, hesitate—and then comes the explosion. A documentary that captures the tremendous tension between observation and interpretation in nighttime war zone missions, decisions being made with far-reaching consequences, a captivating journey that opens a door into the world of war that is generally closed to us.

Éléonore Weber is an author, and a theatre and film director. Her approach until now explores both the theatre and cinema languages. Regarding cinema, she directed a short and a medium-length fiction film, Temps Mort and Les Hommes sans Gravité. She has also directed a documentary, Night Replay (Arte - La Lucarne), shot in Mexico… reenactments from a role-play invented by migrants. Regarding theatre, she has created some plays and performances with Patricia Allio, centered on a manifest entitled Symptôme et Proposition. Together or separately, the two artists presented their creations at the Festival d’Avignon, the Bastille Theatre, the Grande Halle de la Villette, or the Centre Georges Pompidou for the Festival d’Automne.

Daizy Gedeon director of ENOUGH! Lebanon's Darkest Hour is the first feature documentary to be released since the Beirut Port explosion and is the first film to capture exclusive and controversial interviews with many of the key political leaders (Prime Minister Saad Hariri, former Foreign Minister Gebran Bassil, Dr. Samir Geagea, Hezbollah Minister Mohammad Fneich, Former Justice Minister Salim Jreissati, Governor of the Central Bank, Riad Salame, among others) prior to the explosion. These are the very men responsible for much of Lebanon's desecration.

The eyes of the world were forced to turn their gaze upon Lebanon, not only because of the Beirut Port explosion that devastated this ancient city on 4th August 2020, but also because, sadly, Lebanon stands as an allegory for kleptocratic regimes that have seen a resurgence across the globe, and their catastrophic impact. Before the explosion, the country was already cowering under the weight of decades of civil conflict, unrelenting regional turmoil but mostly from endemic, systemic corruption, and pure greed. This film puts the spotlight on this ruling class and the manifold issues facing the country. Through incisive interviews with the whistle-blower, former Director-General of the Ministry of Finance, Alain Bifani, and academic and Middle East expert Thanassis Cambanis, the film blows the lid on the under-the-table, pie-sharing deals that have permitted many of these leaders, their families, and cronies to remain in power for decades.

The film addresses the revolution and the global social justice movement that was triggered in 2019 among the diaspora who rallied to support their families and friends back home. It provides a powerful insight into the complex traditional and emotional loyalties within human beings that still, to this day, threaten any chance for change and evolution.

THE PIANIST FROM RAMALLAH by Avida Livny documents four years in the life of Muhammad "Misha" Alsheikh, a talented teenage pianist from Ramallah, who is the son of a Palestinian father and a mother who came from Russia. It takes Muhammad 3 hours to get from his house to a piano lesson with Emma, his Jewish-Israeli teacher who also came from Russia and now lives in Jerusalem, but his dream is bigger than borders. Between checkpoints, auditions, and his father's will that he will become a doctor, he tries to fulfill his dream of becoming a professional pianist - and stay happy.

Avida Livny is a graduate of the Tel Aviv University film school. He is the director of many documentary films and TV series such as "On the Move" (2008), "Looking for Moshe Guez" (2011), "A Standard Love Song" (2017, winner of the Israeli academy awards for best documentary TV series) and "Murder on Cinema North" (2020, mentioned as best documentary film of the year by "Israel's Film Critics Forum").

RESTORATION: A Concert Film by Native Son, Benny Starr, Rodrick Cliche

In the Spring of 2020, the Acres of Ancestry Initiative/Black Agrarian Fund collaborated with the South Carolina Lowcountry hip hop group, Native Son, to create the anthem for a campaign, “The Land.” “The Land” is a generation’s love offering to the beautiful struggle to protect 1.5 million acres of Black farmlands from USDA dispossession. Our work continues to grow with Native Son with Restoration: A Concert Film

The film explores southern Black agrarian stories of self-determination, land ownership, and folk wit; amplifies ongoing struggles for restorative land justice in this country including the Black Farmers’ Appeal: Cancel Pigford Debt Campaign; and weaves together live musical performances from Native Son and the personal narratives of Black legacy farmers and land stewards throughout the film.

The Black Farmers’ Appeal: Cancel Pigford Debt Campaign is a grassroots organizing, popular education, and legal advocacy campaign to rectify the injustices of the Pigford v. Glick class-action discrimination lawsuit. Inspired by David Walker’s impassioned entreaty against the chattel enslavement of Africans in the United States, the Black Farmers’ Appeal is a polemic against yet another form of racialized capitalism–unconscionable debt. The coalition is comprised of a multigenerational tribe of farmers, attorneys, writers, artists, and musicians using their diverse magic to bring restorative land justice to Black legacy farmers. Linages have formed uniting music, culture, ecocultural traditions, and cooperative economy to protect Black land ownership and stewardship while raising community awareness, collectivism, and action. There is an aim to merge with the cooperative economy working with fiber artists, heritage quilters, and keepers of material culture.

HACKING FOR THE COMMONS, a Boston Premiere by French/Swiss filmmaker Philippe Borrel introduces us to those who, from India to the United States via Europe, are experimenting with the emancipation tools of "free software" to bring concrete solutions in a multitude of fields in which collective practices are known as ‘open’ - thus ‘non-proprietary - are spreading in agriculture, medicines and in education. You will hear from Richard Stallman, founder of The Free Software Foundation, a non-profit org founded in 1985 to support the free software movement which promotes the universal freedom to study, distribute, create, and modify computer software with a preference for software being distributed under copyleft or share-alike terms. The FSF was incorporated in Boston, MA where it is based and continues its work on legal and structural issues on behalf of the international movement and community.

Luke Jarvis won the OUTSTANDING LOCAL FILMMAKER award for his narrative feature film SALESMEN. We celebrate the screening of this film that was shot in Boston, MA, and draws heavily on New England’s rich talent pool. This comedy follows three door-to-door salesmen as they struggle to get by while pursuing an analog profession in a digital world. They unwittingly begin selling propaganda for a cult, whose popularity sweeps the city, leaving the salesmen as the only people who can undo the damage.

This year we are featuring an Iranian program that focuses on the fragile place of women in society. Separation in society due to class and economic differences is highlighted in films from Mexico and Bangladesh. The desperation caused by war and the mounting immigration and refugee crisis is caught in films from Yemen, Syria, and Turkey. Sports films include ice climbing in Nepal, sailing the open seas (UK), and women’s volleyball (Japan). LGBTQ issues are seen from Korean and Israeli perspectives. Our program dedicated to Native Americans chronicles the fight against youth suicide, addictions, the value of keeping their language and culture alive. We have short dramas and comedy to amuse and entertain but with that said…

Art has always been a major focus of AIFF. This year the business of art is addressed in the feature doc, THE ART OF MAKING IT, to the Argentine short, ON/OFF that voices concern of distractions in our society that could potentially stifle creativity, COLLECTIVE STASIS, a short doc that features a group of dancers from the UK as they respond to the COVID lockdown, our Best Doc Feature, LOS HERMANOS that follows two amazingly talented brothers/musicians, a hilarious French short, CARMEN at the PARLOR OPERA HOUSE, to our Best of Festival, I’M AN ELECTRIC LAMPSHADE, a retired accountant turns rock star.

We believe that the ARTS feed our soul, so we bring them to you!

AIFF is screening the best of local, national, and international films that range from the hilarious to the dramatic narrative…from the entertaining documentary to the exposes of serious matters. Look at the program and plan your movie viewing for November 4-14!

Arlington Int’l Film Festival ONLINE

November 4 – 14, 2021

2021 Festival Program will be posted October 8th with Tickets and Festival Passes available for purchase

___________________________________________________________________________________________________

With much anticipation

AIFF presents 2021 ‘VOICES of OUR YOUTH’ PROGRAM

The Arlington International Film Festival (AIFF) is thrilled to announce the 2021 High School Filmmaker’s Program, “VOICES OF OUR YOUTH” that will screen in the November Festival. This year’s program will have a greater focus on engaging young audiences with topics as women's rights, comedy, love, family, human rights, music, and much more.

AIFF is delighted to recognize the creativity and talent of these young filmmakers who have demonstrated the power to capture their experiences and world views, delivering short films despite the challenging year of the pandemic.

Film submissions for VOICES of OUR YOUTH were reviewed by an esteemed panel of judges, Jaina Cipriano, Padriac Farma, Christina Oniel, and Hamed Soleimanzadeh. We wish to thank them for their dedication to not only review the shorts but provide the students with a critique.

Special thanks to the sponsors of VOICES of OUR YOUTH: Arlington Community Media, Inc (ACMi), Code Ninjas, Kumon of Arlington, East Boston Saving Bank, Mass Cultural Council, Urban Media Arts of Malden, and Yourarlington.org.

Jury Statement: “Memories of the past are romantic and beautiful in the film; love – music – scenes and times are the components of this film. Love the best medicine for the rhythm of memory.”

Awards: Guion Ganador del Concurso de Guiones de Cortometraje del Foro Audiovisual de Extremadura

Jury Statement: “This is a beautiful piece. love how it transcends language. There is a lot of talent here, and I would love to see what you do next. The message is only rivaled by how the message will remain in my mind.”

Awards: He is a laureate of many competitions for children and youth animation in Poland and abroad.

Jury Statement: “Powerful! This hits all the marks for advanced film knowledge. It kept me on the edge of my seat for the entire time. Completely executed and well-produced film. Congratulations! Keep making films!

Awards: Indie Short Fest, Los Angeles, United States, 2021, Best Young Director & Latitude Film, London, United Kingdom, Silver Award, Experimental Short Film

Le Clown, by Deandre Ramirez and Allen Solares | 9 min | Nar | 2020 | Youth Cinema Project, Los Angeles, CA | MASS PREMIERE

Jury Statement: “World star? Great job. The script really fits the genre/filming style. Great gags, good reaction shots. The pacing worked well throughout.”

BRO, by CRITICS | 4 min | Nar | 2019 | Nigeria | | US PREMIERE | BEST NARRATIVE - Sponsored by Urban Media Art Malden, MA

Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ar8BeO6f5aY

Jury Statement: “The film touches on a sensitive, yet universal subject - the loss of a sibling in a creative and unique way. The director understands the importance of a twist, a tool used by greats such as M. Night Shyamalan and Park Chan-Wook.”

Jury Statement: “I love seeing musical pieces at this festival. I got a sense from the very beginning that there was more to come, and it paid off very well. The technical aspects of the film lived up to the wonderfully performed choreography and acting.”

Awards: Sunscreen Film Festival, St. Petersburg, FL, United States, 2019, Best Student Picture. Vero Beach Wine + Film Festival, Vero Beach, FL, United States, 2019, Honorable Mention

Jury Statement: “A music video that follows the journey of a young girl searching for her lost friend and reflecting on the memories they once shared. Good cinematography.”

Beyond the Model, by Jessica Lin | 5 min | Doc | 2020 | Youth Media Academy, Oakland, CA | Honorable Mention

Jury Statement: “After the assaults and discrimination of Asians because of COVID-19, this film shines a light on what it is like to be a “model minority” in an increasingly divided America.

Awards: Audience Award winner and Special Jury Recognition at SXSW, 2021

In My Eyes, by Isabelle Young | 6 min | Doc | 2021 | Alfred Bonnabel Magnet Academy Kenner, LA | MASS PREMIERE

Jury Statement: “Very powerful. There's a simplicity to this piece in the way the visuals unfold, and it really pulls you into the story. I found myself deep in my emotions just hearing you speak. This is a very rare ability for a filmmaker, and you have it! It makes me wonder what other thoughts and observations you have. It makes me want to learn more about your story, and maybe you will share more of it later in life. Just know that you have a strong voice, talent, and a unique ability to move an audience. Keep telling stories!”

Awards: Film Prize Jr. Film Festival Shreveport, LA, 2021, Best Documentary

Jury Statement: “The producing in this film seemed to put it over the top. Watching it, I felt like there was a lot of depth/context in the story that made it deeply personal, but I never quite found out what it was - but the way it was filmed, I was okay with it. I love it when a film is so deeply tied with the music as well. Very well done.” Keep using your voice!

Awards: Walla Walla Film Crush Film Fest -Nominated: Best Youth Short, Sydnie, Australia, 2020; Salt House Creative International Film Festival, winner: Best Actress, Sydney, Australia, 2020; Hollywood Verge Film Awards, Burbank, United States - Nominated "Best Student Short", 2020; Oz International Film Festival, honorable mention, Sydnie, Australia, 2021; The Scene Film Festival – online, Best Actress, US, 2021; Holidays 365 International Film Festival, virtual, Best Student Film, US, 2021

Jury Statement: “It is clear the director has developed a style. Magic Head tackle’s mature themes of morality and consequence. The film feels like an interpretation of god’s power and holds on the world “

Jury Statement: “Loved this! A great cultural insight. The animation not only stood alone as great, but the mixture of audio, angles, and lighting really made this immersive.”

Elysium, by Ariana Jones, Ella Good | 5 min | Nar | Smyrna, Georgia | 2020 | BEST EXPERIMENTAL | East Boston Savings Bank

Jury Statement: “Surrealism of a girl’s night out - this short is the dream that becomes your teenage years once there is the distance between. These filmmakers draw you into their world and hold you tight until they decide to release you.”

COMA, by Ruby Kim | 10 min | Nar | | 2019 | Youth Cinema Project, Glendale, LA | MASS PREMIERE | BEST SOUND

Jury Statement: “A good accomplishment of an ambitious film! I was engaged the entire time, and I thoroughly enjoyed it. There are some advanced techniques in here that work well; with a bit more experience with lighting and editing, you'll be able to do an even better job next time. It feels like this could be tightened up a bit to be shorter, but that experience will come with time as well. Keep making films!”

Every Body's Business, by Amilieyon Pridgen, Jessica Torres | 8 min | Doc | 2019 | Maysles Documentary Center, NYC, New York | MASS PREMIERE

BEST DOCUMENTARY | Sponsored by YourArlington.org/Arlington, MA

Jury Statement: “This documentary is beyond its director’s years. There is great beauty and elegance in the way these mature topics of body image and growing up femme are presented. The subjects and cinematography in this film are what really bring it to life- it is simply stunning.”

Jury Statement: “What a great message! Easy to follow, and enough left to think about as an audience member. This is a great effort and hits on all elements of technical requirements. Well, done! Keep using your voice!”

Unacceptable, by Jose Aguilar | 7 min | Nar | 2020 | Youth Cinema Project, Glendale, LA | MASS PREMIERE

Jury Statement: “This is great! I felt like the ending needed one more beat to show the change in the main character, but other than that, this is a very well-rounded film. Keep working on audio recording and editing, and you'll be well-rounded. This is a great film. Congrats!”

Jury Statement: “Such an important topic! Phenomenal research on this. The story moves along very well, and the depth of research and footage is inspiring and quite the feat! We need more films like this out in the world. Keep using your talent and keep telling stories/advocating!”

Jury Statement: I think this film is an example of how the medium helps others. I think we all feel this way at one point or another and watching you walk through the process of acceptance, even just for a moment, help others find the other end of perfection as well. You have a strong voice and I hope you keep making films!”

Jury Statement: “Aside from the audio (difficult to hear the voiceover) there is a lot of technical mastery displayed in this piece. The visuals and the editing made this a solid piece. Keep making films.”

Jury Statement: “Love to see the work coming from this organization. Thank you for being vulnerable enough to write and share your story. There is a lot of talent here, not just in filmmaking, but in storytelling. Keep building, keep getting better, thank you for sharing!”

A conversation with E, by Esabella Anna Karena Strickland, Taylor Mitchell, and Skylar A | 6 min | Nar | 2020 | Vancouver, CA | MASS PREMIERE

Jury Statement: “Really interesting take on a silent film. It obviously has no speaking parts, but it doesn't feel like a "silent film exercise." I was interested the whole way through, and the filmmaking techniques really complemented each other. Well, done!”

Awards: 2020 / Best Script / Canadian Cinematography Awards - Toronto 2020 / Best Script / Montreal Independent Film Festival 2020 / Best Young Filmmaker / WCTE-PBS Film Festival 2020 / Best Youth Award / Montreal Independent Film Festival 2020 / Maple Leaf Award / Reel Girls Film Festival 2918 / Best Young Filmmaker / Chocolate City Film Festival 2019 / Best Young Filmmaker / Just be You, Performing Arts Youth Film Festival

Zoom Dating by Brendan Egan and Haley Pine | 11 min | Nar | 2020 | Boston, MA

Jury Statement: “Zoom Dating took something I am sure we're all sick of by now, video chatting, and made it fresh again. Vulnerable subject matter meets hilarious characters and together they create a short that keeps you on your toes. This is a great production, including the special guests. Good casting. Comedy is hard to write, and I think with more experience you will come to learn its unwritten rules.”

Awards: All American High School Film Festival, 2020, Best Comedy Nominee. All American High School Film Festival, 2020, Audience Choice Award Winner. The Point Lookout Film Festival, Jersey City, NJ, United States, 2020, Best Student Comedy, Best Student Actor. Red Dirt International Film Festival Stillwater, Oklahoma, United States, 2021, WINNER: Best High School Film

_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

CENTER SQUARE REALTY

Sponsor of the AIFF 2021 BEST of FESTIVAL Award

The Arlington Int’l Film Festival (AIFF) is honored to partner this year with Center Square Realty, an Arlington, MA-based real estate brokerage combining compassion and technology to assist you with buying and/or selling your home.

Their success is measured through thousands of real estate transactions that have made moves easier and more transparent for their clients. At Center Square, you’ll find empathetic, good people who happen to know a thing or two about real estate and are equally committed to getting to know you and your family to ensure that your next home is the right home for you.

They acknowledge that the number one thing most people dread (other than packing) is dealing with real estate brokers. They are committed to changing how people move by focusing on what really matters…YOU and putting the ‘real’ back in real estate.

AIFF takes great pride in its collaborations and its commitment to building vibrant partnerships with organizations, businesses, educational, arts, and cultural institutions in New England and beyond, continually working to strengthen the bonds of the community. We are excited to forge a new business relationship with Center Square Realty and welcome them to the AIFF family.

As supporting Sponsor of this year’s Festival, Center Square Realty has committed to supporting their local film festival that has become internationally recognized for the quality of independent films screened, entertaining viewers as well as initiating substantiative dialogue on prominent topics that confront us.

We share a commonality…

Center Square Realty is known for saying, ‘OUR CUSTOMERS ARE OUR BEST AWARDS’!

They can now add AIFF’s film award with their sponsorship of

2021 AIFF ‘BEST of FESTIVAL’ Award!

______________________________________________________________________

Honoring AIFF Poster Contest JUDGES

Artists from the Greater Boston Area

The Arlington International Film Festival (AIFF), with its mission ‘to foster appreciation for different cultures by exploring the lives of people around the globe through independent film — to nurture the next generation of filmmakers’, has become a place for film lovers to connect, exchange ideas and celebrate the art of film in a friendly, welcoming environment. More than a film festival, it also celebrates the arts in its various manifestations. With the founding of AIFF in 2010, the Poster Contest Competition was the first project to spin-off connecting film with the arts.

Now in its eleventh year, the Founders and Organizers are privileged to recognize and honor three local artists that have served as Poster Contest Judges for all eleven years… David Ardito, Jennifer Cheng DesAutels and Marc Gurton. These three arts professionals have worked closely with the festival to tailor each year’s competition, evaluating submissions based on composition, design, public relations, and marketing to ensure the selected poster well represents the festival.

We value them as part of the AIFF Team and sincerely thank them for their years of service in making the AIFF Poster Contest such a great success.

Now let us meet the artists!

David Ardito

David Ardito is an arts administrator and visual artist living and working in Arlington, Massachusetts. He attended the Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art in New York City and the Syracuse University Graduate School of Visual Art receiving his BFA and MFA degrees, respectively.

He is currently the Interim K-12 Director of Visual Art for the Arlington Public Schools where he supervises twelve art teachers in the nine public school buildings in Arlington. He taught in the Art Education Department at Mass College of Art and Design in the Art Education Department and co-supervised the Saturday Studios youth program from 2007-2015. Over the past several years, his personal artwork transitioned from two-dimensional art forms to three-dimensional sculptural forms in wood, marble, clay, and an assortment of other media.

As a long-time Arlington resident, he is also very committed to the promotion of all forms of visual and performing arts in Arlington and has served on numerous Arlington arts committees including the Arlington Art Lottery Council, the Arlington Commission on Arts and Culture, and the Arlington Public Art Committee. www.daveardito.com

Jennifer Cheng DesAutels

Jennifer Cheng DesAutels is an artist and arts educator living in Medford. She received a BAS in Chemical Engineering from the University of Pennsylvania, EdMEducational in Media and Technology from Boston University, Continuing Education - Graphic Design from Mass College of Art and Design, and Continuing Education - Illustration from School of the Museum of Fine Arts. Jennifer is a STEM teacher in the Stoneham Public Schools, teaching the engineering design process, computer-aided design [CAD], basic technical drawing, introduction to aerodynamics, automation, and robotics to students in Grades 6, 7, 8.

Seventeen years ago, Jennifer founded StudioJCD.com. During that time, she has worked with numerous companies and organizations as a graphic designer, logo designer and illustrator. Her published works, watercolor illustrations for 3 picture books are: My Friend the Wind (2016), My Friend the Rain (2019) and My Friend the Snow (2020), a series of spiritual books for children by Bessie Wilkerson, published by Xulon Press.

Jennifer coordinates the Medford Children’s Art Showcase, an annual event featuring public school students from across the city, a monthly artist critique group, and participates in occasional Plein air outings. www.studioJCD.com

Marc Gurton

Marc Gurton is the owner of 13FOREST Gallery located at 167A Mass Ave in East Arlington, MA. Marc graduated from the Questrom School of Business, Boston University and is a certified public accountant. After a successful 20-year career in corporate accounting, Marc had a chance encounter in 2006 with the owner of an art gallery in Medford Square where 13FOREST Gallery was born. Satisfying a lifelong passion for visual arts, he became the owner, relocating the gallery to Capitol Square in East Arlington in 2008.

13FOREST Gallery searches New England for outstanding artists - established and emerging - to offer the absolute best in original art and contemporary craft. It is a dynamic gallery space that features rotating exhibitions every 6 to 8 weeks, as well as a number of public programs designed to inform and inspire creative minds.

The philosophy of 13Forest Gallery is ‘burying art should be fun, straightforward and accessible to all whether making a first art purchase, adding to an established collection or seeking a unique gift’. 13Forest Gallery will help you locate the ideal work – either from current inventory or with a custom piece made possible through the close relationships they hold with their artists. www.13FOREST.com

Arlington International Film Festival ONLINE

November 4 – 14

(Viewing Platform: WWW.XERB.TV)

___________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Announcing the AUDIENCE CHOICE AWARD’

The Power of Coming Together to Support the Arts

AIFF POSTER CONTEST

The 11th annual AIFF Poster Contest Award Reception was held on May 7th via ZOOM.

The winning poster was unveiled launching the 2021 festival.

For the 2nd year, AIFF is hosting an AUDIENCE CHOICE AWARD.

Now YOU can choose your favorite poster design!

Regardless of distance, become part of the AIFF international family network and cast YOUR vote.

Voting will be open until November 3, 2021, at 11:59 PM EST.

The winner will be announced on the opening night of the Festival, November 4th

Via Twitter – Instagram – Facebook – AIFF Website and the design student will receive a cash prize of $200.

We encourage you to visit our website, https://aiffest.org/#/postercontest/,

view the posters, and vote for YOUR favorite!

#AIFFAudienceChoiceAward

____________________________________________________________________________________________________

IMAGINATION AND CREATIVITY…

The Soul of this Year’s Poster Contest Winner

“The design has great color and energy, the AIFF text is strong and will be very readable from a distance, and the allusion to "peace" (the olive branch) is important at this time.” David Ardito, AIFF Poster Contest Judge

The Arlington International Film Festival is very proud to award the 2021 winning poster design with the “allusion to peace" – a $500 award that aims to assist a student in advancing their art studies – to Elena Mathis, student of Mass College of Art in Boston, MA!

Elena Mathis’s design creates a strong connection with the viewer while the bird taking center stage, making direct eye contact and spreading his feathers announce The Arlington International Film Festival. He carries an olive branch in his talons, indeed an ambassador of peace. Mathis says of her design, “my poster was inspired by the theme of documentaries, in particular, nature documentaries about birds with ridiculous courtship dances who always seem to love showing off for the camera.”

The 11th annual edition of the AIFF Poster Competition in Arlington, MA is the benchmark for quality, professional and creative graphic design that sets the course and trends on the international film festival scene.

The poster submissions are evaluated by a panel of judges with expertise in composition, design, public relations and marketing and evaluated based on visual appeal, content and marketability. The jury, made up of outstanding professionals in the arts are Elisa Adams, David Ardito, Jennifer Cheng Des-Autels, Marc Gurton, Erica Licea-Kane, Vicky Rodriguez and last year’s award winner, Rayna Walters.

Vicky Rodriguez says of the winning poster: “It is so different from designs of previous years! I love the playful and self-assured look of the bird, and how he is looking directly at the viewer. Overall, it is humorous and wonderful in its simplicity: bird, cameras, viewers. The color palette is unusual and eye-catching. As a poster design, it is spot-on: the image directs focus right to the center, to the already-integrated title text.”

With the founding of AIFF in 2010, the Poster Contest Competition was the first project to spin-off connecting film with the arts. This year’s competition is offered exclusively to Professor Robert Maloney’s illustration class at Mass College of Art & Design. The selected poster design appears around the world in various forms; i.e., print, TV, international film boards, web promotions and invites the global community to open dialogue through the best of independent films.

As the preening bird in the winning poster, we are proud to host the Poster Contest that launches the 2021 Arlington Int’l Film Festival that stands on a platform encouraging peace and a respectful co-existence among all people. Join us virtually in November for unforgettably engaging films and discussions that speak to contemporary life issues.

________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

11th annual Arlington Int’l Film Festival Announces 2021 Jury

The Arlington Int’l Film Festival (AIFF) is honored to announce the Jurors for the 2021 Festival. We welcome the following new Jurors: Taylor Braun, Shoma Chatterji, Ali Zare Ghanatnowi, Zoë Kooyman, Kris Mokwunye, Eduardo Rencurrell Diaz, and Mohit Soni. They join Jurors that currently serve on the panel; Akasa Stephe Angba, Kate Bernhardt, Alice Bouvrie, Barbara Costa, Sandip Pratihar, and Marga Varea. AIFF is extremely fortunate to have such an esteemed panel of Jurors, accomplished as directors, actors, writers, journalists, academics, and producers…all amazing storytellers.

MEET THE NEW JURORS

Taylor Braun is the Film Festival Specialist at Chapman University’s Dodge College of Film and Media Arts. In this role, he helps educate students about the current film festival landscape as well as help create custom festival strategies for students’ films. Prior to being in this position, he was the Senior Programming Coordinator at the Newport Beach Film Festival. He has also worked at various other festivals including the Telluride Film Festival, Cannes Film Festival, and Milwaukee Film Festival to name just a few.

Dr. Shoma A. Chatterji, a film scholar, freelance journalist, and author based in Kolkata is one of the senior-most film critics in India and has 25+ published titles of which 15 are on Indian cinema. She holds a Ph.D. in the History of Indian Cinema and post-graduate diplomas in Journalism and Mass Communications. She has won two national awards: Best Film Critic in 1991 and Best Book on Cinema in 2002. Dr. Chatterji is also the winner of the Bengal Film Journalists Association’s Best Critic Award in 1998 and the Bharat Nirman Award for excellence in journalism in 2004. In 2009-2010, she won a Special Award for ‘consistent writing on women's issues’ from UNFPA-Laadli Media Awards (Eastern region). In 2010, she was bestowed the ‘Kalyan Kumar Mitra Award’, for her remarkable work in film scholarship and contribution as a film critic. She won the Lifetime Achievement Award in 2017 from Indywood Media Excellence for contribution to film journalism and the very prestigious Kalish Mukherjee Lifetime Achievement Award from the Bengal Film and Television Chamber of Commerce in May 2018 for her “outstanding contribution to cinema and television in West Bengal.” In October 2018, she has bestowed a Special Award for South Asian Ladle Media and Gender Sensitivity for “consistent reporting on films from a gender perspective.” Dr. Chatterji has been invited to be part of the jury at the National Awards, at the Asians, and at festivals beyond Indian shores.

Ali Zare Ghanatnowi is an Iranian film director, screenwriter, photographer, translator, author, teacher, graphic designer, cameraman, and producer. For the past two decades, Ali has been involved in making over twenty films, including animations, documentaries, and short movies. He attained critical acclaim for directing Red Mind (2009) and Dad's Fragile Doll (2013) which was awarded Best Animation at the International Open Film Festival (IOFF) and Best Animation at the Veterans Film Festival and London-X4. Ali's films The Lights, and Sistan Itinerary, became nominees in CINEMA VERITE International Documentary Film Festival. His recent works, The Internationale, Essence, and Empty View are in animation format. Ali's first experience with film and media started at Iran's National Broadcasting Company at sixteen years of age. He continued in film studies at the University of Tehran and on to Cinema School. In directorial and cameraman capacity, Ali worked on several TV commercials and advertising campaigns from 2006 to 2016. In 2004 he founded, Cinema School, in Shiraz where he taught numerous workshops such as Principles of Pacing and Timing, Directing, Screenplay Writing, Film Theory, and Criticism. He employed and invited prominent scholars like Saeed Aghighi, Farzad Motamen, Mohamadreza Aslani, Mahmoud Kalari, Mehri Shirazi, and Homayoon Asa'dian to teach various classes at his school.

Zoë Kooyman is an event producer and project director with deep experience in the global organization of large-scale live events for thousands of people, as well as intimate gatherings and cultural manifestations. From ideation to completion, she will bring any event experience to the next level with her extensive knowledge of event planning, brand strategies, experience marketing, team management and development, and creative technical production. Combining her organizational skills with her passion for the creative and cultural industry, she has been involved in the design, funding, curation, and production of film and media art festivals in the Netherlands, Australia, and the United States for over 10 years. She holds a master’s degree in Preservation and Presentation of the Moving Image from the University of Amsterdam and has a special appreciation for a short films. Zoë currently works and resides in Switzerland.

Kris Mokwunye is a graduate of theatre arts, a filmmaker, and a media expert from West Africa. He has worked with Silverbird Communications, a leading media and entertainment company in Africa, Attention Media, Phresh Media, and hub manager for British Council. His experience and keen interest in meeting and working with people of different tribes, religions/races led Kris to the founding of the Motion Pictures International Film Festival (MOPIFF), a touring film festival set to cater to independent filmmakers across the globe through partnerships and collaboration. As an award-winning filmmaker, Kris has engaged in research, directed, written, edited, and shot multiple films that have enjoyed their stay in film festivals across the globe. In addition to Director of MOPIFF, Kris is working on distribution, filmmaking, and film academy platform to help broaden the options independent filmmakers have, while also reaching out to rural communities with great movies and mentorships for young kids who would like to be filmmakers in the future.

Eduardo Rencurrell Diaz holds a Ph.D. of Arts from the University of the Arts (ISA) of Cuba / Instituto Superior de Arte (ISA). From the same schools, he received his Bachelor’s in Audiovisual Communication graduating Summa Cum Laude and a Master’s degree in Film Production. Dr. Rencurrell currently serves as director of the Scripts Department of the production company Cuatro Caminos (Santa Clara, Cuba) and as project advisor to the production company Orion Films (Bogotá Colombia). His teaching experience is evident in the work carried out as the academic coordinator of the Art Faculty of Audiovisual Media of the University of the Arts of Cuba (ISA) and the International Laboratory of Documentary Projects Filma Afro Cartagena, as well as a curriculum designer for the Faculty of Film (Mexico City). In addition, he serves as a professor in the Department of International Workshops of the School of Film and TV of San Antonio de Los Baños (EICTV), the Cuban Center for Radio and TV Studies (CERT), the Cuban Association of Social Communicators (ACCS) and the Diploma "Tell ours" (Revista Vive Afro, Bogotá, DC), among other academic spaces. Dr. Rencurrell has published several works on documentary film theory, gender studies, film criticism, education, heritage, and cultural studies for academic books, magazines, and digital spaces. In addition, he has participated in national and international humanistic court events, won various international scholarships, served as a juror in national and international competitions, as well as served as tutor and court in the thesis works on audiovisuals and art in general. He is part of the Advisory Committee of the Global Institute for Research, Education and Scholarships (GIRES) and is a member of the Association of Latin American Studies (LASA), the Association of Caribbean Studies (CSA), and the Cuban Audiovisual Association (ACA).

Mohit Soni has worked in Los Angeles, CA as a line producer/production manager for four years. Mohit is a graduate of the University of California Los Angeles with a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Film and Video Production. He is also a graduate of the New York Film Academy, Burbank, CA, and has Certificates in Business and Management of Entertainment as well as Acting from the University of California Los Angeles. He is currently working on ‘Lumina’ which is going to be shot later this year with pre-production scheduled to begin the 1st week of August. This is an SVOD platform film including Netflix, Amazon, and Hulu. Mohit was a semi-finalist in the Los Angeles Cine Festival, a semi-finalist in the Hollywood Screening Film Festival, TMFF: Film of the Month, and received the Award of Merit in the Best Short Competition.

Jurors for VOICES OF OUR YOUTH: Student Filmmakers Program

Jaina Cipriano, Christina Oneil, and Cameron Thuman join Padriac Farma as Jurors for this year’s program.

Jaina Cipriano is a Boston-based artist working with photography, film, and installation. Her work explores the emotional toll of religious and romantic entrapment through immersive sets and emotional performances that mirror the subconscious. In 2020 Jaina served as a member on the New England Sculptors Association board and joined Washington Street Studios in Somerville, MA. Outgrowing her studio, she applied to Western Ave Studios in Lowell, MA where she currently works. Jaina’s work was recently published in GRLSQUASH, Gastronomical, and The Boston Herald. In October 2020 she debuted her first short film, "You Don't Have to Take Orders from The Moon," a magical realism story about the darkness inside and outside us. She is working on her next film, “Trauma Bond” set to film in early 2021.

Christina Oneil (she/they) has a B.A. in Film Studies and has worked on critically acclaimed movies and TV shows alongside Regina King, Bryan Cranston, and Ryan Murphy. Christina (she/they) has been making movies since she was eight years old. She e she enjoys music production, acting, and screening movies at home on the projector. Her favorite movie is “The Handmaiden.” Her favorite directors are Agnes Varda, Park Chan-wook and Alejandro Iñarrito. She lives in New York City with her cat Ralph.

Cameron Thuman is a director known for his story-driven and highly visual style. Growing up as a halfpipe skier in Park City, he was nationally ranked and invited to the US Ski Team Project Gold Camp but fell in love with making videos of his friends even more than competing. After collaborating with Olympians, Cameron desired to do more with film and especially aspired to tell stories. A graduate from Chapman University, Cameron is based in Los Angeles, residing in Echo Park, and directs commercials, branded content, narrative films and has directed films for global brands like Mercedes-Benz. Recently he was nominated for the Young Director Awards in Cannes France and the 1.4 Awards in London. He was featured in HotCars, awarded the Panavision Grant, and served as a guest panelist for the 17th Annual Big Apple Film Festival.

About the Arlington International Film Festival

The Arlington International Film Festival (AIFF) offers a unique opportunity for cross-cultural education by promoting an understanding of the many cultures represented in our town and beyond. The Festival is a means for recognizing that such diversity enriches our community. We believe that our annual international film festival highlights core values and aspirations we share with our culturally diverse neighbors and with all members of the global human family. Through the annual production of the Festival, AIFF strives to engage youth, artists, filmmakers, professionals, and businesses, while bringing a spotlight to bear on the rich history of the town of Arlington, MA.

The Arlington Int’l Film Festival is pleased to announce its 2021 Partners & Sponsors:

13Forest Gallery - ACAC - Arlington Center for the Arts - Arlington Community Media, Inc (ACMi) - ATED - Acitron Restaurant - Avenue Appraisal - Brigham Square - Cambridge Typewriter - Casa Esme - East Boston Savings Bank, Revere - High Output - Little Kids Academy - KUMON - Magic Bites - Menotomy Grill & Tavern - Middlesex Saving Bank, Acton - Omar's World Of Comics/Lexington - Peter Fuller Rentals, Watertown Robbins Library - The Roasted Granola - Town Tavern - Tryst Restaurant - Urban Media Arts, Malden Webster Bank, Lexington - Women in Film & Video New England - Yourarlington.com - ZA Restaurant Zhen Reh Chuan

Again, no red carpet to walk in 2021 but we will be bringing you an amazing program of 100+ indie films… documentary and narrative features and shorts plus animation shorts. Voices of Our Youth, the high school student shorts program is indeed a highlight of the Festival. The program will be posted on the website in September and tickets/passes will be available for purchase.

_________________________________________

New Partnership with ScriptDoor

ScriptDoor, the Game-Changing Content Streaming Distribution Platform

ScriptDoor, an open-market distribution and streaming platform enables enterprise premium content providers to gain control over the content, pricing, advertising revenue, and direct connection with individual and corporate end consumers. The multimedia platform invites studios, filmmakers, musicians, writers to become sustainable in the entertainment industry. Thriving on equal opportunity and freedom. ScriptDoor is on a mission to become one of the top platforms that provide ready-made OTT solutions—allowing small independent and huge content producers or distributors to choose from various monetization models to sell content and save cost by eliminating the need to build separate streaming platforms.

ScriptDoor is built to enable free-market while bridging the gap between existing platforms, sellers, buyers, and distributors.

For more information, visit https://www.scriptdoor.com/

Instagram | Facebook | LinkedIn | YouTube: @ScriptDoor

Announcing the Guest Speaker for the

2021 Poster Contest Award Reception

May 7th, 7 PM via ZOOM

The 2021 Arlington International Film Festival (AIFF) is proud to announce the Guest Speaker for the 11th annual Poster Contest Award Reception that officially launches the Film Festival season. Joanna Mahoney, a perfect fit with AIFF is a graphic designer and theater studies major. AIFF… not just a film festival but a celebration of the arts honors the creativity of design with the annual poster competition.

POSTER CONTEST JURY MEMBERS

We welcome two new judges to this year’s Jury Panel, Dr. Elisa Adams and Rayna Walters. They will join the following Jury Members: David Ardito, Jennifer Cheng DesAutels, Marc Gurton, and Erica Licea-Kane,

Elisa Adams has many identities ranging from first-generation Albanian American, to practicing Doctor of Chiropractic, to artist, to President of New England Sculptors Association. Adams began working with stone just over a decade ago, finessing her talent at the deCordova Museum School. She spent the next six years sharing a studio with six other women artists, and presently she continues her work at her personal studio in Concord, MA. Adams’ work is inspired by her fascination with the ocean and nature’s shapes. She loves Georgia O’Keefe’s flowers, and incorporates that astute awareness of nature’s sensuality into her sculpture. Much of her figurative work is inspired by her time spent studying on the Italian Rivera, where she learned to admire and appreciate the female form, then spending the next several years studying and translating the body with respect and care into stone. Elisa Adams’ work is about the paths in life, the twists and turns represented in the openings and curves of the sculptures, taking the viewer on a journey. Sensing ease and flow is essential in her art; she hopes to encourage the mind to rest from external stressors…providing a chance to breathe, to recalibrate and feel peace, quiet and connection again. Adams is a member of the American Women Artists, International Sculptors, New England Sculptor’s Association, Concord Art and Cambridge Art Association and her work has been featured in galleries throughout Massachusetts and Florida. https://www.elisaadamssculptor.com/work

Rayna Walters is a 2020 graduate of Massachusetts College of Art and Design with a degree in Illustration and the winner of the 2020 AIFF Poster Contest. Her work heavily focuses on images of nature and florals, achieved using both traditional and digital techniques. Rayna says about her winning poster design, “The Arlington International Film Festival connects all aspects of international filmography and I strived to depict this in the poster, while also emphasizing its location in Arlington. The vintage film projector at the center is made with cut paper shapes from a topographical map of Arlington and the surrounding area. In the background is an abstracted pattern of international flags to represent the collection of the creative minds who make these films and the festival possible. The film strip that wraps around the composition allows space for title, dates, and other important information.” https://www.raynalouart.com/

A SUCCESSFUL SECOND FESTIVAL IN NEPAL

Our founders April Ranck and Alberto Guzman were honored to be a part of the second annual Nepal Cultural International Film Festival. NCIFF has recognized April and Alberto for their participation in this year’s successful event. www.ncfc.org.np

Tartufo Restaurant is an award-winning Italian restaurant featuring authentic, unique, Abruzzese cuisine conveniently located in Newton Centre, MA. We specialize in chef-prepared Italian dishes-homemade to order-with all natural ingredients.

The Arlington International Film Festival (AIFF), now in its 6th year, is committed to building vibrant partnerships with organizations, businesses, arts and social organizations in New England, fostering appreciation for different cultures while engaging communities through the art of film. This year’s Festival kick-off, a collaboration with The Rose Kennedy Greenway, is the screening of a special program of international shorts. We hope you join us for the evening Wednesday, September 28, 7:00 pm in Dewey Square, Boston!

PRESS RELEASES | ARLINGTON INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL

New Additions to the 2024 Jury

Remembering AIFF's Beloved Supporters

AIFF IS THRILLED TO ANNOUNCE OUR PARTNERSHIP WITH THE TAXCO INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL

2024 New Partners

INEFFABLE FILMS partners with AIFF Voices of Our Youth

"Welcome to Ineffable Films, where art meets culture, and the boundaries of understanding are redefined."

Filmmakers Helping Filmmakers

" How to Make a Movie, with Rebecca Eskreis", March 7th - 28th

7th March: Writing & Development

14th March: Pre-Production

21st March: Production

28th March: Post Production & Distribution

This 4 week, free virtual series will give aspiring filmmakers the confidence they need to make their first film and cover all the fundamentals of filmmaking, from writing right through to distribution. Participants will also be able to book a 1:1 mentoring session with Rebecca after the event.

http://handbook.filmmakershelpingfilmmakers.com

VIDEOMAKER MAGAZINE, IncVideomaker is a magazine publication dedicated to video production. The magazine's publisher and editor, Matthew York, founded the publication with his wife Patrice York, Associate Publisher, to "empower people to make video and to democratize and enrich television".

13TH ANNUAL Arlington FILM FESTIVAL JURIED AWARDS

2023 AIFF Honorees

Arlington Community Media, Inc. (ACMi)

Conversation with Jorge Cancela

producer of FENACIES. Mr. Cancela will talk about student filmmaking as well as Punta del Este, the Silicon Valley of Uruguay.

AIFF Festival Passes on Sale!

Volunteer Opportunities

AIFF: Fostering Young Talent While Creating a Global Conversation

Films that will leave you with a deep appreciation of our youth!

20223 AIFF VOICES OF OUR YOUTH Program

Padriac Farma, Shi Jie Weng, and Agustin Vergara: Judges for the Voices of Our Youth

The Arlington Int’l Film Festival is thrilled to announce the

2023 AIFF Kick-Off

BRIEF TENDER LIGHT by Arthur Musah | 2023 | Doc | USA |BOSTON PREMIERE

2023 AIFF Master of Ceremonies!

2023 AIFF Venue Operations Manager

The Arlington International Film Festival is delighted to introduce Fredericka Noel, 2023 Master of Ceremonies for Voices of Our Youth Program

THE ARLINGTON INT'L FILM FESTIVAL IS PROUD TO ANNOUNCE OUR NEW global PARTNER/COLLABORATOR, THE American Documentary and Animation Film Festival in Palm Springs, CA

AIFF is proud to announce its Partnership with STK International Group in London, UK

The Arlington Int'l Film Festival is proud to announce our new partner/collaborator, the Global Peace Film Festival; it is story and community in action!

—————————————————————————-

AIFF EXPANDS ITS RELATIONSHIPS to include an ITALIAN PARTNER

The Arlington Int’l Film Festival, “VOICES OF OUR YOUTH program” is thrilled to announce another international partnership with the Student Film Festival FENACIES of Uruguay.

The Arlington Int’l Film festival is thrilled to announce its

partnership WITH The 48 Hour Film Project

People Choice Awards Winners

Tamar Tal Anati “ON THE HAPPY NOTE” from Israel Wins

Arlington Int’l Film Festival People’s Choice Award in the

feature film

in the shorts category Gokce Pekhamarat “DOUBT” from Turkey

official winners OF 2022 AIFF

VOICES OF OUR YOUTH A PLATFORM FOR VOICES and CREATIVITY

The Arlington Int’l Film festival is thrilled to announce its

partnership WITH The Star Virtual Cinema was created to

screen film festivals and other movie events. It offers

festivals and filmmakers the opportunity to attend a festival

Otherwise inaccessible for financial or geographic reasons.

L-J ShenFilerman

MASTER of CEREMONIES for 2022 VOICES of OUR YOUTH

IN CONVERSATION with JERALD WALKER

The Arlington Int’l Film Festival has the honor to partner with XR InLearning in New York

“Technology must be SAFE and Private for Everyone”

The Arlington Int’l Film festival is thrilled to announce its

partnership with Mashariki African Film Festival in Rwanda

“Cinema to enlighten humanity”

LINDA YEE:

Changing Arlington Through Volunteerism

AIFF is thrilled to partner with Shahr International Film Festival

UKRAINIAN STUDENTS for a PEACEFUL FUTUREThe Arlington Int'l Film Festival

has the honor of partnering with students across Ukraine

2022 AIFF POSTER CONTEST

Illustration images; positive impressions!https://youtu.be/pajfkueeq8w

12th annual AIFF Poster Contest Award Reception

Host, L-J ShenFilerman

!AIFF Supports the Next Generation of Artists!

George Summers:

Founding Member of ‘Brickbottom’, Fiber/Batik Artist

Guest Speaker for the 2022 AIFF Poster Contest Award Reception

https://youtu.be/pajfkueeq8w

AIFF is thrilled to partner with Big Apple Film Festival

Welcome back iPitch.TV

AIFF & ELCHE INT'L FILM FESTIVAL - SPAINArlington International Film Festival is honored to partner withPartner

Celebrates the Arts Through Music

Rasa String Quartet

VIDEOMAKER MAGAZINE, Inc

Videomaker is a magazine publication dedicated to video production. The magazine's publisher and editor, Matthew York, founded the publication with his wife Patrice York, Associate Publisher, to "empower people to make video and to democratize and enrich television".

**The Arlington Int’l Film Festival, “VOICES OF OUR YOUTH program” is thrilled to announce another international partnership with the Student Film Festival FENACIES of Uruguay.**

UKRAINIAN STUDENTS for a PEACEFUL FUTURE

The Arlington Int'l Film Festival

Illustration images; positive impressions!
https://youtu.be/pajfkueeq8w

AIFF & ELCHE INT'L FILM FESTIVAL - SPAIN
Arlington International Film Festival is honored to partner with
Partner