By Janelle Faignant
Arts Correspondent
In one corner of the world, in Turkey, a no-kill, no-capture policy exists toward all its stray animals, and it’s a familiar sight to see a stray dog on the streets. In another corner, a light-hearted group of teenagers are throwing their final murder mystery party before heading off to college. And in a small city in Vermont, with a skyline of mountaintops and church steeples, residents struggle with a long-suffering opioid crisis.
These are some of the diverse stories to be told in the fourthcoming White River Indie Films Festival, which will run May 21-30 outdoors in White River Junction, and everywhere online.
“One of the great things about film,” said WRIF board member Samantha Davidson Green, “it captures people’s voices.”
The festival will screen 10 features and a series of shorts, starting with Vermont-raised filmmaker Jennifer Maytorena Taylor’s award-winning documentary “For the Love of Rutland,” which opens the festival at 8 p.m. Friday, May 21 in Lyman Park.
“We don’t show many films,” Green said, “so when we choose a film we really believe in it. I could talk with passion about all of them.”
But the festival still takes a chunk of time to curate, which Green says is “really the joy of it.”
“We have a committee of people who love films or are filmmakers,” she explained. “It ranges year to year from 15 to 20 people who volunteer to spend several months watching films — this year streaming and then meeting by Zoom, in past years getting together in person — and we all keep our eyes out for new films emerging out of film festivals. We try to find things we think our community will really respond to, and that matter.
“Then we have these long conversations where people champion different films, and we look at them as a group and try to offer variety and interest,” she said.
This year is a little different because WRIF could also include the filmmakers themselves, live, but remote.
“That might not have been possible in past years,” Green said, “so that was one other factor — some films we were able to get the filmmaker to participate in our festival, and we thought that would be really enriching for the local audience to have that interaction.”
The spotlight film, “For the Love of Rutland,” follows three years in the life of a woman enduring the changes and struggles of “virtually all of Vermont and much of America,” Green said. “(Taylor) documents people’s lives with a lot of compassion and humanity that resonates with Vermont audiences.”
Taylor is being awarded WRIF’s first Nora Jacobson Award, named for the festival’s founder. It recognizes excellence in filmmaking by a female-identifying filmmaker who embodies artistic integrity, mentorship to young filmmakers, community collaboration and commitment to social justice that have defined Vermont filmmaker Nora Jacobson’s career.
The rest of the lineup includes documentaries, fiction and experimental work, from South America, Africa, the Middle East, Europe and the United States, including five Vermont filmmakers with a showcase of young local emerging filmmakers.
Three of the films will be screened free to the public in White River Junction’s Lyman Park, with food trucks and dogs welcome, including: “For the Love of Rutland” at 8 p.m. Friday; “‘Dramarama,” directed by Jonathan Wysocki, (come to the screening in costume!) at 8 p.m. Saturday, May 22; and “Stray,” a touching film from Turkey directed by Elizabeth Lo about the bonds a group of stray dogs form with people they encounter on the street, at 8 p.m. Saturday, May 29.
Feature films online include the experimental Helen Keller documentary, “Her Socialist Smile,” directed by John Gianvito, May 28-30. “Bait.” directed by Mark Jenkin, was shot on 16mm black-and-white film and processed by hand. The result is a unique and riveting film, online May 21-30. And the online shorts showcases include three categories — Narrative Showcase, 2020 Redux, and Documentary Shorts.
“One of the great things about the shorts category,” Green said, “it’s a place for experimentation. A really powerful way for audiences to try a new way of seeing film.
“Some of these are pretty out there and interesting and experimenting with form,” she said, and added, “There’s a very strong representation of Vermont filmmakers.”
One film by self-taught experimental Vermont filmmaker Rich Fedorchak, “Brief Glimpses on the Way to Joy,” Green called, “pure cinema poetry — it captures so much of the texture of our lives and the ethos of Vermont living.”
The shorts are bundled into programs that total about an hour, with individual films varying in length.
“We tried to choose and sequence them in a way that would create an enjoyable viewing experience,” Green said.
“The last one is still TBD,” she added. “It’s going to be a showcase of winners from the Vermont and New Hampshire WRIF emerging filmmaker contest, a new category to support local filmmakers who are making the leap from being students into careers. So stay tuned for that, we’re just watching and judging them now.”
“We have a lot of really exciting live filmmaker conversations throughout the festival,” she added. “You don’t have to be here in person, you can tune in from anywhere.”
You can read more online about the films and who the filmmakers are, rounding out the festival with a chorus of new voices under a common theme.
“We really hope these films will help us connect with each other,” Green said.
janellefaignant @gmail.com
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