WASHINGTON — The recent snow has us dreaming of warm days on the Chesapeake Bay.
This weekend, you can hunker down at the sixth annual Annapolis Film Festival, which will screen more than 80 movies this Thursday to Sunday in picturesque Annapolis, Maryland.
“We love our downtown historic Annapolis harbor area,” co-founder and co-festival director Lee Anderson said. “It is the arts district, so that’s why we work really hard to find unique spaces to bring the festival there [and] make the festival walkable, accessible, affordable.”
Screenings will be held at four main venues: the Maryland Hall for Creative Arts, Annapolis Elementary School, Asbury United Methodist Church and Key Auditorium at St. John’s College.
“We started out with about 2,500 people in the seats,” co-founder and co-festival director Patti White said. “Last year, we had over 15,000 people in the seats. For a town like Annapolis, the capital city, if you looked at the population we’re probably about 33,000 or 35,000 people. … We used to be the best-kept secret, but we’re not a secret anymore. People are coming!”
Which movies should you plan to see? Here’s a day-by-day breakdown of the highlights:
Thursday
Opening Night kicks off with Tony Gilroy’s “Beirut,” starring Jon Hamm and Rosamund Pike.
“It’s a political thriller set in 1982 Beirut,” White said. “It’s a CIA drama where Jon Hamm is a diplomat sent to Beirut to help a terrorist situation where they have a kidnapped an American. Rosamund Pike plays the CIA operative who’s trying to keep an eye on him.”
After the screening, stick around for a Q&A with “Beirut” producer Monica Levinson (“Borat,” “Captain Fantastic”), followed by a party with plenty of themed food, drink and mingling.
“The whole night has a Middle Eastern theme,” Anderson said. “We have an after-party for the community with Middle Eastern fare, signature cocktails, the kismet.”
Friday
When you wake up after a night of partying, grab some coffee and chat with the filmmakers.
“If you didn’t overindulge on opening night, you should go to Coffee Talks at 9 in the morning,” Anderson said. White added, “The filmmakers pop in. They look pretty bleary-eyed, but they come in and sit down and tell behind-the-scenes stories about the making of their films.”
After that, 700 high-schoolers will bus in to watch “The Miracle Season,” starring Helen Hunt.
“It’s about a high school girls volleyball team who loses to a moped accident one of their star players,” White said. “The team falls apart and Helen Hunt has to tough-love them back toward the state championship, based on a true story of a girl named Caroline Found in Iowa.”
After the volleyball flick, you can check out “Kim Swims” about swimmer Kimberly Chambers.
“She’s done the ‘Oceans Eleven’ most dangerous waters,” Anderson said. “[It] follows her from San Francisco to the Farallon Islands near Alcatraz, the most shark-infested water in the world. … The film is tension-filled; the whole time you think a big shark is going to bite her!”
Sharks aren’t the only water hazard, as shown in the environmental documentary “What Lies Upstream.”
“It tells the story of the chemical spill that happened in the Elk River, West Virginia,” Anderson said. “We have some interesting experts in store to discuss the film afterward.”
For something a little lighter, check out the documentary “Lots of Kids, a Monkey and a Castle.”
“It’s a documentary filmmaker who starts to realize my family needs to be documented. My mother is a story,” White said. “This is a woman who goes back to her young adulthood and meets her husband. Her big dream in life was to have lots of kids, a monkey and a castle. She got what she wanted! Unfortunately, she got a lot of other things attached to that. … It’s a dark comedy.”
If you’d like to look at music through a historical lens, the African-American Experience showcase will screen the documentary “Sammy Davis Jr.: I’ve Gotta Be Me” by Sam Pollard.
“It’s extraordinary,” Anderson said. “People know Sammy Davis Jr., he’s iconic. You see all of the pictures with the Rat Pack, but you don’t realize the journey he really went on. He was a visionary and built bridges long before people talked about building cultural and racial bridges. He took risks to do it, and he paid a price to do it, but he really helped to get us on that path.”
Friday night closes with the local horror film “Butterfly Kisses” by Erik Kristopher Myers.
“It’s a Maryland-made film shot in Ellicott City,” Anderson said. “It’s an old urban legend about a peeping Tom in a train tunnel. There’s found footage; then someone goes missing.”
Saturday
Saturday features “The Shorts Challenge,” including two participants from Howard University.
“This is a pitch competition,” White said. “We’ll have three judges on stage, a la ‘Shark Tank’ or ‘American Idol.’ … People submitted ideas for a short film, documentary or narrative. We picked six finalists. … They will stand up and have 10 minutes to present before a live audience.”
The winners get a sweet filmmaking package sponsored by the Maryland Film Office.
“They win a production package,” Anderson said. “They get free camera gear from Lens Pro to Go, a lighting package from Serious Grip & Electric, postproduction sound mix and music from Studio Unknown, and final post from Henninger. … Whatever film is made can come back and everybody in the audience that voted for it will see it manifest next year at the festival.”
Such short films can launch filmmakers to their first feature-length movie, just as the short film “Shoes” did for Molly McGlynn. She’ll present her feature debut “Mary Goes Round.”
“It’s really well done,” Anderson said. “It doesn’t have big actors in it, but the story is very universal. It’s about a girl who works as an addiction counselor, but she’s an alcoholic. So, she has to come to terms with some of her own demons as her father is dying. It’s funny; it’s poignant.”
Meanwhile, locals who enjoy the boating culture should check out “Courageous.”
“Gary Jobson from Annapolis, everybody knows him in the sailing world. He was the tactician on the original Courageous that won the America’s Cup,” White said. “This is a film NBC did about Courageous. Gary will be doing the Q&A and being part of the aftermath of the screening.”
If tennis is more your bag, check out “Love Means Zero,” tracking tennis coach Nick Bollettieri, who coached Andre Agassi, Boris Becker and Venus and Serena Williams.
“He’s overbearing; runs it like a boot camp,” White said. “He is a character who is larger than life on the screen and almost disturbing at times. When you’re watching him, your jaw is dropping at what is coming out of his mouth. It’s mixed with iconic old footage of matches and it follows the disintegration of the relationship between him and Andre Agassi.”
For international flavor, see the Norwegian-Pakistani coproduction “What Will People Say?”
“It follows the story of a young girl who aspires to be a normal teenager in Norway, but she has a very conservative Muslim family,” Anderson said. “When things go awry, they ship her back to Islamabad to learn about her culture. It’s a very interesting look at two cultures colliding.”
If you’re into true-crime documentaries, you’ve got to see Jamie Meltzer’s “True Conviction.”
“It’s a documentary about three guys that were in prison in Texas and were released when DNA proved that they were there innocently,” White said. “These guys formed their own detective agency and are now freeing other people that are not [guilty]. It will soon be a TV series. One of the ex-prisoners and now-detectives will be with us, so he’s quite something.”
Equally fascinating is the Sundance standout “Three Identical Strangers” by Tim Wardle.
“It’s a dark, twisted documentary about three triplets in Long Island that were separated at birth, didn’t know each other at all, then two of them met on a community college campus by chance,” White said. “Turns out, there’s a third one and they all lived in towns nearby. It’s all fun and games [but] it comes out that scientists … decided to separate them as part of a study.”
Saturday closes with a red carpet screening of Trevor White’s “A Crooked Somebody.”
“We have the lovely and distinguished actress Joanne Froggatt, better known as Anna Bates from ‘Downton Abbey,'” Anderson said. “The lead is Rich Sommer from ‘Mad Men’ [as] an on-the-road psychic medium who goes around in his beat-up car and [Froggatt] is the plant in the audience. … One day, this strange, dark fellow walks into the room and is convinced that he can find redemption for murder through Rich, so he kidnaps him and it spins out of control.”
Sunday
The fourth and final day kicks off with bagels and lox during the Jewish Experience showcase.
“We show ‘Itzhak,’ which is the documentary on Itzhak Perlman,” White said. “Then we’re showing a film called ‘Humor Me,’ which is a poignant dramedy with Elliott Gould and Annie Potts.”
This is followed by the panel “Women in the Industry 2018” moderated by the Film Fatales.
“It will take in all of these things: whether their voices are now being heard, how has the #MeToo issue factored into this, what about equal pay, all of that will be discussed,” White said.
If you’re looking for a little inspiration, check out Robin Berghaus’ documentary “Stumped.”
“‘Stumped’ is a very inspirational story about a man that [had] both arms and legs amputated,” White said. “He was a comedian, so now as he says, he’s a ‘sit-down comedian.’ It’s all about his attitude and how he overcomes these challenges. It’s amazing how he continues to be so optimistic and positive. Even more than that, he has one of the first arm transplants.”
Another matinee is “Come Sunday,” starring Chiwetel Ejiofor, Martin Sheen and Danny Glover.
“[It’s] based on the true story [of] a preacher who leaves the evangelical movement he leads because he finds the hypocrisy in certain things,” White said. “He still believes very deeply in his religion, but he can’t believe anymore that everyone is going to hell. He’s starting to look at things differently. It’s not done with a heavy hand. It’s really done with a lot fairness.”
You’ll also find social commentary in a series of immigration shorts called “Finding Home.”
“They’re LGBT stories about what it’s like not only to leave and find a new home and country, but also to find a new community [of fellow LGBT folks],” Anderson said.
It all builds to the “Best of Fest,” screening award winners voted by the audience and jury.
“We’ll rerun the best short doc, best narrative short, best doc feature and best narrative feature,” Anderson said, giving audiences a chance to see the cream of the crop.
After that, White and Anderson can kick their feet up and call it a day.
“The circus leaves town, we bring the big top down and we all sleep for a while,” Anderson joked.
Find more details on the festival website. Hear our chat with Patti White and Lee Anderson below:
