The Gracie Theatre at Husson University to Host the 2016 Maine Short Film Festival
Published on: January 8, 2016
BANGOR, MAINE - The Gracie Theatre at Husson University announced today that it will be hosting the 2016 Maine Short Film Festival on Thursday, January 14, 2016 from 7 – 9 p.m. The 100-minute screening features the 14 winning films selected by the festival’s panel of jurors.
Included in the program will be a variety of short presentations on subjects close to Maine’s heart. Maine artists, rivers, farms will all be subjects touched on during this creative showcase. In addition, attendees will have the opportunity to see films in a variety of genres. Documentary, fiction, experimental, comedy and horror films will all be shown during the event.
“Short films are a unique art form,” said Jeri Misler, managing director of the Gracie Theatre at Husson University. “With less time to work with, these films develop characters, create emotional moods, convey feelings and share insights without any wasted effort or expense. It’s remarkable how each filmmaker’s work is able to convey so much in so little time.”
Short Film Festival Trailer from Geoffrey Leighton on Vimeo.
Here is a list of films that will be part of the 2016 Maine Short Film Festival screening at The Grace:
• Bonaire (1:34) by Mauricio Handlerp. Produced as part of a Dutch Caribbean National Parks environmental awareness campaign, ‘Bonaire' is one of five shorts edited from an extensive natural history film shoot done by cinematographer Mauricio Handler.
• My So-Called Housing Cooperative (10:54) by Craig Saddlemire. This is a story of young adults trying to live a life of cooperation and compassion - without losing their minds. This episode from a monthly webisodic series features a scripted parody based upon real life at the Faire Bande à Part Housing Cooperative (Faire-Op), a three-story apartment building in Lewiston, ME.
• Heart & Hand (4:26) by Sharyn Paul Brusie and Kevin Brusie celebrates the life of a farmer and his animals. Through video, music and poetry, a pure and rich life is revealed.
• Alison and NuDay Syria (4:59) by Josh Gerritsen. In this film, Alison McKellar talks the volunteer work she does for the non-profit organization, NuDay Syria, by constructing shelters for refugees. We also meet Nadia Alawa, the founder of the organization.
• The Raw Essence of Carlo Pittore (8:36) by Richard Kane is a portrait of a joyful and vulnerable artist who led a generation of younger artists in Maine by forming the Union of Maine Visual Artists. Pittore’s influence in changing the way we define beauty in figurative art is examined.
• Clothes Encounter (2:04) by Mike Perlman is a hip-hop comedy. The audience gets to know Ellsworth’s second-hand clothing store through a song parody of Macklemore's hit song "Thrift Shop."
• I Just Don't Get It - It's My Russian Soul (7:25) by Walter Ungerer. The visuals/landscape of the film is Portland, Maine as viewed through time-lapse photography, and presented for interpretation and contemplation. The audio track explains the film’s title; a dialogue between a young Russian man and his English girlfriend; where he explains his Vodka habit. “I just don’t get it? It’s my Russian soul. Why can’t you understand?”
• Scribe of the Soul (3:52) by Alban Maino and Jimmy Liepold. In 1846, a beautiful woman puts on all the layers of Lingerie before she goes out in society. This memory lane, TV "dream scene," is part of a collection of films for people living with dementia and Alzheimer’s disease.
• Fever (17:34) by Marie Chao and Matthew J. Siegel. Fever is a psychological thriller about a woman’s desperate attempt to recapture the affection of her estranged husband.
• Maine Heritage Orchard (17:00) by Huey. In this film, a reclaimed gravel pit is transformed into the Maine Heritage Orchard, a living museum to apples traditionally grown in Maine. Organic farmer and apple expert, John Bunker, and others pass on their knowledge of working the land to the young farmers settling in Maine who are preserving Maine’s orchard farm traditions.
• Tickle (11:57) by Corey Norman. We all know how 80s horror movies start: a babysitter and a little boy alone in a house. When things go bump in the night, are they the imagination of a scared little boy, or is someone - or some thing - in the house with them?
• Penobscot River (2:31) by Justin Lewis, Michelle Stauffer and Laura Rose Day. Many of the 75,000 dams in the United States block fish migration corridors. These dams have a devastating impact on fish survival, people and wildlife. Only three percent of these dams actively produce hydroelectric power. This short film documents how the Penobscot River Restoration Trust and others took down the Great Works Dam, opening up access to 1,000 miles of the Penobscot and its tributaries, in an effort to aid in the river’s recovery.
• Gun Shop (2:42) by Alan Magee. The satirical film Gun Shop comments on the escalation of mass gun violence in the United States. It asserts that the proliferation of guns will only increase the number of victims. The film is an appeal to our nation to reexamine its misguided obsession with guns.
• A Nasty Law (3:20) by Alan Magee. The National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) of 2012 contains a provision legalizing indefinite military detention of any person without charge or trial. Since no charges need to be made, the law allows for detention of individuals based on suspicion alone. The images in this film are the filmmaker’s own childhood drawings—made between 1950 and 1953.
Sponsors of the event include the Maine Media Workshops, the University of Southern Maine, Bar Harbor Bank & Trust, the Maine Film Office, Deighan Wealth Advisors, University of Maine Museum of Art, and WERU Community Radio.
Tickets are $7 for general admission and can be purchased at the door. For more information about the screening, contact the box office at The Gracie at 207-941-7888 or visit GracieTheatre.com.
Completed in October of 2009, The Gracie is Husson University's center for the fine and performing arts. This beautiful new 500-seat theatre is quickly earning a reputation as one of Maine’s premier performance venues. In addition, The Gracie also serves as a learning platform for students from the New England School of Communications in digital audio, sound mixing, set design and construction, lighting, acting and electronics.
For more than 100 years, Husson University has prepared future leaders to handle the challenges of tomorrow through innovative undergraduate and graduate degrees. With a commitment to delivering affordable classroom, online and experiential learning opportunities, Husson University has come to represent superior value in higher education. Our Bangor campus and off-campus satellite education centers in Southern Maine, Wells and Northern Maine provide advanced knowledge in business; health and education; pharmacy studies, science and humanities; as well as communication. In addition, Husson University has a robust adult learning program. For more information about educational opportunities that can lead to personal and professional success, visit Husson.edu.