Film Festivals

November’s Northampton Film Fest

1 Nov , 1998  

Written by Gentry Menzel | Posted by:

From November 4-8, Northampton, Massachusetts, is taken over by the Northampton Film Festival, a five-day festival of film and video featuring more than four dozen truly independent works from around the country.

If all movies are beginning to look the same to you ("Wasn’t that the film with a handful of male main characters and a skinny woman as the girlfriend?"), then the perfect antidote is right around the corner. From November 4-8, Northampton, Massachusetts, is taken over by the Northampton Film Festival, a five-day festival of film and video featuring more than four dozen truly independent works from around the country.

Who and what might you encounter at the festival? A young man romantically entangled with a sadistic older woman ("Men Cry Bullets"); an employee of the month turned psychotic ("Stuart Bliss"); a pianist’s left hand, jealous of the right ("One Hand, Left"); a pair of Vermont counterfeiters trying their hand at $18 bills ("The Greening of Vermont"); the self-professed love-child of Patsy Cline and John Wayne ("Have You Seen Patsy Wayne?"); a Native American pictograph site near Alamogordo, New Mexico, home to the first atomic bomb detonation ("Ground Zero/Sacred Ground"); African-American churches burning in the South ("Forgotten Fires"); plus about 43 other films and videos, including a serendipitous focus on jazz and musicians ("The Legend of Bop City," "A Conversation with Archie Shepp," and many others), and two special series—the Gay and Lesbian "festival within a festival," and the Jewish film and special event series (see the festival’s web site for a complete listing).

The festival began in 1995, when four friends, all film enthusiasts, questioned why there was no film festival in Northampton. After all, Northampton is considered one of the top arts communities in the East. There are five area colleges. It seemed only natural for there to be a local film festival. But they envisioned a festival like no other. "It’s often said that only 5 percent of films produced in the United States make up the content shown on 95 percent of the nation’s screens," says Howard Polonsky, one of the festival’s founders, and currently its director. "We wanted to create a venue for the other 95 percent, the otherwise unseen films, both to get the films out there, and also so we could see them." And this they have accomplished. What began four years ago as a three-day, 30-film festival has grown to a five-day, 50-film celebration of independent film and video. And as of this year, there are five juried awards.

The film selection begins in April, when the festival’s coordinators post a call for entries, which this year netted more than 400 respondents. The entries first must pass a pre-screening, where they are checked for general quality of picture and sound. Also, the festival generally does not accept corporate videos, commercials, or music videos, although if something is exceptional, it may be included. The basic criterion, said Polonsky, is this: does the film represent a voice that needs to be heard? This year, out of the 400 entries, 200 made this first cut.

The films then pass on to the screening committee, which each year has comprised three to seven people of varying backgrounds, ranging from academics and critics to people in the filmmaking business itself. It is their job not only to make the final selections— which often means repeated viewings of certain works, along with lively (yet always cordial, Polonsky told me) discussions among themselves—but also to nominate films and videos for the juried awards: best documentary, best of the fest, best short, best screenplay, and most creative use of cinematography. This is no easy feat. According to Polonsky, "We received so many high-quality films this year, we could have easily had three film festivals."

The films nominated for special recognition are then judged by the individual award juries, which again are made up of people from different fields, in some cases with the addition of a representative from the award’s sponsor. Since the awards are determined before the festival begins, moviegoers will know which films were selected as the year’s best.

But believe it or not, the Northampton Film Festival is not only about watching movies. There is also talking about movies, both with the filmmakers (by Polonsky’s estimate, about 95 percent of the artists are present at the screenings of their work) and with other attendees. The four screening venues are all within easy walking distance of one another, which makes for much interaction, and total immersion in the rarefied cinephilic atmosphere. For budding or more experienced filmmakers, there are workshops and a film and video expo, with exhibitors ranging from production companies and booking agents to memorabilia and book dealers. Since one cannot live on films alone (although it couldn’t hurt to try), there is the festival Sunday brunch, serving up an Italian feast, and featuring a yet-to-be-announced guest. And this year, as a special event, there is a staged reading of "Adam Baum and the Jew Movie," a new off-Broadway play which looks at the history of Jewish characters in Hollywood films.

So grab your car (or your in-line skates) and head on over to Northampton to bask in the glory of independent filmmaking—and the foliage, which ain’t bad this time of year, either. Remember, this may be your only opportunity to see these films. For more information—including ticket prices, schedules, and directions to the festival—visit the Northampton Film Festival’s web site at www.nohofilm.org